La Garita & Atenas

Finally made it to La Garita and Atenas! Yesterday we took the bus from Heredia to Alajuela, then another toward Atenas. We jumped off the bus just before La Garita when Gene thought he saw the restaurant we were looking for, so we were at one of the knock-off corn places instead of the Fiesta de la Maiz that we had heard about, but it turned out just fine anyhow. Food was excellent – and cheap. Charming place.

We had been wanting to check it out to see what sort of places there might be to stay in that area. We picked one (Apartmentos Atenas), which, unfortunately was all the way on the far side of Atenas. Called a taxi to take us there and went over all these windy roads out in nowhere. By the time we found it, it was getting dark and we had spent something like 6500 c for a taxi, so we decided to stay the night! Stayed in an adorable little cottage fully equipped with little kitchen. The grounds were really nice and there was a small pool. It seemed like we were really out in the jungle. You could be comfortable there for a long stay. It was fun. But even though it seemed like we were out in no where, there were several dogs barking in the night and a lot of traffic noise from the busy road just past our cabin.
They served us a very nice breakfast in the morning. The couple who were running the place are just friends of the owners, who are currently back in Germany on vacation. This couple are in the process of having their house built on their finca. They haven’t lived here very long. So they are staying at this place while their home is being built and are taking care of the place for the owners. They were very friendly, and he gave us a ride into Atenas in the morning so that we could catch the bus. He also gave us the “grand tour” of the area, driving us up into these beautiful hills where lots of people have built / are building homes. The road was really scary on the side of the mountain. He said the homes there are selling for $120,000 – 150,000. They were all incredibly beautiful and unusual and all had pools!
The area around Atenas is all very beautiful, mountainous, and has lots of flowers. The town of Atenas seems like a really nice small town, with a nice park and church in the center. We walked around the town for a couple of hours. There was a lot of activity going on (like a fiesta) outside the Mas X Menos (grocery store). We were looking at the very beautiful church and realized there was a wedding going on, so we stayed and observed for an hour or so. I even got to throw rice at the bride and groom when they finally came out! We decided maybe it was too hot for us in Atenas, but when we headed home (via busses) we realized it was just hot everywhere today. We may have to check out Atenas some more some day.
Tomorrow is Independence Day so there’s a lot going on. We wanted to stay downtown because the torch was being passed in Heredia at about 4 and at 6 the kids were going to do some sort of candle thing in the park, if it doesn’t rain. The torch thing is really neat. The main torch is relayed all across the country, lighting smaller torches as it goes. The smaller torches are then run out to all of the outer reaches of the country, so that by the end of the 3 days every piece of road in the country has been run with one of the torches! Sounds really neat! Big parade tomorrow morning. We were getting tired and figured we should go back to Hotel Roma and see what was going on, since they had said they would need us to move downstairs today. They helped us move when we got there. We now have a private enclosed patio, but it doesn’t make up for the view upstairs!