Day 10. El Pavone en la lluvia

Day 10. The homebodies ruled today and asked to stay mostly at home...where are our adventurers!?! So we started the morning relaxing, walking to some bamboo for Graham to chop down for a project and did eventually convince the kids to at least go somewhere for lunch! I'm not sure they realized lunch was going to consist of catching our own fish, ordering in all spanish, hiking to waterfalls and getting more soaked by the pouring rain than the rushing river.

We headed to El Pavone Tilipia Farm. El Pavone is another all Tico family run buisness. The restaurant is located close by Tilipia ponds in the middle of the country side. You are given a fishing line and catch your own lunch. We had help fishing and after we had caught 5 or more fish, I started getting worried that the girls (who refuse to eat fish) were going to be eating fish. We found no one at El Pavone that spoke English--a challenge that I always enjoy! For my spanish speaking friends, I repeated several times: "Las ninas no nos gustamos la pescado. Pueden las ninas tener el pollo y papas fritas, por favor?" And, it worked they didn't have to starve but rather got chicken and fries with the traditional Costa Rican fry dip which appears to me to be a mixture of ketchup and mayo. I was suprised at how quickly my spanish came back to me. I was easily able to convey needs and thoughts but still had trouble with always understanding repsonses. We watched the owner cooking up our catch is his open air kitchen. He fried the fish in cast iron skillets over a wood burning stove. The plantains were hand mashed and then fried. Simple, simple. We enjoyed our meals tilipia, rice and beans, salad, plantains and Imperial (Costa Rican beer).

After lunch, as the rain began to pick up, we hiked to the waterfall that is located on the property of El Pavone. We were consistently amazed by the incredible works of nature around every bend in Costa Rica. Even the smallest, least desirable waterfall would have been turned into a State Park back in Indiana. And, yet, the countryside and peoples yards are full of wonders of nature in Costa Rica--it is just everyday here. El Pavone waterfall is a short hike down trails. The main feature is an overside boulder that is wedged between the sides of the waterfall. The kids were able to slide down the river from the rushing current. At one point, Ella struggled to come up and we were lucky to have some local costa ricans nearby to pull her up and prevent her from being really scared! We stayed for a short while before we packed our rain soaked belongings back up and headed home at the request of our homebodies.