November 2009

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December 2008

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December 2007

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March 2007 (Our new casa)

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Click on the map below to enlarge it & you can see where our Caribbean casa is located.

November 2006 (We bought a casa!)

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January 2006 (searching for property)

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March/April 2005 (25th Ann./Santana Concert)

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It took almost 18 months to make our first trip in 2005 a reality. It all started because I got a computer & typed in the word “Costa Rica”. It wasn’t that this was to be our chosen destination, it was just curiosity & a desire to maybe see somewhere else other than Mexico. Being as it was a special Anniversary, our 25th, we wanted a special adventure. Day after day I poured through dozens of internet sites until compiled enough in my Favorites to show Dale. Once he started looking the decision was made….we were going to Costa Rica!! First stop was to the local B.C.A.A. Travel agent to help us plan our trip. Right away we knew she knew nothing about the country. She insisted we needed to book a room in downtown San Jose so we would be close to the airport. From perusing the internet I knew that the Jaun Santamaria International Airport was actually in Alajuela about 25 minutes East of San Jose. We let our agent book our flight to & from Costa Rica & decided to look after the other details ourselves. How I planned such a perfect holiday with no snags what so ever I’ll never know! I booked all our rooms, ground, water & air transport…you name it, I did it. Our itinerary was jam packed & for most of the month long holiday we were constantly on the run & we loved every minute of it! To date the first trip was our most memorable & enjoyable holiday. We had so much fun, saw so many way cool things & created enough memories to last a life time. We couldn’t have picked a better country to celebrate our 25th Anniversary! As we boarded the plane to come home we knew we’d be back!!!

This is what Costa Rican "colones" look like. The money is as colourful as the country!! They also have oodles of coins that way a ton when your pockets are full of them…much like carrying Mexican pesos around! The rates change daily but the 10,000 note is approximately $ 20.00 US.

ALAJUELA

This is Juan Santamaria The "drummer boy” who helped save Costa Rica from an invasion, poor boy; he died & was considered a hero. Its in downtown Alajuela which is also the city where the San Jose Airport is located (Juan Santamaria International –SJO). We took a cab from our hotel to downtown, what a zoo! So many people everywhere! We checked out several stores & then ducked in to the Mercado (market). Wow….first off the smell nearly took our breath away. Nearly every second stall was selling fish or meat of some kind & it was quite pungent! Lots of clothing, jewelry & places to eat too & all of it oh so cheap.

This was our hotel for the first & last night of our trip. The Hotel Brilla Sol (bright sun). It’s located about 5 minutes from the airport. The hotel’s driver picked us up at the airport when we arrived & dropped us off when we were leaving.

This was our room, on the lower floor. Note the chain…it’s for guiding the rain water off the roof & into a hole in the ground.

PUERTO VIEJO de TALAMANCA
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the Caribbean coast was the first destination on our itinerary. Our van driver (Interbus) picked us up in Alajuela & dropped us off after a four hour hair raising ride….so very, very, very fast, passing on blind corners, cliffs that you couldn’t even see the bottoms of……I was more than a little nervous! We were grateful that the van was air-conditioned though…it was really hot!
He let us out at the bottom of a hill & pointed up to our hotel. He didn’t want to drive up as he didn’t trust the tiny, rickety looking bridge that had to be crossed in order to get up there.

We unloaded our bags, opened the gate & made the trek up to the hotel. It was 201 steps to our room. I know this because I was counting them as we walked up them later that day & promptly tripped on brick #61 & split my kneecap open. By time we got to the top my knee was grotesquely swollen & leaking yellow pus. Wow I couldn’t believe how fast an infection sets in here! First stop the next time we left the hotel was to the pharmacy for peroxide!!

We stayed in Puerto Viejo at the Cashew Hill Jungle Lodge for 4 days. It was more than perfect! Our room (on the left) was so high up on stilts & the hillside that our balcony looked right out into the treetops! There were Toucans (the fruitloop bird) so close we didn’t even need to use binoculars! Too cool! Our beds had mosquito nets but for some reason we didn’t use them & one night Dale had a King Cockroach that walked across his belly while he was sleeping. It was huge! YUK!

The view from our balcony…....mega jungle! We even saw a sloth hanging in one of the trees!

A lot of the jungle vines are very similar to what we would grow as indoor plants back home…only at home they would most likely never grow so big. These ones are at least 50’ high!

This is the Green & Black Poison Dart frog!!
There were several of them on the ground below our balcony one morning. What an amazing sight! They look fake, like the little plastic frogs you can buy in a toy store.

Dale looking down.......way down!

This is the other half of our shared balcony…our side looks just the same. Everything is built with beautiful hardwood. The maid polished our floors daily.

This is the owners (Wendy & Erich Strebe) of the Cashew Hill’s house. They have a pet White-faced Capuchin monkey named Mendoza, three dogs (Ozzie, Elvis & Joplin) & two sons Zeke & Elliot. They have a couple of other kids but they’re grown & live elsewhere.

Another view from our balcony. That’s the Caribbean Sea off in the distance. We were only about a 5 minute walk to the beach. Check out the colour of that house! I just love the colours of the caribe’!!!!!

This is the mirador at the Cashew Hill. The top part has chairs & hammocks for chilaxin’ & the bottom area is a kitchen for guests that are inclined to cook or needs to keep something cold in the fridge.

One big blue-eyed bug! We rode bikes over to a biological garden & saw all kinds of really cool plants, trees, bugs & other critters.

This is Miss Helena’s Soda. She was recommended to us by the Cashew Hill owners. We ate here several times. It was right near the base of the hill our hotel was on, next to the elementary school. The first morning we ordered we had ham & cheese omelets with Costa Rica’s ever present, rice on the side. On the table was a jar of pepper chunks in liquid. Dale went to use it & Miss Helena said “careful, that’s hot” Dale said no problem, I like hot. LOL…a few minutes later the sweat was just pouring down his forehead. Yup…it was hot!! Mucho caliente! It’s an open design…no walls, thatch roof. Her sign says “made with love by Miss Helena). Good food...mmmm.

This is Miss Helena.
Dale chatted up a storm with her every time we visited her soda (small café).
Really nice woman.

This is Playa Negra in downtown Puerto Viejo. The sand is pitch black. If you look close you can see where the sand changes to white (Playa Blanca) at the base of the tree line. The barge apparently ran aground there years ago & now has trees & grass growing on it. Lots of people hang out on it.

That’s Dale down there by the water. He pretty much had to run from where I am taking the picture to the water’s edge because the black sand was soooooo hot on his tender soles!

This picture of the Catholic Church was taken on Palm Sunday, fitting being as there are palm fronds decorating the entrance!

Tortuguero
We left for Tortuguero on Good Friday. Since no transportation runs on this holiday day we had to take a cab. Our drivers name was Bull, nice man, chatty. Along the way we passed a few men sleeping on the road! Bull said they were probably sleeping off the last night party! He said the traffic just drives around them. Scary! We got to the dock up at Puerto Limon by 9 a.m. & waited for our boat ride up the canal. While we were waiting we could hear the phone ring in the office & someone yelled out “Sherry the phone is for you”! Of course I thought they were talking about someone else because who could possibly be phoning me way out here?! Well it was for me!! It was the owner of the hotel we were going to be staying in calling to say that our ride would be a bit late & he didn’t want us to fret! Nice of him to call as we felt kind of lost & weren’t sure what was going on. We finally got on our way around 10:30. Our captain stopped every once in awhile to point of Caimans (small croc type critters), birds, sloths, monkeys etc. & at first I was a tad upset that we were speeding along so fast because it was kind of hard to bird watch. It didn’t take long though before I was wishing we would get there faster. The seats were wooden benches & our butts were in agony! The canal ride to Tortuguero was over 4 hours…ouch!!! Cool ride though….so much to see along the way. When we got to Tortuguero the boat pulled right up to the dock at our hotel. We stepped off & there we were…about 20 feet from our room. Cool….right on the canal!

Along the way we saw this banana train taking workers to the plantations. It went across the canal above us.

We stopped here for a 15 minute pee break (paid .50 cents) & had a beer as well.

The sides of the canal are really muddy. We saw a group of yellow butterflies all together in a tight ball, maybe 50 or more that swirled up like a bunch of leaves as we passed, beautiful! Our captain said they were Sulpher Butterflies.

This is our Bed & Breakfast in Tortuguero…the Casa Marbella. It’s owned by a Canadian biologist Daryl Loth & his wife Luz Denia. This place was so clean it was almost clinically clean! Great breakfasts too! It’s right on the Tortuguero Canal. Our room is on the left of the picture. If you walk through the hallway you are on main street & can see the Pacific Ocean.

The Casa Marbella from the street side. No pavement here…just one dirt road.

Looking from the main street through the Casa Marbella to our dock on the canal. If you stand here & turn around you can also see the Pacific Ocean…cool!

The view of the canal from our dock at the Casa Marbella.

Another view from our dock at the hotel. This is where Daryl parks his boats.

There are absolutely no cars in Tortuguero. Everyone travels by boat. The town is so small that no one even needs a bike to get around. There is only 2 ways in to Tortuguero…boat or airplane. That’s Cerro Tortuguero in the background. Legend has it that it’s shaped like a turtle & that’s why so many turtles come to the beaches here to lay their eggs. Unfortunately we didn’t see any Sea Turtle as it wasn’t the right time of year.
I took this picture sitting on our dock at the Casa Marbella.

Obviously I didn't take this picture, I found it on the 'net. I added some text & included it so you could see Tortuguero from the air. Click on it to enlarge it & have a boo at where the airstrip is! I'd be worrying about over shooting the runway.....mucho scary! Not sure I'd ever be brave enough to fly in! Think we'll stick with the waterways!

This is on a tour we took of the Tortuguero Canals with Daryl. Beautiful! He showed us so much! There are so many canals around here you could easily get lost on your own.

A Bare-throated Tiger Heron…just one of so many amazing birds!!! Tortuguero is a birdwatchers heaven!!

This is Tortuguero’s Catholic Church. It’s only open on Wednesdays. The preacher comes up by boat every week. The Pacific Ocean is directly behind it & the Casa Marbella is in front of it. Yes, it is as small as it looks!

This is the La Culbra (snake) bar. As you can see you can boat right up to it or walk in from the town side. Pretty wild….disco balls all over inside. We went in for a couple of beer, quiet town.

We came upon this frog right in the middle of the path…we almost stepped on it! Dale spotted it & Ross was really impressed as he said he hadn’t seen this kind in years.

A lot of the trees here are massive! This isn’t even a big one!

Now this had to be one of the coolest trees we’ve ever seen! It’s called a Walking Palm & it really walks! You can’t actually see it move though…it does it slowly over time. Its roots move in order to keep the tree in the sunny areas…too cool!

One big spider!!! It’s called a Golden Orb Weaver. It’s hard to see here but the web is yellow. This pic is pretty much life size.

I think this was called a Monkey Vine. If you break it you can drink water out of the root.

This is a termite nest. They are everywhere & some are huge.

The Pacific Ocean where the trails of the National Park come out to.

We hired Ross to take us on a hike up Cerro Tortuguero. Grueling hike!!! It was only about 300 feet high but straight up in super slippery mud & it was so hot. It took forever to get to the top…wow was I ever out of shape!! The view from the top was incredible!!!

This is Ross, our guide. He’s Canadian too. He’s been here in Tortuguero for years & is a bug & plant expert. We hired him to take us on a guided tour of the National Park. We’d already walked it ourselves the day before but with him along we realized how much we’d actually missed. Here we are at the opening to a bat cave (behind us) when he took us on the Cerro Tortuguero hike.

Whoo whoo….bats, bats everywhere! Very dark & clammy in the cave.

This is a “bat tent”. This is a male. He chews the leaves to form creases to make his tent. He waits here for a female to come along so they can mate. Once they mate the poor fellows die because his teeth were ruined by building the tent & can no longer eat.

The greenery here in Costa Rica is just spectacular!

We left Tortuguero around 6 a.m. Daryl lined us up a ride out a different route. It was a long thin boat with about 15 or so people in it besides us. They were all Costa Ricans on their way to work or shopping in Guapiles. From the Casa Marbella we headed up towards Nicaraugua & then went left into the jungle heading west along the Rio Suerte. The ride was to be about an hour & a half but being as their were so many of us & that the river was so low it took a little over 2 hours. Parts of the river were so narrow & shallow that a few men had to get out to help push & pull the boat along. Eventually as we neared our destination it got so low we all had to get out & walk across a big, mucky field full of cattle. Along the way there were a few barbed wire fences we had to climb over. We finally got to where a school bus was waiting to take us on to Guapiles. The bus was jammed with locals & it didn’t even look like we’d fit in, luckily we didn’t need to.

A family that had been on the boat offered us a ride. Hubby, wife & two kids. We sat in the back for the bumby trip & we all tried our hardest to communicate for the hour & a half drive. They dropped us off at the Hotel Suerre in Guapiles where we were to wait for the Interbus to pick us up & take us to La Fortuna. We passed the time bird watching & having excellent buffet lunch at the hotel…fancy place.

ARENAL

This is our cabina at the Arenal Paraiso. There are around 30 of these individual cabinas spread throughout their hilly property. Every cabina faces Volcan Arenal & the views are spectactular. We could see the volcano from the bed, the shower, the toilet....awesome! Each cabina has a glassed in, tiled porch with leather rocking chairs.

It had been awhile since we'd seen TV so as you can see, Dale waisted no time settling in!

Inside is gorgeous. Polished hardwoods everywhere you look. Beautiful tiled floors. Everything was clean & tidy. Besides the TV, there was a small fridge & a phone. I called my Mother, talked for about 15 minutes...$93.00!

First time we've ever been in fancy enough place to transform towells in critters...loved it! The 2 little red dots were pieces of flowers.

I believe this is a Heliconia, wow are the beautiful...the country is full of dozens of different kinds of them.....the hummingbirds love them.

The Talapia ponds on the grounds of the Arenal Paraiso

Muscovy ducks in the Talapia pond.

Talapia....pretty good eating!

Early morning watching the mist rise.

At night, the red glow of the volcano's cone is nothing short of spectacular, firey boulders spewing out the top & rolling down the sides. Incredible, we'd never seen anything like it.
On the night of our anniversay, woozy from all the alcohol we drank at the swim up bar while soaking in the hot spring pool, the volcano put on an impressive show for us. Every time it blew there was a collective "OHHHHH!" from every guest in the resort.

I was up at the crack of dawn as usual, determined to get a good shot of the volcano. I waited & waited & after about 10 pictures, I finally caught a glimps of the cone.
Some people never get to see the top of Volcan Arenal during the day. It has its own weather system & is more often than not shrouded in clouds. We apparently were lucky.

The cone up close. If you look closely, you can just barely see a wisp of grey smoke.

SANTA ELENA

PUERTO JIMENEZ

CARLOS SANTANA!