St. Christopher's visits Costa Rica: Day 3 - April 14, Drive to Sarapiqui and the Tirimbina Rainforest Center

I used the hotel computer for my one and only blog entry while away! My apologies to anyone who checked this site hoping for updates.
Matias picked us up around 8:30 am after a wonderful hotel breakfast, and we drove to Lake Arenal. Beautiful scenery on the drive there and all around the man-made lake. Back into La Fortuna for capuccino and shopping at the Down to Earth store. Matias brought me taste testers of his 2 coffee liqueurs and a macadamia one. I think I may have shared with Anthony...but not very much! The coffee ones were soooo smooth. Next time some of that is coming back in my suitcase for sure! Then we had a 2 hour drive to Sarapiqui - through the Braulio Carillo National Park. As always the view was breathtaking - and so was the highway driving. The highway is neither straight, flat, nor wider than 2 vehicles - anywhere! We arrived at the Tirimbina Rainforest Center for a late lunch and as always the food was superb - rice and black beans and fried plantains of course! - but also a selection of cold salads, hot vegetables, and meat. I had chicken which was seasoned so nicely - better than our thick, overly sweet version of BBQ. Also tried yuca - which appeared at every meal for the next few days. Crispy on the outside and fibrous on the inside - bland but good. And we had a dessert of frozen sour cream with fruit - like a popsicle. Matias then took us on a walk into the rainforest - over a very long bridge - and yes it can sway quite a bit! The plant growth around us was enormous! It was hot, humid, and mostly sunny - and everything looked, smelled and sounded fantastic. Our Tirimbina guide, William, arrived shortly after we returned to the main building, and around 4:30 we loaded his gear into the vehicle and drove around to the other side of Tirimbina. A quick, hot walk as darkness was descending, to see the outdoor learning center areas. Then while supper was being prepared we watched a 30 minute powerpoint presentation on bats. Extremely informative and very well done. William is also an excellent teacher. Supper was at 7 - and a most welcome feast of fish, hot vegetables, rice, black beans, and salad. Only one bat was collected in the fabric traps that night, and William gave us a full lesson on bat biology. He was very gentle in his handling of the bat and we did not take any photos as that would have caused stress in the poor beast, (the bat I mean - not William!), amd then he set him free. The evening air was cooler and very refreshing with a nice breeze. Every now and then it would rain for a few minutes. Tirimbina is solar powered so we had lights in our room - but we used them judiciously. I decided to have a shower....it was very brisk and refreshing, (aka COLD!!!). I finally got brave enough in the night to open my screenless window. William had told us the drill - turn on the light in your room, close the door, close the windows, check your room for critters - and keep the door and windows closed as long as you have a light on. Once you turn the light off you can open the door and windows again. I was reading by flashlight until about 9:30, but was not brave enough to open my windows yet. Around 10:30 I heard a heavy rainstorm so I got out of bed and stayed on the tile porch (another rule at night) and watched and listened to the storm move past and see the stars come out again. It was very beautiful. At some point I decided my room was too stuffy and I wanted fresh air more than I was worried about little creatures that might come in to visit me.