Day 12 – 7 April 2011

Alexis slept well and we got some good rest as well. Breakfast was included at this hotel so we didn't have to worry about what or where to eat. After getting showers and straightening things up around the room, we went down to the restaurant. There was quite a bit of selection at the buffet, including some fruits that Alexis loves (watermelon and pineapple) and others that she couldn't eat (papaya). No pancakes, so she was disappointed with that. We did, however, get her to try scrambled eggs (as we have been for all of the last two weeks) and now she decides she loves them! She can't get enough and continues to shovel them in her mouth faster than we can put them on her tray.

We really only had plans today to go to the wood factory located in a San Jose suburb. We were thinking about going downtown and walking the streets around the shops, but heard that they were mostly filled with junk and there were cases of theft on the streets. Rather than risking anything, we decided to take it easy and play it safer by having specific, concrete plans. Rearranging the suitcases and repacking was also necessary so we made sure nothing got broken and the bag weights were under their allowances. Alexis seemed tired so we wanted to get her a quick nap in before we went to help her be in a better mood. She was so close to falling asleep in the stroller, but never quite did. Rather than waiting around to see if she would be able to fall asleep or not, we decided to schedule the tour and just go with whatever happens. We paid a little bit extra for transportation than we probably should have, but that guaranteed us the driver to stay around while we toured and shopped. Then we wouldn't have to wait and wonder who our taxi driver would be on the way back and we could leave the car seat in the van.

We packed up our stuff and headed out to the factory and the proclaimed "best souvenir shop in Costa Rica". The ride was only fifteen minutes from the hotel, which was a main selling point for us to go there rather than some other choices; we'd had enough of long car rides by this point. Luckily this ride was more like we're used to back home – normal paved roads. The driver spoke English fairly well, so we mostly spoke in English. He, however, did compliment me on my Spanish speaking and pronunciation and said that I spoke really well. It's amazing what you can remember from a few years of high school learning (which was over 10 years ago). We got there and were given a guide to tour us around the factory. We started where they store the raw wood, before it's even cut at all. After three years of drying, it's cut into smaller size pieces and dried for another ten years. For even tree that's cut down, the government requires that three more be planted. The Guanacaste tree is their national tree and takes quite a bit of approval to actually cut one of those down. After drying, the wood can actually be cut into usable shapes and sizes. There's a set of items that are normally made and so they know what is in demand for each type of wood. There's only seven types of wood grown in Costa Rica, and those are the woods they used for making items. The next few steps are where we see why 100 of the 150 employees are women. The pieces are quality controlled for any rejects, and then any holes are drilled and small detail work is done. The ready-to-assemble pieces are then run through a pair of sanding and finishing drums which just spin the pieces to sand and polish them. The final stage is and stringing or gluing that needs to be done to put it all together. It was quite fascinating to see such a tiny operation produce such a high volume of work. They are very environmentally conscious as they even sweep up and collect the sawdust to be reused in some jewelry and decorations.

The souvenir shop was by far the biggest one we'd seen in all of our two weeks. If we knew we would have been here on the last day of our trip, we would have saved buying everything until now. We were still able to pick up quite a few more things we needed/wanted. I did want to get a piece to bring back to Epic, as we were starting a display of art that employees bring back from their sabbatical. We also needed to make sure we got something for Alexis to have for herself because she won't remember that she was actually here. We went out to the restaurant on site, which was pretty small, and just got some ice cream and a drink. Alexis went to watch the birds on the pond and then we hunted down our driver to return to the hotel. She had fallen asleep on the way, as one would expect. We let her sleep in the stroller in the lobby as we finished up some packing and relaxing.

When she woke up, we starting thinking about where to go for dinner and knew there were a few Italian places within site distance from the hotel and that there was a shopping mall virtually right across the street from the hotel. We had no idea what was at the mall, so we decided to go there first. The walk was ten minutes or saw and actually walked into the mall at the food court: Subway, Burger King, Quiznos, Church's Chicken, Pizza Hut, and Spoon (not sure where this one came from). Felt like we were right back home in our own shopping mall. The layout was much of the same with a few department stores at the ends and a majority of the stores selling shoes or clothes of some kind. They even had a movie theater on the third floor, where a normal show costs around $4.00 US Dollars to see – what a difference. There were a few restaurants around on the outside of the mall and one of them was another Italian place that looked appetizing, so we went there.

This was the first place where the menu did not have English translations, so a few things were difficult. We ordered Caprese Foccacia, a calzone, and a trio of ravioli (three different fillings with three different sauces). The food really was amazing and we splurged a bit on this meal, but we had a good night. The sun was setting so we turned back to get to the hotel before darkness. The rest of the night consisted of playing with Alexis in the hotel lobby as she became an attraction for both hotel employees and other hotel guests. She loved going up the stairs and climbing down them (the wrong way). The stairs were not very tall so she could actually just crawl down them, but I was trying to teach her to go down feet first. I traded some smaller denominations of my Colones for a 5000 Colones bill because I thought it was pretty and fun to have. I had a few bills and some of each of the coins to keep as remembrance of our trip. When she was ready for bed, we took her up to the crib and weren't too far behind her in our bed.