Advertisement
Up with the roosters & chickens again. I love the treehouse! There was a moment in the middle of the night where I think a group of dogs went through the yard. I couldn't see well enough to be sure. Maybe it was pigs...who knows. There was a lot of sniffing going on.
Today we are heading out to Bahia Drake on the Osa Peninsula. We're going with Barron & Julie. It's always fun to have a travel team. We did the usual morning stuff: shower, eat, pack, drink too much coffee...We watched this guy make a spin on a baleada & we are totally intrigued & going to try one ourselves today. Basically it involves putting the mixed up egg in the pan, cooking it with the tortilla laying on top of it & flipping the whole thing as one. Then add whatever you have or want to the inside. Ours turned out pretty good, we just didn't have any extra ingredients which would have made it even better.
We then waited for our cab to take us to the bus stop on the highway. We could probably walk but it would take a good 30 minutes &
it's soooo muggy & hot & we're running late anyway. Thank goodness I guess. Barron & Geoff started walking just in case the cab wasn't big enough for all of us (there's a couple German girls heading to the bus stop as well), how chivalrous. The cab showed up & was a van so we picked the boys up on the way out. The cab driver was telling me that this tourist season has been bad for them because it rained a ton in the past few months & that normallly the area around us would be dry & brown, like in Playa Coco, & not nearly as green & lush as it is. Interesting. He dropped us off at the bus stop & we sat & waited. He was nice enough to ask the two locals waiting at the bus stop to make sure we got on the right bus. Thanks!
It's only 8 a.m. & it is already roasty toasty. We all sat in the shade to hide from the suns blazing rays. I stood behind the bus shelter because I didn't even want sun on my feet. 😉 Sadly, once the bus arrived & we were on
Kassandra already hiding from the sun.
Only 8:15 in the morning, but it was HOT!our way we realized that Geoff left behind my water botttle. Dang. He was too busy taking pictures of the flowers all around & got excited I think. Oh well, at least we still have one more nalgene left.
Our bus ride took us to the town of Palmar Norte. I was worried about knowing when to get off so this local guy told me he was getting off at the same stop that we would need & he would let us know. Once we arrived in town he was kind enough to walk us all to the bus stop we need & then escort Geoff to the bank. Thanks! While waiting at the bus stop for our next bus we learned that it would be better to take a taxi because our next connection is a water taxi & it will leave before the bus can get us there. So, after I bartered with the taxi driver for five minutes to save us $2, we were off to Sierpe. In Sierpe we waited for about an hour for our water taxi to Drake Bay. Our water taxi was another little panga & it was super fun. We drove
through dense mangrove lined rivers until we were out in the open ocean. We stopped to watch some Spider Monkeys swinging in the trees & we watched a ginormous Crocodile get into the water. Eek! After a little over an hour on the boat we arrived in Drake Bay where we had to do another beach water exit. It feels adventurous.
As we were getting off the boat a gringo expat named Craig said he'd help us find a place to stay in Drake. We had met this couple at Flutterby who told us that Drake is really touristy & overdeveloped so we had no idea what to expect. But basically, there is one road in town, it's a teeny tiny town that we learned you can walk through in all of about 10 minutes, there is jungle everywhere & it's beautiful. To top it off, as we were getting off the boat a huge group of Scarlet Macaws flew overhead making a bunch of noise. Incredible. It just reminded us to take other peoples judgements with a grain of salt. So, our welcoming committee of Craig walked us up the road to his house, which is also a
hostel, & after showing us his place (which was a bit more than we were hoping to spend) & realizing we were looking for something more simple, he recommended us to his neighbor's hostel. It was funny because he actually spent more energy selling us on staying with his neighbor than he did on trying to get us to stay with him. I will not soon get over how truly wonderful the genuine kindness of strangers is. It is a treat.
So, we headed next door & fell in love with Vista Drake Hostel. Our room is a basic room (bed & mosquito net) with the most amazing view of Drake Bay. Barron & Julie are staying in the "tent" room next to us. It's basically a big plastic tent with a real bed & a wood structure built around it for shelter. Barron & I had a rock/paper/scissor best out of 3 to decide who got which room. I won, we chose the room with a view. While we were looking at the room, Elberth (the brother of the owner), pointed out a large group of Scarlet Macaws sitting in a tree across town. Within a few minutes
A picture of us with Barron and Julie from Vail.
We shared a 6-pack on the boat ride. There is something about boats and beers they go so well together. he shows up with a large telescope, sets it up on the deck, & then we were looking right at a tree with 23 Scarlet Macaws sitting in it. Welcome to Vista Drake! Sold!!
Once we were settled in our room we walked back over to Craig's house to get the grand tour of town. Craig & his wife Lori walked us through town & told us interesting details about every building we passed. They were super cute. Craig bought a beer ("it's 5 O'clock somewhere") & told pointed out his favorite 2 restaurants (out of the 6 in town). They then helped us to find the cheapest beers in town, where the guys bought a case to put in Gary for the next few days. We ended up buying the beer at a hardware store of all places. They did have the best prices. I bought a box of wine. Why not!
We left our tour guides to have lunch at Craig's favorite restaurant "Sol y Mar y Bosque." (sun, ocean, & forest). We shared a HUGE fried fish with tostones (called patacones here for some reason, Costa Rica has to be different I think). The Scarlet
Macaws moved over to the tree next to our restaurant during lunch which was very nice of them. They are sooo noisy but I love it!
After lunch (or linner (lunch & dinner combined), it was already 4pm) we all headed back to our private viewpoint. Our spot is really sweet. It's just the 4 of us on this bluff overlooking the bay. It's really Wow! They went for a hike to watch the sunset & we were going to follow behind (but we lag & I was afraid to be too far from the bathroom, it was one of those moments....). So we just played on the beach in front of our place & watched the sunset behind the mountains. It was still lovely. We went back to our place soon after the sun dipped down & were suddenly inundated with Green Parrots. There were at least 50 of them flying directly over us & landing in all the trees around us. They squawk so loudly, while flying & while just perched in the trees. They were really really big Green Parrots & beautiful. It was such a surprise & so amazing to see.
The owners of
our place hooked us up with a local dive shop so we are diving tomorrow! The family that owns this hostel is so kind & warm & exceedingly helpful.
We all reunited back at our place that evening, sat in our plastic chairs, shared beers, talked & talked & watched the stars come out. We heard the craziest noises coming from creatures around us. It was noisy! So many different sounds. There was one creature that made a sound that sounded like a "dink," like when you hit a fork to a glass. Crazy. (We later learned that sound comes from a Dink Frog, go figure). There was also a ton of lighting bugs that were swarming around a tree across the road from us. It was like a light show all for us & it was beautiful. We feel so lucky just to be here. Incredible doesn't really describe it....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.137s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 30; dbt: 0.1076s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lisa Otness
non-member comment
life jackets!
love the pic of you two in your life jackets!! Were you drinking juicy juices??? ;). Love & miss you both!!!