Costa Rica 1992: Stiffed By Taxi Man Jorge

          We hiked a bit further along and at the top of a hill, we could see below us the restaurant where we had told Jorge the taxi man, to pick us up.  We still had plenty of time before that was supposed to happen, but we thought we’d head down there anyway.   To get there, we followed a cow path, until we encountered a barbed wire fence with no gate, so we carefully climbed through the fence and into a newer pasture, toward the rear of the restaurant, only to find yet another barbed wire fence to cross.  Obviously, this was not a well-used tourist trail.

        Once down at the restaurant, we still had two hours to wait, so we decided to just walk down the road for an hour, then turn back.  By this time it was midday and the sun was fierce.  Down a hill we saw the fancy building with the volcanic river pools where we had taken a dip the night before.  Up a long hill, and down another, we spotted the hot spring pools where other tours swam.

        I spotted a woodpecker, similar to the pileated-variety we have in BC, but this one had yellow by its bill, a white spot over the eye, and no comb on its head.  It sat patiently in the tree while I dug my camera out, then flew away before I could take its picture.

        We were exhausted, so hiked back down the road to the restaurant, and arrived at a quarter to one.   We ordered some Cokes and waited for Jorge to come.  One o’clock, one fifteen, one thirty, one forty-five, and finally two o’clock, but no Jorge.

        After a further long wait, we finally realized Jorge wasn’t going to come to drive us back to La Fortuna, so we decided to hitchhike the 11 kilometers.  Fortunately, an Italian couple took pity on us and drove us back to our hotel.

        My back was pretty wrecked for the rest of the day, so we didn’t do anything except take some photos of the Arenal Volcano when the clouds lifted more than they had since our arrival.

        For supper I had a banana milkshake, rice, and shrimp, while my wife tried rice, chicken, and black bean soup (with an egg in it.)  She was not impressed with the soup.  

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