Was up at 6:30 having coffee outside and excitedly waiting, amidst a torrential deluge, for my canopy tour to start. It was raining so hard I considered wearing my bathing suit and/or not wearing my glasses. But I put on a shirt and shorts and waited. They’d told me my SLR was too large, and then I remembered I have both a pocket video camera and a pocket point and shoot, so I was armed with them. And I waited.
And waited and waited and waited. I saw a coupla busses go by from my tour company, but they didn’t stop. When the hotel office opened at 8, the manager called for me and was told the tour had been cancelled. I have the option to take it tomorrow or to get my money refunded. I came to my room to call them myself. Since tomorrow morning I had the boat tour scheduled, I tried to see if there’s a boat tour this afternoon. So first of all, I don’t know where the USB mike that takes headsets is. It’s a great traveling tool, and Radio Shack has stopped making it for a model that has hard-wired headsets. So this little device is really nice, but you have to have it for it to work… It was in my suitcase and I remember mentally noting that it should be in my camera gadget bag, but it’s not there. No problem, since my webcam is, and it has a built in mike (my headset has a built in mike as well, but my laptop has separate mic and headset jacks, so I can’t use it without an adapter like the one mentioned above). I first called through my webcam, and the canopy tour company heard me fine, but I had to call the boat tour people to check the status of the boat tour. They couldn’t hear me through the webcam, and Skype on my cellphone doesn’t work except for Skype to Skype calls. I thought it might have been easier to just use my cellphone to call them, that way I could use the integrated mic and headset, but there’s no cellphone reception down here. There is internet, so I have to call over Skype. Suddenly, all this seemingly anal obsession with gadgets and technology is paying off – I’m able to communicate and adapt my plans.
So I want to see if I can do the boat tour this afternoon. They need two people to do the tour, and so far I’m the only one. It’s a 5:30 tour. I’ll call again at 4:30, or maybe I could just pay the price of two to do it this afternoon. I think that would be best, and then do the ziplines tomorrow morning. If it doesn’t pour again.
Which also calls into question what time the canopy tour would end and whether or not I could make it back to San Jose to catch my flight. It’s an evening flight and it’s on Spirit Air, so I’m gonna think that as long as I’m out of Quepos by 4 or 5 pm, I should be fine.
So. Today is Sunday, the day many Christians traditionally worship the Lord. (sidebar: need to do research on Sabbath observances). I think I’m gonna worship today with a trek into the Costa Rican rainforest. The biggest decisions facing me today are the same ones facing me this morning: SLR or point and shoot? Sneaks or Tevas? And Bathing Suit or shirt?
God has truly blessed me, and I’m grateful for this journey!! The life we have in the States is great; the US is still the greatest country in the world, IMHO. But other countries have lots to offer, as well. In the US, we have a lot and we do a lot. Here, (I typed “we;” Freudian?) here, they have little and do a lot with it. Life’s not all about material things, and the shift in focus is remarkable.
More after the rainforest.
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WHAT A DAY!!!!!
So I go down to Manuel Antonio. People are stopping me in the street, asking if I want to do tours (it's low season). I didn’t, because I only wanted a taste of the park. This guy comes up in a uniform and says he works for the park and could be my guide. He had me when he pulled out his telescope. I didn’t take my SLR because it had been raining and I didn’t want to risk it raining again and ruining my camera. It is a rainforest, after all. So I took the little point and shoot, which we could put up to the telescope and through which we could take pictures. I opted for the private tour. Don’t know why, since I’m all about not spending extra money, but I knew by then that I wanted to see the rainforest once and get the most out of it. A tour seemed like a good idea.
In retrospect, it was a great idea. Except it wasn’t an “idea,” it was a Divine Orchestration. The guide’s name is Alvin. We walked and talked; he showed me sloths and crabs (so brightly colored I thought they were discarded children’s toys), bats, termites, iguanas, flowers, trees, medicinal herbs, and I don’t know what else. Oh, yeah. Deer and monkeys. He told me about the viper that had been in the park the day before, and we watched a baby sloth coming down to do its weekly bowel movement (we didn’t watch the actual process, just the coming down.) I’ll post pictures from the trail. It was interesting.
First of all, I wore my CME polo shirt. But the emblem is not very pronounced (gold on white), so it’s not like I was shouting out “I’m Christian.” But as we talked, we each said phrases that the other recognized. So we spent the tour with me teaching him to say ‘everything is by the grace of God”, and “All that you have is not through your power, but through the power of God” in English. Questions about where I learned my Spanish triggered a conversation about death, and he shared his testimony. He’d been in a car accident a couple of years ago. His friend died, and he (Alvin) was in a coma for two weeks. He broke both hips, has issues with the bones and nerves in his arms and legs, and lost a piece of his skull, so the doctors had to put in a plate over his eyes or something. He also lost a percentage of hearing in his right ear. Additionally, he has three kids, but is separated from his wife.
During all that, he was busy giving God the Glory. I told him how my worship for the day was to immerse myself in the wonder and majesty of God’s creation, which led us into a convo on the beauty of God’s creations. So we walked and talked and witnessed and testified through the park and through the beach. What a way to spend a day praising God! And I think we were both happy to be able to talk about and praise God in a language not our own.
After the tour, I paid him. I had to go to the ATM, and afterwards decided to continue on to Quepos. The weather had cleared up, and I wanted to see if I could either change the boat tour til later or get on a zipline tour for the day. It’s Costa Rica; the economy is based on tourism. I had a pretty good idea that, even though they’d told me the tours were off, that I would be able to find one. I wanted to find it with the company I’d already paid for, but mostly I wanted to find a tour.
So I went into Iguana tours and they called the Canopy tour company. It was 1:30. I had to wait about 10 minutes for them to call me back and tell me they’d pick me up at 2:15. So I went to some chicken place and got some water, went to the Presbyterian church (closed) and past a Pentecostal Church that was playing music but whose front gate seemed to be locked. Finally I passed a young kid in the streets. He was carrying a Bible. He told me where his church was, and that services had just ended, but they’d have more at 6 in the evening. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it.
But I did go on the Canopy tour!!!! 13 lines, from short up to 450 meters. It is apparently the only canopy tour in the protected rainforest, and the price included drinks and snacks. There were nature trails and a small suspension bridge, and a “rappel,” which was really a guided “freefall,” at the end. I wasn’t going to do that because of my arthritic knee, but when I saw the others doing it and realized it didn’t drop you hard on the ground, I thought it might be good preparation for skydiving. There’s something about stepping out from the firm ground (or from the wobbly suspension) – something about stepping out of what your know or your comfort zone, and stepping into faith in someone or Something else – it’s an area that’s coming more easily to me.
But before I get to preaching: The Zip lines were AWESOME! Climb up the mountain and you are strapped into a harness-like getup which you wear the whole time. You are given a helmet and gloves. They give you a quick lesson in how to brake, how to right yourself if you start to spin around, and what not to do, and you’re on your way. So you sit on air and go. AWESOME!!! Pictures are here. Then I’m going to pack, get ready for bed (if I can figure out what time it is), and prepare for the trip to San Jose and then home tomorrow.
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