Guanacaste

I am in Liberia, Guanacaste; it is entirely different from any other part of Costa Rica I've seen yet. It's dry, incredibly sunny (as the guy at the hotel said: "por la mañana, hace sol; por la tarde, hace sol; por la noche, hace sol), hot. Not at all jungly or humid like the rest of the places I've been. And there are sabaneros (cowboys) everywhere! Herding horses down the street, riding through town. It's very interesting. I've always had an aversion to cowboys (Marlboro man, anyone?) but I really enjoy seeing these ones around--especially because they're actually doing something and aren't just hicks wearing cowboy hats spitting tobacco.

The landscape is beautiful. It's very stark but so green near the rivers. Today I went to the Parque Nacional Santa Rosa and saw a tropical dry forest with the tree of the region, the Guanacaste. The budding/flowering season is completely different from our own ("spring" doesn't mean flowers or leaves necessarily) as some trees lose their leaves during the summer, the dry season, to conserve water. Thus the budding happens in winter, or the rainy season. It's strange to see leafless trees everywhere while it's so hot and sunny.

Yesterday I went to the Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja (Corner of the Old Woman, literally). It was amazing: by far my favorite park in Costa Rica. It has fumaroles, mud pots, steaming, sulfurous pits of boiling water. The landscape is striking, with some of the strangest trees I've ever seen. All against a backdrop of tall ridges and impossibly blue sky. I hiked to the Catarata Escondida (Hidden waterfall) and for most of the hike I believed that it couldn't exist because there was no water anywhere and it seemed simply impossible. But I found it, it was possible, and there was an incredible view into the valley below where the water fell several hundred feet beneath me.

I really like this region but the heat is very intense and there are so many biting bugs so it seems good to leave soon. I'm meeting Jenny at the airport in a few days and I can't wait!