Travel Log: Day 8 (7/5), Costa Rica

Morning

JC and I run every Saturday almost like clockwork. Like any Saturday we gave it a try today. My plan was to run to a gym in La Fortuna, and if the run there didn’t work out, we could run at the gym. This is one of those times in life that plan A and plan B both failed. On our way there, we ran for only a few minutes before local dogs started chasing us. We see these dogs all the time and they are usually friendly enough, but as soon as we were running the dogs got aggressive. I had to break stride to confront them, and that ended the run to the gym.

At the gym we got stuck at the out of place fancy automated gate that lets people in. Not fully understanding the wording, I thought it was giving a QR code to register, but it didn’t work. The dude at the front desk let us in, probably after laughing for a couple minutes. We paid for a day pass and went in. On the first floor there were machines and a few dudes working out. That level’s max occupancy is probably only a half dozen people. With no treadmills in site we went to the next floor and found these bizarre treadmill-adjacent things.

They have no power, and just stepping forward onto the sloped portion causes the belt to move forward. I briefly tried it but quit when I realized I would have gone from zero to a dead sprint in ten seconds. I’m sure with practice those things are effective, but I’ll stick to old fashioned electric treadmills.

We proceeded to work out in other ways at the gym, and eventually got really thirsty because we brought no water. On the way back, we stopped off at the grocery store to get some sunscreen and a bottle of water, then went home.

Afternoon

We were planning to book our next leg but that got derailed. JC and the kids were called over by a neighborhood family who showed them a sloth in a tree. JC and the wife chatted a bit as it turned out the wife worked at a hot springs and spoke pretty decent english. This lead to her boys and their older daughter walking over to our house. BC played with the boys for a bit but he started to get hot and wanted to go in. AC went out to help him as it seemed like he was having a language barrier. Things got worse because when AC tried to say they wanted to go inside, the other kids took it as an invitation. Before they came in I intervened and took them all to play volleyball. I talked as much as I could to the girl and AC asked her several questions as well. After 30 minutes or so it started raining and we were ready to go inside. A simple “thanks for playing” worked to end it.

Evening

JC and I went on a date while the kids played video games and watched a movie. We went to a local “soda”. JC loved her meal, and mine was fine. The price was good at $20.