Of Coconuts, Iguanas & Other Sights

The beach area isn't all about the water.  Here's some of the amusements we saw along the way -

This young man shimmied straight up a coconut palm to perch in the branches. Once there he chopped off a bunch of coconuts and then lowered it by a rope to his wife on the ground. Coconuts grow in bunches here like grapes. There must have been 20 or more in the stem he sent down. He then came flying down the tree like a fireman down a pole. His inner thighs and feet must be tough as shoe leather.

A very large iguana checking us out, and another providing lunch for a snake - yuch!

One of the large trees just along the beach.  To give you perspective, we could probably use its bottom branches as the foundation for a good sized two bedroom, two bath bungalow, or to provide firewood for a decade.

As we were leaving the resort, this family was moving in.  It seems as though everywhere in Costa Rica the livestock just decides to go for a stroll through town and everyone proceeds as if it is normal and expected.  Although we technically had the right of way, we decided to wait for them to make the turn before we headed up the road.

Our Tico waiter told us about a short-cut to shave an hour from our drive back to Lake Arenal. That's our road to the left. Note - if you've been drinking the local Cervesa, make sure you visit el baño before taking a Tico shortcut.  I think they have to replace their vehicle's shocks every few months here.

Adios!

A Day at the Beach

We got tired of rain and decided to head off to the beaches for a day.  After touring around a bit, we found a piece of paradise at the Bahai del Sol resort on Potrero Beach.  Of course Ken negotiated a 30% discount on the rate, so paradise came at a reasonable cost.  The resort is small, with only about 13 lovely and spacious rooms (plus a few suites), each with a seating area (including hammock) and secluded garden area out the front door.
 

The rooms are all centered around a swimming, lounging, dining area surrounded by tropical gardens.  Just through the gate is a wide sandy beach and the beautiful Pacific.  The early bird cocktail hour is hosted at the swim-up bar by Juan the bartender, who doesn't use a measure or a light hand.  I'd recommend the Planter's Punch, which was basically an icy fruit smoothy made with all fresh juices (mango, orange, papaya, passion fruit) and about half a bottle of rum.  The open air dining room is lovely,  the food amazing (Mahi-mahi for me, curried chicken for Ken) and reasonably priced, and the staff friendly and helpful.  We've already booked a return trip for a couple of days next month.

Believe it or not, our resort is hiding behind the trees here.  This is the view from the beach.

The beach at dusk.  One of those dots in the water is probably me not wanting to get out - until Ken mentioned it was time for "happy hour".

Montezuma oropendola

We had a visit from a small flock (3 or 4) of Montezuma Oropendola, which I think is pretty rare here.  This bird is huge - 18 to 20 inches long or about 1/2 meter and is kind of a rust colour with a long, bright yellow tail.  The three who descended on us were checking out the air plants (bromeliads) growing on the trees around us for food, and only stayed for about 15 minutes, so what a rare treat it was that we caught them.  We continue to be amazed on a daily basis here.

These birds build their nests hanging down from tree branches in open fields, and they look like woven grocery sacks.    Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDer1nof8ZU to see their nests and hear their distinctive cry.  Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkRTOPNetfk has a group of them eating a watermelon.

We'll have the fried hillbilly please!

After two weeks of lessons we were feeling a little more comfortable with our Spanish skills, so after a busy day running errands we decided to stop in a small take-out shop and order some fried chicken to go.  Upon asking for the "pollo frit" Ken was little non-plussed when the clerk looked at him and enquired "Are you speaking Spanish?"  "I'm trying" says Ken.  When we told this storey to Illyana, our Spanish teacher, she laughed and laughed.  We had forgotten that the  double "ll" is pronounced like a "j" in Spanish (or a "y", but that's the lazy way according to Illyana), we should have asked for the "po-jo".  A "polo" is Spanish for hillbilly! Oops.

Tonight's visitors - a family of toucons -

 

An Hour of Sunshine

Although we're not really in the rainy season, yet it has been raining every day and the gringos are starting to get the Costa Rica version of "cabin fever".  So what do you do with an hour or two of sunshine?  We decided to take a walk up our riverbed road into town to buy some milk and eggs - about a 3.5 km round trip.  The amazing thing is that even when you are technically in town, every house seems to have a watchdog, or a watch chicken, or even a watch cow.

Our road.  Although we were afraid to drive up it the first day here - we now consider this to be a relatively "good" road for Costa Rica.  When it is raining it really does look like a river bed as the water runs down, then it dries up an hour later.

Although I'm definitely not a "dog person", this little guy decided to adopt me for some reason.  He trotted along by my side for the first km of our walk until a bigger dog chased him away, but we found him waiting at our door when we returned. Even though I keep telling him to go away in both English and Spanish, he just looks at me with big puppy dog eyes and wagging tail. Kind of reminds me of one of my ex-boyfriends.

Some guardians of the front yards on our trip. None of these creatures are fenced in - they just greeted us on the side of the road.  The house below is actually in a nice neighbourhood in the town of Tronodora. 

Ken all tuckered out after our walk.  We finally got the hammock out, then put it away about half an hour later when it started raining again.


Three and a half weeks in and we're still loving Costa Rica.  In fact we love it so much we checked to see if we could delay our Ecuador trip a month.  Unfortunately it costs too much to change it now so we still have to leave here at the end of August.  Que sera.  Adios!

Wednesday is Delivery Day

Today's breakfast fruit - banana.  Today's visitors ...

Raining hard and heavy, again, today but the bakery truck and the fruit and veggie truck still managed to make their rounds.  Couldn't hold the umbrella and take a picture of the veggie man, but here's the baker displaying his very tempting wares.  Treats of the day - a generous slice of lemon cake for Ken and apple cheesecake for me, plus a loaf of the delicious brown seeded bread.  The donut selection on the shelf above the cheesecake would rival Tim Horton's any day, plus the coffee es muy delicioso!

Birder's Paradise

Breakfast fruit of the day - cantalope.  Put the seeds & pulp out on the "bird table" and a beautiful new visitor joined us.  I think this is called a Blue capped Motmot.  Note its wonderful tail feathers.

Mudslides, hamburgers & living fences

Driving the twisting, turning mountain roads during rainy season can be a "trip" in itself. A couple of branches or a small pile of brush on the road is the Tico hazard warning.  There may be anything from  a small accident ahead, to a washed out bridge with a thousand foot drop. On the way back from Baldi resort we noticed a few small branches across our side of the road and decided to slow down (Ken's starting to drive the hills like a Tico).  Just around the bend part of the mountain had come down in a big pile of mud across the road and a few men with shovels were clearing one of the lanes.  The difference between Touristas and Ticos?  Touristas will sit impatiently, drumming their fingers on the steering wheel and craning their necks to see if they can get past.  Ticos get out of their cars, turn up the radio and dance.  Sorry, no picture. Que sera.

On our way once again, we decided to drop into a local brewery restaurant for lunch.  I wouldn't mind a good hamburger I declared as we were driving up the hill.  We then looked over to the side to see a cow poop out a baby right on the other side of the fence and start licking it dry.  I had the pork.  When we advised the owner his cow had just calfed, he just grinned, shrugged and said "it happens".    Here's momma and baby as we were heading back down after lunch.
 

As we drive the countryside, I notice that the barbed wire fences are often attached to scrawny trees.  Commenting on it to a local, I found out that Tico's will often repair their fench by just shoving a broken branch or stick into the ground.  Before you know it, you have a new tree growing.  This truly is a wondrous country.

A recently repaired "stick" fence.

What the "stick" fence looks like after a couple of years.








Hasta Luego, Amigos!

Baldi Resort

We decided this week to play tourist for a few days and booked into the Baldi Resort & Spa at the base of the volcano in La Fortuna.  I knew I had found a kindred spirit when we approached their front lobby.

 Anyway, Baldi has around 30-35 different hot springs going up the mountain.  As you go higher, the springs get hotter as they're all heated by the volcano.  I made Ken move down from the top two as his skin was getting a little rosey.  Every 4 or 5 springs they stick in a "cooling" pool

Some of the springs are large enough to swim in, others have tiled loungers built in, several have a swim up bar, one has caves that work as a natural sauna, and another has fast and scary water slides. The kid's area has this great water slide (also open to adults) that sends you around and around in a centrifuge bowl, then drops you out the bottom.  Some people drop out bum first, some feet first, some splayed out with all arms and legs flying, and some try to hang on to the bottom edge for dear life.  They all come down screaming, and then most climb up for another go.  It's hilarious to watch but we didn't have the nerve to try it.  Note:  Ken says to tell you he did go down one of the water slides, so he's not a total "pollo".

The resort probably cost us more than the rest of our month in Costa Rica, however, Ken swears he's an inch taller, 10 years younger, and he's growing hair back on the top of his head.  Here's some pics.

 It's too hot at the top - and this pool is still at the base of the volcano!

 Note the lovely fan palm - one of my favorites.

 The "lipstick" palms are my absolute favorite - unfortunately they probably won't grow in Florida.

One of the swim-up bars.

A 'quiet' evening at home in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, the custom is not to knock but to stand at the gate or threshold and call out Ola to the house.  Imagine my surprise when I heard a sound in the yard, but instead of being followed up by an "Ola" there was a loud "Moo"!  By the time I got there with the camera, here's what I saw

 

We once again settled down on the patio to watch our little red-footed, green-breasted, blue-winged birds pick at the papaya we put out, and to enjoy the warbling call of the toucans overhead and the start of the nightly howler monkey operetta.  Suddenly there was a loud onslaught of noise as several dozen bright green parrots settled into the trees around us with a cacophony of squeeks and squawks and squabbles that lasted for about 15 minutes. It's difficult to take clear pictures of the toucans and parrots as they like to stay high in the branches, but here's Ken pictured with some rescue babies at a nearby restaurant.

Watch those winding roads!

Although Arenal is only about 25 km away, we usually give ourselves about an hour to get there.  Why?  You never know what's going to be around the next bend in the road.

Ola from Costa Rica - Week 1 Recap

We have been terribly busy for retired people.  While driving around the lake last weekend looking at some of the houses being constructed we ran into an American realtor, Mike, who promptly invited us to a garden club meeting/party at his house on Monday.  The meeting lasted about 5 minutes with an exchange of plants and then it was party time. Ken says I've found a replacement for my book club, which was usually about 5 minutes of book exchange and then eating and gossip.

Tuesday Mike took us arround to show us what the housing market is like here.  There are Tico houses which are cheap (but may not have closed in walls or more than rough shutters for windows and doors), there are some 300-500 thousand dollar American houses which have air conditioning (not needed) and too much space.  Then Ken fell in love with a moderately priced house on the side of a hill with a great view of the lake, lovely breezes through the house, two master bedrooms with baths, an open living space and a huge patio with posts for two hammocks. The yard has mango, avocado, orange, lemon, lime, papaya and pineapple, with a chicken coop, a covered garden for growing lettuce, tomatos and vegetables (which is needed or they get washed down the hill in the rainy season), and room for a tilapia pond.  The owners live next door and say they pick and freeze the fruits and make smoothies for breakfast every morning.  Anyway, despite Ken's enthusiasm, I told Mike we're not ready to buy but would love to rent for a year if they are willing.

This may be the most luxuriant, green country we've ever been in.

After house-hunting we went off to Marisol's (Mike's Tica girlfriend) restaurant and ate guacamole and cerviche, which was tilapia and shrimp "cooked" in lemon and lime with chiles and cilantro and green onion and, of course, more hot sauce.  Needless to say Wednesday was spent at home with my insides burning out.  That turned out to be OK because Wednesday is merchant day.  Farm trucks drive up our river bed road to offer fresh picked fruits, vegetables and eggs.  The german bakery truck came and opened up their back to show fresh baked breads and pastries.  The buggers even had a doughnut for Ken. We managed to do our grocery shopping without leaving the yard.

Thursday is "Gringo breakfast" at Las Diliciouso in Arenal. There we met many more ex-pats, then went for our Spanish lesson with Ilya, a Tica married to a Persian, originally from Tehran.  She speaks Farsi at home, and teaches French, English and Spanish.  She looked at what we had been studying and the rules we had learned (both real and the ones Ken made up because they sounded good) and promptly started us from the beginning.  We will be taking lessons Thursdays and Saturdays and going to the Gringo Spanish only breakfasts on Monday and perhaps the Monday dinners for Ticos who come to practice their English.  Hopefully by the end of our stay we'll be able to formulate a sentence in Spanish.

Me Gusta Costa Rica 2

Day 2 - We are in a lovely little 2 bedroom casita in the mountains surrounded by jungle, with occasional clearings for farms, pastures and houses.  Despite  being a calm and pastoral setting, it is extremely noisy here. The howler monkeys scared Ken in the middle of the night.  They really do sound like those idiots who make ape sounds in front of the gorilla cages at the zoo, only more so.  There are dozens of colorful birds flitting and squawking and cheeping and trilling in the trees off our back patio.  We have roosters crowing and cows mooing down the road.  It took us a while to figure out what the occasional banging sound was.  It's the mangoes falling off the tree next door onto the neighbours corrugated fiberglass porch roof.  They then roll off and down the steep hillside to be rapidly eaten by Coryn's horses in their pasture below.

Bonehead move of the day - the barred screen door to the patio automatically locks when you go out.  We finally MaGyvered it using the cord from Ken's tablet and a thin stick to push the latch open through a narrow opening.  Were a little nonplussed by the buzzard eyeing us as we were desperately trying to get back in.

Went to Tilaron to do our banking and shopping.  Found out not many Tico's speak English in the smaller villages, and that everything we've learned over the past month totally flies out of our heads when faced with a real Spanish person speaking rapidly.  Fortunately Tico's are extremely polite and like to laugh.  Lesson - always carry the Lonely Planet Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook and a pen and paper and you'll get by.

Shopping is an all day event.  The grocery stores are more like slightly larger 7-11's and the fruit and meat may not be the freshest.  So by the time you go there for your miscellaneous stuff, plus the carniceria for meat, and the panaderia for bread, and the verdularia for fruit and veggies, the day is gone.  Unfortunately for Ken, no bagels or bacon.  Breads are tortillas or a sweet, cakey type of loaf, often flavored with pina (pineapple) or guava or mango. Yum.

Me Gusta Costa Rica

Day 1 -  Arrived safely.  Tronadora just over 200 kms from San Jose but takes several hours due to narrow winding roads.  Speed only 40, 60 & 80 kms, but most often 40 due to construction, trucks stopping, etc. and that's the main highway. The county roads are gravel, filled with potholes, and slightly wider than one lane with no shoulder and drop offs ranging from a foot to 1000 feet straight down the mountain.  It's an interesting challenge when you meet cars and trucks coming (usually very fast) the other way.

Excitement for the day - couldn't find the house so went to the local store.  No hablo Ingles. Once the clerk figured out we were looking for Coryn's house (Ko-reen), she had her husband come on his scooter with their young son to show us the way. We had missed the road because we thought it was a dry river bed. Turns out the gravel roads are the good ones. Side roads here are constructed of  rocks and mud.

Lesson - always rent a four-wheel drive SUV.  Costa Rican's (Tico's) are very helpful and friendly. When you give a little boy Tico a dollar, he'll jump around and scream and laugh so hard it makes your eyes water.