Getting settled in

Today started early, as we were all experiencing some jet lag. We started off with breakfast on the patio, including the pineapple we bought on the way to La Fortuna. Danny went exploring for a bit, just down the road from our house. Patricia arrived to clean the pool and I got a chance to use the Google Translate to try to talk with her. Sadly, I didn’t realize that she was supposed to clean the pool each morning, so she’ll be back tomorrow. Whoops!

About midmorning, we ventured into La Fortuna to get our rental car and another stop at the supermarket. La Fortuna is a big tourist town and was pretty busy. It reminded us a little of the Ocean City boardwalk with lots of tourist shops and open storefronts.

Once we arrived back at the house, we spent the rest of the day by the pool. The slide is really fun and the yoga mats at the house made good floats. Danny did some research on the birds that we saw around the house and we also realized that the toad we saw the night before in our driveway was poisonous! Glad we didn’t try to pick him up!

The house is really great and just the perfect size for us. When a shower popped up in the late afternoon, we ran under the patio and hung out there. There was even room for Danny’s hammock. Zoe enjoyed our low-key day at the house. It was interesting to watch the clouds as they moved up and down along the slopes of Arenal just beyond our house. We hope we get to see the top at least once during our time here. We were able to see the top of Cerra Chato adjacent to the volcano.

For Father’s Day, we visited a “soda” in La Fortuna for dinner. It was so nice to have a car again to get there. We stopped by a park in the center of town as we waited for a table. At dinner, Darcy, Danny and I had the traditional Costa Rican meal, which includes beans, rice, plantains, a vegetable or salad and a meat. We all enjoyed the mango shakes that are a speciality of this soda. Zoe and I were both enamored with the cat that hung around our table, even though he tried to scratch us.