Casita Dulce Casita (Paradise Lost??)

We have returned from the Pacific coast today and never thought we would be so glad to get back to our casita! I fear age is catching up to us, and memories of past adventures will have to suffice! Maybe after we recuperate a bit, we'll feel differently. We definitely are partial to the Central Valley (amor del valle central)... it is about 15 degrees hotter in Manuel Antonio area than where we are, and the humidity-- egads! We've been gone from the Golden Triangle & Houston area TOO long -- gratefully we have forgotten what REAL humidity is like! One problem is that one must complete any activities before about 3:00 or 4:00 PM because the rains come at about that time EVERY day-- but the next morning is sunny & bright.
Anyway, adventures we did have: the unscheduled one was DiDi's Charming Bed & Breakfast -- it proved to be a little bit too 'charming' for us, so we stayed there one night only. Run by a good-hearted Italian man with the biggest lab dog I have EVER seen (at least 130 lbs) -- and he was WAY too friendly. Thought Jim was going to go end over end down the steps when the dog wagged his tail against him! As most of you know, I'm very PRO-dog, but having a wet one hanging around while guests are trying to dine is another story! So, we checked into the Blue Monkey hotel, which, under other circumstances, we would have termed also a dump, but it seemed like the Ritz to us because it had not only A/C but a dehumidifier as well! -- and free coffee, so it was a safe haven-- except for the parking! We spent the first night driving up & down the 'main drag' in the rain looking for a place to eat & another hotel.
Scheduled adventures: river raft trip down the Saverge River ("Savage" in English!). Was beautiful & very fun-- no rapids over class II.2nd planned adventure: Thursday we went to the Manuel Antonio National Park (a day later than we had planned due to mudslides the day before!). A typical rainforest surrounded by several beautiful beaches. Saw monkeys, sloths, insects, etc. Still did not see any toucans. Stayed for about an hour on the beach, then trudged our way back to the A/C and dehumidifier! On the beaches outside the park, which are all public, it looked just like Galveston beach with all the young people, and the shallow water looked much like the water at Galveston, too. But it was way more picturesque further out. The monkeys were very aggressive and would swipe stuff from people's backpacks & run up the tree with it. The one picture below is of a mama with her baby on her back. --The hanging strange-looking animals are the sloths! They have the best idea for 'living.'

Gringos Perdido en San Jose

A brief note this morning - no pictures. We are off to Manuel Antonio - a national park with beautiful beaches (we are told). Yesterday (Monday) we got a rental car about noon and decided to try to find the Hipermas - a Wal-mart type store - in Escazu. Escazu is a suburb of San Jose that is said to have the largest collection of expats in Costa Rica. They have a Tony Roma's, a TGI Friday's, and shopping with an Norte Americano flavor. So, we went looking for a little taste of home. We did our shopping at the Multi Plaza - an American style mall where the ice cream at Haagen Das (spelling??) is labeled in English - and at Hipermas.

Then we went looking for an American style place to eat - saving Tony Roma's for a special occasion and TGIF's for a less special occasion. We got lost. Not just a little lost, but lost in a place where nothing was familiar and no one spoke English. Our Spanish was useless ' cause it was so limited. We could ask "where is" ("donde esta") but we couldn't understand the answer. We found that the practice of speaking slower and louder to someone who doesn't understand you is not only an American trait. We found a guy who paid more attention in his High School English class than we did in our Spanish classes because he was able to give us directions to the airport. We reasoned that if we could get to the airport we could find our way home or at least find someone who spoke English to give us directions. On the way to the airport we ran across something familiar - the route home - Route 27. We knew how to get home from there.

We were lost for 2 and one half hours and drove over 30 kilometers. It was dark and raining and the roads wind around the hills and mountains so that I lost sense of direction. I remembered the Kingston Trio and their song about Charlie on the MTA. I just knew we were doomed to travel the back roads of San Jose - maybe not forever but long enough to become fluent in Spanish. At my age that could be forever.

Wish us luck as we venture out this morning. We'll try to post pictures of Quepos and Manuel Antonio tonight. We're planning to be there through Thursday night.

Correction!

Well, the picture of the 1580 church looks like this!

Catching Up

Well, I'm already getting behind! Jim posted about Friday morning, but I hadn't posted our road trip on Thursday with friends Lynne & Ray, from Texas.


They took us on the Orosi Loop, north of San Jose, and it was beautiful; further up in the mountains. We stopped at the nicest McDonald's I've ever seen!-- it was more like a Starbucks! That wasn't the high point of the trip, but I was really impressed! We saw some very old Catholic churches-- one still in use, built in 1743, & the oldest one in Central America, circa 1580.



We had lunch at a delightful restaurant with beautiful grounds. I saw the strangest plant I've ever seen (below). I call it the 'stomach plant' because that's what it reminds me of! If anyone out there knows what it is, please enlighten me! I will continue to investigate. In that one pix, Jim is there at the bottom of that gigantic scheffilera (sp?)! Hydrangeas, coleus, impatiens, and bromiliads grow wild here...




Anyway, it was beautiful-- more so than these pix show.
Friday night we had a scrumptious dinner at our new young friends' house-- Sabina, Keith, Greyson, and Isla. Thank you so much for that! Both of the kids are precious, Greyson, 2, and Isla, 5 weeks! 'Uncle' Jim holds her for hours!-- surprise, surprise! They came to our casita today to swim and experience the thunderstorm in the mountains... pura vida!

Friday Morning - La Feria

Friday morning we went to la feria - the fair. It is the local farmer's market. We bought lots of good stuff and finished our shopping at the local grocery store - SuperMarcado. Grocery shopping is an adventure here.

This takes up two city blocks on both sides of a sidewalk - sidewalks are rare in rural Costa Rica.



Fresh pineapples. Fantastic. Costa Rica is the Numero Uno producer of pineapples in the world.



Mommochinos (probably not spelled right). They have a porcupine looking cover on them. The inside looks like an eyeball. Two year old Grayson loves them. He is so cute the lady selling them gives him one when he comes by.

Grayson and his parents (Sabina and Keith) and little sister Isla. We met them last week at la feria. They have been in Costa Rica about 3 months. Isla is only 4 weeks old - yes she is a Tica. She was born here. She is precious - the whole family is.





When we finished our shopping we had a lot of heavy bags. We wanted to go to Kay's Gringo Kitchen for coffee and postres (goodies). Its 4 or 5 blocks uphill (both ways) to Kay's and I didn't want to walk carrying those bags. I asked the girl checking us out of the last store we went to if I could borrow the cart. When she finaqlly understood what I wanted she threw up her hands and said (in Spanish) "What do I care, its not mine." So here I go looking like a homeless guy pushing a grocery down the streets of Atenas.

Miscellaneous Photos

Oops!-- how did those get in there?? :-) We miss our Grandangels! This is Anson at the rodeo in Houston and Zoey & Reece at Children's Museum in San Antonio.


Now, back to the vacation:


In Vera's yard Vera & Jim Cloud forest



Angel bells Coffee field on mountainside

Adios for now-- Sarah, Linda, and Jan, I need some in-service on blogging!! -- can't tell you how long this took! And it looks like I REALLY still messed it up! Ohwell... it certainly doen't publish like I set it up!

It Truly is the Rainy Season!

We've just had our daily deluge-- did it ever pour! I don't know WHERE it comes from-- or where it goes, but it poured last night, too! This morning, however, there were a few hours of sun so that we could sit by the pool, read & swim. Very beautiful and so nice and cool!

Forgot to mention earlier that Vera 'loaned' us Lilliana, her housekeeper to clean our casita the other day. For $2.50 per hour!!! I don't even want to mention to her how much we pay in the States! She did a wonderful job... She & her husband, Santos, the grounds keeper, are Nicaraguan, and they all like to come to Costa Rica because they make about $2.50 per DAY in Nicragua and $2.50 per HOUR here... unbelievable! And yesterday, she did all of our laundry AND ironing (EVERYTHING, even the socks were ironed!!-- small break-down in communication there, but we're enjoying it!)-- we are SO roughing it here!! :-) Not too much going on today; I'm eagerly awaiting my in-home massage at 5:30-- for $12.00!!
Well, I messed up this post for pictures, so I guess I'll do another one! The cloud forest is here!

From Kathy

Muchas gracias a nuestros amigos (de noviembre), Ray y Lynne, por su maravillosa hospitalidad en su Tico/Texas casa aqui en Atenas. La comida fue deliciosa y las bebidas eran especialmente apatecibles! (Thanking Ray & Lynne, 'old friends' we met last November here, for their wonderful hospitality last evening in their Tico/Texas home. The meal was delicious, and the drinks were especially scrumptious!). Looking forward to our road trip on Thursday. Spent most of today in Sarchi where the ox carts are made. I had delusions of having a large one in our back yard, but they are a bit pricey for me! Maybe will get a smaller one to put fake flowers in on the patio! They are beautiful, tho' It has been pouring rain here for a couple of hours altho' most of the day was sunny & nice. For those of you who cannot post comments, I will try to set up an account for us that you can log in to. Unfortunately, part of that process has converted itself to Spanish (due to our location, I'm sure, and I have no idea what it says!). The above was translated by the handy-dandy google translator! adios for now ~~
Linda, good luck with Cousins' Camp! Yes, being lost helps so much in enjoying local color!

Jim's view of La Paz

Monday we went to La Paz - a park north of San Jose. It was only about 60 kilometers, but took almost two hours to get there. The roads are not the best in good times. They were even worse due to the earthquake of a few months ago. But we got there and enjoyed the park. They have birds, flutterbys (butterflies), jungle cats, monkeys, frogs, snakes, insects and other types of wild life. Some are caged and some roam free, like the hummingbirds and flutterbys - not the cats. I got the impression from the reading at each display that they don't keep anything for life. They keep them for a while then release them to the wild and get other specimens of the same species.



They have a typical historic Tico house and a cart with oxen and ox driver. Not too much can be said about them, but they were very interesting. The ox carts were used to haul coffee beans from the mountains to the ports on the Pacific coast. They were decorated in bright colors and intricate patterns. They still make them today in Sarchi (we are going there today).

That's the Tico house in the background.

The waterfalls were the main attraction. There are four of them in series. The largest is 120 feet. They are beautiful and make a tremendous racket. The park is in the mountains and to have a waterfall you have to have a change in altitude - duh. So we had to walk down at least 2000 feet of walkways and stairs to get to the bottom. Signs kept telling us of a shuttle that would take visitors back to the entrance. We were hoping the shuttle was at the bottom, but it wasn't. We had to walk - say climb - up about 500 feet of stairs and walkways to get to the shuttle station. That's tough on an old fat man. I'm feeling it today.

Coming home was an adventure. There were road signs to La Paz, but no road signs to Jim and Kathy's Costa Rican home. We managed, but it took a bit longer coming home than it did going.

Monday evening we had dinner with Ray and Lynne Grant - friends we met when we were here in November. Great dinner and visit. They are taking us on a scenic trip Thursday. Looking forward to that.

feliz domingo! (that's probably structurally wrong, but Happy Sunday anyway). Starting to have some mini-adventures here. I hiked around the property here yesterday (about a 60-degree incline) & am creaking today! Pretty muddy with the daily rains, but oh, so lush & green. Who was the fool who said she was going to hike to and from town each day?? (2 miles) Obviously my fantasy-brain, NOT my aging body! Maybe today I'll hike back up the mountain and catch my breath which I left up there yesterday.
Here is our casita ~~


and here are some views from our balcony in the back... looks a lot like Texas, but a bit different! :-)







Balcony of Villa Vera & Central Valley

We have not seen a LOT of wildlife -----



Felipe, one of Vera's street dogs-- tough life! -- and hummingbirds & a big yellow bird. Still waiting for toucans and to learn how to spell monkeys!! We have spotted the very rare, nearly extinct 5-toed sloths who hang out near here:






We've met at least one new couple per day, many from Texas. Last night at the Italian restaurant we met a Tea-sip & his German wife (live near Kerrville) --- but we talked to them anyway! Our English-speaking church service this AM was great... will go to Alajuela later this PM (about 160,000 people). Forgot to tell you that Atenas is about 5000 people and about 2600' altitude. Where we are must be at least 1,000' higher than that. We plan all of our activities around the rain and the cloud forest that is often in the Valley.
I promise I will learn how to more artfully display our photos soon!