Day 5: Salsa club!

Day 5 was much mellower in terms of tours, with just a morning hike in the rain forest to a viewpoint for the volcano, which was too covered in clouds to see anything anyway. We did get to spot some beautiful birds, and swing on vine Tarzan style, which was really fun!

In the afternoon we went shopping for gifts and Costa Rican memories. I was really excited to find some nice earrings made of some of the local woods, as well as some other hand blown ceramic earrings made by local artists. We picked up some aloevera to cover our sunburns (especially mom's).

The evening we went back to our favorite little Tico restaurant in La Fortuna, Tico Viquez. The owner of the place, who we met the first day in La Fortuna, walked up to us and greeted us by name! I decided to try a very typical Costa Rican drink, called the Horchata, which was made with rice, corn meal, milk, cinnamon, and "other things". It was AMAZING. Possibly the best, most refreshing, desert type drink I have ever had. I only hope that the next one I try will be anything similar.

Later that night, I went out with the Costa Rican guide, let's call him "Z" we had met the day before for our caves tour, and whom we had also had for our morning hike. He showed me some basic salsa, cumbia, and merengue dance moves, then we went out the Las Chelas bar for some dancing. Let's just say the Costa Rican boys have very direct intentions with the foreign girls, and I was being very openly stared at... I was pretty glad I had dressed conservatively. Z explained that something with my skin and eyes makes me stand out... I didn't think so, but the guys were pretty aggressive about trying to convince me otherwise. It was flattering and overwhelming at the same time, and I'm still not quite sure how to handle some of the attention.... let's just say that I was really glad that I went with Z because it kept some of the guys at bay, and Z was very respectful toward me.

While sitting and having a drink while they finished up singing Karaoke with all the tourists, I got to chat with Z and the DJ for the night, who was then behind the bar. He was very sweet and we got to chat a lot. Apparently when he was 15 years old he met a girl who was studying abroad there, and they fell in love. When she left at the end of the three months, they didn't have good enough technology at the time to be able to stay in touch. He has never seen her again, but he said that I reminded him of her from back when he was a teenager in love. Ahhhhhh

After about an hour the DJ got the salsa music started.  I have never felt like such the center of attention....  While I was dancing with Z, the DJ kept making comments directed at us! I didn't catch them all, but something about the dancing and how Z was going to have to follow this pretty girl to Argentina. I didn't quite know how to handle it, and it was making me very nervous because most of the locals knew who the DJ was talking about (me!!!!)! I had a blast though, and successfully danced salsa and merengue in Costa Rica! I'm just glad they didn't make me sing Karaoke...

Z brought me home around 1am and I crashed out.... having to wake up at 6am the next morning to get ready to leave for a horseback ride to Monteverde.