Random Detritus

The place where we had lunch yesterday.

The view from our room.

A scarlet macaw.

Our ceiling.

The elusive Don Roberto, seen here 'blogging' in his natural environment.

Complaints, complaints...

...that seems to be the theme of this blog so far. Someone once said, Life is Chaos. Which aptly captures the meaning of the Costa Rican national motto, "Pura Vida," or Pure Life. Pure chaos as a daily existence. It explains the prevalence of rum.

Anyway, yesterday we made the drive cross-country. Said goodbye to Lake Arenal and the cooler climes. Still can't get enough of the view.

Very breezy at the west end of the lake, one of the top spots for wind-surfing in the world. They harness the wind for electricity; the locals think the towers are ugly, but I've always thought they seemed kind of...I don't know, graceful, maybe. A hell of a lot better looking than telephone poles and electrical lines.

Our goal was to visit Monteverde cloud forest on the way, but were deterred by 30 kilometers of bad road. Seriously, their gravel contains rocks bigger than your head. Seriously. We tried, but the fastest we could travel was about ten miles per hour, making it a four hour round trip. We were very disappointed, but we are learning to roll with it. The locals think we are loco; I'm beginning to think so, too.

We stopped in Puntarenas for lunch, a seedy port town that caters to cruise ship passengers. Lots of little beach huts with vendors selling trinkets. Lily thought it was too hot, a good sign here near the equator. Sam has been joking about busking in one of these touristy towns, and grandpa talked a local tico band into letting Sam jam with them. Quest fulfilled.

Back on the road, we were caught in a random police inspection site, where they checked our papers and visually inspected our car. A little nerve-wracking, even though the guidebooks warned about the possibility. I took no photos. Loco, but not stupido.

Later, we crossed a bridge where everyone had pulled over and were looking over the railing. It turns out that this is a popular hangout spot for alligators.

Made it to our house around six, then ordered a pizza and picked up groceries. Jaco, the town we are staying in, is a popular surfing/party town, like a year-long spring break. Perfect for us. 

A long day.

A Roof Over One's Head

Well, most of us slept in beds last night, so that is the good news.

This whole rental situation is convoluted. A woman in California owns the house that we booked in September. She works through a rental agent in the US, who in turn works with a property agent her in Costa Rica. Apparently the owner was contacted about electrical problems at the property we had booked, so she passed that down the line. The agent here worked overtime to find us a place, and the email string between her, the US agent and local property owners is a sight to see. That she was even able to find us anywhere to stay during the week of the primary Costa Rican holiday and the biggest annual influx of tourists is amazing.

However. The place we have is beautiful, the kids love it. Something of an ocean view. Two minute walk to the beach. Maria, the caretaker that lives next door, has been very helpful. But it's like i explained to Sam, say you had a birthday party downtown and rented a limo to get you and eight or nine friends there. The driver shows up in a brand new, two-seater Porsche convertible. Top of the line car, he says, all the bells and whistles. It's a beautiful car, but is it what you need?

We skimped on the first house we rented - and got what we paid for - because we knew that our next place would be so nice. The house for this week that we booked (and paid a ton of cash for): four bedrooms, four baths, sunny pool, hot tub, horseback riding facilities, dishwasher, large common area for meals and congregating. Close to the activities we had planned, quiet and secluded. This house: three bedrooms, beds for six, mattresses on the floor for the kids, two bathrooms, small, shaded pool, seating for four for meals, tiny kitchen. An hour farther away from activities. Right next to the main road, so heavy truck traffic starts at four in the morning.

On the other hand, we walked over to the beach this morning, and there were people sleeping on air mattresses on the sand. So there you go.

At this point, I guess it just comes down to financial negotiations. Always a treat on vacation

Bright side

Here's a rainbow over the house, so we have that going for us.

Transition Day

We set out today with no expectations. Not sure when the next post will be.

Down the River

On Sunday, we set out on a river safari through a local tour group. Our guide, Edson, was reaaly knowledgeable, about he local flora and fauna, sue, but also about politics, the culture, the school systems, Costa Rican history, you name it.

Fred and Nancy were in a separate boat, with a newer guide. They saw about a third of the animals that we did, but they struck up a friendship with the other tourista couple in their boat. Enjoyable, I guess, if talking to people is your sort of thing.

There's a crocodile.

A basilisk, or Jesus Christ lizard, so named because they run across the top of the water. (Only Jesus *walks* on water, our guide said.)

Toucan. They travel in pairs.

Some folks were in canoes, and these two Brazilian guys went the wrong way on the rapids. All the guides went in the river to extract their trapped canoe.

We also stopped midway to visit a local farm, 120 acres purchased in 1938 for $1. The owner is 102 years old, and their house is still an electricity-free, dirt-floored building where they cook on a wood stove. No pictures, though. Other people were snapping away, but it felt strange being in someone's house and treating it like a zoo.

When we booked, we asked, Do we wear swimsuits? No, the agent said, the boats are very safe, no chance of getting wet. Well, guess what it does in the rainforest? We had about fifteen minutes of downpour. Fortunately we had a waterproof bag that we stashed cameras and binoculars and passports in. Unfortunately, we missed pictures of iguana, howler monkeys, wood storks, and a number of wild creatures. All in all, maybe the most relaxing two hours of the trip.

Eagle-eye Sam

On the way home last night, Sam spotted some monkeys in a tree beside the road.

Catching Up

After we ziplined yesterday, we drove around to the other side of the volcano and hiked down the side of a cliff to see a waterfall. It was thunderous and you could swim in the pool at the bottom.

The kids and Aunt Pam swam for some time.

Here are the steps. There were just shy of 500 of them, but who's counting?

Sam thought he was the Little Mermaid.

We were all exhausted and couldn't wait to get home and relax. That didn't happen, obviously.

Some progress, maybe

We've been in contact with the local rental agent and have been told that another house has been arranged for us beginning tomorrow night. Might be better, might be worse, but we've been guaranteed that it won't cost more. (Some of the rentals that were still available when we originally booked were running $20,000 per week. Yep, twenty thousand.) So we'll see; we've done all we can. Anyway, it hasn't slowed us down any.

Potential Disaster

Did more fun stuff today, but arrived home to an email from the owner of the property we're supposed to be staying in two days from now. They are having electrical problems and are canceling our five-day reservation. It's high season in Costa Rica, and nothing is readily available, especially for eight people. We're heading out to a pay phone to try to contact the person we booked from. Wish us luck.

Soaring

Holy cow! We went ziplining through the cloud forest canopy on the side of the volcano. We took a tram way up, then zig-zagged back down on cables. Pretty spectacular, but again, hard to take photos when you're clinging for dear life to a thin wire as you zoom at 45mph over an 800-foot drop.

Ecopark

Sorry we're so far behind, this is a trip of many highs and lows. Yesterday we found a fantastic ecopark called Denaus that had all kinds of wildlife. For instance, cotimundi:

Poison dart frog (sorry about the photo, didn't want to get too close):

Caiman:

Jesus Christ lizard:

Awesome butterflies:

Here are the kids with our tour guide, Gabriel, without whom we would have seen nothing:

Very fun.

Our new pets

Our house has a canine visitor, a puppy that kids have called Nina.

Our cabina has a gecko! We set him free soon after finding him, so we didn't bother naming him.

Adventure!

We went out to explore this afternoon and found a spot to rent kayaks, so we did. Grandma decided not to go, which was fortunate because Grandpa got a faulty kayak that had no motor, no sail, and hadn't been waxed properly. It promptly tipped over. He recovered, though, and we had a great time. Beautiful day, but sadly we forgot the camera, so no pictures. Here's a photo of our rental car instead.

Also, a sunset.

Pool Time

Here is our infinity pool on the bluff.

Sam decided to improve the scenery with a one-man flex-off.

A New Day

Once most of us woke the next morning refreshed, we got a chance to check out the place in the daylight. The house itself is large and has a great room, three bedrooms, two kitchens (for some reason) and two bathrooms. There's also a separate building with two cabinas (seen here on the left) that are like self-contained hotel rooms. Plenty of room for the eight of us.

Jeff the caretaker and his wife came back this morning to fix a bunch of stuff and give us tips on things to do and places to eat in the area. Still no phone or internet - apparently last week's thieves cut the cables in case there was an alarm system. Big repairs needed.

The views are amazing. The kids and grandpa also spotted a toucan on the bird feeder.

After a long day of traveling...

Conversation between my father-in-law and the property caretaker last night when he let us in:

Fred: So, no tv here?

Caretaker (who, coincidentally, is originally from Michigan and was wearing a Detroit Red Wings t-shirt): yeah, we had a break-in last week, they took the tv, a pressure washer and a tool box.

Fred: They do a lot of damage?

CT: No, i think they had a key. Probably not a good idea to keep valuables here while you're out and about.

So when the curtain rod collapsed in the kids' room at midnight, Melissa and her sister both woke up panicked about a home invasion. Rob stood guard for the rest of the night. No sleep no sleep no sleep

House Troubles

A bunch of other stuff happened, too. There are plenty of unusual animals, vehicles and pedestrians that continually present themselves to be run over. Fun driving! Also, our house is a bit of a letdown, and we can't get our wifi working, so i'm typing this from the restaurant where we're having dinner. Here it is:

Crazy day

Wow, what a day! We made our connection, but just barely, and only because half the people on our flight were heading to Costa Rica. We arrived about a half hour late, took about an hour and a half to get our rental car, then embarked on a three hour drive through the mountains to our house. The trip included a circuit around the Arenal Volcano.

Here's a pic of the sun setting over Lake Arenal.

Super-tense morning

Crazy long lines waiting to check our bags, waiting to get through security. One (!) TSA agent checking passports - she was working super fast, but line backed up anyway. Just made the first plane, no time to grab food or water. Flight left about 25 minutes late after de-icing and maintenance, so catching our connection in Ft. Lauderdale may be tricky.

In the meantime, here's the sun rising...

A New Adventure

We're going to give this another go as we roam around Costa Rica for Christmas.

Look! A map!