Leaving Paradise

Fri. 19th Sept.


Well it came time to head back to Alajuela, we knew our time here was growing short and that was met with mixed emotions. On the one hand I was looking forward to getting back to the states and doing my 'norm' again and on the other hand, well heck I was in paradise!

We ate breakfast at the VRM restaurant, and the food is really good. A mix of Tipico (typical or local foods) and American, like pancakes, good bacon, scrambled eggs. It was buffet so we gorged and then hit the road. We decided we needed to find a place to fix the flat tire before we hit the gravel roads. If we had gotten another flat it might be many miles and many hours before we could get the problem solved. So we drove to the gas stations we knew and they did not fix flats, everyone sent us to someplace else. After about an hour we found a little car wash that also fixed tires...go figure that one. At first we drove past it because, well its a car wash, but we noticed a tire stuck in the ground with Spanish words painted on it. We couldn't read it but playing a hunch, we came back and sure enough, it meant, 'We fix flats'

Side note: We had tried the first night we got the flat to buy a tire plug kit at the local everything store in Palma Sur, and I do mean everything. They sold everything from fencing and power tools to a full line of foods. It was owned by an Asian couple who spoke fluent Spanish but not a bit of English, they had one counter girl who spoke enough to tell you she had no idea what you were saying. Anyway, after Kevin played charades for a bit the lady owner lit up like she knew what he was wanting and told the Costa Rican fella behind the counter to go get it. He returned with a portable air compressor and Sterno powered cooking stove. What the? Finally after several more attempts of road flairs and plumbing parts being brought up, she had Kevin go behind the counter and dig through everything himself. I could tell this was gonna take a while so I went to look at food and coffee. It was actually pretty well stocked for so far from no where. Kevin showed up about 20 min. later. They had about everything you could want, except a tire plug kit. Rafa told us later they are not sold there because the cost of fixing a tire is so cheap, but we figure if your out on one of them roads, miles from the local car wash, that repair kit might really come in handy. So if you ever go, you might want to carry one of them just in case...I'll never leave home without one again.

Dude fixed our tire, it cost about $4.00, and we were back on the road. Drove the rough and wild road back to Quepos with no problems, not even a line at the bridge. Just outside of Quepos we hit pavement again, ahhh semi-civilization again. As we wound through town we saw a sign that made us both look at each other and ask 'Did that say what I think it said?' The sign was hand painted with a woman in a top and shorts washing a car and said 'Sexy Car Wash' we thought about going back but since we didn't any more flat tires, didn't really see the need. Can't help wondering what that was really like though. Got some fresh Pineapple water at a local shop and rested for bout 1/2 an hour then back on the road.

Got to Alajuela about 2:30 and we decided to go eat at Taco Bell, that's right Taco Bell. I just had to see what it was like. The building was very new and nice, looked just like the ones here. Went to order and the menu looked the same but just not as big a selection as here. I was about to order a Taco Supreme, Burrito Supreme and drink and noticed there was something else pictured with the drink, too small to make it out but it looked like French Fries. I asked Kevin and he said it was probably Cinnamon Twists, that made sense, so I ordered. No it was fries! And they were actually pretty good. They still cook with lard there so the fried foods do have a diff. flavor.

We then parked the car at a parking garage around the corner from Rafa's house and we hit the streets of Alajuela. The park was full of people, the streets were full of people, 'doesn't anybody work in this town?' Kevin spotted a large opening in one building that looked like it had lots of something in it so we went in for a look. It was a market/shopping mall. Dozens of booths with any and everything, that sprawled out in all directions. Some sold shoes, some clothes, some jewelry, fresh fruits, fresh meats and sea food, on and on it went, narrow aisles big enough for one person at a time to fit though. It was noisy, busy and fascinating. There were old men playing checkers, people haggling over the price of whatever. We took a turn and found our selves back on the streets, where there were street vendors as well as real stores. A couple of shoe stores had speakers out front and a guy on a mic jabbering about something at times they seemed to be trying to sell shoes other times it seemed he was just talking to who ever about whatever. We finally made our way back to Rafa's part of town and went to our new hang-out a local coffee shop about 3 blocks from the house, we got a table where we could watch the intersection and drank Agua Pina (Pineapple water) and watched the chaos. And chaos it was!

Side note: All the streets in the big cities are one way, with a stop sign for the yield side. How ever like always they rarely stop for it. The traffic with the right-of-way will fly down the street slowing for nothing, and then the other traffic will inch its way out there, then shoot across or turn in front of the high speed on coming traffic, add people who are trying to cross and think they have the right-of-way, and man it gets intense just sitting there watching it. The other thing I wanted to side note was the street signs. There aren't any! I asked Rafa about it and he said they have none, as well as no street address for the houses. So how do people find a house they have never been to? They ask around till they locate it or someone comes and meets them and leads them in. Now for the really weird part. How does say UPS find a house to deliver to? He uses the 'address', which is, say in Rafa's case '100 meters east of the Main Bank.' That's his official street address, his next door neighbor's is '125 meters east of the Main Bank' and so on. Rafa said it is very very confusing. I was confused just listening.

We found our host Rafa had while we were gone come down with a bad cold. He was to have some tests the next day so wasn't suppose to eat for 12 hours before, but he insisted on taking us to dinner. We ended up at this really nice looking restaurant (open air of course) Their main fare was seafood. Not finding any seafood on the menu I really wanted I opted for the Fettuccine Alfredo. What a mistake! I was made up of flat wide egg noodles, lumps of white cheese slightly melted (no sauce) and sliced ham! I was only able to force down about 1/2 before I could eat no more. Everyone else's seafood seemed good though. While the restaurant was nice, it was very noisy due to all the traffic just a few feet away, lots and lots of buses. Plus car alarms (they seemed to be going off everywhere we went and I finally found out why. The buses rolling by would shake the cars and set the alarms off) I found my self wishing for a nice quite indoor place to eat.

On the way back Rafa took us through a dark and rough part of town, where we saw 'working girls' on the sidewalks. Now prostitution is legal in Costa Rica but we had not seen any signs of it. Rafa says even though its legal there is still a stigma attached to it in the smaller towns like Alajeula. San Jose I guess is a whole diff. story. Anyway here they were, but it was too dark to really see very well, you could just make out outlines and such. Rafa then told us that those were all men! I guess that's the part of town they hang out in. We say a guy talking to one of them and Rafa said "That's a man can you believe guys even dare to talk to them?" We were all laughing.

We got home and Rafa went to bed early, and I tried to write to you while on Rafa's dial-up.

more to come later,

Don

Home but still working for YOU!

Well its Mon. 22 Sept., Kevin and I got back to Houston about 11:30 am Sun. 21st, I made it back to Nashville about 5:30 pm. What did we come back to? Kevin still has no electricity and the whole Middle Tenn. area has almost no gas. Maybe 1 out 10 stations have any gas at all the rest have their pumps shut down...we both are wondering why we came back. Anyway I want to finish our adventure for you, so will try and finish in the next couple nights. Kevin will be sending me the pictures soon so I will be having them to post as well, so keep checking in, we ain't done with you yet!


Thu. Sept. 18th

Today was going to the beach day, not knowing how bad the sun might be and not wanting to spend the rest of the trip in sunburn hell, we sprayed down with an SPF 300 and were off. (well maybe it was more like SPF 30)

We had picked out a spot to try the day before so headed there, to our amazement there was no one else there, about a mile down we could see a few surfers but the beach really was deserted, of course we were in the off season but still we expected more. I love the ocean, I have never gotten to spend much time around it but am always just in awe of it when there. The waves were rising and crashing down and it was just a great place to be.

The tide was on the way out so we had to walk a ways down to the water, but the sand was fine and clean so no big deal. We began wading out in the cool water and got about knee deep when I stepped on a softball sized smooth rock, I didn't think much of it but as I took another step I hit more rocks which threw my feet off and that combined with the current pulling against me, I ended up face first in the water. WHO'S BIG IDEA WAS IT TO COME TO THIS STINKING OCEAN ANYWAY? Kevin is laughing as I tried to get back to my feet (and get back some of my dignity) at least there wasn't any hot Ticas (Tica is the Costa Rican term for woman and Tico is their term for men) there to see it, or anyone else for that matter. We decided to walk down to where the surfers were at, it appeared they knew something we didn't.

We found a good spot and headed in...slowly. Got out pretty far and wanted to get out where the waves were crashing but we noticed there was somewhat of an undercurrent and it was getting stronger as we went. We had seen signs warning of this so we headed back in a bit. Kevin has a water proof camera so he was clicking away. We watched the surfers a while then headed back to our stuff. We had planned to take surfing lessons but with Kevin's knee there was no way, so we just had to watch...maybe next time. By now the tide was out further and we could see where we had tried to go in the water the first time. How did we know it was the same spot? Because it was the only patch of rocks for a mile in either direction. Two miles of open beach and we pick the only 15' wide patch of rocks on the beach.


So we got back in the car and drove down to another section of beach about 2 miles down. The tide was way out by now, leaving lots of really big rough rocks exposed. These had barnacles all over them and it was like millions of pieces of broken glass. Can't even imagine what it would do to you if you washed up against it. There were Sand Crabs everywhere, man are those little suckers fast! There were some locals out bagging them up out of the rocks. We walked about a mile down to a large rock hill with 2 Palm Trees growing out the top. There were some big waves crashing up over the rocks here, and Kevin got some great pics. (coming soon to a blogsite near you)(no I promise, really) We headed back and decided to do some shopping at the local beach vendors we had seen the day before.

This day there was only one guy set up but he had tons of cool stuff. Lots of jewelry, and bright colored wraps and such. We both bought some jewelry, some for me some for some of you. My daughter Naomi made out like a bandit! We then headed up to roam the streets I mean street of Dominical. Looked around at a few other shops and found this little wood building brimming with stuff. It was owned by a local Tica with a little boy on her hip. She was very friendly and told us all about various items she had on hand, most of which are made by local artist friends...once again Naomi did really well. After that its back to Villas Rios Mar to relax and try to write you. You see how dedicated and selfless we are?

We got to VRM and found a large party of Germans had moved in, they were all standing around in swimsuits looking up in a tree and laughing, so we had to see what was up. As I got closer I kept hearing a baby crying but never could see who had it. Then I realized it was coming from a large green Parrot in the tree. It sounded just like a baby crying its head off. One of the women worked her way around behind it and as she reached up and touched its tail, it lunged its head back at her and screamed like an angry woman! It then went back to crying.

Hung out at the room all afternoon, doing nothing but relaxing on the porch (the Internet was out and never did come back on the rest of our time there) Sorry folks but I really did try.

We decided to go into town for dinner that night, and picked a surfer joint that looked pretty cool. As we walked up to the open-air dinning area, there in the aisle between the two rows of tables lay 2 local stray dogs, both black, one behind the other, both in the exact same position, fast asleep. Everyone was eating and talking like this was everyday, and it probably is. We shot a pic and went to the bar to order. Food was not only very good but portions were large. I got a massive Burrito and Kevin got the best Flautas he said he's ever had. And he's had lots of Flautas! They were playing some great classic Rock music, which was even better.
Side note: They have several stations that play American music, mostly Rock but some Country, its great to be in such a different environment and still find some things common to you, it sorta gets ruined when the DJ and commercials come on and they are all in Spanish, weird mix. We walked around a bit just enjoying the weather and laid-back feel of the town, then headed to VRM, we had to leave in the morning so needed to get some sleep. I had about 5 hours of rough rocky roads, crooked cops, and steep hills to drive through just to get back to the joys of driving through Alajuela! At least I had something to look forward to.

Don

Wen.17th Sept.

We got up early, had a Tipico breakfast down the street (minus a haunting by the Colones ghosts) then head further south to where we hoped the tree farm was. All we had were sketchy directions so we figured the sooner we got there the more time we would have to find the place before our 9am appointment. We had no trouble at all even though it was waaay back in no-where. We found a small village, school, and Banana plant but nothing else, and still we had to keep going. We found a shack of plywood and plastic, with the cutest little big eared black dog, we tried to get his pic but he would run ahead and wait for us to catch up, we finally got the pic and went on to the roads' end, where we found an old wood building and probably older man, he turned out to be watchman who lived there, and while he spoke no English, he got on his cell phone and called the manager who showed up 15 min. later. He was very friendly but spoke no English either, but knew where to take us, so off we walked. It wasn't far, but it was back in the trees a ways, the mosquitoes were pretty bad. We took a few pics, of the trees that are only 2 years old but still probably 20 ft. tall. We got all this done by about 8:00am so headed back to Dominical and try to find our hotel.

Dominical is a surfer town, down on the ocean, mostly bars/restaurants, surf shops, and trinket stores. The road is rough, but its a fun place to be for a few days. We had trouble finding the hotel and asked a couple local Policia, they knew where it was and asked if they could ride with us to there. We ain't gonna argue with the Policia so we said sure. Kevin also liked the looks of the female cop so this gave him more time to talk to her. They got us to Villas Rios Mar, which had no signs, and was located outside of town. On the way out I'm thinking, 'They could be taking us out here to rob' they didn't but I was already 'robbed' by them guys once so was sorta gun shy.

Villas Rios Mar is an amazing place! You should go there. They have 4 unit cabins that are very roomy, largest bathrooms we had seen here. OH! side note I have been meaning to tell you about the bathrooms here, almost every single one, private or public is tiled, floor and walls all the way up to the ceilings. Ok, back to the story, 2 king size beds, cable tv, but to me the best part was the front porch, it had a sink and fridge, table w/ 4 stools, a small couch and an easy chair and lamp, with mosquito netting hanging over all the openings. Large pool and open-air cafe' etc.. They have a web site, so take a look.

We got settled in then went to town for lunch. Found a restaurant/Internet Cafe/Grocery store and decided to try it. We ordered Pizza just for kicks (it wasn't bad) was we sat there waiting for our food it started to rain, softly then it wasn't long before it was pouring. We sat at the edge of the restaurant and ate watching it pour, there was a drainage ditch next to me that 20 minutes before had been bone dry, it was now full and rushing like a river. We continued to eat. Life went on, buses and cars passed by as well as people walking. After a while it let up and we toured the town. Went to the beach and looked around then back to the hotel to just relax...and try to write to you.

That night we went into town to a local bar that was suppose to be Ladies Night, we got there about 7 only to find it didn't start till 10:00. That's another thing here, they do a lot of things late, most don't go out to bars etc. till 10:00 and most don't eat dinner until 8:00pm at least. We stayed till about 11:00 thinking Kevin's lady cop might show as she had indicated but she was a no show as was most other people, of course it was and had been pouring rain again so that might have had something to do to with it.

We called it a night.

Last Day

Well its Saturday Sept. 20th, our last day here in Costa Rica. I have had a blast but do find myself looking forward to being back in the states with all you, and doing the things that are normal to me. I wanted to write before now but Internet down here is all guess work and the last place we stayed which was the best hotel we stayed at, had service but not in our rooms and it would come and go at the worst of times. I am back at Rafa's house on his dial up, but will try and catch you all up...I may have to finish once I get back though. Also the pics will have to be posted once I get back, we have taken over 700 pics. and it has taken between 10 min.- ?? to download one pic.. I promise they will be worth the wait though. Anyway on to what we have been up to.

Tue. 16th Sept.
We left Alajuela after a couple cups of coffee at a local coffeehouse I adopted...its no GOVAN's but its all I could get. I did stake out 'my' table and that's the only place I sat when there. There has to be something of consistency in one's life. :-)
I was doing the driving since Kevin's knee is still messed up (he thinks he may to get surgery when back home) and all the cars here are stick shifts. I asked Rafa why and he said because they are easier to work on for all the mechanics up in the small towns who don't have all the fancy tools etc. to work on cars, so they keep em as simple as possible. Anyway, we were heading south to Dominical, we had just got down out of the hills and was cruising along on some really nice paved roads when I came over a hill and there were 2 motorcycle cops flagging me over. OH GREAT!
They said I was doing 90 kph, and showed me the radar gun to 'prove' it (I probably was but have no idea) they spoke good English and asked for my passport, I handed them a Xerox copy of my passport and Tn. Drivers Lic. (we left our originals at Rafa's house since passports will sell for as high as $5,000.00 down here, so its best not to carry the real thing.) He looked it over and was fine with it but asked me to get out and come across the road to their bikes (I think this was to keep Kevin from hearing anything) He told me he could write me a ticket which would cost me $175.00 and 2 points on my lic. back in the states, OR I could pay him $40.00 cash and be on my way, now I have no idea if the first thing is even true but I knew where they were going so figured why make an issue and give them a reason. I chose option B, I pulled out my Colones but got mixed up on the conversion, since some people quote prices in Colones and some quote dollars, so I pulled out 40,000 Colones (about $80.00) when I realized he said $40.00, he saw me catch it but it was too late, he saw the 40,000 and said that was the amount. I forked it over and we were on our way.

We drove through some great scenery along the coast, with Palm Tree farms all over. We stopped at an ocean town called Quepos (Kay-pose) and had lunch. Just outside of Quepos we hit another gravel road and shortly came to a dead stop behind a bunch of other buses, cars trucks etc., we were at a bridge and they were doing work on it. We sat for about an hour when finally we got the go ahead. This bridge was a single lane rusted steel and probably the roughest I have been over. We got to the other side and found a line far longer than ours waiting. As we got to end of the mile long line, things got wild. The road was amazingly wide, 4-5 lanes, but as we cleared the waiting traffic we turned into one giant lane as everyone fanned out across the wide road and romped on it! Everyone was bobbing-and-weaving their way around coffee table sized pot holes, large rocks jutting up in the road, and cutting off anyone they could. It looked like a scene from Mad Max, I found myself caught up in the moment, driving 60 kph on a road I would normally drive 20 kph on. Oncoming traffic had to dodge their was through as best they could. I got passed by a pick-up truck with 2 Ice Machines in the back and I never could catch that guy. After a couple miles everything thinned out and got back to normal. After about 2 hours we got to pavement again but drove right past Dominical...yes its that small, and off the main road so you don't really see it.

We continued south and arrived a small town named Palma Del Sur, it was getting late and we were to meet the Tree Farm manager for Kevin's trees in the morning so got a small cabin there. It was really a pretty cool little cabin, but as we parked in front the desk clerk told us we had a flat tire. Sure enough, rear passenger had picked up a nail someplace. So we got our bags in and I dug out my canvas overalls, didn't know why I had packed them at the time but now I do, so we headed out to change the tire and of course...it began to rain. Kevin got out the triangular reflectors and set em while I worked on the tire, he had a good time taking pictures. It didn't take too long so then it was time to go eat.
We went down the street to an open-air place and as I opened the door there were 2 little girls who seemed to appear out of no where like ghosts, they started asking for Colones. I pulled out a coin and as I was giving it to one of them, the other saw Kevin getting out and ran for him. Then both were hitting him up, he pulled out 3 coins gave each one and was going to pocket the 3rd, but they started with UH! Colones! So he gave it to them and they were gone as fast as they appeared.

Independence Day

OK I'm back. Before I tell you about the parades and stuff since then I was wanted to tell you where we are at so you can find us on Google Earth. We are at the Villas Rio Mar in Dominical. Dominical is in the south part of Costa Rica and on the ocean. Look up the town too, its a really cool place. Our room is fantastic. OK we have had several ask about women, there are some amazingly beautiful women here, no we have not met any to go out with, however while asking a female Policia for directions to Villas Rio Mar Kevin may have got a date for tonight, after she gave us directions she and her partner asked if we would give them a ride to here, which is out in no-where from Dominical, anyway she seemed very friendly towards Kevin and we know what bar/dance club she will be at tonight, so we'll see what happens.

I also wanted to tell you a couple of Rafa stories, the first one Grace told us and happened when they were at one of the big fruit farms, he might live there for 2-3 years at a time so the whole family went. Anyway one night Rafa and Grace are driving back to their house in the truck and Rafa started rubbing Grace's leg, she said "Rafa, we will be home very soon" and he said "Yes we will" then she said "Well can't you wait till we get home?" and he said "What are you talking about?" She said "You keep playing with my leg" He said "What are you talking about, both my hands are on the wheel see?" I can only imagine the scream that followed when she found out that what was rubbing her leg was not Rafa but a bat!

Next Rafa story, this took place when he was about 7 or 8, Rafa has always been very light skinned and had blond hair at that time. His mom being very religious let it grow long so he could play an angel in a certain ceremony every year. He was dressed in a white gown and strapped into a chair on a platform that was carried through town for some reason. Anyway this year he is riding along and suddenly has to go to the bathroom, so he tells them they need to let him down, to which he was told no, they went on for a bit and it got worse so he told them I need to go to the bathroom and they said he would have to wait till the end, so he tried, finally he could not and told them "If you don't put me down, I'm going to shit right here!" He never got to play the angel again.

Now on to the parade. What a time it was. Rafa's house is on a corner so it came down one street and turned at his house and went up another, it actually winds all through town and ends up...well I don't know where. Anyway, we could have watched it all from inside but Kevin and I wanted to be on the street among the crowd, so We and Rafa stood out there. Man was it packed! We were pressed against the house and people were threading their way back and forth through, well through no space at all but somehow they did it.
Rafa told us all about what was going on which really helped. It started at 9:00 am and went until whenever. The entire parade was made up of schools in the area, starting with preschools on up. Each school had a uniform special for this, it each was led by someone carrying the school banner so everyone knew who it was, this was followed by girls like cheerleaders doing some routine followed by a drum and portable Xylophone band, heavy on the drums, each school was also judged on their drum work so they were 'puttin on the dog' and it was cool! Loud but really cool. The band was then followed by all the teachers. There was a great sense of pride in the kids. School after school went by, for over 2 hours this went on. Rafa said the kids start practicing in April for this one thing. And he said the same exact thing was taking place over the whole country of Costa Rica, it stared at 9am everywhere. I must confess I came away with a new understanding of the importance of community and why people who have that understanding are so quick to defend theirs. I was awed by it and wished I could be a part of it.We who grew up in the suburbs really missed out on something that people from say N.Y., Chicago, or the numberless small country towns in America, know all to well. People were cheering and clapping for the schools and you could tell the kids were eating it up. There was also some wild old woman who was in her own costume, she led the parade off and the crowd went wild when she came by, she had more energy than I can describe, she was kissing cops, dancing with the cheerleaders, completely off the reservation! And we all loved it. Kevin took some great pictures during this time and I can't to show them to you...coming soon I promise.

Monday, Kevin and I headed down south, he bought 100 Teak trees from a farm and wanted to see them. When they mature they will be worth about 100 times what he paid for them, so that's part of his golden years money. Anyway that's why we headed south and just by luck it puts us on the beaches.

I'll tell you in the morning about our trip down here (and my run in with the Police) tomorrow morning...and how it went for Kevin tonight.

Till then,
Don

Still alive!!!

Well we have been without Internet service for several days and the service we have now is off and on but I will try and get you caught up on what we have been up to.

One small note about Santa Elana, our last night there was fri. and our room faced an alley that also had a or should I say the bar in town just about 50 yds away so it was a loud night but it finally stopped at some point in the night only to be replaced by a lone drunk who all the rest of the night and into the morning sat out in our alley, singing one song, well really just the first verse of a song over and over and over at the top of his lungs! The worse part (besides not being able to sleep) was not having a clue what he was singing about.
We had breakfast tipico (typical Costa Rican food) at the Tree House then headed out. We befriended our waiter and he was showed me how to make some designs on the top of Lattes, he did a really funny looking Teddy Bear face for one. Pictures to be posted with everything else, probably when I get back to the states. We have taken over 500 pics so far.

We got to Alajuela on Saturday, no real event in the trip to get there, I did race one of the Taxis down the mountain road to the 4 lane pavement...I won but I'm not sure how. These guys are the true road maniacs down here. All taxis are state run which is good as the cars are fairly new, well cleaned and maintained, cheap and they are everywhere, but they could teach our Nascar drivers a trick or two.

Sunday we went with Rafa and Grace up to another Volcano, it too has been inactive for many years and you can drive all the way to the top. I was pretty cloudy so we were not able to see down very far into it. On our way up we stopped by Rafa's work. He managed large fruit farms all over the world for years but now he manages a small flower farm for a Japanese company. They don't just grow flowers they are cross breeding and making new varieties of flowers. We were allowed to see what they have been making and he let us take pictures but all the flowers in there are new and never before seen on the market. The owners were coming in on Monday to see what he had. Some of them were amazing and will be seen when I post pics. some are just very brilliant in color some will last for 2 weeks in a vase. Just whatever the owners want them to work on.

Rafa is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He is a good story teller and tells some very funny things...some I can repeat some I can't. :-) Grace also is very funny and told us things about Rafa that had us laughing. They have been married 40 yrs. last week, but she said after their first date she did not like him. I asked why and she said he had traveling hands. We busted up. His side of that was he had a bet with some friends that she was wearing a girdle and he was trying to find out. You draw your own conclusion. Oh btw she wasn't wearing one.

Sunday night Rafa, Kevin and I walked up to the central park to see the night time warm up for their Independence Day celebration on Monday. It was wild! People packed everywhere, carrying candle lit torches, and parades in the street with guys wearing large paper mache' heads of anyone from the current President to dead movie stars to El Diablo, Rafa said there was no theme to it, they just wore whatever they wanted. The torches symbolize a woman who walked the streets in the 40's carrying a torch and calling for the people of Costa Rica to rally and demand independence from Spain, which they did and finally got in the late 40's. Before we went to bed Rafa said I would probably not get much sleep as his street would have the next day parade on it and they would start about 2am setting out the 55 gallon drums to block off the streets...they started at midnight. They parked a tractor trailer out front of my window, then proceeded to roll the drums off the back of the trailer and down the streets. This went on all night, no one who wasn't passed out drunk got any sleep that night.

Well I better close for now, I will tell you about the parade in the next post...it was amazing!
I will also try and answer some questions,
we love your comments so please post,
Don

Ok we got on the web cam tonight at Tree House Restaurant...anybody see us?

The Zip Lines and Tarzan Swing were a blast! We piled into a shuttle van at 8:30 this morning and the race was on. I don't know if these shuttle guys get paid by the trip or they just like to race each other but were climbing very steep rocky roads and all the while these guys are passing or trying to pass each other. Got to the top and there was a swarm of people, so it took a bit to get our gear but once we got harnessed it was back into another shuttle and more, well you already know don't you.
So we get there and find we have to have a short class in how to brake and keep from spinning around while zipping etc., there was really a lot more to it that I thought but not as much as you might think. Finally got to the top of the first platform and your off! It was pretty funny waiting though, listening to some of the people scream, one lady had everyone laughing as she would scream until she had no breath left, take a breath and scream some more.
You really do get going much faster on them than you might think, we had 11 zip lines all total, the longest one was about 600 mtrs. long, probably 200 ft. above the ground in some places and you reached speeds of about 60 klm., I'm not good at metrics but that long, high and fast! But it was amazing!!! The Tarzan Swing was the best though. We climbed a 90 ft. platform, they then lock you in, open the gate and suddenly you are free falling, there were lots of people there all talking etc. but when you go into the fall its seems like all you hear is the air rushing past you as you come closer and closer to the ground and then you begin to arc out and away into the vast openness, where at the apex of the swing you are probably 150 ft. off the ground. You stop for a split second and then begin hurling back towards land where the catchers start trying to slow you down enough stop you, this takes several back and forths before you stop though...WHAT A RUSH!!! If you ever get a chance to do it, DO IT! There was one girl in front of us who was afraid of heights but she did it anyway and loved it, if she can you can.

We got to Santa Elena about noon, found the Internet was up so I blogged you guys, we then went out to lunch, had nachos just to see, they were diff. as everything here seems to be but very good. We walked around a bit then came back and hung out watching the world below do its thing. We got in on the schools music practice, it seems as though there will be lots of marching and drum music on Mon., I wish you could here how loud it is, you can almost feel the music. We will be in Alajeula Mon. with Grace a Rafa but I'm sure the show will be much the same. should be real interesting to see.

Tomorrow we head for Alajeula, we will go into Monteverde then down another road just like the one that got us here, to Rancho Grande where we will pick up a 4 lane paved highway that will take us in to Alajeula...I'm not sure what will be worse the road to Rancho Grande or the streets of Alajeula! Either way, I should some new adventures to tell you about.

Well between the street noises below and the funcky music in the restaurant below us its getting hard to concentrate so I'm gonna go and watch the sites, the weather is perfect tonight, wine anyone?

Hope to hear from you,
Don

and we're back!

Hey everybody,

If you tuned in last night to the Tree House Restaurant and didn't see us its because the entire Internet grid went down for several square miles yesterday after we got to Santa Elena. It just came back up about 12:30 here. We will try an eat at that table again tonight if you want to tune in.

Well let try and catch you up. We got up about 4:30 yesterday morning cause Arenal was making lots of noise, so we watched him till breakfast, then hit the road. It was a great drive on really good paved roads. Twisting through the hills it was like a Grand Prix race. At one point I had to pass a big truck on a blind curve, that's not uncommon here though, heck they will pass you on a blind curve, on a hill, on a hill with a blind curve! I have still to see any wrecks though. One interesting thing I have meant to tell you is how they mark the roads where someone died in a wreck, while we do a cross, they have about a 6'x6' square painted on the pavement in yellow, with a large heart and halo over the heart to mark the spot. Anyway we got to Tilaran to find a gravel road the rest of the way to Santa Elena. The last 2 rough roads I told you about proved to be boot camp for this one! While those we loose rock roads this was hard packed earth with large rocks jutting up everywhere. I never got out of more than 2nd gear and rarely got out of 1st, several times I had to put it in 4 wheel drive just to make it up the seemingly endless hills, and this is the only way from there to here. People us it like we do the road to the grocery store.

Finally got to Santa Elena, which is where the Tree House Restaurant is, found the town overflowing with people, tourist and locals. We got a room at the Tree House hotel, room #4, in case anyone wants to stop by. Its on the 3rd floor and when you step out of the room there is the top of the tree, its open air. The tree is a 65 yr. old Ficus, have never seen one so huge! We have a balcony and its fun to sit there and watch the world go by. And man does it go by!!! big diff. here from where we stayed in Arenal, it is loud, noisy and always busy. We have the church just across the street , about 50 yds., and they have their bells hooked up to load speaker, so everyone knows when its time for mass. The school is on the next hill bout 400 yds away and they are out there practicing their music for the big celebration this mon. Also Costa Ricans LOVE their car horn. They honk it to say hi to each other, they honk to tell the next guy to get out of the way, they honk it to tell the Ticas, they think they are nice looking, OH! and my personal fav., they have these guys driving around all day with giant speakers on the roof with commercials on a continuous loop, its all in Spanish so I have no idea what they are pedeling but WOW is it annoying but cool at the same time...its atmosphere! Oh and of course you can't forget the 2 million motorcycles running around. Yesterday on the road in we saw a young mother on a motorcycle, with her maybe one year old up front on the gas tank, no helmet, hanging on to the handle bars as they headed into town.

Had a Pineapple milkshake yesterday just to try it, turns out its what they say it is, Pineapple and milk whipped up in a blender, no ice cream, it was really good though. This morning for breakfast I decided to try what they called an American breakfast, small fruit plate, eggs, thin slice of ham, the thinnest bacon I ever saw and a pancake, with some of the best maple syrup I have had, and the Banana juice, and caramel latte were both very good.

Well I better close, the server keeps coming and going so I hope this sends, more later on the zip lines and Tarzan Swing

Don

Working hard at doing nothing

Before I start let me say thanks to everyone who has sent comments and emails about how much you are enjoying the blog, we are enjoying making it for you! And really that's why we are suffering through...WOW! Arenal just shook the ground! Anyway we are suffering through all this strange foods, being away from home, family, and friends so you don't have to. Ain't we the best. If anyone has any questions please ask and I will try and answer, you know me, if I don't know the answer I will make something up. So ask away. Oh before I forget I wanted to tell you how to pronounce Arenal cause it ain't nothing like it looks. Its 'r-n-all' that's all the Spanish I will give you now...there may be a test later. And before I forget, we will not be doing the Tarzan Swing and stuff till fri., but we will be going to the Tree house Restaurant tomorrow night, we will try and get there about 7:00 pm our time which is 8:00 pm central time. See you there! Or maybe you'll see us I should say.

Well the waters at Tabucon are great! Its basically a series of pools and waterfalls they have built the resort around. The higher up the water you go the hotter it is, so you can pick the water temp. you are wanting and work your way down to cooler waters as needed. Its all surrounded by lots of wild looking native trees and plants. It ends up at a reg. swimming pool, with a pool bar. Also included was a 3 course meal for lunch. Started out with a salad bar that also had lots of fruit, cheese and thin sliced meats. The Pineapple was the best I ever had, they grow it here so its very fresh and does have a better flavor because its allowed to ripen before picking. I also thought this would change the taste of Banana but Rafa, who used to run Banana farms for Dole and Chiquita said that it does not because Banana will continue to produce its own sugar even after being picked green. Now you know something most people don't. I had the beef with the meal and while it was OK I was expecting a bit better from this fancy place but Kevin, who has been here 3 times before said the beef is much leaner here because the cows have to graze on the steep slopes around here instead of on nice flat USA farmland. Makes sense, so it was a good piece of meat by the standards here. We finished our day at Tabucon by the pool bar, just relaxing and watching Arenal, and there may have been a drink or two.

We then headed into La Fortuna. Oh yea, when we got to Tabucon I parked the car facing in like we do in the states, and the lot guy came over and had me turn the car around and back in, which is the way everyone parks here, I do not know why. Also they will guide into your spot which means they will put you so close to the next car you can barely get out of your car. But that's like everything here, they pack as much as they can into as small a space as possible.

Anyway, we went to La Fortuna, actually by accident. We meant to go to a little town called Guaria but we missed the road, mainly because there was no road sign. Heck there are very few street signs in Alajuela, I have no idea how people find their way around down here. So anyway I was trying to loop back around in La Fortuna and turned the wrong way down a one way! I had to throw it in reverse and back up to an intersection before the on coming hit me and then we almost got hit by a tour bus...I'm starting the get hang of driving like a native here! We found the road and started off. This road was worse than the one I told you about earlier, we followed a little truck for a while, the scenery was great, but all along the way we saw typical houses. These are small about 500-600 s.f. probably 1-2 rooms. Most do not have glass windows but just the opening cut out for them, when rain comes they will put boards up till its over. Some are clean and painted others are a collection of whatever but what amazed us was how many had a satellite dish! And several time we have seen people out front of these places talking on their cell phone or listening to their iPod, just goes to show its good to have priorities. Well we finally made it to this little town, now we knew it would small but it turned out to be bigger on the map than in real life. We knew we were there when we saw the little bright blue church (with well manicured soccer field behind) and one 'store' about the size of a tool shed. We pushed on for a bit just to see what the road would do, it got smaller and rougher oh and smaller, finally we turned around because we needed to get back to the hotel before dark as rain was coming and you never know how bad it will be.

We got back here just as the rain started, it rained for about 1/2 hour but not really hard. Then we sat on the back porch watching the thunderstorm behind Arenal as the sun went down. It was really pretty cool but as I watched it I could see why ancient people might think the Gods lived in the volcano, here you had all this rumbling, smoke, lava, and lighting, and if they got too close they would die because of the poision gas being put out, no wonder they were spooked by it all.

Well I have droned on enough for now, I'm gonna go watch Arei for a bit,
miss you all,
Don

On our own

Good morning everyone!
Well I watched the sun come up over Volcano Arenal this morning...what did you do? Arenal is near the town of La Fortuna, we are actually on the other side of Arenal from La Fortuna but this is on the lava flow side and thus the reason we chose to stay where we have. Our hotel is named Linda Vista del Norte, in case you want to Google earth it. We are in room 18 in case any of you want to stop in. :-) You have to take an 8 klm. drive on one of the most desolate and rough roads I have seen but once here the hotel and view are worth the drive. We have been able to see the peak both days so far which is almost unheard of this time of year. Actually weather has been amazing so far, usually its clear in the morning then clouds up and rains every afternoon, but while we have clouds everyday, we have had no rain, so the clouds just work to cool things down as it can be hot and humid in the afternoon. We are only 10 degrees from the Equator here so we are closer to the sun and thus it can be much hotter to the skin. Right now Arenal is coughing out smoke and lava, he's been rumbling too which sounds like thunder. We are probably about 2 miles from the base, which really is pretty close. I really enjoyed the hot tub last night, then ended the night sitting on the back patio after everyone else had gone to bed and watching Arenal do his thing.

Breakfast today was typical, toast with Pineapple jelly (a new addiction) rice and beans, 'squeaky' cheese, as Kevin calls it, its a native white cheese that squeaks on your teeth when eating, its really pretty good, eggs, fruit, juice and coffee or hot chocolate (another new addiction) the latter has a very diff. flavor than what we are used to in the states. Today we are going to Tabacon Hot Springs Resort, there we are going to enjoy the pools of hot water that run off Arenal, my knees can't wait! We will eat lunch there and then head maybe into some town and see whats there. I think tomorrow we are going to a place where we can do Bungee Jumping, Zip Lines and the Tarzan Swing. This where they have you on a long cable on platform and you jump off and free swing several hundred feet. I plan to do all 3! Wow! the ground just rumbled from Arenal, pretty cool. We may not be doing much hiking after Kevin hurt his knee lastnight, he was up in the pool while I was writing all you and Arenal started really working at sunset, so he ran down here to get the camera and on one of the steps his knee popped and he's been hobbling around since. I hope it does not get any worse.

Yesterday, the 9th, we rented a car and struck off on our own. Rafa said to get the smallest 4 wheel drive we could get. Kevin had priced them in the states and it was going to run close to $1,000. for the 2 weeks! Rafa has a nephew who is in the business and got a great mini SUV for about half that. It pays to have contacts! It was a little freaky heading out at first but once we got out of Alajeula it was really no big deal, roads were good and it was similar to driving in the states, the bad news...we have to drive back into Alajeula fri. May God have mercy on our souls.

We got to La Fortuna about noon so ate lunch at an open air restaurant, La Fortuna is a tourist town so the menu was mainly tourist food, I decided to get a hamburger w/ fries, not because I wanted it so much as I wanted to see what their idea of it was, pretty much the same only they also put a slice of ham on it, I guess they take the 'Ham' part of Hamburger literally.

Well more later, enjoy your day, we plan to!
Don

What a day!

Mon. 8th Sept.
I woke up very early to all the street sounds, Rafa and Grace, his wife, live right on a busy street so you hear very clearly all day and night, cars, buses people walking by within a foot of your window and of course those dang motorbikes! Everyone else was still asleep so I just watched the city wake up around me, people walking to work, etc., at one point up the hill came an army of men and women each with a wheelbarrow, shovel and broom. I guessed and rightfully so they are the street cleaners, they do a great job for the streets are really clean even with all the people and mass chaos. This was also my first look at Alajuela, so everything was super fascinating to me.

Grace made us the usual breakfast of fruit, Watermelon, Mango, Papaya and Banana, buttered breads and juice with hot tea or coffee. Rafa took the day off work to show us around and help us exchange our money into the local currency which is 'Colones' the current exchange rate is 549 Colones to 1 dollar. So let me tell you, you think you are one fat cat when he hands you a wad of bills that have numbers like 1,000 5,000 and 10,000 printed on them, however it gets to be a shock when you first pay for something that costs say $16.00 and your total bill is 9,000 colones! Your mind automatically computes 9,000 dollars and you suddenly feels real sick to your stomach, but you get used to it...so they tell me. Another thing at the bank that struck me was the fact that all the guards are young and carrying Uzis, these guys aren't worn out retired cops with 38's, they mean business!

Our first stop was Volcan Poas, its a semi inactive volcano outside of Alajuela, this was a great drive up into the mountains with lots of interesting things to see that really give the atmosphere I was expecting. We got to Poas and had to walk up a steady incline to the top of the Volcano, but it was worth the hike and we found our selves staring several hundred feet down into the Volcano, it was full of blue/green water that was steaming, and a very strong Sulphur odor...I still think that was Kevin but he swears it wasn't. Rafa said the water is about 140 degrees and the last time it erupted was in 1963 when Pres. Kennedy was there, just as he began his speech it erupted and rained ash down on everyone like snow. The locals tongue-in-cheek blamed Kennedy. After Volcan Poas we hike another 1.5 miles up an even steeper incline to a massive lagoon, this water feeds into the volcano and helps to keep it cool enough it doesn't erupt, much like a radiator in a car.

We then went to an animal park, they have huge walk in living areas for all kinds of native wildlife, anything from Monkeys to small Frogs and Butterflies. We ate a great lunch there that was buffet style of mainly local foods but they also had Hamburgers and Hot dogs for the tourists. We also saw about 6 diff. waterfalls at the same site, we walked down and down and down, all very fantastic views, (again some great photos but I can't get them loaded) but thank God there was a bus waiting for us to take us back up the hill.

Next was a tour of a coffee plantation. Coffee is one of Costa Rica's main export and it is everywhere. We went to the Doaka (i think thats the spelling) plantation which is one of the oldest and largest coffee makers in Costa Rica, they supply the largest amount to Starbucks but sell all over the world too. The tour took and hour and it was just Kevin and I with the guide but it was really interesting and I learned a whole lot about coffee I didn't know...I won't bore you with it all though. And we did all this by 4:30 pm!

On the way up that morning we saw lots of school kids all over every little village and town, all in uniform but I got to noticing they were there all day long, so I asked Rafa about it, he said they go 1/2 days. One group goes in the morning and the other half goes in the afternoon, then every 2 weeks they change. He then pointed out something about every city or village in Costa Rica. He said every town has 4 important things in them and they are, in order of importance
1. Church 2. Soccer field 3. Municipal building 4. School! At least they have school listed in there somewhere.

We got back to Alajuela just in time for rush hour traffic. This was the most amazing and somewhat terrifing thing I have seen, the only thing that could have made it worse is if I had been driving. I can't describe the carnage and won't even try.

Well I could go on and on but I am tired, Kevin and I rented a car today and drove up to another volcano, I'll give its name tomorrow and more details, right now I am looking out the back patio of our room watching hot lave flow down the side, Kevin is up at the pool, so I'm going to go up there, have drink or two at the pool bar, soak in the hot tub and enjoy the view.

talk to you tomorrow,
Don

Welcome to Costa Rica!

I know I know, Im late posting. This is the first time I have had a steady enough signal to trust. I will strat with arriving. But before I do I have to sugest you go to Google Earth and download it, its a free download and is one of the most amazing things I have seen, but it will not only pinpoint where we are but in most cases will show you a pic of the front of the house or building not just an overhead view.

Also I am not able to access my comcast email address so if you need or want to email me direct go to:

barebonesenterprises@gmail.com

now on to the show.

We got into Alajuela, which is where the airport is and is also about 5 min. from our hosts' house. The airport is new and modern and I thought,'well this isnt too bad', then we got to the passport section and while there was a line it seemed to go along quick and took about 10 min. 'this isnt too bad either' I thought, then we had to go down to the next floor to Customs...whoa! They had the checked baggage coming up the ramps and it was so pilled up they were falling onto the ground, people are scurrying and pushing to get their bags, and get into the 2 very long lines, to get your baggage scanned and be allowed in. We finally made it through there and walked outside to hords of people with signs trying to find people, Taxi drivers nearly trying to shove you into their car etc. luckliy Rafa (Rafael) was there waiting and ran everyone off.

Heading to his house we no sooner cleared the airport and what was the first sight I see? A Burger King/KFC. So much for atmosphere. We then pulled up to the first stop light, it was red and as we were waiting, 2 motorcycles came between the cars in the 2 lanes and shot through the light like it was green! Rafa said they pretty much act as though no laws apply to them...he has been right. There are lots of bikes her, mostly small on/off road bikes, they use less gas (which is $5.25 a gallon at this time) they also use them to move through traffic and expect you to move for them. They also use them for everything, just today I saw 3 people on one going to work, and my fav. was the guy zooming down the highway with a Little Giant ladder straped on his back! Traffic really is a Gladiator sport, I wish I could say its controlled chaos but its just chaos!!

We got to Rafa's which sits on a corner and is the same house he was born in, he said it was 120 yrs. old when his parents bought it, so its close to 200 yrs. old now. Its been remodeled many times. I large for the standard here but would be considered average sized in the states, prob. about 1500 s.f. One really cool thing is the little patio built inside. Here is a pic of Kevin and Rafa in it, the rock wall in back is also the back wall to the house on the next block over.

Sorry folks no pics at this time, having issues with the photo add portion of this, I will work on it and rty to get some uploaded in a day or two.

We turned in late that night and woke up early the next day, but the events of mon. the 9th are for the next post.

Don

Some sites to see

Well its coming down to crunch time, just 3 more days till I fly to Houston, then Kevin and I leave from there on Sunday afternoon, which will put us into San Jose' about 8 something pm. Am I packed?...sorta!

Anyway I wanted to share with you a few of the web sites I have been looking at for a couple months now, thought you might enjoy them too.

This one is a weather channel site for San Jose', lets you see what time it is there, what the weather is currently and what it is maybe gonna be for the next several days. Its:
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/78762.html

Witchesrock surf camp has a live web cam that you can control for 2 minutes at a time just by clicking on the right button. I don't think we plan to go there but the scenery is fabo., especially about sunset, give it a try at:
http://www.witchsrocksurfcamp.com/WebCam.aspx?Linkid=188

Tree House Restaurant, this is exactly what it says, a restaurant in a giant tree! They also have a web cam and you can watch people come in, sit and eat and talk etc. We do have plans to go and eat here, I don't know when but will let you all know a day ahead, and I will give you the time we plan to be there, I will ask for the table in front of the web cam so if you tune in at the right time you can see us in real time! So add it to your favs. and tune-in...any bets on what I will be drinking? :-)
http://www.canopydining.com/webcam.php

Well thats it for now!
Don

Where is Costa Rica?

I am trying to learn how to use this blog site before I actually get to Costa Rica so thought I would practise by answering a common question I have been getting..."Where is Costa Rica anyway?"

Costa Rica is south of Nicaragua and north of Panama. The country is roughly the same size as W. Virginia. Sept. 15th is their Independence Day, so we should be in for some big celebrations on that day! We will be flying into San Jose' which is also the capital of Costa Rica. It appears as though they have a little bit of everything in the way of terrain, beaches, rain forests, volcanoes and etc.

Kevin and I are planning to get a car and drive some of the time vs. taking a bus or taxi. One interesting and somewhat un-believable fact of driving down there is that it is legal to DRINK and DRIVE! Now it is illegal to drive while intoxicated...huh? So it should make for some, uh, interesting times to say the least.

Well more later,
Don