Crocodiles join the crowd for fun in sun

T-G city editor John I. Carney enjoys his first-ever horseback ride, part of an excursion to see the La Fortuna waterfall. (Photo by Megan Siegrist) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

LA FORTUNA, Costa Rica -- One day of our work week in Heredia province, the pastors with whom we were working -- Marlon and his father-in-law Eduardo -- decided to give us the day off and drive us to the Pacific coast, three hours away, for fun at the beach.

We were almost to the coast when something was said about stopping to see a bridge up ahead. Perhaps, I thought, it was an unusual or historic bridge. But when we approached it, it was just a normal highway bridge over a small river. Even so, there were a lot of cars on the far side of it, parked along the side of the road. We crossed the bridge, I and my teammates still not realizing what all the fuss was about. We parked on the side of the road with everyone else and began walking back towards the bridge. When we got out onto it, our hosts instructed us to look down.

We peered over the side of the bridge at the river bank below, and saw ... crocodiles. Lots and lots of crocodiles, on both sides of the bridge. At first, they were so motionless they didn't even look real. A pelican-like bird of some sort walked nearby, unconcerned. But every once in a while, one of the crocs would shift, and it was evident that they were only relaxing, lying in the cool riverbank mud with the warm sun on their backs.

As we returned to our car, I noted that one of the souvenir vendors set up near the bridge was selling T-shirts with the comic book-style image of a crocodile, smiling, with an unattended hat and flip-flop floating in the water near him and a camera resting on his tongue.

"SEND MORE TOURISTS," read the T-shirt. "THE LAST ONES TASTED GREAT."

Our LEAMIS International Ministries trip to Costa Rica was for missions, not tourism, but that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't take the chance to see the country when possible. LEAMIS likes to schedule a debrief session for a day or two at the end of the trip in some comfortable location, so that team members can relax, talk about the trips successes and failures, and think about how the experience might have changed them.

There's plenty of time during debrief to enjoy any nearby tourist attractions and learn more about the country.

My apologies to Rosita

Our debrief was held at the foot of Arenal volcano, near the town of La Fortuna.

The top of the volcano was surrounded by clouds most of the time, although we got a couple of glimpses. Megan Siegrist and Frank Schroer got a better view than I did -- but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The area around La Fortuna has a number of nature-related attractions and activities. You can, like Megan, take a "canopy tour" and ride a zip-line from point to point among the treetops.

My host during the week, Dan Shockley, had recommended going to see the waterfall near La Fortuna. Megan, Frank and I got the details from the tour rep at our hotel and signed up for a tour which was partly on horseback, partly on foot.

This cable bridge passes through the lush Costa Rican forest on the trail to the La Fortuna waterfall. (Photo by Frank Schroer) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

With the exception of a very brief mule ride during my 2003 trip to Nicaragua, I've never been on horseback. And I have weight-related self-image issues which made me a little concerned about the prospect.

My mount, a strawberry roan named Rosita, held up under the strain. Me? I was a nervous wreck at first, but eventually I realized everything was going to be OK. Rosita and the other horses were familiar enough with the 30-minute trail that they could probably have taken it blindfolded.

We rode the horses up to the top of the ridge, dismounted and then had to walk down a very steep trail, with hundreds of man-made steps and a swinging bridge. From there, we waded across a thigh-deep stream to an area where the waterfall could be seen.

It was beautiful, and quite high. Some people jumped in to the pool surrounding the waterfall; others were content to view it and take photos.

The trouble was, I knew that the next item on the agenda would be climbing back up all of those steps. Frank knew about my concerns and arranged with the tour guide for Frank and I to leave 10 minutes before the group.

I had to stop for breath periodically. I felt guilty for being fat and out of shape, and I kept apologizing to Frank.

We got to the top just as the rest of the group caught up to us.

We re-mounted our horses and made the half-hour ride back to base.

I felt some sense of achievement at having had the experience. The next day, however, I was sore. I had bruised one knee when I slipped coming back through the thigh-deep stream, but my joints were just sore in general. When I stood up from my chair, I looked like a 93-year-old.

Frank and Megan took a hike that day at the national park in which the volcano is located, but I really just didn't feel like walking. I stayed behind, lounged in the pool, and transferred video from my Flip camera onto my laptop.

Later, I truly regretted missing that hike. Frank and Megan heard the volcano rumble just as they pulled into the parking lot at the national park. It was so loud that even the woman taking the entry fee to the park was startled and called it unusual.

The hike gave them a much closer look at the volcano. They brought me back a few tiny lava rocks.

On the beach

As I noted earlier, our hosts had taken us to the beach one day during our work week in Heredia province. They ended up taking us to two beaches. We first stopped at Playa Herredura (Herredura Beach), a casual beach favored by the locals. I had worn my swim trunks, but Megan and Frank didn't, and so none of us ended up swimming, which I think surprised our hosts. I took my shoes off and waded in the Pacific. Later, the three of us commandeered a table in a beachside cafe for our daily team meeting.

Our hosts then took us to Playa Jaco, just a few miles down the road. This was obviously a much more upscale beach, in the shadow of numerous high-rise developments. On the three-hour drive from Heredia to the beach, we'd seen numerous billboards for such developments, mainly in English and with prices listed in U.S. dollars rather than colones. There was no question to whom these developments were being sold.

We were in the process of leaving when we encountered an apparently off-duty tourist van hopelessly stuck in the stand. After several attempts to help push the vehicle by hand, Eduardo and Marlon, our host pastors, begged some cable from construction workers at a nearby high-rise and Eduardo's SUV pulled the van out of its rut.

It wasn't our last experience with car trouble. A few days later, when a church member named Max was driving Frank, Megan and me to our debrief site, we had a flat tire on the highway. Max had two jacks, one of which was broken and the other of which wasn't quite tall enough for the job, and no lug wrench, so two passing vehicles came to our aid.

THURSDAY: Summing it up