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Thursday, November 22:
Seattle-San Jose
Left 7:00 a.m. and Frank drove us to the airport.
Rained, and the forecast was for more rain and wind during the
Thanksgiving weekend. Good time to leave! But we would have
wanted to leave the day after, but Frequent Flier Miles with United
had no seats for almost a week after this day.
Flight was punctual in both taking off (9:30) and
landing in Chicago. ). Crowded 767, good legroom. Sat next to
a man who had had a long career in the military (four years in
Japan). He lived there when Surain and I were there and found
it very expensive (not our conclusion). Now he built his own
computer, had a network of five in his house (Win 2K 1.4Gig).
Met Elli in Chicago. Her flight had left 6:15 from
Medford.
Costa Rica
San Jose
Next flight, 757 and less leg room and less crowded,
left 4:45. Good veggie food. Stopped in Mexico City, left again
9:50. Started taking to the guy next to us. He was from Costa
Rica and had lived five years in the US. Really nice guy who
worked for Ericsson in Texas. Arrived punctually 0:40. Took
taxi ($10) to overpriced hotel ($36 for three, way overpriced).
Went to bed just before 2.
Friday, November 23: San
Jose-La Fortuna
Noisy outside, but did not stop me from sleeping.
Showered - warm. Headed out to find bank and tourist office.
My Spanish was rusty! Guy at tourist office not very helpful,
but did get a map and bus times (only "tourist oriented"
buses, it appeared). Had breakfast/lunch at not too interesting
place (not too hungry from yesterdays feeding frenzy). Checked
out and headed for bus station. Waited 15 minutes while Surain
and Elli went to bank. Three people stopped and told me this
was the red light district and dangerous.
Nice express bus left 1:25. Long time before we
got out of town and habitation and could see green forest. Started
drizzling and kept on. Arrived at San Carlos 3:48 and got a non-express
bus to La Fortuna. Very crowded, but people were nice and we
had seats. Very slow.
La Fortuna
Got there about 6+. Had been dark for a while,
Had drinks in restaurant and talked to woman from Victoria. Got
a room at Dolores across the river. Seemed nice, but no towels
and bathroom not clean. Slept like a rock.
Saturday, November 24:
La Fortuna
Breakfast at OK restaurant, rice and beans and eggs
and juice. Then walked around looking at other hotel rooms, and
settled for Sisi's at same price. Cleaner and towels (but smaller).
Walked up to the waterfalls on road past fields and
few buildings. Semi-sunny and steep at end. Steep climb down
to river to get good view (OK falls). Headed back to be there
at 2:00. Saw mountain for a while. Good lunch, but weather did
not look promising, so did not go to volcano. Instead nice dinner
with music being played. Had lots of guanabana (7 between
us). Started raining when got back to hotel. Washed my sweaty
T-shirt. Sisi told us how to get hot water out of the shower.
Nice! Went to bed 9:30.
Sunday, November 25:
La Fortuna
Lazy morning; made some tea. Slow breakfast and
coffee after. Then to travel agent and bought tickets to Tamarindo-Monte
Verde-Manuel Antonio-San Jose for $110 each. Lots of rain at
night and in the morning.
Played cards back at the hotel and read some. Lots
of rain again. Left at 5 for dinner, and rain was easing up.
Good cevitche and the others had sea bass (good)
As we walked out, rain had stopped. A guy at shop
said we should grab a taxi to take us to see the volcano. So
we did for 5,000 colones ($15, a lot less than the tours for $17-$20
per person). Had good view of all the lava rolling down the side
of the volcano (Arrenal, which had been active since 1968).
Could hear some of the rocks falling down the side. But it was
not very active today. Lots of fireflies and assed all the hot
springs. Lots of hotels along the road (fancy).
Monday, November 26:
La Fortuna-Tamarindo
Up 6:30, showered, packed. Had breakfast (scrambled
+ race + beans), sent email to hotel near airport and waited for
8-8:30 bus until 8:45. Interesting birds in the restaurant garden.
It was a van that came with 6 people in it plus the driver.
One couple had boarded at 8:05 (told 7:40) only to eventually
drive past their hotel at 9:40 again!
Except for being stuck at deep pot holes and being
pulled out, smaooth ride. A bit cloudy, but later some sun - and
warmer! Finally arrived 1:50 after five hours (should be 4).
Tamarindo
Lots of tourists and lots of hotels. Found a nice
one for $40, definitely higher class than the other we had had
- and with swimming pool. Walked out in the little town - basically
all for tourists - and found a little restaurant. But with 23%
add-on it became pretty expensive and the food was not good.
Signed up for 9:45 p.m. turtle tour. Then swam and bodysurfed
in the oceans - nice.
Had lemonade + tequila + one salad (had ordered two)
in the evening. Then moseyed back to hotel and waited for bus
for turtle tour at 9:45. Still wondering how it could be so expensive
- $28 per person ($31 across the street). [That included] $7
for park entrance and very short transport + one guide. Short
bus ride out to small boat and crossed estuary river.
Then 5+ minutes walking on beach and then into an
area that seemed to be park headquarter. And there we sat - and
sat. We assumed that someone was running on the beach to try
to find the turtles.
We tried to sleep on the benches. It was a bit hard
and a bit cool. The others had long pants and Surain had a pillow
and some warmer cloths. But bugs started arriving. Eventually
I got up because of too many bites and walked around a bit. There
were toads and crabs around the buildings.
At 1:30 we were told that no turtles tonight and
we headed back. Decided to get the ½ refund of $13. They
had seen turtles yesterday, but someone said that they hadn't
for 6 days before that.
Tuesday, November 27:
Tamarindo
Breakfast at 9 at nice ocean view restaurant. I
had pancake (so-so) and Rain and Elli omelet. Power was out.
Rain and I went swimming, and I did more body surfing. Then
rinsed off in pool and wrote postcards. Hiked later to find Mexican
restaurant. Didn't really, but did find great Kosher Israeli place.
While waiting we saw a crocodile "kid" nearby. Very
good food.
Read more in afternoon and swam and surfed twice
more. The third time this day I finally seemed to get the hang
of it again.
For dinner we hiked up a road to find some other
place. Most seemed not open. So back down again and found great
place in very nice setting on lawn and dimmed light. Surprisingly
some pasta dishes were much less here than at first lunch place.
Walked for a while on beach before heading home.
Wednesday, November 28:
Tamarindo-Monte Verde
Showered in morning and Interbus picked us up at
7:05. Ate some of the bread and cheese that Elli had bought for
breakfast on the bus. Very fast ride, but a good driver and cautious.
Changed drivers in Liberia but continued immediately. Sunny
and very nice view of the four volcanoes north of Arrenal. Arrived
Tilaran at 9:20, and were told we'd have to wait until 10. Then until
11, and got a phone call about 11:20. Walked around cathedral
with very impressive wooden ceiling - by pieces of nice wood nicely
shaped.
Bus left at 11:30. Nice driver, and I spoke some
Spanish with him. He spoke slowly, which made it much easier
to understand. Beautiful, steep rolling hills. Eventually it
started to cloud up. Driver pointed out several thins of interest,
including coffee plantations. Claimed that it was the best in
the world, since they only picked the ripe red pieces, whereas
they picked everything in Columbia and Argentina. Also high elevation.
Road was really bad at places, so he drove very slowly. Arrived
Monte Verde (Santa Helena) at 2 or so, 1221 meter above sea level.
At one spot we could see all the way down to Pacific Ocean far
below.
Monte Verde
Got a decent hotel room. Then walked down to town
and had lunch and signed up for reserva tour. Walked to Frog
Museum with 24 frogs and tadpoles, quite interesting. Checked
email and then back home. Chilly evening.
Thursday, November 29:
Monte Verde
Watch rang 6:00 and we had lunch at hotel at 6:30
- I had rice, beans, eggs (too much) but pretty good, Surain had
cereal. Taxi picked us up at 7:00 and took us on very bad and
steeply climbing road to Santa Helena reserva at 1600 meters above
sea level.
There were six in our group walking with young female
naturalist. She was very nice and talked a lot about symbiosis
between life forms. Her English was OK but not perfect. First
second growth (35 years old), then first growth. Big difference
in tree thickness and openness. Did not see a lot of animals,
but she found several tiny ones (caterpillars, 2-toed "tusenfotingar")
and talked about various branches. About 20 frogs here, 200 birds,
and the big mammals, but saw none of these. Back 11:00, and Surain
and I let the taxi wait and walked up to the tower to see one
volcano and the Pacific Ocean.
Taxi drove us back to town, where we had simple lunch.
Bought tickets for Sky Walk the next day (Surain and I), then
walked back to hotel. Showered, washed one shirt.
On the way, were allowed into reptile house being
reconstructed. Thre were vipers, boa, and other big snakes.
Also iguanas looking like prehistoric creatures.
Walked up to very nice gallery. Then Surain and
I walked to slide show, that was cancelled due to low attendance.
So had dinner with Elli at very mice Italian restaurant, and
shared half bottle good wine.
A man came up to us and said that there was a two-toed
sloth outside in the trees. And, yes, we could see this gigantic-looking
animal at top of tree. It looked like the branch would brak from
the weight of the animal, but the guy said that these sloth's
just appeared big by spreading out its wings.
Diarrhea back at hotel.
Friday, November 30:
Monte Verde
Up 5:30. Cereals with fruit for breakfast, quite
good. Still diarrhea.
Surain and I walked to town and took the bus (which
turned out to be uncomfortable jeep) up to the Sky Walk. They
just seemed to open, no tourists here.
We loved the Sky Walk, the real reason we came to
Monte Verde. It gave such a different view of the clods forest,
seeing it from above. It had been extremely windy at night and
still was, but it did not hit us much on the walk. It was all
cloudy and gave an eerie view of the forest. There weren't a
lot of people there, four Germans and a Brit (and two more and
a guide towards the end). Saw monkeys at two locations, total
of five. Six long bridges over the forest.
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Got back after 2½ hours to catch the 10:30 transport
back (we could easily have stayed longer). Walked back to hotel
to find Elli - soon walked away from town. Stopped in the orchid
garden, where they had some 400 (?) orchids growing, many blooming
now. Most were too small to appreciate without binoculars. Though
intriguing to look at, it seemed strange to have plants at home
that you really could not enjoy without magnifying glass.
Continued towards butterflies. Stopped at Italian
restaurant for lunch. Into the butterflies, and had had a very
enjoyable - and knowledgeable - young guide. He taught us a lot
about butterflies.
Walked back to hotel for a short while, then down
to nice hotel for a 6:15 p.m. slide show of the Monte Verde cloud
forest. Some pictures were really excellent. The person showing
the slides was very knowledgeable, though he didn't offer too
much information until asked - and then very willingly. Hptel
room was quite cold due to the howling wind.
Saturday, December 1: Monte
Verde-Manuel Antonio
Interbus arrived punctually to pick 7:35. Wind still
howling and cold outside, though sunny. Nice view from far above
down to the Pacific as we descended on bad gravel road. Got to
the Pan-American [highway] at 9:40.
Changed bus after some wait and headed south on good
road along ocean. At one spot we stopped and everybody god out
to view - safely from bridge above - 18, mostly large crocodiles
on beach just below us. Don't think I have seen anything like
it before.
At one point there was a speed sign of 40 km/h, but
the driver kept on going 100 or so. Shortly after, a policeman
flagged him down, said something "40". The drive showed
his license and other papers, and the policeman started writing
a longish report, while the driver looked more and more concerned.
Then finally he hopped back into the bus with a smile. We learned
that he had bribed the officer.
Manuel Antonio
Arrived Manual Antonio just before 2. Found nice,
old-time hotel near beach for $10 per person and night. Lot of
nice, expensive hotels around, but non on the beach (Costa Rica
law).
Walked down short path to beach in wonderful warm
water with surf - less than at Tamarindo. Then we recognized
stone benches from 20 years ago, and restaurants looked old-fashioned.
Had nice nachos for lunch.
Walked around stores to national park entrance, then
strolled back - via shared margarita - back to hotel.
Sunday, December 2:
Manuel Antoino
Up around 7 and walked to restaurant and then to
Manual Antonio National Park. There were some other people there,
but not a lot. Saw a sloth in the trees quite close. Later saw
five more, the last one very close and with excellent picture
opportunities (no branches in the way). Also saw lots of monkeys
and several iguanas on the beach. Later there were more people
at the beaches and mostly Costa Ricans. Swam twice.
Walked out close to 2 p.m. Bought two sarongs and
one T-shirt and then had same lunch at same place as yesterday.
Back to hotel and then went swimming in big surf. Nice swimming.
Later I walked up he hill alone to watch nice sunset
and see "what was there". We checked email and got
confirmed that we could stay at hotel. Then snack dinner and
drinks (I had pina colada).
Monday, December 3:
Manual Antonio
No rain nor monkeys this night, so slept excellently
despite all coffee late last night. Had good orange juice and
coffee in the morning at the hotel (where we had been given new
sheets and clean towels).
Walked up the hill for breakfast. Spent some time
in the art store. Close to top we had ice-cream and exchanged
money and then walked down again.
Then walked the 100 meters or so to the beach and
walked along it for a bit. I swam twice. Stopped at end where
it was rocky and hard for Surain to negotiate.
Tide started coming in. I went for the last swim.
Walked out to where the water level was between belly and chest
as usual. But this time I did not stand on bottom leaning towards
wave as I used to, but instead jumped when the wave came to simulate
what had happened 32 years ago when I was pulled out by the waves
in Turkey.
Looking towards a rock, all seemed normal. But after
two or three jumps I realized I was being pulled out, bottom being
too far down to be able to brace the waves. I was shocked and
a bit worried, but managied to get back swimming/walking after
a short while.
Walked back and then had lunch at Mar Y Sombras,
sharing nachos. Sat and read there for a few hours.
Elli was back at hotel. Later had dinner.
Tuesday, December 4:
Manuel Antonio
Orange juice and coffee at hotel, then walked to
estaurant for granola breakfast.
Surain and I continued to national park. Saw several
sloth's, monkeys (but not so many this time) and lots of iguanas.
Several people saw the red wood stork, but we were not that fortunate.
Read and swam for about an hour at the main park, then walked
around the rock and high peninsula.
Spent a short while back at hotel, then took the
bus with Elli to Quepos. Smaller than expected, but had lots of
tourist shops. Had one coconut drink each plus half a pulp, and
that was enough for lunch.
Walked past the waterfront and then to several stores.
I bought a cane for Gösta. It started getting dark and we
took the bus back all the way to a restaurant to avoid 10 minutes
of walking. Not many people on this bus; the one out had been
jammed with people standing everywhere.
Same restaurant as two days before. Good dinner and
seafood but the coffee to week.
Wednesday, December 5:
Manuel Antoino-Alajuela
Walked directly to breakfast restaurant without stopping
for orange juice and coffee at our place. Had a typical. Good
with hot sauce added and coffee was nice as usual (at this place).
Packed and then headed down to beach, where I swam
[body-surfed] several times (finally getting pretty good at it)
and otherwise relaxed at the beach. Then took a shower and we
all went for lunch at 12:30.
Selected Mar Y Sombras again with the great nachos
and the last jugo guanabana. It took a long time, but we were
finally out of it just past 1:30.
Did final packing and were ready at 2. No bus showed.
Waited, drank some beer, and waited again. Called Interbus at
2:40 and found out that there was a strike some 30 kilometers
north of Quepos, so no traffic nor people could get by (striking
against the potato import from Canada). They called from the hotel
and verified with the police that this was true.
Played cards, waiting. Called Interbus again, but
no change. At 5, we were told that they allowed people to walk
through the blockage. They also said that they had seen a bus
pass and would be back in 5 minutes. It would go to the blockage,
we would walk through there, and take another bus on the other
side.
So we quickly walked up and got on a very nice bus.
Closer to the blockage there were many cars, trucks, and
buses parked. But the driver managed to zigzag almost all the
way to the bridge. Lots of farm workers standing there, and a
police car with blinking lights.
But they did allow us to walk across the bridge.
Then long walk past parked vehicles, and finally reached an empty
bus, that we boarded at 6:10. It had to zigzag a bit to get out,
but then drove past many more parked vehicles.
Finally we were free and the driver drove swiftly
to drop us at the airport at 8:30.
Alajuela
Called the hotel and were driven thee within 10 minutes.
Had McDonalds first.
Thursday, December 6:
Alajuela
Slept OK but not as well as other days. No coffee
last night? Breakfast was included in the price, so walked over
to the other building for coffee, juice, and omelet. There were
two other people there as well.
Walked into town and had fun walking through the
market - they had lots of stuff there. Elli bought a hat for her
dad, and I had lunch there later. Good carrot juice. Went through
several other stores and I bought umbrella and underwear. And
glass cases (nice).
Took it easy back at hotel, and chatted with other
people. Found out that we could not payh with visa, so I walked
with Elli leading the way to get money from ATM - and it worked.
Spent more time with other people at hotel, but it was getting
smoke and most of the other were not really travelers but ex-Americans,
so we left.
The Peruvian restaurant was closed, so found other
restaurant - looked like Black Angus. I had exquisitive see-bass
with sauce. Shared bottle of wine - nice farewell dinner.
Back at the hotel talked to and drank beer with Dutch
couple.
Friday, December 7:
Alajuela-airport-Seattle
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