At the foot of another volcano

Another morning in a central American town. Traffic has increased steadily since I woke up a bit before six, the patter of little feet in the wall or on the roof of our high-vaulted room at the Arenal Backpackers Resort tapping a neat little rhythm. I have no idea who took his or her morning walk there, nor was I curious enough to enquire.



Almost ...



I did, however, look out the window to see if the Arenal volcano had deigned to shed its cloak of cloud and show itself in all its beauty. No such luck: it was shrouded just as much as when we arrived here in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, yesterday at dusk. At the moment the volcano is quiet, anyway, and even if we had stayed on the other side of the mountain, at the expensive 'Volcano Lodge', we would not be able to watch lava flow down its side – a major attraction of this area when it happens.

Yes, we have reached the final country of our central America tour. Now, there is only a week left before we return to Canada. It still seems far away, as if there could never be another winter, never be anything but verdant, dripping hillsides. What I have seen of Costa Rica so far exceeds anything we have encountered on our trip so far in this respect. It is – there is no denying it – beautiful!

Yet I am only slowly starting to be able to pay attention the way this landscape deserves. Too much has happened in the last while, too much begged to be taken in, and, not only physically but emotionally as well I have travelled great distances. Just as I anticipated, Guatemala seems much too far away already.

But how could it not, after the bus ride we embarked on to get to San Jose?

On Saturday night we returned to Antigua and spent another night at the Casa Luna hotel at Mario's. One more time we walked up the cobble-stoned calle to go downtown for a supper of traditional Guatemalan food, or down to the corner for breakfast at “Kaffee” before we said goodbye to this old city.

A shuttle picked us up around one and dropped us off at the bus terminal of KingQuality in a very well-to-do area of Guatemala City. We had bought bread and cheese and the obligatory one-litre bottle of “Gallo” beer the night before, and since we had an hour before check-in we chose a bench at a city bus shelter to have our lunch, the only comfortable as well as shady spot close by. The cars driving by underscored the affluence of this part of town: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and many new Japanese cars, only rarely anything else. On the centre strip a Mayan woman in her nice dress had set up reindeer, mangers, angels and sheep made from twigs – lawn ornaments, just like at home, only hand made. Christmas gone commercial here, too ....

At three, our journey began – but I will tell this story later. Now, I hear, it is time to go for breakfast: another day of Costa Rica travel is about to begin.