Zipping thru Costa Rica

Hotel Los Volcanes, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Agouti. Well, I finally cleared up that mystery. That rodent/rabbit size creature that keeps dodging in and out of the jungle and across my path has a name! At 5 this morning Ned and I hung out on our covered veranda and just listened to all the jungle activity. (Those howler monkeys! They sound like a fighter jet) Some other creature was gnawing and chomping hard on something. My guess - it's an agouti. I watched several of them scurrying back and forth along this path while I hung in the hammock. Still not able to get a picture, they are sooo quick! But I did steal one off the internet.

I just keep thinking how much Stella would love it down here. She wouldn't even have to move that far to have a field day with the myriad of colorful and interesting creatures. I can't wait to show her some of my pictures of insects.

 

 

 

I finally caught a picture of the agouti, but it's blurry. I just wanted visual documentation of these guys scurrying about!

 

 

 

Nearby is a zipride thru the jungle. There are two rides you can do - the 15 minute slow ride, kinda like riding a go-cart. You control your speed with a throttle and also have a brake. It's fun to kinda fly at a leisurely speed and ride in the tree canopy. It was a little scary at first, but I soon got used to it and just loved it. I stopped along the way several times to take video. Ned went first (cause I wasn't going to!). He saw monkeys running along the zip wires, but by the time I got there they were already gone.

Ned taking off and me getting suited up.

 

 

 

Okay, that wasn't so bad. Now for repelling..

That definitely got my attention!!

 

 

Okay, okay I'll try the zip line roller coaster, but Ned is definitely going first!

 

 

 

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!

And, yes, I did it barefoot.

 

We hired Fernando to take us back towards San Jose. I forgot about his death defying bus and car passes over the mountains. Oy...makes the roller coaster zip line seem like child's play. Actually, he's a really sweet guy and we so appreciated him driving us all over the country.

We're staying in the city of Alajuela tonight. It's adjescent to San Jose and very close to the airport. This city has a lot of colonial influence. I booked us in a hotel that is acutallly an old colonial house built in the 1930's. It's a mix between a bed and breakfast and hostel. We got the "upgraded" room with a private bath, comes with breakfast and a ride to the airport.

We arrived around 4:30 and decided to walk around the city and take it all in.

 

We decided on a late lunch/early dinner and had fun just wandering around taking in the sights and trying to pick a restaurant. While reading one of the menus, a gregarious fellow talked us into trying out his Colombian restaurant. I recognized his accent and it turns out he's from Queens. Norman was born in Columbia, raised in NY and moved to Costa Rica 20 years ago. His place, "Sr. Patacon and Dona Arepa" is amazing!! I got the Patacones, made with fried plantains and comes with chorizo, guacamole and pico de gallo. Ned got Arepas. Think of a thick tortilla stuffed with pork, diced onions, tomatoes and cheese.

We enjoyed chatting with Norman and talking about chocolate, politics and life in general. I just love traveling and meeting such interesting people. Anyway, if you're ever in Alajuela definitely check his place out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Beach day in Costa Rica

The Falls at Manual Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

 

Our biggest decision of the day was do we hit the beach or hang by the pool. Both won out.

The national park is closed on Mondays. When we reached the little town of Manual Antonio it felt deserted. Most of the little shops were closed and there were very few people at the beach. What a difference from yesterday. Not that a didn't love it!

We played in the surf for a couple of hours. We also met a nice guy from St. Louis on vacation with his sister (he just finished his physician's assistant program) and we spent too much time in the water yukking it up. The water is ridiculously warm so it's so easy to just hang out for a long time.

After realizing we probably had too much sun, salt and sand we went in search of Pipa fria (fresh coconut water).

 

 

Of course we had to stop and watch the monkeys playing in the mango trees that line the beach.

I could watch these guys for hours! I can't believe how many mangoes they consume. They have such personalities. They like throwing the mangoes down on us too. This has definitely been my favorite part of the trip.

 

 

Ah, finally scored that pipa fria! Delish!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After catching the local bus back to the hotel (walking that 1000 ft. climb yesterday in this heat was enough), we settled in to relax around the pool.

I brought my coconut to our bartender/waiter/everything guy (Luis) and asked him if he could give it a whack for me so I could eat the coconut. He did it one better and turned it into a smoothie for me. Ned scored on that one too...delish!

The pool here is so beautiful, set in a jungle garden.

 

At this little hotel the wildlife comes to you. There are lots of iguanas and other creatures (I have no idea what they are called) that are constantly skittering about. The iguanas will hang out, the smaller reptiles are more shy. Here's one of the iguanas stopping by our lounge chair near the pool.

There is one creature here that I've never seen before. It's the size of a jack rabbit, but looks like a large rodent with no tail. They have really long legs so they look out of proportion. I keep trying to get a picture of them, but they're too fast for me.

 

 

We tossed about a couple of plans for this evening, but then happy hour happened.

 

We finally decided on eating a pizza in our room and watch the Warriors Game. Go Warriors!!

 

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Tropical Jungle in Costa Rica

The Falls at Manual Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

We hired, Fernando, the driver that picked us up at the airport to take us to Manual Antonio National Park. It's supposed to take 3 hours, he did it in 2.5 with a 20 minute stop for refreshments and shopping. Go Fernando. He's the gentleman waiting patiently for us in the bottom pic.

At one point Fernando did show us some crocodiles basking along a riverbank, but he was driving too fast for me to take a pic.

The drive to Manual Antonio National Park was pretty, mainly lots of lush green mountainous terrain with the occasional wisp of fog. It's the rainy season now and we were lucky today with just humid cloudy skies and no rain.

 

 

OMG - this National Park is amazing. We were given the advice to hire a guide rather than just wing it on our own. Best advice ever. We would have missed a lot without Juan. It was really hard to pick which photos made the blog.

Zebra grasshoppers

Three toed sloth

Neo-tropical land crab (which only travels to the ocean once in its life to reproduce)

Purple crown fairy hummingbird

Squirrel monkeys - mom and baby eating mangos. (We saw three different types of monkeys: whiteface, squirrel and howlers). I have pictures of all of them too!

 

 

We took several hours to walk through the park. Juan had an amazing spotting telescope on a tripod. There was no way I would have seen the things he was able to spot with the naked eye. He was also really good at hearing, identifying and imitating the different wildlife sounds in the jungle.

We also learned a lot about different flora. He had me poke some baby ferns and watch how they instantly closed up as a defense mechanism to keep from being grazed by animals. He also showed us some ficus type plants that created its own holes in their leaves to look like they had been chewed. Again a defense mechanism. Because they look partially chewed, animals think they are toxic and avoid them.

 

 

 

We eventually made it to a beach within the park and Juan gave us a choice to go back with him or stay in the park. We stayed. And swam. And played in the warm water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked back into town, stopped for a snack, and then instead of taking a taxi or bus back to our hotel we decided to walk. We thought it was a lot closer than it was. And we had to walk over a HUGE hill. Like going up California St. in SF. The scariest part was there are no sidewalks. Made for an interesting walk home. Tomorrow we definitely take the tourist bus to the public beach!

 

 

 

 

 

The small hotel we are staying is amazing. Rather than having a magnificent view of the beach, we are on the jungle side and are butted up next to the National Park. This hotel, called The Falls at Manual Antonio has bungalows scattered throughout the tropical landscape. The bar, restaurant, sitting areas and pool are all open air and on different terraces. Our little bungalow comes with it's own hammock. When we arrived today we were greeted by Roberto, the iguana, on a walkabout.

This place is super chill. The pool is available 24 hours and we can hear all the jungle sounds around us. They have pretty good drinks too at happy hour.

 

Tonight we took a stroll around the town and decided upon a restaurant that was built AROUND a 1954 vintage bomber airplane. It has quite a history. It was part of the secret CIA deal that the US gave to the Sandistas during the Nicaraguan war. The secret deal was exposed (remember Oliver North, Papa Bush and the Iran-Contra scandal?) and the plane was abandoned. Some rich guy bought it for 3 grand and brought it here. It's now the bar in the middle of the restaurant.

Turns out the food was actually amazing. I had a whole fresh red snapper, Ned had shrimp with yellow curry sauce.

What an extraordinary day!

 

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Hacienda Azul Cacao Farm, Turrialba, Costa Rica

Hotel Boutique Jade, San Jose, Costa Rica

 

What a magical, incredible, amazing day. One that will stand out as a favorite memory for years to come.

Part of me just wants to post lots of photos so you can experience the beauty, color and food of Costa Rica and part of me wants to put the story down so you can be with us in this adventure too. How do I choose which pictures, how do I choose which stories??

 

Eric picked us up at 6:30 this morning to take us to the Peralta Cocoa Farm in Turrialba. The farm has now been renamed Hacienda Azul. Greg, one of the owners of Dandelion chocolate made up the foursome of our group. We've traveled with Greg before, who is one of the most fun, gregarious, smart and funny people we know. Eric is super sweet, knowledgeable about the area, and has such an interesting background. He's lived in Italy, Iran and several other places. Both these guys kept us entertained (and in stitches) for most of the day.

After about an hour or so we stopped in a small little village called Santa Teresa for breakfast. It was a gorgeous open air hacienda style restaurant, where they were making cheese tortillas and corn tortillas on a wood stove.

 

 

Eric encouraged us to get the cheese tortillas which can be topped with just about anything you want. (Sour cream, eggs, fruit, meat...). We also had fried cheese on corn tortillas, fried plantains baked in cheese, scrambled eggs and blackberry juice. I think there was a bunch of other things too, but I was just concentrating on this amazing cheese tortilla. When you order coffee here it comes with a steaming hot pot of milk. Dang, wish they served our milk in the States in steaming hot pots. Note to self - make this a habit at home.

The drive was simply breathtaking. We had to drive over a mountain, and because a bridge was out, around a volcano. The roads were in pretty good shape, but occasionally we had to drive through a creek. I'm glad Eric was driving!

We were high in the mountains and I enjoyed watching the clouds hug the hillside and drift in and out of the villages that we went through. This is also dairy country and we passed lots of cows, sheep and goats.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the 6th cocoa farm we've visited, and out of all the countries this farm is the most beautiful. It's a working farm, but could easily be a park. There were ponds, geese, horses, roosters and beautiful flora. Just breathtaking.

 

 

 

We did a walkabout with Wilfred, the owner,and I was impressed with how neat, pruned and healthy all the cacao trees looked. They were planted under a canopy of Spanish Cedar. Wilfred said this wood is used in making cigar humidors.

There were a lot of Indian relics that remained on the property. Here's Ned holding the broken leg of a huge metate, which would be used to grind either corn or cacao.

Wilfred wants to use his creek to power new mechanical dryers with a pelton wheel. We enjoyed sharing with him the we live in the town where Lester Pelton manufactured them. Small world indeed.

 

 

Usually when we visit a farm there is only one activity going on. Today we saw it all! Cracking the pods, putting the juicy seeds in the fermentation boxes and seeing the drying beds. Love the brilliant colors of the pods. They also taste amazing. It's so delicious to take a freshly cracked pod and suck on the juicy, sweet baba that surrounds the seeds. It's hard to describe the taste, but it's definitely tropical - like a citrus, banana, mango flavor. And to think this is where chocolate originates. It never ceases to amaze me.

 

The thing I enjoy most about our little business is making the connection with the people that grow, harvest and prepare the beans. We really enjoy sharing our chocolate with the people that work so hard to bring these beans to market. I have a lot of respect for the hard labor and work they do.

Here's Eric (the cocoa broker), Wilfred (owner of the farm), the foreman of the farm, and the lead worker. Sweet guys all of them.

 

When someone is good at it, cracking the pod is a mesmerizing process to watch. These workers do it more efficiently than anyone I've seen.

The two guys sitting on the mound of cacao pods have a simple block of wood with an angle iron embedded in it. They whack a pod with each hand, then toss it onto the table. The other workers open it up, scoop out the wet beans and toss the empty shell into a nearby bin. The guys in the line of fire end up with juice and pulp from the seeds splattered all over them. Everyone is laughing, having a good time, but working quickly and hard!

 

Towards the end of the day we went to the hacienda on the property, broke out Dandelion's and our Costa Rica chocolate. It was interesting to taste the differences in the bars, mainly due to the roast variations. I loved sharing our chocolate with everyone and amazed that it survived the road trip. It's been through quite a few temperature changes these past several weeks.

 

 

On the way home we stopped at the open air restaurant and had hot chocolate and coconut flan. Yum!

 

 

We got back to the hotel in the early evening, took showers, freshened up and agreed to all meet at a seafood restaurant within walking distance. After the incredible meals we ate today hard to believe I could still eat anything. Nevertheless she persisted:).

Eric and his wife Pia took all of us out. As usual, Greg kept us in stitches with his stories.

I had fresh shrimp with a chimichurra sauce over sautéed veggies and Ned had a whole octopus that was flame broiled served with roasted veggies and mixed greens. There were too many appetizer to describe, all were made with fresh fish. Again, one of the best meals ever.

Tomorrow we head to Manual Antonia National Park. Can't wait!

 

 

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Costa Rica here we come!

Hotel Boutique Jade, San Jose, Costa Rica

We spent a very relaxing morning at the camground swimming and just hanging out. We had a 2.5 hour drive to the Atlanta airport, parked Winnie in long-term parking (gonna miss you girl) and caught a 6 pm flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.

 

 

 

 

 

I meant to put this picture in yesterday so gonna post it here. We had an incredible sunset last night. Loved just watching the sky go orange and the fireflies come out.

This lake straddles the South Carolina/Georgia border. It's a great spot to camp and one could easily spend a week here, especially if you had a boat. Most people have one parked at their campsite.

 

 

 

 

Hanging around the airport...and

 

 

 

 

We're off!

 

 

 

 

 

Made it! It's 10:10 pm locally, but 12:10 am EST, which is what time we're used to, at least for the last several weeks. Uneventful flight, long immigration lines and nice hotel.

We got used to it being light until 9ish at night. I forgot that near the equator it always gets dark around 6, year round.

Eric, who supplies our Costa Rica beans will be picking us up at 6:30 am to take us to the farm. Looking forward to it, but first sleep.

 

 

 

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Soaking in South Carolina

Modoc Campground, Lake Strom Thurmond, South Carolina

 

We took a little "we" time today.

This is our third time at Lake Strom Thurmond and one of our favorite places to camp. Knowing we had a five hour drive to get here we pulled out of North Carolina early.

 

Fortunately, we had the Comey testimony to keep us entertained. It made the drive go by really fast.

Here's Ned munching on popcorn as we listened - apropos for the congressional hearing.

 

 

As if the all the political stuff wasn't enough drama, while driving down the highway a truck pulling a trailer (adjacent to us) had a blow-out. He lost his re-tread which caused the fender to fly off and into Winnie.

It just missed our windshield, landing on our hood. We're fine, Winnie is fine, but it sure woke us up. We stopped and the guys with the wacko truck came to check on us. I think they were as shook up as we were. We shook hands, glad everyone was okay. and off we went.

 

Finally here by early afternoon.

First thing was to get set-up in the perfect campsite on the water...check.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, ride bike to nearest store a couple of miles down the road and obtain ice...check.

 

 

 

Create the perfect Moscow Mules...check

 

 

 

 

Ah, soak time with Moscow Mule in hand...Check!!

Mission Accomplished.

We hung in the water for hours...and hours. Hot day, warm water, place to ourselves, pretty dang awesome.

 

 

Ned...hello out there...you good?!

 

 

 

After a fun day in the sun, tonight is all about getting ready for Costa Rica tomorrow. Fortunately, the campground has laundry facilities (thank you US Corp of Engineers). I wish doing laundry at home was this much fun. Bike ride, change laundry, bike ride, fold laundry, bike ride...

Best camping buddy ever...Just love this guy.

 

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