The tar in the street starts to melt from the heat
And the sweats runnin’ down from my hair
I walked 20 miles and I’m dragging my feet
And I’ll walk 20 more I don’t care
And I’ll wander this world, wander this world
Wander this world, wander this world all alone
I’m like a ghost some people can’t see
Others drive by and stare
A shadow that drifts by the side of the road
It’s like I’m not even there
And I’ll wander this world, wander this world
Wander this world, wander this world all alone
Well I’ve never been part of the game
The life that I live is my own
All that I know is that I was born
To wander this world all alone, all alone
Some people are born with their lives all laid out
And all their success is assured
Some people work hard all their lives for nothin’
They take it and don’t say a word
They don’t say a word
Sometimes it’s like I don’t even exist
Even God has lost track of my soul
Why else would he leave me out here like this
To wander this world all alone
And I’ll wander this world, wander this world
Wander this world, wander this world all alone
–Jonny Lang, “Wander This World”
We decided to slip away for the July 4th weekend to New York, combining a family wedding with rediscovering NYC and a trip to the Adirondacks in upstate. We used United miles and Hilton points to make the most of our time in NYC and give us maximum flexibility for spending money along the way…
Our final day started with a breakfast at the hotel, a farewell to Dirk, settling of our accounts (hot sauce, dinner, 3 nights) over poor WiFi that took 20 minutes to transact a Paypal transfer, and then finally leaving Nuevo Arenal and departing Costa Rica. Dirk had to kick all other guests off the network…
We again decided to opt-out of the simply hotel breakfast and instead made for Nuevo Arenal once more before our day of howler monkeys and hot springs. It had rained profusely the previous night causing a few power outages, so when we got to town our hopes of eating at Casa Paniaguas, the highest rated…
The next morning we woke up more or less at the same time and prepared our plan to hike around the Arenal Volcano. We decided to have a small snack at the Ceiba Tree Lodge but save our actual breakfast for the German café we had seen previously in Nuevo Arenal which had good reviews…
I woke up around 7AM (with the sun more or less after a bit of tossing and turning) and started my morning yoga routine in prep for a day of ecotourism in Costa Rica. Brendan slept an hour longer. Breakfast ended at 9AM and we already told Dirk we would be there towards the back-end…
It was about 2 hours to Nuevo Arenal, where we had booked 4 nights at Ceiba Tree Lodge through Booking.com. We had made it across the border with a lot less hassle than we had expected, but we were still wearing thin on energy and eager to arrive to Nuevo Arenal. The roads were great…