July

We are on the bus to San Jose and from there we will take another bus to Monteverde. It is a beautiful sunny day – it figures!

As today is a travel day there is nothing new and exciting to report so I am going to backtrack a bit…

In Monteverde we had banana’s growing outside our back door. In Puerto Viejo we had coconuts.

Just outside of Puerto Viejo there were dozens of banana farms. Even if every person in Costa Rica were eating bananas every day there would still be millions left over so these must be for exporting. Speaking of banana’s, look what happened while we were away!

Ayer, cuando nos fuimos a dar nuestro paseo en bicicleta vimos algunos surfboarders. También tenga en cuenta la arena negro.

Bethany and Luis are the couple that own and operate the Lizard King Hotel that we stayed at. Luis’ family built it about 12 years ago but 6 months ago Bethany and Luis moved here from California to take over as the parents no longer wanted to run it. I have been speaking with them and watching the various hotels & restaurants as there is a lot of property for sale down here. I don’t know that I would want to own one by myself but it would be fun with a partner. The problem that Bethany & Luis face is that they can never get away. Or at least not together. Someone always has to be there. I am not just talking about the 365 days a year; I am also talking about the 24 hours a day. Labor is cheap but not very reliable so even though they have hired staff to help, they can’t really count on them to show up every day. At least with a partner or even two you could share the running of the business. Hmmm…. Something to think about for my retirement.

Puerto Viejo

It was raining again this morning but we decided that if you don’t go out when it is raining you might never get out so we rented some bikes and went for a ride… a very wet ride. It was more fun in the afternoon when the rain finally stopped. You can rent bikes at every other store here so it is obviously one of the most common ways for tourists to get around. Clearly they don’t have the hill’s we have in Monteverde!

We went to the Jaguar rescue centre which rescues all kinds of animals in the area. We saw toucans, owls, sloths, monkeys, raccoon, snakes, frogs and of course a couple of wild cats similar to jaguars. Some were exotic pets that were abandoned, others were wild life that have been injured by humans, by hydro wires, others just abandoned by their mothers etc.

So we are now staying in a hotel that is virtually bug free compared to the house we are renting in Monteverde or at least that is how it appears. I am inclined to say this is not the case because Douglas now has some of the biggest bites I have ever seen!
Some of the worst bites we have received are from the insects you can hardly see. Here is a picture of a few dozen very small red ants. Yeah I can't see them either but when they are moving you can.

Puerto Viejo

Today was officially the longest day ever! Douglas woke up sick. I tried to get him up and moving but that was a disaster as he ended up being sick just at the smell of breakfast. He spent half the day in bed and the other half desperately trying to get his math homework and culminating assignment completed and handed in.

Llovio todo el dia! La major noticia del dia es que tengo mi camara! Estoy feliz de que no tenemos que hacer los deberes de matematicas para el resto del fin de semana.

It is wonderful to think that we will not have to look at anything related to Grade 9 Math for the rest of the weekend!

I am just reading up on Puerto Viejo. Most people would have done this before travelling to a location but not me. I like to find out a place once I am already in it. Apparently Puerto Viejo is the closest town to Panama and many people come here on their way to Bocas del Toro, which is part of Panama. This also explains why there are border police randomly checking busses. I found that out on our way into town wondering to myself how we are going to get out of town as I left our passports back in Monteverde. Last night I got smart and went on my trusted computer and e-mailed pictures of our passports to my phone so that at least I will have that to show if we do get stopped. LOL oops.

There is also a substantial Jamaican population in this area of Costa Rica. I knew that about Limon and I guess we are really not far from there. There are more Jamaicans, Rastafarians (is that a word mom?) and Bob Marley paraphernalia here than I have seen anywhere else in Costa Rica so far. Everyone bike’s here which is great. I told Doug that is how I thought we would be getting around until I realized just how crazy the hills are in the mountains! Guess I should start planning these things out a bit better. Oh well we will enjoy biking while we are here. I also left my Diving certificate and log book back at the house. I really wasn’t thinking when I packed for this trip. I have a photo of that on my phone as well. This has come in handy before as they will accept that. I am thinking that I should take pictures of my insurance documents though in case I need to use them while we are travelling around. Especially with Douglas. Between his sensitive stomach and the skateboarding injuries it wouldn’t surprise me if we need to see a doctor more than once while we are here.

Everything we have with us is either dirty or wet so it must be time to head back home. We have decided to stay one more day because we lost at least a day with Doug being sick and all of the schoolwork.

Puerto Viejo

I know that my outlook on life has changed. Douglas once again left the door open while he peed this morning however instead of being disgusted I was merely impressed by the amount of liquid his bladder can hold!

Doug’s e-learning has been very time consuming. I am questioning our decision to travel right now as the course has taken up so much of our time we are not able to go anywhere and enjoy the sights of Puerto Viejo. We did go for a nice long walk and are hoping to rent bikes tomorrow however all of his assignments are due tomorrow so I’m not sure we will be able to. I guess I should embrace the fact that it is warm and sunny (although it seems to rain more here than on the Pacific coast, I’m not sure if that is location or timing on our part??).

My bag did not get delivered today. They said it made it halfway but Yonder, our guide, forgot to put it on the second bus. They say it will come tomorrow…I am less optimistic today.

Rafting

Well today was a day of mixed emotions. We woke up before the sun, which is very early in Costa Rica. We had to be ready for the bus to pick us up at 5:30AM. We were out front waiting by 5:20AM by 5:50 we gave up and dragged our luggage and ourselves back up to our room on the third floor. Of course at 5:55AM the bus finally showed up. Back down the stairs we went with our luggage (we are actually only travelling with one very small suitcase, a skateboard, a beach mat, a plastic bag full of wet clothes, a backpack and Doug’s man bag) and onto the bus. About a half hour into the drive I realized that we did not have Doug’s bag… the one with my camera. SHIT!

The guys from Exploradores Outdoors were nice enough to arrange for someone to pick it up tomorrow and deliver it to me at our new location. At this point all I can do is trust and have a bit of faith that it will make it here all intact.

Once I took a few deep breaths and reminded myself that this is now out of my control so worrying about it will serve no purpose, Doug and I had the best time ever rafting down the Pacuare River! The conditions were much better than the last time I was here and the guide said that in December the water is the highest so it is even better. We will try and come back at the beginning of December to try again.

 

We are now in Puerto Viejo staying at the Lizzard King Hotel and Resort LOL and apparently staying for three nights because I messed up my dates when I booked us on-line. That’s what I get for doing something when I am half asleep. This place is nice and it is warm here so I am not heart broken to be staying a bit longer than planned. It doesn’t seem near as hot as it was on the Pacific coast but I will know better tomorrow.

We are struggling to get Doug’s homework done. This is his last week and it seems like there is more work this week than there has been or maybe it is because we are onto an area I am less comfortable with. Doug seems better at Volume, Area & Surface calculations than I am thankfully! Did you know that given a fixed perimeter, the area inside that perimeter will be different depending on the shape and dimensions! A square maximizes your area – who knew. This baffles me. How is this possible and why did I not know this?

La Fortuna

Of course with the benefits of city life come the downfalls. There was noise on the street until very late and it started again early this morning. I’m sure things only settled for a few hours.

Breakfast came with the hotel and it was simple but good. Afterwards I convinced Doug not to take a tour but instead to walk with me to the waterfall. The lady at the front desk said that it would only take 20 minutes.  Necesito que practicar mi español porque no fue de 20 minutos que estuvo más cerca de 2 horas. OK that might be an exaggeration but it took a very long time, it was about 5Km and half of that was uphill.

En la cascada tuvimos que bajar 450 escalones para disfrutar de las Cataratas Rio Fortuna. Which meant of course having to walk back up 450 stairs when we were finished. Comigos un taxi para regressar.

The stairs were a bit scary!

Same Location

Same shorts... different kid. I guess we did't throw them out :(

My good friend Miguel told us that we could see the hot springs for free. We just needed to ask some of the local where to go. As you know I am not so socially inclined. Thankfully many people post such information on tripadvisor.com

Nuestro nuevo amigo y conductor de taxi Alvera Vargas nos recogió después del almuerzo y nos llevaron allí.

There were some local tico teenagers drinking and having fun and an hombre with no pants on so we stayed away from him and hung out with los jovenes. We later saw them in town and they honked when they passed us – new friends J

Preguntamos el taxi que parar en una tienda y nosotros caminamos desde allí.

La Fortuna

We came to La Fortuna today. As usual I got up earlier than necessary, as I always like to be prepared when going anywhere. I was thinking of Hailey this morning as we went through this more than once in Nepal and she would complain as like any teenager she would have preferred the extra hour of sleep rather than arriving at the airport/bus station an hour too early and having to wait. Oh well, we went down to meet the bus a bit early and Doug took advantage of the time to practice his skateboarding. We spent the first half of the day bouncing around potholes and then being transported across the Arenal Lake, then onto another bus to La Fortuna. They call it jeep boat jeep transportation but there is no jeep involved.

When we were here 5 years ago, the volcano was still considered active. At night you could see the lava rocks falling down the mountain. Apparently that stopped about two years ago.

We have decided to stay here two nights and then move on. Our hotel is nice and certainly cheaper than anything else I found on-line but of course as soon as we arrived I have easily found three others that are cheaper. We may move to a different one to save a bit of money but then it is all cheaper than home so why bother???  I spoke with Hailey tonight. She is wise beyond her years and always manages to put things into perspective for me.

The pool looks much larger and more inviting in the photo LOL

La Fortuna is warmer than Monteverde but not as warm as the beach. It is a really nice happy medium. Warm enough to walk around in shorts but not so crazy that your skin is burning. It is a larger town than Monteverde, we are happy to be out walking around at night, there are people out, street lights on a nice change from the cloud forest.

On Wednesday we are heading to the ocean. Puerto Viejo. Using the Tico bus system it would take us at least three busses and a couple of hours longer than the tourist bus but would only cost $3 per bus so maybe a total of $9. The Tourist buss will cost $57 with no stops. We found a tour, which includes breakfast and lunch, will take us on a four-hour rafting excursion and drop us off in Puerto Viejo for $100. LOL might as well add in a bit of fun along the way!

Monkey party in the back yard!

I was outside doing my laundry this morning and right behind me there was a family of white faced monkeys having a party!

There are many strange noises in the house, most of which I try to ignore. The roof is mainly tin and there are plexiglass skylights. Often during the wind or rain things fall on the roof and make noise. I was hearing this noise but it was relatively consistent??? It turns out I have a not to bright bird in the neighbourhood that keeps coming to the window in the morning. Trying to get in and then leaving. This has been going on for about 15 minutes or so every morning.

They say it takes between 21 and 30 days to break a habit. It has been 23 days since I have had a glass of wine. I was a bit concerned that this was more than just a habit… I am happy to report that I miss the friends I was drinking wine with more than I miss the wine itself. I can also tell you that my friend Angel was right, if you think cutting the red wine out of your diet will help you shed the pounds, it won’t. The wine has been replaced mainly by water and coffee but no weight loss has occurred so clearly the reduction in calories was not significant enough to produce any real results (other than a clearer mind).

Today I got caught up on laundry and there was a family of white faced monkeys having a party in the trees behind me.

Doug spent his day playing survivor man chopping down a bamboo tree with his Machete!

We then took a walk over to El Bajo del Tigre to check it out. This is a night hike right up the road from us. We did not bother to pay to take the hike as all of the animals she spoke of are in our back yard on a daily basis.

Douglas and I worked on his math for a few hours and we went out for dinner. We were going to go into town as I was saying we are never out at night. We chose to stop at a restaurant 1/3 of the way into town. Of course it started raining… and this is why we rarely go out at night.

 

In the morning we passed by this restaurant and one of the hydro poles right out front had been struck by lightning and was down. All of the wires were down and the hydro men were staring at the mess trying to decide what to do. Sorry no picture. I wasn’t expecting to see anything new.