One final trip back to the mountain

Woke up today around 6:45 and finally got out of bed for our breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, and bread around 7:45. Ate leisurely and then grabbed all of our stuff for another day of power-producing adventures, this time in Miravalles, near the base of the Miravalles volcano.

Our first stop was the Goethermal plant which harvests the power from steam escaping below the earth's surface as a means of spinning turbines, which in turn, produce electricity. The water is then cooled and pumped back into the earth, in an effort to regenerate the system from which the water comes. We got to go into the room which houses the turbines, connected through piping which goes 30 meters below ground. It was loud enough that we needed headphones to drown the sound and protect our eardrums

The gadgetry that these people have is sweet looking. There are buttons and knobs, and printers with little etchy things like lie-detectors, lights, and alarms...unfortunately none of which we were allowed to play with!

After our trip to the plant, we headed a few minute-long drive down the road to see first-hand volcanic action with sulfur pits bubbling up in the middle of fields. We were able to touch some of the water, while other pools were so hot that the land around them was capable of melting rubber-soled shoes! Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy most of the day so the view of the volcano was practically non-existent.

Finally it was time for the geothermal baths at miravalles, Geothermania. There we ate lunch and I watched, highly amused, for a few hours as children and adults alike came crashing down the single waterslide in any way they could imagine into the pools heated by the earth's core. So cool...or hot, rather. Not-so-entertaining was the ending of our trip at the baths which included Kevin face-first down the slide only to whack his face at the bottom requiring a trip back to Canas for stitches. This kid has the best luck ever.

After waiting in Tilaran at the town plaza for around an hour, we finally got the go-ahead to leave the other bus behind and head back to Monteverde. I wasn't thinking about it on our trip, as Linsey, Tuona, Sam and I sang Whitney and Mariah (amongst others) at the to of our lungs...but this was our last trip up the mountain. Hm.

Got dropped at Johnny's for some good old pizza. Tourism has definitely picked up in the past 3 weeks and it was obvious from the full tables and packed restaurant. It was super-hot inside which only added to the tired spell I had going from a day of outdoors and learning and carrides. From there I headed down towards Sta Elena to see if Jandro and Ronald were still up for dancing, even though I wasn't, but they weren't around so we continued down the hill and checked in at Taberna (a 2.000 cover) and Amigos (5.000) before finding ourselves in front of Chancho's chatting. Before we knew it, Jandro and Ronald showed and headed in. Ended up chatting with Jandro for a while then Omar showed and I went to dance for a bit while everyone else but Josh went home.

I was so tired and finally I couldn't wait any longer for people to be ready and just said my goodbyes. Got my bag from Amber's and ended up getting a ride home from Jandro after he dropped off Ronald. Cocita, Marlen's dog, barked at me when I came up to the house...and probably woke her up...I hope not. Now it's time for bed. What am I going to do tomorrow?

Lazy Sunday.