La Florida was my first encounter with the jungle. And it was a deep dive.
We’ve been there two times, the first time for a hiking tour. We arrived in the morning with the Chiva, an adventurous vehicle, a mixture between bus and jeep, open on both sides with passengers dropping on and off continuously and a ticket inspector scrambling around from behind and on the roof – certainly the most dangerous job in the world. Estella had applied for entrance in the national park: what a walk, crouching under green lianas, hopping over little streams and puddles on the ground, slipping over tree trunks and sneaking up for birds colored with all the rainbow spectrum. Suddenly, the scenery changed and a cold wind blew in my face: around the corner a waterfall, of about 80m high, spraying drops and bursting out into a little laguna. Covered under a raincoat (the famous blue one), we enjoyed our lunch.
The second time was a visit of two friends of Alexander and Estella, Diego and Camillo, living in a unique house composed by objects from all over the world, alien-like tree roots in the staircase and as tables, wheels as windows and a ground floor of hundreds of colored broken tiles. I was particularly fascinated by the shower and the toilet outside in the plain air of the vast garden. Since we had some time for ourselves before preparing and enjoying dinner (delicious tortillas) together, we went for a bath in the stream, that is, we jumped from a slippery rock nearby into the whirling water basin. Great fun! What a refreshing and rich experience!