Costa Rica - All good things must come to an end

Our next stop was the town of Jaco, Costa Rica, which brings me to why we went to Costa Rica. Lincoln's brother works for a ski resort that when the season is over they send their upper management employees on a real, honest-to-goodness paid vacation.  Not only do they get paid while on vacation but their vacation is paid for.  He made the offer to us to come and share it with them.  Our only expenses were transportation, activities and some of the food.  An offer we could not refuse even though it was bad timing for us. 

In Jaco, we stayed at the owner of the ski resort's vacation home.  It was very nice, and we mostly took it easy while in Jaco.  What we DID do was:

EAT! When we ate out I tried not to eat anything that we would normally eat at home.  I really enjoyed their "typical" dish which included rice, beans, a couple tortillas, a small salad, fried plantain, a fried egg and a choice of fish, chicken or beef.  It's called a Casada.  "What we Costa Rican's eat everday," they would say.  The best Casada I think we ate was also the cheapest in a little hole-in-the-wall place!

Starting with myself and moving right around the table are Lincoln, Donna, Marshall, Celesta and Jeff.

We bought some fresh fruit for breakfast in the morning.  This fruit was REALLY fresh and not imported.  The pineapple and watermelon were to die for.  The mango's and avocados were also excellent!

The house in Jaco was by the beach.  Unfortunately the beach was a very dangerous beach and we couldn't swim.  There were no life guards, and swimming would have been truly at our own risk.  There would have been no one to come and rescue any stupid swimmer!

Lincoln and Marshall tried to get in the water, but one of the locals came out and soundly scared them to death about getting in.  The sand on the beach was black (not white like we are used to).  Very interesting. 

One of the waitresses we had told us about a beach where there are monkeys that watch people and then when they (the monkeys) thought they could get away with it, they would steal the stuff left on the beach.  I guess once a monkey grabs a hold of something they DO NOT want to let go of it!  (which story I will use in my sunday school class this week!)

We did a lot of shopping for souvenirs in Jaco.  There were security guards everywhere, guarding restaurants, guarding parking lots, etc.  At the bank, you couldn't even get in the building unless a guard let you in.  And at the ATM you had to swipe your card in order to get into a private booth where you could make your transaction.  I actually liked the privacy and security . . . . . but on the other hand it made me nervous that I might get mugged once out of the booth!



This is an example of some of the homes we saw in Costa Rica.  There are a good many of the people that are VERY very poor.  I wanted to get a good picture and so we stopped the van and and I got out and walked up to it to get a better picture.  As I walked up I could hear loud Mexican music coming out of the house.  It sounded pretty jovial to me, but is so sad.  They must have electricity.  See the antenna?  We were told that during the rainy season (coming up) that many of these homes are swept out to sea and you might even see washers and driers out on the beach.  I guess they rebuild every year? 

I supposed this was their outhouse???  I'd imagine it's pretty hot and stinky in there . . . . eeeeeeewwww!

For some reason I like this picture.

A large termite nest.

At our shuttle bus stop.  We had about an hour ride back to the airport . . . . . . so sad that it was over.

The shuttle bus driver made several stops on the way back to San Jose.  He pointed out this Macaw.

We also stopped on a bridge where their were several alligators hanging out.  I'd say their were about 10 of them down in the river. 

The driver was really working it trying to get a good tip I'll bet!  This turtle was crossing the road and he had to stop and show it to us.  He spoke very little English, or I would have told him we have turtles where we live! 

The End!  but not soon forgotten!

Costa Rica Days 5 and 1/2 (!)

We decided to spend the day at Baldi Hot Springs.  They had 20-some-odd pools of natural hot springs (heated from the volcano I'm sure) that ranged from cold to 152 degrees, which is too scalding hot if you ask me.  Jeff stuck his foot in the pool before reading the sign and almost got his second foot in before he jumped like a cat out of the pool.  152 degrees is HOT!

This statue greeted us at the entrance of the hot springs.  If it was there to make you feel comfortable . . . it did it's job for me! 

Although we tried all the pools, this one (actually behind the bar section!) was the most comfortable one for me. 

We bought an all day pass that included dinner.  It was a beautiful spot to spend the day.

Lincoln . . .

I'm putting this one in here for you, Dad and Mom . . . . . . a hummingbird garden.  I didn't keep my camera with me all day.  I thought it'd be more a bother than anything to try to keep track of it while dipping in and out of pools . . . .  So I don't have many pictures of the Hot Springs.  There was a really cool pool that had built in reclining lawn chair chairs.  Very nice!

On the way back we noticed that the volcano was smoking.  A lot of the locals had binoculars and had set up little telescopes watching for an eruption.  We didn't see one though, but the smoke was neat.

A view from the hotel's dining area.

The pool at the hotel.  Lincoln made a little friend at the pool.  By using sign language and "me-tarzan-you-jane" type of language we found out his name, his age (6) and who his mommy was and where he lived.  He was a cute little kid and glommed on to Lincoln like he was a long lost uncle.

Our last day at the volcano . . . . . we took a self portrait with the timer.  About the room . . . . I think we had a gallon a day allotment of hot water.  SeRiOusLy!!!!  We learned fast that if we wanted a warm shower we needed to get wet  . . . . turn the shower off . . . . . soap up . . . . . turn the shower on and hurry like the dickens to get done without freezing ourselves.  Maybe we should put a timer on McKay's shower . . . . . it'd teach him to take one faster!!!

On the way to our next destination, we found surprises around ever corner it seemed.  We saw a bunch of people beside the road and wondered what they were all looking at.  Here is what we saw!

We were so excited to see monkeys in their own habitat, not in a zoo.  I had to post this video of a mama with her baby.  There were a couple of mamas with babies.

It's funny what comes to mind when you see stuff like this.  This is what came to my mind:

5 little Monkeys

Sitting in the tree

Teasing Mr. Alligator,

"You can't catch me!"

"You can't catch me!"

Along comes Mr. Alligator

Quiet as can be…

SNAP! that monkey right out of that tree!

Then guess what we saw later that day?   We later found it out it was a crocodile . . . . . not an alligator.  Celesta spotted it and we stopped and backed up to see it better and get pics!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT????

To be continued . . . . . .

Costa Rica Day 3 and 4

One of my most favorite things about Costa Rica was the plant and animal life.  Perception is a funny thing.  On Lincoln and my way to breakfast we saw this pretty little bird and we watched it for a while.  It really seemed to love being on the sideview mirrors of our vehicle.  We thought it was cute that it could see itself, and it kept pecking at its own image.  When we got to breakfast, Lincoln's sister and brother-in-law saw the same thing and said "we saw this little bird pecking at little bugs perched on our car's mirror."  !!!!!  I think Lincoln and I had the right perception ;)  what do you think.  We couldn't talk them out of the "bug" theory!

We decided that we were going to take a hike through the forest to an observation point to get a closer look at the volcano.  The hike was almost 5 kilometers long and was very beautiful.  Here we are picking out our hiking sticks. 

Along the trail . . . . . we saw lots of "tarzan-like" hangy downy vines that the guys were itching to try out . . . .but they didn't seem strong enough to swing on!

A HUGE leaf!

We kept crossing these ant trails.  I tried to get some close ups of the ants carrying their leaf cargo, but none of them worked out very well.  I couldn't help but remember stories of people who step on killer ant trails and get stung to death.  I don't think these were killer ants though ;) 

The volcano is an active volcano.  The last time it erupted was 7 months ago.  One of the largest eruptions was in 1968 and this was what we were hiking.  The eruption took out an entire town.  They didn't rebuild the town, which I think was smart!  If this were the United States we'd probably spend billions of dollars trying to rebuild rather than just relocate.

At the "summit" of the trail.

After the hike we took a drive into the hills as far as we could go.  You can tell you are in a 3rd world country when automobiles are the secondary user of the road.  There were people walking, people bicycling, cows, and horses using the road and very few cars.  I was amazed that even in the hills the signs were in English hoping to lure in the tourists.  I thought this one was especially cute.  What an entrepreneur this person is!  The building behind the sign looked amazingly empty for all the services it claimed to provide!  Across the street from this sign was a small grocery store that we bought water at.  It was very small (probably the size of my living room and kitchen put together) and held only the necessities of life.   I thought it was interesting that the largest of tables held paper products.  I guess everyone loves their toilet paper!

On our drive we caught a view of the backside of our hotel.  All the buildings were part of it.  You can really see how remote it was, but oh the view/vista!  See the volcano, the top covered in clouds?

The next day brought the sky tram.  Definitely the highlight of our trip!  There were 8 zip lines the highest of which was 600 feet tall, the longest of which was a half mile long, YES!  A HALF MILE LONG, and we traveled at speeds up to 45 mph.  The canopy and views were absolutamente fantastico!

All geared up!  I have to say I was a bit nervous . . . . . . .

The tram ride was awesome too!  And believe it or not, in the next car were a couple of guys from D.C.!  What a small world.

On top of the world!

You are going to have to crane your neck to watch this one!  I think we were so excited to be doing the zip lines that our videos got mixed up.   I forgot that you can't "flip" a video like you can a picture . . . . and most of the rest of the videos we thought the camera was on when it was off and vica versa!  What a pain!  But hopefully you get the idea.  By the way this was NOT the longest zip line!

Lincoln, coming in from zipping.  Yee Haw!

For some reason I felt totally safe doing this.  I hate heights.  Can't even climb up on our house.  This just seemed safe to me.  I'd do it again tomorrow if I had the chance.

Coming down this gigantic spiral staircase was scarier to me than the ziplines . . . . I kid you not!

That's all for now!  More to come!

Costa Rica - Day 1 and 2

There is so much for me to blog about!  My older two boys have been here and I have pictures to upload.  We are in the middle of McKay's eagle project and have pictures to upload there also.  AND we just got back from being out of the country for a week, and I've decided to blog these pics first.  I took MANY pictures.  I'll try to share my most favorite ones.

We went to Costa Rica with Lincoln's brother (our benefactor) and his wife and Lincoln's sister and her husband.  I'll explain later about why we took this trip, right smack dab in the middle of our son's visit and right before our other son's eagle project. 

Lincoln and I arrived in Costa Rica a day before everyone else.  As we were looking out the window of the plane we realized that this was a very poor country.  Most of what we saw were towns made up of tin roof's (what is the plural of roof?? roove??? ha!) that sometimes don't even have space between them.  Just one huge big rusty tin roof.  I could tell this was a trip that could change our lives.  We got settled in our hotel, ate and then took a walk around the neighborhood that we were staying in.  OH MY GOSH! is all I can say.  People are living in what we as USA citizens wouldn't even house our chicken in.  So sad.  So simple.  So heart breaking.  (more pics later)

The next day, everyone else arrived and we got on our way to our first stop.  The roads were narrow and windy and soon our brakes just gave out.  We had to call the car rental place to send us a new van.  We weren't moving an inch without good brakes.  A very certain necessity!  People in Costa Rica are cRaZy drivers!  Two yellow lines and going up a hill doesn't keep them from passing in the least!

I actually was very happy to sit and soak up the surroundings.  I think it took 2 hours for us to get our new rental van.  What a treat it was.  It was BeAuTiFuL!!!!

A Costa Rican home across the way from where we waited.  This is actually a very nice house compared to some we saw.  I love how my camera zooms in!

Myself, Celesta, (Lincoln's sister) and Donna

We sat there long enough to see these milk cows herded into the barn to be milked. 

We luckily broke down by a little tavern and cafe.  The people inside were so nice.  The artwork was original, and the guy who painted them showed us some of his other stuff he painted.  I bought a magnet that he handcrafted using a tin can that had a parrot painted on it.  We ordered soda, Fanta and Fresca are popular drinks and chips and salsa.  The chips (all 10 of them!!!!) were freshly fried tortillas cut up into triangles.  The salsa was a puree of black beans I think.  It gave us a chance to use our Colones (money) and try to speak a little spanish!  (by the way, everyone was happy to take our dollars!)

As we were driving (again!), everytime we would see our destination, The Arenal Volcano, we would stop and get a picture.  It doesn't matter where you stop.  Anywhere is fine we found out :)  Can you see the volcano between Linc and I?

A little closer . . . . . We didn't realize how lucky we were.  Some visitors, in fact most visitors never see the volcano because of clouds and mistiness.  The volcano was visible the entire 3 days we spent there.

Driving through a town, with, of course, the volcano in the background.


At our hotel.  This hotel was in the middle of nowhere.  We drove off the road for 6 kilometers on a vErY washboardy, gravel road.  The views were to die for.  Absolutely beautiful.  We had to think twice before leaving to go somewhere because the road was so bad.  Thankfully most of the stuff we planned to do was actually on the 6 kilometer road our hotel was on! 

My hair got curlier and curlier while we were there.  Finally I just stopped trying to straighten it.  It was very hot and humid there.  Apparently it is that way all year round.  The sun rises at 5 a.m. and goes down around 6 p.m. also year round.  I guess this is because it is so close to the equator.

A view from the hotel of their man-made lake.  It was made by a dam (dirt) .  .  . . they generate their power with this lake.  (and yes, we had to make all the dam/damn jokes, when Lincoln gets together with his siblings, things get nutty!)

I liked this tree . . . . . 

We had no cell signal and no Internet.  We were truly cut off from the rest of the world .  . . . . WELL . . . . Lincoln's work did sign him up for international calling right before he left, DARN!  He was good though.  His blackberry stayed in the safe most of the time. 

More to come!