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
Friday, September 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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
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
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
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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
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:
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
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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
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
Sunday, August 31, 2008
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
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
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