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
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