theadventuresofjonanddonna

Friday morning I headed out early, driving from Puerto Viejo to Moin, near Puerto Limon. Moin also has a seaport and loads up ships with fruit destined for other parts of the world. When I booked my boat tour Thursday evening, the gentleman at the tour centre gave me instructions on how to get to the boat dock, avoiding the main port or he warned I would be going to Europe with the pineapples and bananas! Friday was a sunny day, perfect for being out on the water. We went through a series of canals that run adjacent to the ocean (probably about 75 km), stopping to see any animals we happened upon during the journey. We mostly saw birds - cormorants, anhingas, pelicans, herons, bitterns, egrets, roseate spoonbills (related to the flamingo!), jacanas, but also ... read more

My Monday started out with a drive through the countryside - from Holstein dairy cows to fields of pineapples (seeing pineapples never gets old…sorry for the lack of pictures…it was raining) to bananas. It’s not every day you end up behind a dump truck full of pineapples or see the box of a pickup truck filled with bananas! I arrived in LaFortuna early afternoon and spent a bit of time wandering around, checked out another old church, had some very delicious quesadillas for lunch! Then I made my way further south to LaTigra to a hotel that Jon and I discovered on our last trip here - LaTigra Rainforest Lodge. I had been hoping to include it in my travels, and I booked myself 2 nights so that I’d have ample time to enjoy the rainforest ... read more

Sunday evening I ventured out to the pub in Punta Islita and met the owner, Miguel - a very friendly guy who is a genius chef! All the food coming out of his kitchen looks like it belongs in a 5 star restaurant. The previous week I had tried a bite of someone’s (a complete stranger’s!) hot dog and had been thinking about it all week long…so I finally went and got my own: yum. All sorts of sauces and toppings, including a slaw on top. So delicious. Totally made me ready to take on a new week. This week was slower work-wise as Sam and Maricela are back in San Jose, and Maricela is actually off for the week. My to-do list included wrapping up loose ends on site with Tom (site manager) and Chucho ... read more

Critters seen crossing the road in a single day: turtle, armadillo (OK, he was dead from crossing the road), crabs, iguana, blue bird After a long week mentally, I was ready for a break! I packed up everything Saturday morning to clear out my cabin and hit the road around 11:00. When I got to a bigger centre, it was my first experience getting gas - I’m not sure if it is easier to try to communicate what I want and arrange payment via basic phrases and hand gestures with full service or just pumping my own gas where I can insert a credit card! But figured it out, so now I know how to work this for the remainder of my trip! Full serve also has the added bonus of getting my tires checked and ... read more

Birds spotted today: caught a glimpse of a squirrel cuckoo, lots of cinnamon hummingbirds! and the troupe of howler monkeys was back again :) After some discussion between the Ara admin and me, we decided to proceed with setting them on the Xero accounting package. We spent the rest of the morning working out what format their account structure and reporting would look like, and then spent the afternoon creating the backbone within Xero. Tomorrow we can start with actually inputting real data and some accounting training for their staff. Looking forward to a team dinner tomorrow with everyone at Ara!... read more