
Family portrait including David, taken by David
We are currently on a ten day trip to Costa Rica. Having written and preserved the chronicle of our Around the World trip last spring, I am determined to do the same for this sojourn, although on a much more limited scale. What a wonderful way to keep the memories alive! Please note that the earliest posts are at the bottom and the latest posts are at the top. You can go to earlier posts by clicking on the archive date below on the left.
So did the girls but I didn't get pictures. Love this one of Avery.
November 27, 2007
Later: my computer ran out of juice after the above and now I sit in my own bedroom getting ready to post this. Tomorrow I will (I hope) post some pictures and then bid a fond adios to Costa Rica--until next time, which I am sure will come.
Pura Vida! As the Ticos say.
Sitting on the deck railing with us right there
November 25, 2007
We drove for the required hour, much of which was through a 35,000 acre palm tree orchard, the largest in the country—straight endless rows of towering palm trees covered with parasitic ferns and what looked like rhododendrons. I asked if the ferns and the other plants would ultimately kill the palms and Meffie said no, it was a symbiotic relationship—nice to know they can happily co-exist. The palms are grown not for their coconuts but for their palm nuts—small nuts which grow in clusters at the top of the trunk and at the base of the palm fronds and from which palm oil is extracted to make cosmetics, ethanol, candles and other commercial products. Years ago,
So we have checked another box on the scorecard of Life, the one called zip-lining through the jungle. I probably will never do it again, but I would if given the opportunity. It was so fun.
Waiting for a beer after our long walk
November 24, 2007
Some of the trees are poisonous and the signs clearly say Do Not Touch. Vines and ferns and flowering plants are all tangled together and some tree trunks snake through the sand for great distances. A lot of one’s time is spent looking skyward in hopes of seeing at least some of the many different kinds of birds and animals which reside above the land. The resulting stiff necks are worth it—we saw a troupe of white-faced monkeys almost immediately. But being old hands at the white faces, we were hungry for something a little more exotic. Oh pul-eeze, you are probably saying—already the monk-faced monks are old hat. But they are not. I promise you I could watch them forever with their quizzical expressions and wise eyes. One was inching slowly along a branch and reached out to grab a vertical branch in front of him. The branch broke off in his hand. I kid you not—he looked at the branch in disgust and threw it to the ground. Just as you or I would do.
Martha and Mark enjoying an Imperial Cerveza
November 23, 2007
November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving! It is morning again and I’m hoping to catch up before today’s activity--a sunset cruise for which we are being picked up at 1:30. In my zeal to tell you about the monkeys yesterday I never even got to tell you about the boat trip through the mangrove jungle. We went by van to the edge of the Damas Estuary under the capable tutelage of our very young but knowledgeable guide, Mau (short for Mauricio). Soon we were boarding a small boat which held just the eleven of us and a pair of newly weds, plus Mau and the boat driver.
Lunch was included back on land, surprisingly good, mahi mahi, rice and beans and fried plantains, an exact duplicate of what I had had the day before at the beach restaurant. And last night we had our personal chefs cook for us again and we had mahi mahi yet again. No problem, it’s always delicious. I incorrectly identified the chefs the other day—they are Renzo (not Gilbert), and Ivan, pronounced EE-von. They are coming again tomorrow night and we are having steak, not fish, even though David and Kelly are leery of the Costa Rican cuts of beef. Renzo assured us we would like it so we shall see.
Today is Thanksgiving Day, but there is no turkey on our agenda. Instead we are being fed on our sunset cruise and if the bill de fare is mahi mahi, I for one shall be muy contente.
A very happy turkey day to all.
These crocs are a lot bigger than they look in the picture! This was the only picture I got before my camera ran out of battery and my extra one was back in the van.
Our "personal chef" hard at work preparing our first dinner.
After the trauma of the puffer machine, we flew without event to
But alas, dallying was not to be. At ten, we all piled into our van with Alvaro, our driver, and proceeded, first to the grocery store for cerveza, coca, agua, and huelo, and then toward our destination, Manuel Antonio, the little town where our palatial villa would be waiting. We stopped for a leisurely lunch at a beautiful Marriott resort, Los Suenos, but otherwise we were pretty much hell bent for election over mountains, streams and harrowingly narrow bridges all the while accomplishing our mission which was to “experience the countryside.” We did make one other stop to see crocodiles floating menacingly in an otherwise quiet river, co-existing with some Brahmin cattle who were unconcerned by their twenty-foot long neighbors.
Manuel Antonio is booming. Kelly and David had stayed here a year ago and apparently the building since then is astounding with hotels, condos, private homes, restaurants and all the other accoutrements of the “discovered” area evident everywhere. But we didn’t linger; rather we bee-lined to our Villa El Cantico which if you are interested you can check out on the internet. Melissa and Kevin, our house managers, were there to meet us and Kelly got a rousing chorus of “Kelly is great, Kelly is great” when we realized that we truly were going to be royalty in a palace for the next eight or nine days. Our “personal chefs” were already at work preparing dinner which we had arranged beforehand and the results were amazing. But first, we explored the house which is on at least four levels with a gourmet kitchen and dining room, great room and media room on the main level, and bedrooms and office on levels above. The great room looks out onto a gorgeous pool with sunken barstools where you can belly up to a bar with fridge and stainless steel grill. Beyond the pool is jungle where several varieties of monkeys frolic (although only Mark and Martha, up at five this morning, have seen them thus far) and beyond that is the mighty
This morning we cooked our own breakfast (just to stay in practice) and afterwards, David, Mark, Tom and I took a taxi into the town for supplies. We don’t have a rented car—not practical for so many people—so we call taxis when we need to go somewhere and they magically appear about five minutes later. First stop: ATM machine at a bank. The guys went in while I waited in the car with Gilbert (another Gilbert) the driver. He had said that maybe this ATM wouldn’t have money because yesterday they didn’t but luckily the armoured car was there with guards armed with rifles looking very mean and while he and I were waiting in the car a guy got out of the truck with a huge armload of money while the armed guard looked even meaner and brandished his rifle in evey direction. I commented to Gilbert that this was fairly unusual and he shrugged and said in essence that it’s all bluster and if there was an actual heist that the guard wouldn’t know what to do.
Cash was procured without incident and then Mark asked Gilbert if he could stop somewhere where they could buy some Cuban cigars (big treat, they’re actually legal almost everywhere but in the US) so he pulls up in front of a little shop with a sign Fuego Sex Shop in front, but I figure hey it’s only cigars they want so once more I wait in the car and the guys go in. After that we had uneventful trips to the grocery store and the fish market to buy fish for ceviche and then home.
This afternoon we went to the beach in Manuel Antonio, the one we can see from our house, and not surprisingly, we can see the house from the beach as well, an impressive sight indeed. We had lunch in a little dive called the Marlin, probably the best Mahi Mahi I’ve ever had and then watched the kids taking a surfing lesson. I haven’t tried posting pictures yet, but I hope I can show you our two stars and resident surfing dudes, Michael and Dylan. They were old pros in no time. The girls did great as well, but I couldn’t get any pictures of them. Maybe next time.
Tonight we had a real rain storm with the loudest thunder any of us has ever heard and some very impressive lightning so it’s just as well we had decided to stay in and eat the ceviche I had prepared and some wonderful Colombian concoction that Martha whipped up out of the leftover rice and salsa and some eggs. We sat outside until the rain really got going and the thunder was fearsome and then decided to come in. Dylan said the thunder crack was really loud, and I said it’s thunder clap, not crack and then someone else said that Dylan sometimes says crap when he means clap, and then we made up a tongue twister—clap, crap, crack—and I defy you to say that even once let alone three times. It’s impossible. We found that unbearably amusing and after a major attack of the giggles went to bed where I lie now finishing up this blog which I hope to post tonight or tomorrow early. Good night my dears!
Why does the make ready for a trip always seem so endless? We didn’t leave home til 3:00 today, a good thing actually, since we didn’t have to be ready at the crack of dawn, but still…here we are on the plane FINALLY, it’s just after six and we have a four hour flight ahead of us. I’m a little cranky because I got the “treatment” again at the check in after being treatment-free for the last year or so, including during the entire Asia/Ireland extravaganza.. A couple of years ago, I was apparently on the terrorist Master List. I was singled out almost every time I flew someplace—no, EVERY time I flew some place—for “special treatment” which included everything from ordinary rudeness to being pulled aside and frisked to being put in the dreaded Puffer Machine, which happened at the end of a lovely trip to Las Vegas. Then we went to Asia and