Travel Day

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Geo: 10.3041, -84.798

Two quick, on-the-fly entries from the internet cafe before dinner:
An assortment of random notes from the Big Travel Day.

Alex's favorite part of the day was arriving at the house in Monteverde. He was struck by the green tiled floor, the spectacular view and the swallow-like birds swooping around the roof.

Dad's tongue-in-cheek favorite part of the day was the microwave cheeseburger on the airplane from Houston to San Jose.

Josh saw cows with long ears like lop-eared rabbits and dewlaps. They decorated the sides of mountains, roamed in fields and munched weeds in ditches by the side of the road. Usually they were white. Sometimes they were close enough to touch as we drove by, if we had opened the windows and leaned out a bit. Josh heard (herd) his sister making up songs in Spanish and some birdcalls we can't identify. Josh smelled exhaust fumes as we drove down Costa Rica's main highway. The highway is two lanes (one each way) and cars get backed up behind slow-moving, emission-unfriendly trucks. Even on this major thoroughfare there are bridges that are reduced to one lane so you have to be patient and take turns going across them. Once you leave the country's primary highway, you learn why man invented the ATV. Josh tasted lactose-free, fat-free milk. "It was essentially milk-free milk. Kate picked it out." Josh touched a cow. Actually, he didn't, but he wished he did.

We worked our way through the airport part with relatively little muss and fuss. We were met outside the San Jose airport by Victor from the Friendly Costa Rica van company. He loaded us up and drove us to the Rainbow house we are renting in Monteverde. Victor doesn't speak English, so Kate and mom got to warm up their Spanish with him. Mom was pleased with how well she did. We discussed the giant balls of termites that hang from the occasional tree along the way. He pointed out white birds that eat bugs off cows. He stopped to show us thermal springs that feed into mountain rivers and create steam. We identified mango and cocoanut trees and coffee plants.

Dad is making a pasta dinner wearing a Williams/Sonoma apron, just to amuse us. We picked up a few things from the super Mercado on the way to the house because we were not sure what we would find. We settled on buying bread, olive oil, pasta, some tomatoes pureed in a packet and a salchichon sausage made by the Zaragoza company who have been sausage specialists since 1970. From this we cobbled together dinner. Kate noticed that there were several biographies of President Obama available at the market.

Dad reports that our luggage sat out in the rain so long in Houston that his clothes inside his suitcase, underneath his raincoat were wet. He states that Imperial brand beer is, “pretty good.” He looks forward to the coffee in the morning.

Kate: (that's riiight…😉 woke up at 4:00 after an eventful night spent with cats and then a brother. We went to Einstein's bagels at National and the service was terrible. They charged us the wrong price and then gave me the wrong muffin, but it was kind of ok because it was chocolate chip. We spent 3 hours on a flight from DC to Houston. I spent $8 to watch TV. Mom made fun of me. Then we went on our second flight from Houston to San Jose (3 hrs 40 min). I worked on my AP summer work the entire time. Josh said Gregorian. MOM BROUGHT SKITTLES!! Yum. We then waited for our luggage and I thought it was gone and that I was going to have to buy new clothes. The luggage turned up wet, but all there. We drove for 4 hours to Monte Verde with Victor who is awesome and also has one hand. He let me practice my bad Spanish on him. He also asked for directions like the “good guys.” Dad was irked about it. :D I kind of felt like we would fall to our death off the road though because Victor kept driving on the side closest to the edge no matter where his correct lane was. Also, the van didn't have seat belts and I kept seeing the driver's education video in my head. I was privately paranoid. The house has a fantastic view with green mountains partially hidden by clouds. Forest everywhere, 100 million grasshoppers, and little birdies flitting from to and fro with a giant sunset. The opaque water freaks out Josh. My room is awesome but big and empty and kind of creepy. Awesome because it has a great view and is separate from everyone else and creepy because it's the entire second floor and empty. It also makes creaky noises. Now I'm going to go sleep in there. ALSO a red chair I moved went back outside through a locked door in my room and no one would own up to moving it which FREAKS ME OUT. Anyway, goodbye.

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Photos

Our deck
This deck is on the second floor of our house "Rainbow House." The clouds are over the Gulf of Nicoya

Mountain stream
Victor pulled over and showed us this stream that comes down from the mountain and meets with thermal springs. Very steamy!

Farewell and birthday celebration
We met the night before our flight at Chevy's Fresh Mex to celebrate Kate's 16th birthday

Kate's birthday cake
Aunt Tricia got us this very festive cake. Emily and Jack led the singing. Matt cried because he is four and it was not his birthday.

Mushrooms on the shower wall
These little guys were growing in the shower. The house was super clean, but Monteverde is a really fungus-friendly place.

Birds of Paradise, I think
We have many cool flowers and butterflies in our yard

The Thinkers
This little worn bench is in our yard. The accommodations are sparse, but serviceable. We love the views!