Opening a Can of Worms - Costa Rica

Seconds after worm discovery

bikes parked at mountain lodge

ferry crossing with Trevor in the background.

We were plesantly suprised by the entertainment that walked in the door just as we were setting in to watch the feature presentation with Johnny Depp. A 7 piece band consisting of a violin, guitar, recorder, flute, bongo, moracas, and a tamborine walked in whose members were from all over Southern and Central America. They played several songs and were vibrant with their singing and belly dancing.

We headed back to our room after a movie featuring constant machine gunfire to the sound of rainfall and a leaky roof that saturated our mattress. We tried our best to dry the bed but at the late hour of 10 Pm we opted for just laying on the wet warm bed. The Town drunk came wandering past our beach front yelling his head off at 4:30am this morning. Unfortunately he woke up the Roosters who had hoarse throats for the first few calls. I could tell that they were a little put out by getting caught off guard by a yelling turkey 2 hours before dawn.

We took off out of town at 730am. We were blocked in by a bunch of cars. I tried knocking on the sliding window doors to raise the owners. Everytime I knocked on the window the guy would open his eyes and I'd motion him to get up and move his car. I could tell that things weren't registering because his eyes would slowly begin rolling into the back of his head. I eventually gave up and spun the bike around and stormed across the beach and through a raging river and into the middle of the town from the beach access. Julie walked the civilized way and we met for breakfast.

Finishing up my french toast and included coffee (the only reason I ordered it) I was informed that I wouldn't get the free coffee because I asked for milk. This was funny to me so I paid the $1.50 extra with no questions asked.

We were heading for a ferry off of the Peninsula toward Miramar (a town up in the mountains). While waiting for the ferry our motorcycling friend (Trevor) from the same hostel we were staying at arrived at the terminal. We chatted on the ferry and decided that we'd ride together. As we were planning a route on the side of the road after the ferry departure a German fellow described a mountain resort in the hills. We ascended 750 meters to where the ambient temperature dropped 10 degrees.

At the resort run by a bunch of Germans we were happy to find clean rooms, a swimming pool, hiking trails through banana, orange and grapefruit tree plantations. The Grapefruit hung heavily on the trees and were so ripe that they offered no resistance to being picked. I peeled the grapfruit and split it in half. Julie chose the smaller half and me being the glutton that I am chewed and swallowed the juicy pulp in two mouthfuls enjoying the succulent sweet and tart fruit. Just as I was about to tell Julie how lucky we were to be picking fresh tree ripened fruit in this paradise I looked at the terror in Julie's eyes. Julie had only eaten one or two of the wedges and had decided to split and look at the pulp inside the membrane only to discover that it was full of transparent worms with shiny black heads. I took the piece of fruit from her while she stood bent over forcing herself to barf. Alas she could not barf and I stood there in that terrible jungle screaming for the both of us. I quickly did the math and determined that if there were 6 worms in every wedge of grapefruit, then I ate about 60 of them.

We rushed back to the hotel resort and ordered two of the finest shots of tequilla the place had to offer in order to pickle the little beasties swimming in our gullets. We settled down and accepted the fact that we were full of nematodas and got down to some quality book reading.

Tomorrow should serve to be quite an experience as we glide through the forest canopy by zip lines.