Last day in CR
Mike and Andee made it home 3 days ago. They had a great time on their cruise around the bottom of South America and during their time in Florida, visiting family and friends. It was nice to spend some time with them, we had some great dinners, discussions/conversations, a lot of drinks and laughs. …
Poas Volcano
We’ve been waiting for 2 weeks for there to be no clouds over the volcanos when we woke up and finally, today, mother nature cooperated. When that happens, if you get there early in the morning, odds are you’ll get a good view of the crater. …
Back to the beach
Just spent 2 days on one of the nicest, white sand beaches (Playa Grande) on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Stayed at the Las Palmas hotel, discovered it when we were on one of our beach walks when we were on the east coast last week.
The hotel itself is nice but dated, definitely needs some improvements and upgrades. …
Tortuga Island Cruise
While searching around for day trips from San Jose, came across one for a catamaran cruise to Tortuga Island. It’s on the west coast, and lies off the Southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula.
So for $109/each, the tour company ( www.calypsotours.com…
La Kukula Lodge on the Caribbean side
Just spent last Tuesday and Wednesday night at La Kukula Eco Lodge, in between Puerto Viejo & Manzanillo on the south east side of Costa Rica. Found it on trip advisor and it lived up to all its positive reviews.
It’s in the middle of the jungle which is one of the things that appealed to us and it was within walking distance to Playa Chiquita, just across the road. …
3 Crosses hike with a different descent
Today was a gorgeous, sunny and clear day, perfect for a hike up in the mountains. Despite the fact that we’ve already done the 3 crosses hike, 3 times on previous stays, we decided to do it again. It’s great exercise and you just never know what you’ll see. …
A walk around Escazu
Escazu is apparently considered to be one of the most posh and upscale areas in the city of San Jose by the Ticos (local Costa Ricans). Check out this description of the area in the Go to Costa Rica website. While yes it’s true, the US ambassador has his residence in Escazu, there are also some very poor people living here. …
We’re back again!
Made it back to Costa Rica on Jan 20th safe and sound. Dave even remembered to bring his wallet :-) In fact this time, we didn’t forget anything so the journey was pretty much stress free.
Nice to see Mike and Andee again, and Rocky, their cat seemed to remember us because we got head butts the first day. …
Last day
So today is our last day in Costa Rica, Mike and Andee (in the pic above with us) got home 2 days ago safe and sound. As a matter of fact, Dave’s wallet made it back on the same day...finally! Turns out it had been stuck in customs in Miami since Feb 22nd because there was cash in it (less than $200). …
The Caribbean
So we finally made it to the east coast of Costa Rica and it really felt like we were in the Caribbean. It was only about a 4 hr. drive from San Jose to Cahuita but far enough to justify spending a couple of nights.
Cahuita is a very small, laid back town right on the coast with a lot of Jamaican influences. …
Irazu Volcano
Today we did a short day trip to the Irazu (ara—peak of tzu—thunder) Volcano. It’s the highest one in Costa Rica and it’s been inactive since the early 60s. However, there were 9 tremors felt in the area within a 30 minute period on March 2, 2010…
One in a million....
That’s what one of the local guides said as about 30 of us witnessed this sloth “walk” across the road because you rarely see them on the ground. I say “walk” because it looked more like it pulled itself along. What an amazing thing to see and so close up. …
Earthquake!
Last night we were watching TV and at about 10:48 pm, the house shook for a few seconds. We both looked at each other and said was that what I think it was? Yeah it was! No big deal but a little unsettling to feel the house move after what recently happened in Chili and Haiti...and we’re currently living halfway up a mountain! …
New road, crocs, sweat, monkeys, beach!
We finally made it to Jaco Beach on the Pacific coast today. What used to be a 2 to 2 1/2 hour, white knuckling, stressful drive thru hairpin turns over and thru the mountains is now a much more enjoyable, relatively flat, 90 minute drive on the …
La Paz Waterfalls
So after a week of getting reacquainted with the house and property, we took our first road trip yesterday. When we woke up, there wasn’t a single cloud over the volcanoes across the valley so we decided to go to the La Paz Waterfalls, near the Poas volcano. …
We’re back!
....And today is sunny and warm and almost 79F outside. Beats freezing Florida any day!!! When we left yesterday am, there was frost!
Getting here wasn’t without it’s challenges though. As we were putting the trailer and truck in storage at the RV park back in Florida, another tire blew on the trailer. …
Bye Costa Rica!
So it’s our last morning in Costa Rica and it’s beautiful! Mike and Andee (the people we’re house sitting for) arrived back safely on Sunday.
Being here for 5 weeks has been a great experience and an incredible opportunity to really get to see so much more of the country than we would on a 1 week all inclusive vacation.
I almost stepped on it!!!!!!
Big hairy spiders....the things that creep me out the most...I almost stepped on this when I went into the kitchen last night! OMG I’m pretty sure it was a tarantula and I was bare foot!!!!! The thought of it contacting the bottom of my foot still makes me shudder!
Volcano watching, more zip lining
When we were in Costa Rica about 5 years ago, we took a day trip to the Arenal Volcano and saw nothing, not even the outline of it, it was so fogged in. Disappointing to say the least. During this stay in Costa Rica we decided to try again but we upped our odds of seeing it by staying for a couple of nights at the hotel with the best view of the new lava flow, the …
Zip Line
Just got back from our best day trip yet. We spent two days at the Adventure Park, Hotel Vista Golfo 25 K from Punteranas. The lodge is situated in the small community of Tajo Alto/Miramar high up in the mountains. The views from the restaurant there were incredible, always something to see.
Crocodiles and the beach!
Today we headed out of the city for another day trip. Decided to go to Playa Jaco and stop at Carara National Park on the way.
We did some research before we went and found out that we’d be crossing the Tarcoles bridge on the way to the park and that from there, you’re almost guaranteed to see crocodiles.
Poas Volcano
Today we went to the Poas Volcano park, it’s not quite a 2 hour drive from San Jose so it’s a great day trip.
Sunny when we left, really nice drive through some very pretty parts of the country but the further up the mountain we got, the cloudier it got. …
Legs hurt, hard to move...
...Recovering from our first good hike in the mountains!
This morning we did the 3 crosses hike just up the mountain from where we’re staying. Thanks to Kenny and Nonnette who showed us how to get here earlier in the week. Again the GARMIN was invaluable in getting us there and back again.
Getting settled....
So today marks the end of the first week of official house sitting. So far so good, here’s what we’ve been up to.
We ventured out to the San Jose market again with Kenny & Nonnette (some local Californians we were introduced to). This time we picked up some fresh shrimp and fish. …
Getting our bearings!
We’re starting to feel a bit more comfortable in our new surroundings. Mike and Andee gave us lots of good coaching before they left yesterday. They’d been driving us around for the past few days, trying to point out landmarks, good places to eat, shop etc. …
We made it to Costa Rica!
After a bit of a shaky start (really bad weather and some nasty turbulence), the flight from Orlando to San Jose, Costa Rica was uneventful and only 45 minutes late.
We had never met or talked to the people who’s house we’re looking after until today, lots of emails back and forth so it was nice to finally meet Mike and Andee (in the pic above). …