We head to Golfito

Today we headed to Golfito, or more specifically, Rio Claro. Our next Airbnb was unusual in that it is technically a hotel, though it offers a private "entire house" with bath and 4 beds. And air conditioning! After 4 days at the beach, we were looking forward to AC and hot showers.

A note about Golfito: When Cristina lived in Costa Rica, even though she was born in San Jose, she lived in the southern zone. Her grandparents had a house in Golfito, which is a port town on the Pacific side. There's a big duty-free zone in Golfito, so often people will come to Golfito to purchase appliances, because they are cheaper.

The grandparents sold their house in the early 90's and moved full-time to the farm house, but when Cristina spent summers in Costa Rica, she split time between the Golfito house and the farm house, which is closer to the border of Panama, near a town called Paso Canoas.

Golfito also bears the vestiges of the United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita. At its heyday, Golfito was essentially a United Fruit Company town, filled with company housing, known as the American zone. Her grandparents house was a prominent house in this zone, as her grandfather worked for the company as an engineer.

But first things first, we had to get to our hotel/Airbnb in Rio Claro about 15 miles north of Golfito. This hotel's claim to fame is its pool, which is super touristy with water slides. Not why we booked it, but that's its thing. And we got stopped at another bridge for about 45 minutes for another protest. This kind of protest has a name: tortugismo, or turtle tourism. In other words, slowing down traffic like a turtle to get attention from the media and government leaders, who don't want to risk a decrease in tourism because of these slowdowns.

As we got shown our room at Hotel Teffany, the first thing we realized is that there was no hot water in the showers. The girls had been waiting to wash their hair till we got here, and now, the shower was not only cold, but didn't even have a shower head. You turned on the water and it just dumped out of a 1-inch PVC pipe, like a spigot. This would be perfectly acceptable if we had paid $20 a night for this place, but we had paid over $100! At the risk of sounding like a pampered gringo, that's just unacceptable. Suicide showers are not that expensive. The room should have one, period.

Ramon headed to the farm house, where he would stay the next 2 nights. We drove into town and did a driving tour of Golfito, which oddly looked very closed up and desolate. We found the old house, which looked very different. We needed some dinner, and many places were closed, but a restaurant that we remembered eating at in 1994 was still there, so we decided to eat there. Samoa del Sur stood out in our memory because they used to have a very tall conical thatched roof which was very striking, and they had served their natural fruit drinks in large handmade ceramic mugs, or pitchers. We were so smitten with them in 1994 that we asked if we could buy them, and even though they didn't normally sell them, they sold us two, which we still have today. We asked the guy who was serving us about it and he remembered the mugs, but when the old lady who made them died, they stopped using them. We offered to send him a picture of ours once we got home, and he was excited to see them. Blast from the past. His name was Roy, and he had been working there for 23 years, which means he started just a few years after we had been there in 1994. The thatched roof has been replaced with a more typical metal roof, still tall but not quite as tall.

In chatting with Roy during our meal, we ranted a little about no hot water at our last two places. He said in the past few years, the restaurant had added a hotel and pool, and if we wanted to take a look at the rooms, here were the keys. First he said we could have a suite, normally priced at 60,000 colones per night, for 50,000 ($84 instead of $100). After dinner, we walked over and looked at the rooms. Both were so much better than the dump we had gotten from Airbnb. I messaged the host of Hotel Teffany and asked if there was any way to cancel the second night and get some money back. I was even considering switching to this place even if we couldn't get any refund. Then Roy said he'd give us the room for 40,000 ($67) plus free breakfast at the restaurant. We decided to go back to Teffany and Cristina would chat with the hosts in person about our unhappiness with the shower. It didn't take long before they were willing to refund the entire second night. So we stayed at Teffany for one night, and in the morning we would pack up and head to the Samoa del Sur hotel. We would have a hot shower AND save about $60 (Teffany also refunded the extra we had paid for 6 people, because we only had 5...when we booked back in January we thought Wito would be with us). Because I was so happy to have gotten a full refund of the second night and extra person, I wrote them a positive review (though I still mentioned the showers, because people need to know that). The lady agreed that they should probably install a ducha (suicide shower) because "they're not that expensive." Duh!

Ventanas Again

Our last full day at the beach. After getting stuck in the mud at Arco and getting robbed at Tortuga, I just wanted something safe and familiar. Ventanas felt like a comfortable way to end our beach stay.

We asked for the 5000 colon tent and table/chairs, and were told that the price was 8000. What? We were about to call BS on the kid who was sincere about the price, when another guy interceded and remembered us from the previous week. He said the price was 8000 this week because it was holiday week for Costa Ricans. Supply and demand. But since he remembered us, he gave us the 5000 price. All was good.

It was as comfortable and relaxing a day as I had hoped for. This was really what I wanted every day at the beach to be like. I get Cristina's desire to be adventurous and try new recommended beaches, and I certainly don't fault her for what happened at Arco or Tortuga. All I'm saying is the Ventanas experience is exactly what I wanted. Parking very nearby, shade, inexpensive concessions, easy access to the water, rocks and caves for exploring. Sure, the water at Ventanas isn't ideal for riding the waves like at Ballena, but it's got all the other stuff.

That's Alex in the red bathing suit down on the beach. He joined a game of soccer.

Pipa Fria

We spent most of the afternoon at Ventanas until we were ready to head out for food. Also, the plan was to eat somewhere where we could watch the CR vs. Mexico game (Gold Cup). We went back up the mountain to our house, got cleaned up, and then drove down to find a restaurant. Even though we had looked on Google and Trip Advisor for a good restaurant to try, we couldn't really agree on a place. We wound up at the Baker Bean. It seems that their specialty is baked goods and coffee (this the name) but this night they had a pasta buffet. Not all-you-can-eat (I don't think I've ever seen all-you-can-eat in CR...that's likely a uniquely U.S. thing.) But for 3000 colones, you got a plateful of pasta with sauce of choice, fish, beef, platanos maduros, salad, and rice and beans. And a glass of sweet tea! It was basically like a glorified casado with the unusual addition of pasta. But for a beach restaurant, it was a great deal. And tasty.

It's hard to see, but that's the buffet on the right, game on the left

The game went into extra time, then penalty shoot-outs. CR lost, and the extra time kept us there much later than we expected. Cristina was exhausted and ready to go home. It was also surprisingly chilly for the beach (we even asked the restaurant to turn off the ceiling fans).

Anna leaves, and the Tortuga debacle

Anna's bus was scheduled to leave to 11:30, so we had plenty of time to have breakfast before taking her down to the bus stop. Very soon after getting tot he paved road, the traffic came to a complete standstill. It turned out that this was our first brush with the protests.

A law was passed in Costa Rica last year that added a 13% tax to services. There was already tax on goods, but now a tax is being put on services as well. Also, essential items that used to be tax exempt, like rice and beans, will now be taxed. The reasoning is that for the past 30 years, deficit spending has hindered the country's financial strength (I'm way oversimplifying) so the government is attempting to make a correction. It's a harsh one though, and many different groups are upset, especially the groups that aren't already receiving the favor of the government (again, it's complicated). Young people, for example, were upset that the education minister had squandered the education budget (sounds like Florida). The tax law was scheduled to go into effect on July 1. So this stop in traffic was the beginning (for us). A group of students had created a barricade across the bridge. The one bridge you must cross in Uvita to go north.

We weren't upset about the protest. On the contrary, we support peaceful protest of government corruption. It's especially encouraging to see young people so actively engaged. The only concern was that Anna had a bus to catch. However, the bus was coming from the south too, so as long as the bus wasn't already at the station, the bus would be stuck in this same stoppage. In fact, we could see a pink Tracopa bus about 15 cars behind us. Cristina walked down and talked to the bus driver, and sure enough that was Anna's bus. So now it was just a matter of how long this would take.

Chatting with some American, on his honeymoon, stuck in traffic

It took about an hour.

When we finally crossed the bridge, we cheered with the group of students who were holding signs and chanting.

At the bus station, the bus driver said they'd be leaving in 20 minutes. It was closer to an hour, but...it's Costa Rica.

We said our final goodbyes to Anna, our sweet Swede, and watched her bus pull away towards San Jose. It was supposed to be a four-hour ride. Alas, there were protests along the entire route and she didn't get to her hotel till nearly midnight.

We headed south towards Ventanas beach, Bella in our car, Alex and Sofia in Ramon's car. Cristina was interested in checking out another of Carolina's recommendations: Tortuga beach. I had my doubts about recommendations from Carolina after getting stuck in the mud at Arco, but I didn't want to be a spoilsport, so I drove past Ventanas until we saw the sign for Tortuga. I told Cristina if the road looked easily passable, we'd give it a shot, but if not, we were bailing and going to Ventanas.

The dirt road had a few muddy holes, but nothing too treacherous. When we got to the "beach," the place we stopped looked desolate as hell. There were the remnants of a stand where ceviche or pipa may have once been sold, but there were no people, and no cars. The beach also looked...not user-friendly. It was more of an inlet than a true beach. The sky was a bit grey. It just felt off. Despite that, we walked down the sand a little ways. Alex considered crossing the water to the other patch of sand, but decided against it. I wondered aloud if I had locked the car. I couldn't remember. And I'd left my wallet and phone in between the front seats.

We were away from the cars for maybe 10 minutes before we headed back. As we neared, I saw a third car had arrived. I made a joke like "Aw, we don't have the beach to ourselves anymore. I want a refund." Then we noticed that two guys were awfully close to our cars, like standing in between them. Then they noticed us walking back and they ran back to their car and drove off lightning fast. At this point, Ramon yelled and angrily ran to his car. I felt for my car key, but I didn't immediately hit the unlock button on the fob, because Bella was ahead of me, and I wanted to see if I had locked the car or not. I waited till Bella tried the passenger door. It was locked. My phone and wallet were still where I'd left them. Ramon's car, however, was not so lucky. Whether he failed to lock his car, or the thieves somehow got in without breaking a window, they had snatched Sofia's bag and Ramon's bag. Sofia's bag had her phone, her cedula, all pairs of her prescription glasses and sunglasses, earrings that she'd just bought at a souvenir shop, and various other beachy things like sunscreen. Unfortunately, Ramon's losses were even worse: his U.S. passport and a significant amount of cash. Thankfully, Alex had not left his stuff in the car; he had it on him.

Ramon, Alex, and Sofia jumped in Ramon's car and tore off down the road to look for the little blue SUV that stole from us. We followed.

We spent the next couple of hours filing a report with the police outside a little liquor store/gift shop. One police car went down to the beach to check it out while the other stayed with us and wrote up the report. We tried to track Sofia's phone thru various apps, but no success. Without the blue car's license tag number, there wasn't much the police could do. The report was important, though, because Ramon would likely need a copy of the report to get a replacement passport at the Embassy. I kept thinking about how thefts at the beach must happen every day, and how we never thought it would be us. No one probably ever does.

In hindsite, here's what I think happened. Somewhere near the entrance to Tortuga, or maybe even at the houses that we passed on the dirt road, the thieves were watching for tourists to head to the beach. After our two cars went by, they waited a bit, and then followed. Seeing our cars unattended, they made their move. They likely tried the doors for both cars, and since Ramon's car was unlocked, they grabbed the bags from it. (Note: Ramon was convinced that he had locked his car, but... it's human to forget. It's much more likely that he simply forgot to lock it, or even that he hit the button but it didn't lock, than the thieves had the uncanny ability to enter his car in such a short time with no damage, even if it's doubly painful to acknowledge that.) They likely would have next broken my window to get to our stuff, but they saw us coming back, and they bolted.

Obviously, this put a complete damper on the day. Ramon was in a foul mood, rightfully so. We found a restaurant and ate. Ramon wanted to walk the beach to clear his head, or calm down, or whatever, so after dinner the rest of us went back up to the house and left him to get his head right.

Hearing later that night that it had taken Anna all day to get to San Jose was just the final confirmation that this day sucked.

3 beach day: Arco, Hermosa, Ballena

The evenings are relatively comfortable, but the mornings get hot and sticky. By the time breakfast was over, I was sweaty and ready for something cooler. Cold shower, ocean, car AC. Anything.

Cristina had gotten some recommendations from the neighbor/caretaker, Carolina, for beaches that she liked that were not as touristy. We set out for one of them, Arco.

The road off the main highway was rougher than most. In fact, I immediately had that feeling of "hmm, I wonder if this is a 4-wheel drive only kinda road." Remember, the Toyota Rush is not 4x4. It's got decent ground clearance, though, so I carefully proceeded down the steep and treacherous minefield of dips and gullies. Once past that initial moonscape, the road was a bit more normal, if not a little marshy in a few places. The road ran parallel to the beach for a ways, and then abruptly ended at a couple of houses. Cristina asked the owner of the house, and he pointed out the "road" to the beach, about 100 meters back. The road looked pretty rough, and I wondered aloud if we could just park at the intersection and walk to the beach. But Ramon took the lead and plunged forward in his 4x4. I followed, and then at one muddy part, I didn't go fast enough and got stuck in the mud. I couldn't help but think of the road to the Airbnb, and Carolina living on that road. Of course she's going to recommend beaches that might be harder then the average vehicle to reach; look what road she lives on! My mind was racing through the options that might occur: having to call Enterprise for roadside assistance, or worse: fishtailing in the mud while trying to get out and hitting a tree, voiding the warranty due to negligence. I could see our smirky rental agent apologizing for the damage not being covered: "You should have never driven it down a muddy beach road, sir."

Ramon went into full-on tow truck mode and started assembling a means to pull me out of the mud. He used the strap from his hammock (which I privately had my doubts would hold). He coached me up and we gave it a go. It held, and he pulled me out. The next little bit of the road, before ending in a T of rocks, was also muddy, aaaaaaand I got stuck there too. The kids went to look for the caves that Carolina said this beach had, while we worked on getting out of this second mud hole. Ramon hooked me up again and we got through it. By this point, I just wanted to leave this beach.  I don't like the beach anyway, and being in a desolate, rocky beach with no other people--and none of the comforts like guys selling pipa fria and ceviche AND getting stuck--was even worse. I told Cristina and Ramon to go look at the beach without me. I just stayed with the cars and fumed.

While they were gone, I collected big rocks and stuck them in strategic spots in the muddiest ruts, to give me more traction when we left, because we had to go through the same mud holes to leave this place. Again, I thought why didn't we just park at the road by the houses and walk?

Once everyone was back, we headed out. I made sure to go fast though the mud, and despite a little bit of uneasy fishtailing, I made it out without getting stuck again.

Obviously that was not the beach experience that anyone had wanted, even if it was a beautiful piece of coast. I suggested Hermosa beach. More popular, ceviche and pipa, and easy to get to. We picked up some groceries and headed to Hermosa. We saw a couple of iguanas, which was an instant bonus. Cristina got her pipa fria. Bella and I skipped rocks on the water. I tried to buy ceviche, but the lady had just sold her last serving.

Sunset was nearing, and we wanted a bit of the whale tail before calling it a day, so we headed to Ballena beach. Parked the cars for 2000 colones (worth it) and walked to the beach. It was looking like the afternoon rains were going to come, even though our time in Costa Rica had been anything but typical in terms of rain. Ramon and Cristina wanted to walk to the tail, but the rest of us just wanted to get in the water, so we dropped our stuff in the sand and went in, and R and C headed down the beach towards the tail. The water was great. Perfect temperature. Warm enough to keep you from getting chilled, but not so warm to be gross. And then it started raining, and being in the ocean was warmer and more comfortable than being out of the water. We watched for R and C to return, but the rain got heavier and heavier, and the sky was getting darker as dusk set in. Finally, we called it a day and headed back to the cars. We got as dry as we could in the pouring rain (the cars were under a bit of cover) and then decided we didn't need to wait for R and C; we could all fit in my car and R and C could just come home when they got back from the beach.

At the house we showered and got dressed for dinner. Anna was treating us to a farewell/thank you meal at a restaurant that she and Sofia had found on Trip Advisor. It was a beautiful restaurant, slightly upscale, with a limited but intriguing menu. A little pricier than our typical choices, and we hadn't told Alex and Bella that this was Anna's treat (and choice of restaurant). They complained about the prices and the menu until we finally got them to stop. It was a great dinner. The food was delicious (omg those chili fries!) I got the ginger tuna with mashed potatoes and broccoli (gotta eat seafood when you're at the beach). At one point the power went out (still raining), but we had fun with it and set the carafe of water on top of Alex's phone to make a light. When the power came back on we were a little disappointed.

The unpleasantness of getting stuck in the mud at Arco seemed like a distant memory, and this turned out to be one of the best beach days I can remember. Little did we know what was going to happen the next day...

The Beach

This being our third Airbnb, we are getting accustomed to the pack up routine. Pack up, clean up, load the cars. Lily had told us that another guest was in the tree house that night, so we wanted to get out promptly so Lily had plenty of time to clean up. I even dried the washed dishes and put them away, which we hadn't done at the the other places (we washed our dishes at the other places, but usually just left them out to dry).

We headed towards Uvita, our new home for the next four days, and our last stop with Anna before she would head back to Sweden.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The beach is not my favorite place. It's hot. Ocean water is sticky. I don't like sunscreen, but I have to use it, because I hate sunburns even more. Sand gets on everything. It's just a messy, hot, sticky experience. That's why out of 6 weeks, we're only spending 4 days at the beach. I can deal with four days. And after the beach experience with the Hines, I was looking forward to renting a tent and table/chairs at Ventanas. That's the way to do it.

Plus, I spent the big bucks to get a place with Air conditioning. Or so I thought.

The road to the Airbnb was 4 km of steep rocky road. Sigh. This was our third place in a row that included some version of a steep rocky road to access the house. Ah, Costa Rica.

When we finally found the house and figured out the code to the lock box, we got the lay of the house. Big and roomy, compared to the tree house. Four bedrooms with full-sized beds was luxurious. But I immediately noticed there was no air conditioning. I checked the listing, and sure enough, it said no air conditioning. Not sure what I was thinking, but at least each room had a ceiling fan and the windows had screens. This could work.

Then we noticed that the showers did not have hot water.

I know it's the beach. I know it's hot. But I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that the showers will have hot water, especially when most places in Costa Rica have the type of showers that heat the water at the shower head. That's the norm. The endearingly-dubbed "suicide showers" aren't expensive. So when this place which we paid over $100 a night didn't even have suicide showers, it was annoying. Long story short, we complained to our host and got a bit of a reduction in the amount we paid. So cold showers for everyone!

After unpacking, we drove both cars back down the road and got some groceries. Alex and I headed back up to the house to make burgers while the others went to the beach for a little beach time.

Costa Rican beef is not my favorite. It's lean and grass-fed, which is healthier, but when you've grown up with corn-fed American beef, CR beef is a little gamier and chewier. I'm fine with not eating beef in CR. It's expensive too. But Sofia wanted to have burgers with Anna at least once, so I obliged. About the only cheese you find here is a bland (but tasty) white cheese. But I wanted a good old cheddar for the burgers. They had some American-style sliced cheddar cheese at the grocery (since the stores here cater to the American tourists). There was no price listed for the cheese (a 10-slice package) but instead of trying to ask in my broken Spanish, I just splurged (it turned out to be in the neighborhood of 4000 colones. Ugh. $7).

The burgers turned out okay. Caramelized onions always help. The buns were way too big and thin, but I only had one option. Better than sandwich bread.

It was kinda hot as we went to bed, but manageable.

Eco Chontales Waterfalls

Today we headed to some waterfalls called Eco Chontales. But before we left San Isidro, the girls wanted to mail postcards, buy Anna's bus ticket, and we wanted to buy some cheap towels for the falls. While loading up in the cars, Ramon noticed that my back tire was nearly flat. Upon closer inspection, we found a nail in the tire. We called the Enterprise guy and told the other car to head on to get the bus ticket. Long story short, we drove the semi-flat tire to the nearest service station, where they fixed the flat for a grand total of 2500 colones. Whole thing took about 10 minutes. Amazing!

Lily had recommended a store called Mundo Magico, which did indeed have the best priced towels. We will forever refer to these towels as the "magic towels." We also grabbed some bread and jam from a bakery to add to our cooler of snacks.

Eco Chontales waterfalls are towards the beach, off the same road we drove with the Hines, not far from the mysterious airplane-restaurant thing. A few kilometers before you get to the beach road you turn off on a gravel road. 40 minutes of driving on the rocky gravel road later, we arrived at the falls. These waterfalls are operated by a family. Very reasonably priced compared to the more touristy Nauyaca falls.

The drive, while bumpy and slow, was beautiful. Gorgeous mountain countryside. And a couple of sketchy bridges to cross just to remind you that you're in Costa Rica.

As we were paying for entrance (1500 colones per person...that's the National price, but he gave it to all of us) two wild scarlet macaws flew up and perched beside us (the grandmother was feeding them). As if by design. The family's house is right at the entrance, and they've added restrooms and a cold shower for visitors to use.

The hike down to the falls was about 20 minutes. A little steep, but not bad. We did it in flip-flops.

I wasn't sure how big these falls were going to be. I've seen the whole spectrum of waterfalls in CR, so I was just going with the flow. When we got close and rounded the corner where you can finally see the falls, it was breathtaking. They were big. From that point on, we were enveloped in a cloud of cold mist that immediately soaked our clothes.

I was carrying the cooler of food (they let you bring your own food, even though there's a little cafe at the falls) and slipped at the top of some muddy steps. I landed on my back/butt, and I dropped the cooler, which tumbled down the steps. One of the owner/family members who was down at the falls, Mario, helped me and carried the cooler while I picked up the remnants of my dignity. My shirt had a nice muddy smear on the back, so I peeled it off and washed it off in a little creek that fed into the river.

It was fairly late in the day, and thankfully Mario helped us get the most out of the falls in the short amount of time we had before it got dark. He showed where you can slide down the rocks like a water slide (I think everyone did it but Sofia and me...I had bumped my ass enough for one day). He also took us down to a lower area where people can jump off a cliff into the river. Alex and Ramon did it. Daredevils.

Mario needed to go, but he said we could stay longer. We ate our little snack picnic up at the tables outside the closed cafe. A cut-up pineapple, chips and salsa, a loaf of bread and guava jelly.

We enjoyed the water a little while longer, skipping stones, and then headed back up the path. It was getting dark by the time we got back to the car. Some of us showered and changed. I didn't have a dry shirt, so I just went shirtless.

Back on the main (paved) road home, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant. I really didn't want to put on a wet shirt, so I was just going to wear my towel over my shoulders (it was a sit-outside kind of bar/restaurant, and there were almost no other customers, so it was no big deal.) Cristina gave me a scarf type thing instead of a towel, which I guess looked a little more civilized, but still weird. The kids had a good laugh about my attire. When the waiter took my order, I asked if they had shirts. Heh heh.

The food was great and we chatted for a while before completing the drive back to the tree house.

Chill Day...AKA Opium Den with a View

After doing something almost every day, we all were ready for a break (and so was my wallet). So after the Hines dropped off Bella and headed to San Jose for the last few days of their trip, we went into straight-up veg mode. Chillax day. I read and wrote some email. Got caught up on my blog. The rest? I don't know what they did on their phones. Doesn't matter. This is a day to media it up without judgment.

The day wasn't completely unproductive. We ate up some leftovers. I made a batch of fresh salsa from scratch. Sofia and Anna went for a walk. We went into town to try to buy Anna's bus ticket to get back to San Jose (but failed. we'll get it tomorrow). Ramon filled up his tank.

But mostly we did this:

Windows Beach

Our third day of activities with the Hines was a day-trip to the beach. Even though we'll be spending four days at the beach later this week, the Hines wanted to do a beach, so this was the day.

On the road from San Isidro to the beach, we passed a restaurant with a passenger jet. It wasn't open, so we couldn't tell if you can eat on the jet, or can just walk through it.

We got to Playas Ventanas (Windows Beach), paid for parking (2000) and found a spot. We came to this beach 10 years ago. It gets its name from rocky caves which you can see through to the ocean. When the tide is low, you can walk through them.

This doesn't show the "windows," but this is the beach

We were immediately approached by a guy working the parking area who asked if we were interested in renting a canopy and table/chairs for 5000 ($8.40) for the whole day. That was a great idea. He set it up wherever we wanted. So if I wanted to just sit in the shade and watch the kids on the beach, I could do it.
The canopy also was nice protection from the rain, which started up soon after we arrived and continued off and on the rest of the afternoon.

Cristina enjoyed her obligatory pipa fria (500), and others tried them too.

Pipa Fria: chilled coconut water straight from the coconut

Alex and Jacoby built a dam in the creek that fed into the ocean, with assistance from Bella

We opted to drive back home for dinner, since we were all wet and sandy. Along the way home we stopped at a pool place so they Hines could take a photo (they have a pool business) and we spotted a little cacao shop. Since we missed out on the chocolate factory, Cristina and Jeremy checked it out. They sold actual pieces of pure cocoa, made into little candies. Not what you think of as chocolate, but full of antioxidants and all that. Cristina bought some.

Back at our place, everyone took super quick showers and we headed down to the pizza place on the corner. Nancy and Jeremy treated us to a final dinner together in Costa Rica. The pizza was delicious.

We popped into the mini super beside the pizza place, even though it was closed (the garage door was only half down, and when I asked the guy outside if he was fully closed, he invited us in) and bought ice cream. I also bought an ice cream scoop, since our Airbnb doesn't have one.

As I was scooping the ice cream, Ashley and her little sister Angie (the housekeeper's daughters) came by to get our dirty towels and bathing suits, so we invited them to join us for ice cream.

We said our final-ish goodbyes to the Hines and they headed back to their Airbnb for their last night in P.Z.

Canopy Tour

For the first time this trip, I set an alarm on my phone to wake us up. Because today we were going zip lining.

If you are curious about the specific details of how long each zip line was, it's on this sign.

Cristina had made reservations with Mirador Valle de General. 18,500 colones per person, which is about $31. The tour consisted of 7 lines of varying lengths and speed, and a surprise at the end. We got there early and got geared up. Originally we were going to be with a group of 5 Ticos, but when we got there, the tour guy informed us that the other group canceled. So it was just the 10 of us (although Nancy opted out).

After instructions, we began.

After we had done all 7 lines, the surprise was this:

A simple wooden bridge took us to a platform about 100 feet from the ground, where we then, one by one, rappelled to the ground. The guides gave us the option of going down slowly, medium, or fast. I think Alex was the only one who chose fast. I chose medium. It was just fine. Ramon requested to control his own descent, since he had done it before. Control freak. The guides said the hardest part was just getting off the side of the platform, trusting that the harness you're sitting in 100 feet over the ground can be trusted. They were right.

We hiked back up to the restaurant where our victory drinks were waiting for us.

We watched the hummingbirds while we sipped our drinks, then headed to Las Quebradas Biological Center. A wedding had just finished, so the restaurant there didn't have food to sell us, but we enjoyed the short hike and the gardens.

On the way back home, we stopped at the grocery store and got a few more things for dinner. I cooked pasta with chicken. We played another game of Scrawl with the Hines and then called it a night.

Thermal waters? Near San Isidro? Yep!

When you think of thermal waters in Costa Rica, you probably think of volcanos, and areas near volcanos. But here in San Isidro, there aren't any nearby volcanos. Despite that, there is a thermal waters place here. We found it when we were considering climbing to the summit of Chirripo. When those plans fell through, we remembered the thermal waters and went there today with the Hines.

Cristina started her birthday with a big breakfast: fried eggs, toast, platanos maduros, avocado, tomato, coffee, and a homemade pineapple natural drink (a quarter of a fresh pineapple, cut into chunks, in the blender, a few spoons of sugar, juice of half a lime, and topped off with water. Blend until smooth, serve immediately.)

We met the Hines at a little restaurant, Antojitos del Maiz, near the turn for their Airbnb and they followed us out to the thermal waters. Once parked, we met the owner, Don Gerardo, a soft-spoken 75 year old, who owns the place, called Gevi Thermal Waters. He told Cristina how the source of the hot water is a mystery, and how they built 3 pools, each fed independently from the hot springs. The pools used to be sand-bottomed, but he felt it was safer to tile them, so now they are like regular pools. The pools had picnic areas, and you could bring your own food, or there was a small soda on the grounds that you could eat at. I especially loved that each pool had a roof/cover, so I didn't have to worry about reburning my still healing sunburn. It didn't rain, but if it had, the covers would have solved that issue as well. I did come better prepared for the sun, though. I remembered my hat and applied sunscreen before we even left the Airbnb.

The view was gorgeous from the pools. Termales del Bosque is still my bae, but I gotta give it to Gevi, they have prettier views than Bosque. At Bosque, you're in a dense forest. At Gevi, you're up on a mountain, overlooking a green valley of countryside, with the clouds rolling in over the mountain tops.

While we soaked in the pools, we made a game plan: 1) hike, 2) eat, 3) redip, 4) chocolate tour. The hike was gentle enough to do in our flip-flops. The trail went down to a waterfall, the water of which was not as warm as the pools, but warmer than what you would expect waterfall water in the mountains to be. Felt good. The kids climbed around in it and we got some pictures. The trail ended at the road we drove in on, and we hiked up it back to the main building. The lunch we had ordered from the soda wasn't quite ready (1 girl, Diane, cooking for all 10 of us), so we chatted until the food was ready. We took our food up to the picnic area above the pools and ate lunch. Delicious. Kudos, Diane. Part 3 of our plan was as easy as walking back down to the pool and slipping into the bathtub-temp waters. We went to the third, biggest pool this time. By this point, there were only 2 other people at the pools, a mom and her little daughter, who had a Frozen beach ball.

It never did rain.

On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at the the little chocolate factory that we'd seen on the way up. Alas, it had closed at 4 (it was now around 5). Cristina went to the front door of the house to ask if we could possibly still get some chocolate, but the lady was rude and we left. She didn't have a Costa Rican accent, so we're assuming she was an ex-pat or from another Latin American country. So Number Four was a fail.

We stopped at a little mini super to get alcohol for Alex's ear. He had gotten pool water in it and it was bothering him. Jacoby got 2 containers of ice cream, one of which he later discovered was coconut. It said Coco, and he thought that meant chocolate (like, cocoa). Whoops.

We went to the Hines Airbnb and got the tour. Much more remote than ours, but beautiful. I was especially envious of their kitchen (better stocked than ours) and their laundry room. Also, the ladder going up to the bedroom loft was engineered to roll out of the way, which was clever. Our loft has 2 chairs that fold out into beds. Their loft had 2 full-sized beds. The Hines invited Bella to stay at their place, so she and Jacoby could hang out more (and Bella could have the luxury of a large bed that would otherwise go unused). Very nice.

We headed back down to get some dinner. We went to the same restaurant we had met the Hines at, Antojitos del Maiz. They specialize in corn dishes, so pupusas (those corn pancake things we had in Curridabat), tamales, homemade tortillas, that sort of thing. I had perhaps the best cafe con leche I've tasted. I wish we'd asked them their secret. We wondered later if it was sweetened condensed milk.

Since it was Cristina's birthday, I looked at the dessert menu and saw flan de coco, one of Cristina's favorites. I took the menu to one of the waitresses, and in my poor Spanish, told them it was my wife's birthday, and could they bring her the flan de coco after our food, but I got the word for "before" mixed up. I said Hoy es mi esposa cumpleaño. Quiero para ella flan de coco antes comidas? Spanish speakers, I know it's bad. But at least I tried. This was not one I could have Cristina translate for me, for obvious reasons. The waitress happily agreed, and I sat back down. Just then, I spotted her getting the dessert out of the refrigerated case and bringing it towards Cristina. I flagged her down and quickly conferred with Sofia and Ramon about the proper word for after. Despues. Despues, dammit (I didn't say that to the waitress, just to myself). We got it sorted out, and after the meal, she brought it to Cristina. She said it was compliments of the kitchen, which was very kind. Awesome restaurant overall. I think the pupusa I had was even better than the place in Curridabat. And that coffee...

We said our goodbyes to the Hines (and Bella) and went back to our respective homes, where we showered and conked out, exhausted from our day at the thermal waters. Tomorrow, for the first time in 25 years of going to Costa Rica, zip lining.

La Feria

The Hines arrived at our place around 11:30am. They needed to swap their rental car in town at 12:30, and they hadn't eaten since lunch the previous day, so I made them scrambled eggs and toast.

We followed them into town, parked near the church, and waited while they traded the car (their first one leaked on the driver's side when it rained). After they were done, we went to a tourist office and got some brochures, and chatted with the guy working there. (Note: I've been in Costa Rica for one week, and it's starting to affect my English spelling. I typed turist in the previous sentence, consciously leaving off the a, and was baffled by why it was still showing as misspelled. Oh yeah, it has an o.)

Look at them turistas tourists

We checked out the church, which would have been maybe a 5-minute ordeal, but the security guard wanted to show us around. So he showed us the bell towers, we went on the roof of the vestibule for a picture with the mural of San Isidro de General, he showed us the pre-Columbian spheres (the church has two of them.) He showed us the mausoleum of the priests who are interred at the church. We got the works. It was unexpected, but cool.

This Church has got Balls

The tourist guy mentioned that there's a big farmer's market just a few blocks from the church, so we drove to that, and it became the event of the day. We perused the hundreds of stalls of the vendors for a few hours. I bought pineapple (2 for 1000), tomatoes (2.5 kilos for 1000), a bag of sweet peppers (300), half a giant guanabana (3000), 5 ready-to-eat platanos (1000), 2 massive heads of green leaf lettuce (400!), a glass of squeezed-right-in-front-of-us orange juice (500), and 30 eggs (2000, but with the change she gave back, she only charged me 1000). That's a lot of produce, for a grand total of a little over 8000 colones ($13). And almost half of that was the guanabana! I don't even think I could have gotten those tomatoes for $13 in the States. Let's work that out: 2.5 kilos is 5.5 pounds. If tomatoes are on sale at Publix, you can maybe get $1.50 per pound...which would be $8.25. Okay, so not quite $13. But bonus: these are red on the inside.

Alex bought mamonchinos. Cristina bought mangosteen and a pipa (coconut chopped open and straw inserted for drinking the water). Bella bought churros. Sofia and Anna bought some tiny bottles of local fruit wines to give as souvenirs.

La Feria has a soda food court with four little sodas. Price of a casado was 2000. Sold! We ate our meal on a little veranda that overlooked the feria.

After our meal, Cristina and Bella rode with the Hines to the grocery store, and we went back to the house. When they returned from the store, I made a light supper of green salad and chicken salad. We played a round of Scrawl and had ice cream for dessert. We also made our plans for the next three days: thermal waters near Chirripo tomorrow, canopy tour (zip lining) on Saturday, beach on Sunday. The Hines head back to San Jose on Monday, and we head south to the beach on Wednesday.

The Tree House

We needed to be checked out by 12, so we slept in till 9, and still had plenty of time for breakfast and packing up.

Once we left, we found some flowers (2700 colones...about $4.50) and then drove to the trout farm. Jose Maria had sent us a message that he wouldn't be there, but his brother or daughter could give us the knife. So Cristina and Alex took the flowers while we waited in the car. Knife retrieved, mission accomplished.

Later on in the day, Jose Maria sent a picture of him holding the flowers with a big thank you.

The drive up Cerro de la Muerte was surprisingly easy. Warm, sunny, good roads. A few slow trucks, but not bad. When we went over the highest part, I didn't even recognize it, because I always remember it being so cold and foggy. Global warming? Or just luck? (The magic umbrellas?)

We got to Perez Zeledon (colloquially called Pay Zeta...as in P.Z.), the area just north of San Isidro, where our Airbnb is. We missed the turn the first time (Cristina forgot to put in the Airbnb address, so Waze just took us into town) but that allowed us to scout out some grocery stores. We got back to the vicinity of the Airbnb, but the directions were a little confusing. While we sat parked (about 100 meters from the Airbnb) trying to figure it out, Anna saw a sloth up on the electrical lines.

We met Lily, the caretaker, who showed us around the place. She brought her daughter, Ashley, to be her interpreter, in case none of us spoke Spanish. Lily also offered to wash clothes for us, for cheaper than the laundromat. We got unpacked and settled, then the rains started proper. Not little sprinkles or misty mountain rain, this was full-on Costa Rica June downpour, with thunder and lightning. Aguacero, except not the short-lived variety. This one stayed strong for hours. We drove into town to get groceries. Our friends from Gainesville, the Hines, were arriving today, and the plan was to make dinner for them so they could eat a home cooked meal after traveling for 24 hours.

We started cooking (pesto chicken pasta with a side of beets). The Hines had such a hard time driving in the rain and getting to their Airbnb, and being exhausted after being up since 4:30am, that they decided to stay in. We ate our pasta and beets while watching telenovelas (the cabin has cable TV). Later we switched it to a movie channel and watched Here Comes the Boom and No Escape. Alex did some business online with his college registration, and the older girls retired to their loft. Ramon rigged his hammock on the porch and slept out there (it has a mosquito net). We burned those plug-in bug things thru the night, and I didn't notice any mosquito bites.

This marks the end of our first week in Costa Rica. Five to go!

Rafa and the pizzas

I didn’t have my phone beside my bed, so when I woke up, I couldn’t easily check the time. But since I’ve been waking up around 6 or 7 every morning, and everyone else was still asleep, I figured that was the time. When Cristina stirred and asked what time it was, I got up and found my phone, surprised to see that it was 9:30. I guess yesterday’s hike caused me to sleep later than usual. We messaged the tour guy, Rafa, and he was fine with starting the tour at 11 or 12. So that gave us more time for breakfast.

I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled on Sofia’s kitchen. It is slightly frustrating to cook in this kitchen. Breakfast was awkward and slowly paced. The coffeemaker had a forest of fungus growing in it (mental list), but there was a sock (chorreador). Oh well. Only one more night here.

Around 11:30, I drove everyone (Alex and Ramon decided to join the tour) up the road to Rafa’s house and got acquainted with Rafa and his dog (plus for Bella). Then I went back to the cabin, took a long shower (I found that perfect balance with the shower to where the temp was hot enough and the water pressure decent), got dressed, put on some music and blogged, washed some dishes, wrote my review of Sofia’s Airbnb, blogged some more, then drove to Rafa’s to pick up the family at 2:30.

Rafa offered to make us a pizza dinner for $40. I had already planned on doing something easy for dinner, like going to a restaurant, so this was a little cheaper, and those who love pizza could scratch that itch. We dropped off half the crew at the cabin and then Cristina, Alex, Bella, and I went into “town” to get a few more groceries.

Back at the cabin, we relaxed, took showers, played some pool (Alex beat me), and had a cup of tea until it was time to go to Rafa’s at 7 for pizza. Cristina spent way too long on the phone with T-Mobile still attempting to get the extra phone unlocked.

Close to 7, I noticed that Rafa had sent a message saying he had car trouble and needed to postpone dinner to 7:30 or 7:45. We asked if we could come help (and use the wi-fi) and he said that was fine. When we got to his place, there was an awkward moment where he wanted us to hang out on the porch, because he doesn't usually have "customers" in his private part of the house, and he said it was a mess. But it was a bit cold and misty on the porch, so he let us in (the house didn't look messy to me, but I get the desire to not mix business and pleasure.) We used his Wi-Fi while Cristina helped him make juice from the carambolas that we brought.

The pizza was very good. Crispy crust (homemade), nice array of toppings. I could have done with another piece or two, but for Costa Rica, it was really good pizza. We chatted with Rafa for over two hours (the guy can talk). We asked him, especially since he knows Jose Maria personally, what an appropriate offering for the knife would be. He doubted that he would take money, but maybe flowers would be a nice gesture. As soon as he said that, it felt right. And I knew there were plenty of places along the highway to buy bundles of flowers.

We headed home. It was still rainy, so we didn't even attempt another fire, since it seemed that the wood was all wet. We got to bed relatively early (11ish).

Up the Mountain

We got packed up at a decent pace and made ready to leave our first Airbnb of the trip. Our next one, in the cool mountains of San Gerardo de Dota, would be a rustic wood cabin. There were not a lot of Airbnb options in the Dota area, so this is one that I settled on, even though it was a little pricy for the rustic-ness. That’s why we only booked two nights.

Ramon got his rental car around 8am, so we were able to load up the luggage between two cars, which made a huge difference in comfort level. Anna’s bag was large, so I’m not sure how we would have loaded up all 7 of us and luggage into the Rush. Alex rode with Ramon.

We said our goodbyes to our host, Sofia, and hot the road. Google Maps had estimated 2 hours to the cabin, but Waze was saying an hour and 15. Despite the slow-going up the mountain and getting stuck behind the inevitable slow trucks, we still made good time and found ourselves, for the second time this trip, looking at being early for our Airbnb. We stopped at a little cafeteria-style restaurant for some snacks.

The cafeteria had pretty good wi-fi (one of the changes I’ve noticed from 10 years ago is how the wi-fi seems to be much improved). Cristina called T-Mobile to continue the effort to get the extra phone unlocked, since we were heading into the area that the Kolbi card was most recommended. Still not much success, as they said (for the second time) that they’d work on it and get back to us in the next day or two. Our host, Allan, said that early check-in was not possible, but he suggested we visit Truchas Selva Madre if we needed to kill some time. This is a trout farm/restaurant that has some hiking trails to waterfalls for 1000 colones per person ($1.67). It wasn’t very far off the main road, and the trout camp was gorgeous. We were greeted by Jose Maria, the owner, who totally embodied the authentic pura vida spirit of Costa Rica. Super sweet, friendly guy; you could tell immediately. He explained his facilities (restaurant is closed on Mondays, but we could still catch trout and he would clean them for us). We opted for the hike, and it was perfect. Not cool enough to be uncomfortable, but not so hot to be uncomfortable. The hike was beautiful and just strenuous enough to make the old people short of breath to give you a good day’s exercise, but not kill you. And waterfalls are always the perfect payoff for any hike. And we had an escort: one of Jose Maria’s dogs, who Jose said would likely follow us on our hike. He was sweet. We couldn’t remember his name (Mechas?) so we just called him Mitzi (we couldn’t remember his gender either…had a Wito moment).

After hiking the whole 2 waterfall loop, we decided to catch some trout for dinner. Bella and Alex went first and quickly caught two nice big ones. Unfortunately, there was a casualty, as Alex dropped his knife in the water while bringing his trout in. We decided to get 4 trout, so it was Sofia and Anna’s turn. They had a little more trouble, but finally landed two good ones. Jose Maria took the fish in a bucket to the pila (outdoor sink) and cleaned them. His daughter came down from the house and helped him. One of the trout was a potential mama, and Jose cut out the roe and washed it off for everyone to try. Well, Cristina and Sofia tried. He also lay the heart of one trout on the edge of the sink where it was still beating. Bella took a look and then went and played with the dogs.

Jose not only cleaned the trout but also filleted them for us (because I don’t have much experience or confidence in cooking whole fish in an unknown kitchen with no internet). The cost was 6000 colones per kilo. Our 4 trout totaled 3 kilos, so we paid 18,000 ($30) for 8 beautiful, large trout fillets that couldn’t be any fresher if we wanted. He said that the next day he could drain the pond a little and possibly find Alex’s knife. Cristina swapped contact info with him and we headed to our new home.

The cabin was much smaller looking on the outside than we expected, but once we figured out where the keys were hidden, we got inside and unloaded. The kitchen mostly had everything we need, but the fridge has seen better decades and there is definitely a lack of counter space. But overall, the cabin is cute and cozy (if a little chilly). And it has a pool table, which Alex and Ramon tried out. Alex and Ramon started working on building a fire in the fireplace and the rest of us went down to the nearest “mini super” to get a few supplies we forgot. There are lots of names for grocery stores: pulparia (very small), bodega (not sure if this term is used in Costa Rica, but it’s small like a pulparia), mini super (probably the name of a chain, but it describes it nicely: bigger than a pulparia, but not as big as a super market).

Note: it’s hard to find real butter in this neck of the woods. They have Numar, which is margarine, but we tried several places, and no one had actual butter. One guy explained it’s because the fat from the milk is mostly used for natilla (sour cream) which makes butter more expensive, so people just don’t buy it as much as Numar. Supply and demand = frowny face for us.

We also had a hard time finding full-fat milk. At the risk of sounding like a diva, I want richer cream in my coffee than skim milk. I’m willing to forego my usual half and half for milk, but I at least want whole milk. This wasn’t a tough find in San Jose, but out here in the land of no-butter, whole milk is apparently also scarce. We finally bought 2 coffee cups full of whole milk from a restaurant. Weird gringos.

Back at the cabin, I started cooking dinner while we all had hot chocolate. We decided to cook the trout over the fire, which Alex had going nicely now. I didn’t want to risk ruining our beautiful fish, so I put them skin side down in a baking sheet over the fire. I made some rice and beans, Cristina warmed tortillas over the fire, and we chowed down.

After dinner, we played a couple of rounds of Sofia’s game Scrawl, kind of a cross between Pictionary and Telephone, with a pinch of Cards Against Humanity raunchiness thrown in. It was great. I never knew my wife could draw such a good picture of someone having intimate relations with a cow. Yeah, it’s that kind of game.

Allan, the host, said that if we wanted to take a guided walking tour, he knew an ex-pat from the States that gave tours and lived very close by. 3000 colones per person ($5). I was really ready for a day of chilling, nursing this annoying sunburn, and catching up on my blog, so I opted out, but the girls wanted to do it. I told Allan we’d want to sleep in, and he said they could start at 10am.

Although it was only 10pm, we were all tired and ready for bed. So that’s what we did. Sofia braved the suicide shower, but the rest of us opted for morning showers.

Note: we call them suicide showers because they are a type of shower that heats the water at the shower head, which means that there are wires in the shower connecting the shower head to the electricity. A shower with electrical wires sounds like something you would only use if you wanted to die. Thus, suicide showers. It’s just an old joke that has stuck over the years.

Our mattress was quite hard and thin. I added it to my mental note of complaints about a cabin that cost $100 a night. That was a $30-a-night mattress if I’ve ever felt one.

Today we climbed a volcano and got our Catholic on

Feeling better after a night of sleep, I was inspired to make the grandest Costa Rican breakfast yet of the trip: an over-medium fried egg, gallo pinto (leftover rice and beans mixed together), fresh papaya, tomato, avocado, toast, fried platanos, and little cups of yogurt with granola. And coffee, of course. We tried the instant chai that Cristina found at Wal-Mart. The powder smelled weird, kind of fruity. It reminded me of ground up children's multivitamins. But once hot water was added, the aroma of cinnamon spice was predominant. Verdict? Not amazing, but decent.

After washing up the dishes (we established that someone different washed up after each meal) we loaded up and headed to Volcan Irazu (Irazu Volcano). The drive was slow in the Rush, as the  mountain roads were steep and windy. But Lord, what a perfect day. Sunny and clear. And once we got half way up the mountain, the air was crisp and cool, but not overly cold like I remember Irazu being the last time I was there, 25 years ago.

Oh, Poas Volcano is completely closed due to volcanic activity. So for this area, Irazu is it.

Note: this is our fourth day in Costa Rica, and the third day of absolutely no rain. We theorize it's because I've faithfully brought an umbrella on each outing. So as long as I carry the magic umbrella, the rain will stay away.

Cristina and I made one critical mistake today. We didn't put on sunscreen and we forgot our hats at home. Amateur move, Johnny. Needless to say, we got burnt to a crisp. The thin air (the crater area is about 10,800 feet), sunny day, and cool air combines to lull you into a sense of not needing protection. My red forehead is throbbing as I type.

After walking around the crater area for a couple of hours or so, we headed back down the mountain, stopping to buy some fresh cheese from a dairy farmer (delicious) which we ate some of in the car (he kindly offered to cut it into shareable portions). Then we stopped at a little restaurant called Linda Vista, which Ramon the Elder took us to 25 years ago. It seemed pretty much the same, their shtick being business cards and mementos from customers tacked all over the walls, as well as currency from around the world. We put Cristina's business card up, of course.

The food was excellent. Ramon's rental car was scheduled to be delivered to the house at 6, so we couldn't linger too long, especially if we were going to make a stop at the Basilica in Cartago.

On the way down the mountain, Sofia was trying to teach Anna some good pick-up lines in Spanish that Anna could use with her boyfriend, just for fun. No one could think of anything good, until Bella chimed in with "Want a green card?" Bella for the win!

The cathedral in Cartago is the most holy place in Costa Rica. It's construction is directly linked to the story of Costa Rica's patron saint: the Virgen de Los Angeles. Here's the story in a nutshell. In the 1600's, a young lady was collecting firewood and came across a small doll on a rock near a creek. She took the doll home and put it in her room. The next day it was gone. She went back to the same spot collecting more firewood, and there was the doll again. She took it home again, and this time locked it up so it wouldn't disappear. The next day it was gone again, found at the same spot on the rock. She told the local priest, who locked it up in the church. When he was preparing things for the next mass, he noticed that the doll was gone. Guess where it was. Yeah, on the rock. So they built a shrine over the doll on the rock, and eventually the cathedral was built on that spot. The creek that flows by the rock is considered holy water that hundreds of years later, people come by to collect in bottles, or bathe the parts that ail them.

We did a brief tour of the cathedral and Cristina bought a couple of small statues of the Virgin for her office. "I'm not Catholic anymore, but I'm getting my Catholic on today." And we all bathed in the holy water. I splashed it on my sunburn, which immediately faded away! Not really, but the cold water did feel good.

Eduardo called to say that they could deliver the car as late as 9, so that freed up our time at the cathedral. It was then moved to Monday morning.

We drove by the ruins of the first cathedral, which was unwisely NOT built at the spot of the Virgin's rock, and was destroyed several times by earthquakes until the priests decided they'd better just build it near the Virgin's rock. Been standing sturdy ever since.

On the way back to the car, a stray dog followed Mami, right on her heel. Cristina wishes Maz would heel like that, so we joked that we might need to take the dog home since she was so taken with Mami.

Back at home (after a long traffic jam due to a gnarly accident on the highway) I told everyone to do dinner on their own (eat up leftovers), while Cristina and I went to get a few groceries before heading to our next Airbnb on Monday. So we had date night at MasXMenos. A little girl stared at Cristina and asked her mommy why that woman's face was so red, which Cristina explained in Spanish. Yeah, it's that bad.

Back at home again, we ate and washed a couple of loads of clothes, while watching Transformers and that movie where Jamie Foxx is the president. And I got caught up on my blog.

Tomorrow, we pack up and head to San Gerardo de Dota. It's about to get rustic.

Saturday chill day? Nope!

By Saturday we were starting to settle into life in Costa Rica. I woke up at 7, but the rest of the house slept till 9 or 10. We had a big leisurely breakfast. Our goals today were to do some grocery shopping and visit the Mercado Central, a big bustling indoor stall market with lots of traditional items and foods for sale.

As much as it pains me to admit it, we shopped at Wal-Mart. It's kinda pointless to fight the Evil Empire here, because they own most of the grocery chains. There's a Wal-Mart a couple of miles from the Airbnb, so we went for convenience. A few of the things we were after, in addition to groceries for cooking at the Airbnb, were some kind of collapsible cooler or freezer bag for taking our refrigerated things from Airbnb to Airbnb, and a Kolbi SIM card. We brought an old phone from home that we plan to use for navigating with Waze if our T-Mobile phones lose their signal on the road.

A few observations about prices for things: very surprised at how expensive avocados were (about 4000 colones per kilo, that's about $3/lb), pleasantly surprised at how cheap green leaf lettuce was (400 colones per head, about 67 cents) and amazed at how cheap beets were (4 for 1000 colones, or $1.67...that's 42 cents per beet, and they were big!).

Back at the house (I'm going to call it the house, because I'm tired of typing Airbnb) we put groceries away and then headed out to the Mercado Central. Downtown San Jose seemed pretty much the same. Maybe more crowded with pedestrians than I remember. We almost bought a Kolbi card from a guy on the street (Wal-Mart didn't have them) but decided against it. The Market was it's usual big self, filled with varying smells of fresh (but stinky) fish, fresh flowers, leather products, and the aromas of little eating places all throughout. Since this is the beginning of our trip, we didn't buy anything, so we're not carting the stuff around for 6 weeks. But we checked out the prices of things that we're interested in buying.

We walked by the Gold Museum but it had just closed at 5pm. I got a cup of coffee from a little coffee stand, and got everyone a churro, since we hadn't eaten lunch.

We picked up the car from the parking garage, which closed at 6:30, and headed back home. On the way, we passed a Kolbi store, so we stopped there and Cristina and Ramon (and Alex) went in to see about a card while the rest of us stayed in the car.

Finally home by 7 or so, we cooked a big dinner of balsamic chicken, rice, beans, and beets. Some watched one of the Fast and Furious movies on TV. I was tired and grumpy after the stress of the past 3 days (getting into the routine, driving in San Jose traffic, worrying about the financials of six weeks in a noticeably more expensive Costa Rica, etc.) so I went to bed after dinner.

Today's Mission: Cedulas

We slept late. We all slept late. It was glorious.

We had purchased some breakfast things at the Fresh Market the night before, so by the time we all got up after 10, we made a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, papaya, avocado, toast, and coffee.

The plan for today was a two-parter: get new cedulas for Cristina and the kids, and have dinner with Eduardo and his family.

Eduardo "knows a guy" who could help us get through the cedula process quicker. So he met us at the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. Quick explanation: cedulas are Costa Rican IDs. If you are a Costa Rican citizen, your cedula is kind of like a mixture of a social security card and a driver's license. It's a plastic card with bar code and photo that you carry around with you (like a driver's license) that confirms your nationality for social services and voting (like a SS card). Because Cristina is a CR citizen, our kids have dual-citizenship. You can get a cedula when you are 13, so during our last trip in 2009, Sofia got hers but the other two kids weren't old enough. In 2016, Sofia's bag got stolen at a music festival, and her cedula was in there. So all three kids needed cedulas, and Cristina's had expired.

Normally, bureaucratic stuff like getting passports or cedulas takes a long time in Costa Rica, but Eduardo basically helped us cut in line, which felt kinda bad, but I won't lose any sleep over it. We opted not to renew their Costa Rican passports, because they coast $120 each, and we don't really use the CR passports. So it's not worht the expense. The cedulas are more useful, because many of the places you pay for here, like museums or tours, give CR citizens a much lower price. For example, we went to the Costa Rican National Museum while we waited for the cedulas to process, and Cirstina and the kids were 2000 colones each ($3.35-ish) and my entrance fee was $9.

We had been to that museum several times, but the kids didn't remember much of it, so it was time well spent. It has been upgraded too, so it's even nicer than I remember it. They still have several of the esferas de piedra, the stone spheres made by the indigenous people here many years ago. I wrote a book when Sofia was twelve set in CR that revolved around these spheres. For me, the highlight of the museum trip was brainstorming ideas for the next book with all three of the kids.

Eduardo and his wife headed off from the museum to get ready for dinner. After picking up the cedulas, we drove back to the Airbnb. We were all hungry, but didn't want too much food since we were going to dinner in a couple of hours, so we stopped at the Fresh Market and got some chips (and a couple of fruit drinks from Pupuseria Familiar).

We relaxed at the Airbnb, snacked a bit, then got freshened up and headed to Escazu to meet Eduardo and family at the Mirador Tiquicia. It's up a mountain, and this was the first test of how the Toyota Rush handled mountains. We made it up, but the car did not live up to its name. We won't win any speed races in that car. Patience will be required when we head to Irazu and Sierra de la Muerta.

The restaurant did have a beautiful view of the entire valley. Amazingly, it did not rain all day (at least where we were) and we could see all the way from Cartago to the mountains that block the view of the Pacific Ocean.

The restaurant attracts a tourist clientele, as evidenced by the two charter buses dropping off dozens of young tourists when we arrived. They have traditional dancers, but it costs extra, so we opted to sit in the "free" area. It still had a great view, but the service was definitely lacking, which annoyed Eduardo, who said this would be the last time he was going there. The food was average. Portions were a bit small. Cristina's arroz con pollo was bland. But the company was great and it was nice to reconnect with Eduardo. Again, he gave us lots of advice for our travels and offered to make some calls to help us with the activities we are aiming to do, like zip lining, horseback riding, etc.

We got back to the Airbnb and hit the sack.

Back in the CR

Wednesday before we left was crazy. But I didn't expect anything otherwise.

When we leave for a long trip, we feel compelled to get lots done at home so we aren't coming home to a mess, or lots of loose ends. "Getting lots done" means making appointments, organizing things that we had been putting off, cleaning, changing sheets (who doesn't want to come home to clean sheets?), getting financials in order, etc.

One of my to-do list items was to make detailed instructions for our housesitter. How to take care of the pets, how to maintain Dobby, our robot vacuum, how to run the generator if the power goes out. The generator is a new addition to the household, and there's a lot to deal with in using it. But that was just one thing on my long to-do list. Here's a sample of my list (I crossed things out when completed instead of deleting them for the psychological satisfaction of getting things done).

If you notice the last thing on my list was to help Cristina make six podcasts that she could email to her clients. This is the first time we've gone on a long trip since Cristina started her business, and she has struggled with the best way to serve her regular clients who come in weekly or bi-weekly while we're gone. So she loaded up appointments for everyone the two weeks before our trip, and she made self-help podcasts that they can listen to and still get the benefits of the Jin Shin Jyutsu techniques, with her guidance. The podcasts aren't hard to make, but it was another one of those things that got put off till the last minute. So we recorded her parts on Tuesday night, and then Wednesday I mixed her recordings with music. They came out pretty nicely.

Cristina still hadn't packed by Wednesday, so while we were picking up the rental car, getting Kubo's shots, changing sheets, and mixing podcasts, she was packing in between sessions with clients at her office. By dinner time, it was becoming clear that we would likely not get any sleep. We needed to leave the house by 4 am to get to the airport in time. That is, until I got a text from JetBlue saying that MCO was experiencing longer than usual TSA lines, so get to the airport 3 hours early. Make that leaving the house by 3.

I finally lay down at 1am, setting my alarm for 1:45. Cristina didn't sleep any. I got about 30 minutes.

We hit the road by 3:15. Uneventful drive. Stopped at Wawa near the airport to top off the tank, grabbed breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds, and made it to the airport around 5:45.

The TSA line was long, but not that bad. I've experienced worse, with far less time, so this was zero stress. Ramon almost forgot his watch at security, but luckily noticed and went back for it.

We got to the gate with over 2 hours to wait before boarding. Alex wasted no time in falling asleep on the floor, and the rest of us alternated between messing with our phones, walking around, and dozing. Well, I'm not sure if the others dozed. But I sort of dozed for a few minutes.

Uneventful flight. We had an entire row, the girls and I on one side of the aisle, Cristina, Ramon, and Alex on the other side. We all fell asleep soon after take off, only waking when they came by with drinks. Alex's side did not even wake for drinks.

JetBlue has video monitors in the backs of the seats, but commercials for wine and cosmetic dentistry played on a loop. I was such a zombie from lack of sleep that I didn't realize until we were almost to Costa Rica that I could change the channel from the armrest. I would have much rather watched a map of the flight than that stupid dentistry commercial.

One of the endearing things about flights to Costa Rica is how the passengers applaud when the plane touches down. I've never flown anywhere else where that happens. I had wondered if that was still a thing, and we all hoped it was. So when the plane touched down, we looked at each other, waiting for it. A few seconds passed and I thought maybe it wasn't going to happen. Then, one single tentative clapping started a few rows behind us. And as soon as we heard that, we all clapped, and then most of the plane clapped. The flight crew seemed to appreciate it and said "llegamos!" on the PA ("We arrived!")

We knew we had a few hours before we could check into our Airbnb, and then a few hours after that before we could get our rental car. So we were in no rush to get through immigration and get our bags. We took things leisurely. I got some cash from the ATM, the max of 400 dollars, which came to 250,000 colones. The machine gave it to me in 5000 bills, so it was a massive wad of money. You never want to count your cash at the ATM, even in the airport, so I went to the bath room and counted it in a stall. All there.

This is the moment that I learned a hard lesson about travelling to Airbnbs. Always make contact with your host, especially as the trip gets close. And download the Airbnb app before you leave home. I had done neither of these things, and now I tried to contact our first host to ask if we could check in a little early. I noticed that a message I'd sent her 4 months ago had never gotten a response. I sent a new message, which also got no response.

We exited the airport and continued to wait for a response from our host at the taxi stand. We debated taking a taxi to the Airbnb and just hoping that she would be there, but if we're going to be stranded with all our luggage, I'd rather be at the airport than in some neighborhood where we'd stand out like a sore thumb.

Still no response from our Airbnb host, Laura. I called the phone number on the account, and got a message saying that the number was no longer in service. Not a good sign. I also noticed that she had no reviews. Oh geez, what had I done!

We went to a cafe at the airport and got some food. A big group of American guys, probably in their 20's, were also in the cafe, drinking beer and talking loudly. Turns out they were in CR for a bachelor party.

I messaged Airbnb support and they said they would work on the problem, but then they stopped responding to my messages. Granted, the internet was spotty in the cafe, but it was still disconcerting.

I called Airbnb support (despite calls costing 20 cents a minute...at this point that was a trivial issue). The guy I got on the phone was very helpful, when I could hear him over the raucous bachelor party crew which just got louder with each new addition and each round of beers.

Here's the quick synopsis of what transpired: Airbnb sent their own contact attempt to Laura, with a 30 minute deadline to cancellation. In the meantime, they invited us to have some food and drinks on them (yes, you heard that right...Airbnb reimbursed us for food and drinks). When the 30 minutes ended and they got no response from Laura, they cancelled the reservation and issued me a full refund. During that time, we searched for a new Airbnb and found one in the same general vicinity. The potential host of the new Airbnb (named Sofia) was willing to take us last minute, she just needed some time to clean the place. We told support that we'd found a host, and they talked us through reserving it and applying a 10% discount coupon for the trouble. This was a super stressful few hours (not helped by having to step outside to hear the Airbnb guy on the phone over the bachelor party) but I gotta hand it to Airbnb: they made things right. faith restored. But seriously, y'all: make contact with your hosts pre-trip!

We have an old friend, Eduardo Villalobos, who is about our age. His family lived in Gainesville in the 80's while his dad attended UF. He invited us to come to his house in Alajuela for a visit to pass the time until it was time to pick up our rental car. Much better than another 2 hours at the airport. We opted for a turismo van instead of an official airport taxi. They charged us $15 to get to Eduardo's house, and they offered to take us to Curridabat from there for $50 (considerably farther, in heavy traffic). I did talk them down to $40 though. Because...it's Costa Rica. You barter.

As we chatted with Eduardo, it became clear that he's a connected guy. He's a firefighter/paramedic. And everything we talked about, he would say "I know a guy I can call to _______ (see if you can get a better price, help you get your cedulas faster, find things to do, etc)" He confirmed that the price we agreed on to get us to Curridabat was a good price.

Around 3, Danni picked us up. Actually, it was his uncle, because Danni had an emergency. Classic CR.

The ride to Curridabat took almost 2 hours. We all fell asleep, despite the harrowing drive through San Jose traffic during rush hour. I can't really explain the traffic adequately, but the roads are small, the concept of lanes is open to interpretation, and the other drivers are fearless and uncompromising. There's a reason why rental cars are so expensive in CR.

We were scheduled to pick up our rental at 4. The place closed at 5. We got there about 4:50. No issues with renting, except for a bogus fee they tried to tack on, which I questioned (even though the expert travel advice says don't bother trying to protest their little fees). He agreed to remove the fee since "we seemed like a nice family." Yeah, whatever. I still don't really trust any rental places in CR, even the chains like Enterprise.

I knew the Toyota Rush was underpowered for a 7 passenger SUV. That's how we got it for as cheap as we did. And I knew it wasn't going to have a lot of room for bags. But when the 6 of us squeezed in with all our bags, it confirmed the need for a second car for Ramon. He had a reservation at the same Enterprise, but Eduardo was helping him find something better, so he didn't pick up his Enterprise rental.

Navigating thru San Jose traffic in an overloaded, underpowered vehicle with approximately an hour of sleep in the past 36 hours was destined to be the highlight of the trip. Not really.

We got to the Airbnb, or near it anyway, and Sofia met us and took us the rest of the way. Her place was lovely. It technically sleeps 6, and there would soon be 7 of us, but she had an air mattress for our 7th person. We unloaded our stuff and then walked to a nearby shopping center that had a couple of restaurants and an upscale convenience store called Fresh Market (not the same chain as in the States). We ate at Pupuseria Familiar, a pupusa restaurant. Pupusas are thick cornmeal flatbreads stuffed with a variety of things, like meats, cheese, beans, or vegetables. They are similar to arepas. I got one with chicken, chicharrones (fried pork rinds), and cheese, and one with chicken and spinach. Then you can top them with shredded cabbage, spicy pickled vegetables, and sauce. And we each got a natural fruit drink. Maybe it was because I was so tired, but the fruit drinks were the best thing I had ever tasted in my life.

Back at the house, we had about 2 hours before we needed to head to the airport to pick up Sofia's friend Anna (from Sweden). I fell into a deep sleep for an hour and a half or so. Sofia woke me up when it was airport time.

Cristina, Sofia, and I drove to the airport, which took about 35 minutes at 10pm on a Thursday night. Anna's connecting flight in New York had been delayed several hours, so if we thought we were tired from travel, you can imagine how she felt coming all the way from Sweden. Despite that, she arrived cheerfully with no hint that she was as exhausted as she was.

We made it back to the Airbnb where I collapsed in bed and slept for 10 hours.