Advertisement
Published: January 27th 2006
Beautiful Sunset
Wow! A sunset over the Pacific Ocean plus really soft, fine, dark sand and warm water.In reviewing this blog before publishing it, I realize that the blogs have become much more travel log and much less “blog.” Well, frankly, we’ve been busy and I really want to share with everyone all our interesting and funny (at least they seem that way to us) adventures. If anyone has any suggestions, questions or if more explanation is needed, please do not hesitate to put it in the comments. The kids will be starting school soon, so I think once that happens, we will get into a routine and hopefully the blogs won’t be so busy.
Well, we spent a week at the beach and we had a great time. Most days were spent at the beach and pool - bouncing back and forth between the two. We found the beach was best early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when it wasn’t too hot. The kids loved playing in the waves and the water was warm enough that you could just stay in all day.
As I said in the last blog, Jaco is not the nicest beach in Costa Rica. I don’t really know how to put it into a US context. I
Having fun...
Fun with that boogy-board! After the first day, the kids wore t-shirts for added sun protection. Boy, that sun is STRONG! (Ari got a bit of a burn -- the salt water seems to eat right through the sunblock-- but not bad). guess you could kind of say Jaco is Wildwood compared to Stone Harbor or Long Beach Island). Or Jaco is Old Orchard compared to Ogunquit - more built up, more schlocky, but still fun (but no amusement rides).
On the first or second day, we met Edwin and his family on the beach. As we have so often found, Ticos (Costa Ricans) are very nice and go to incredible lengths to be helpful. Edwin was no exception. He had bought his daughter a boogie board and she let Ari use it. Ari loved boogie-boarding, so that afternoon we went to look for a board for him. Despite asking in every surf shop and other store throughout town, the only ones we could find were the professional grade $85 boards. Hardly what we were going to get Ari. So back at the beach we asked Edwin where he had bought his. Of course, he couldn’t just give us an address. Unfortunately, he couldn’t exactly remember where the store was either but he said, he’d know it when he saw it. So right then and there, he told his daughter to go play on the sand and off we went -
Horse ride to a view
We took a couple hour horse ride along the beach then up into the hills overlooking the beach -- a great vista and a side trip into the woods to see monkeys on the way back. he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He and I walked all through town stopping in at many different stores and he showed me a few hotels he thought were cheaper and as good as our own (cheaper, definitely, but as good, I don’t think so) and some restaurants he recommended. Finally, we did find a board for Ari.
After a few days of just hanging around, one morning, at the great insistence of Ellie, we took a horseback ride. We got out early and to Ari’s pleasure (and Dara’s consternation), he got to ride on a horse by himself. We rode all the way down the beach and up into the hills overlooking the beach. We got some beautiful views and even took a little side trip into the jungle and were able to see some monkeys on the way back. Ari handled his horse like a pro.
The day after that, we headed out to Carara National Park - a small national park not too far away. We had a nice walk through the jungle - we saw lots of interesting plants like the buttress tree, trees with huge spike-like thorns on them, orchids and bromeliads.
Like old pros
Ari got to ride on his own horse (much to his mother's concern) but he handled it like an old farm hand. In addition, we were lucky enough to spot a family of white-faced monkeys. Also, in keeping with our lucky streak, as we were walking down the path, we ran into a small group of birders heading the other way. They had their bird spotting scope set up and trained on a pair of scarlet macaws. The guide was kind enough to show us the birds - without his help, we never would have seen them sitting far up in a huge tree (but we could definitely hear them...they are LOUD). After the birders moved on (they were the only other people we saw in the park), we stayed and watched for a few minutes. We saw the pair of macaws fly around a little bit - seeing their big, bright wings was incredible. Even though we’d seen macaws in the zoo, seeing them in the wild was really quite an experience.
The path through the park brought us back out to the main road. We weren’t sure what we were going to do, so we went and asked a van driver that was parked nearby. (He was obviously a driver for some other tourists in the park). We asked
about a restaurant we had seen down the road that looked like a good place to go for breakfast. Bing, bang, boom, he told us to get in and he gave us a ride to the restaurant - a generous move, even by Tico standards.
Unfortunately, as we sat down, we asked the waitress what time the bus comes by. She said there was one in a few minutes and then not another one for a few hours. So, without breakfast, we hustled back out to catch the bus. We waited for a few minutes - no bus. We waited for a while - no bus. We did see another pair of scarlet macaws fly by (amazing). Finally, we saw the bus round the corner and come down the hill. And then...we waved, we showed a little leg (just kidding).... it drove right by us. So we looked at each other, shrugged and went in for breakfast.
We didn't know it, but that was a sign that our luck was about to run out. Up until then, all the breaks had been going our way - call it luck or fate or we made our own luck -
What a view...
Here is the view from the balcony of our hotel room. There was a nicely landscaped area inhabited by a bunch of lizards (ranging from a few inches long to about 18"), then the pool, then the beach. we found a great apartment, great (we hope) schools (I promise more on that is coming soon), an unbelievable time at Asis and on the farm and more. Even though the bus didn’t stop for us, we saw the macaws fly by because we were standing on the street.
(Flashback to another lucky break… The first weekend we were in Costa Rica, we decided to take a break from house and school hunting and headed to Orosi, a town about an hour and a half SE from San Jose. We’d heard there was a like lake and hiking trails down there - a good day trip. So we took the bus down to Cartago, walked around a little then boarded the bus for Orosi. We figured that the bus would just stop in downtown Orosi and we could just take a cab from there to the lake. Well, bad figuring - we hadn’t learned the lesson of asking the bus driver where he should drop us off. So we arrived at the end of the line out in the middle of nowhere. I shouldn’t say the middle of nowhere, but it was down a long dirt road with nothing
Buttress Tree
We are between two roots of a buttress tree. Since soil in the rainforest is loose, soft and shallow, these huge trees have adapted by growing huge supports out of their trunks. (Photo taken by Eliana) around except a church. In our defense, it did not seem that we passed through the town of Orosi - or maybe the town is so small, we didn’t realize. So we got off the bus with a handful of other people (most of them teenage boys) - what else could we do? So we kind of wandered down the road, more or less following the other people who had gotten off the bus. We did see a sign to a national park, but that was 3 miles further down the road and there were no cabs in sight (not really any cars in sight). We asked someone what there was to do around there and they told us, “Oh, just cross this bridge, take the path on the left and there are a bunch of hot springs down there.” So that is what we did - across the bridge we took the path and walked through a big, beautiful coffee farm, followed the trail along the river - there were various paths that branched off of it, but every now and then we found someone walking along and asked directions - and soon enough, we found it. Down next
Look at these beans!!
Flashback to Orosi - Just by chance, we stumbled upon this beautiful coffee farm. to the river, there was a small pool of water fed by a hot spring. There were a few families picnicking and soaking and enjoying the weekend. And they welcomed us and we had a great time. And it was all because of luck that we stumbled into the right place.)
But now, our luck was about to change...and you'll have to wait until the next entry is posted to find out what happened!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.042s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marcy, Craid, Jenna and Jordana
non-member comment
gorgeous sunsets
Wow! Ellie's hair is getting so long! It's so amazing to see how the kids seem to have already grown so much!!! Harder to see it in the few internet cafe videoclips we've managed so far. I love the pictures of the kids in the sunsets... they look almost professional... except for the mud of course. We can't wait to see you all in a few months.