Final Day and Final Thoughts

OK so technically it is Friday as I start to write this and I am already back home, am on my second day back to work (not happy about that either), and have pretty much gotten back into routine but I just wanted to round up my final day and then my final random thoughts about this vacation, and what's next.

So, first let's start with Tuesday, our last full day in Costa Rica. What else is there to do but to spend the day on beach so we pack up our things and head back out to Playa Herradura, our new favorite beach in this area. It's only 9:00 and the day is a bit cloudy, looks like possible rain but that doesn't stop us because let's face it, it's Costa Rica and it's our last day so nothing is going to stop us from one last glorious day on the beach!!
There's not a lot to say about the day itself. The weather cleared up and it turned out to be a really nice day and we just had a good day chillin' on the beach with a couple of cold beers.
But because it is our last day, Dave and I always "look back" on our vacations and because recently we have had this mission to also be on the lookout for a place to retire it gives us a bit more to discuss then just whether we would consider another visit to the same place. It is funny that we do this sort of ritual at the end of our trips yet with most every place that we've been, we've not returned for a second trip. The reasons vary but one of the main reasons for not returning to any area is simply that there are still so many places that we haven't seen and it would be a shame to limit our experiences to just one place. However, as we get a little older and are contemplating early retirement, our views of things and our trip discussions have taken a slightly different path and as mentioned in my first post, this second trip to Costa Rica is pretty much a result of these new goals that we have.
So, enough of all this blah, blah, blah, here is what Dave and I thought about this area and what our future plans look like, for now anyway.

This area of the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica is often referred to as "where the mountains meet the sea" and that is very true for much of the area. As you drive down the only highway road the mountains are on one side and the small, sometimes almost non-existent, beach towns are on the other side. Our first place to look at was the Dominical and Uvita areas. In this area, most people live on the mountains with stunning views of the ocean and the benefit of wildlife all around as they are really in the jungle. An added benefit of being on the mountain is that the higher elevation and cool breezes help to shrink or even eliminate the need for air conditioning and one of the more expensive things in this country is electricity so this helps people achieve a lower cost of living while still taking advantage of the area. For us the area was nice and it was great to be able to sit outside 80% of the time and listen and watch for wildlife but the mountain roads are all dirt and I mean bumpy trench filled dirt roads.It took us at least 15 minutes to get off the mountain because of the roads and I swear that by the time we got to the main road many times I had a damn headache. While there are so many positives about this area and lifestyle, we agreed that it is likely not for us.

Our next area was around Manuel Antonio and Quepos. This area is more touristy, busy and overall just not for us. Again, we liked our stay here and enjoyed the area, the national park and the beaches but didn't get that feeling like it could be for us long term.

The last area was Jaco which is one of the northern areas of the coast and certainly much busier. This was an interesting area because the town and beach of Jaco didn't really appeal much to us but the quieter beaches and areas of Playa Herradura and Playa Agujas seemed like they could be a bit more to our liking. I had rented a condo unit right on Jaco beach and it was great but again we ended up spending our time in other areas just because the beaches and such appealed to us more but in speaking with the people that we rented from, they indicated that in the areas that we liked better there were not too many rental opportunities and that most people buy and stay for a long time so finding something is a little harder. Dave and I had agreed that we would rent to begin our journey and will likely never buy as it just allows us more freedom. Also, since rentals can usually be found cheaply enough it would not be a huge cost burden. So, the lack of rental opportunities could make this area a little difficult to get what we want. 

So, did we find what we were looking for? The quick and easy answer to this is probably not. the more complicated answer is maybe in the last quieter areas we found but without another closer look it would hard to know for sure if we could do it and if it is what we want.

Then what now? It is clear that Dave and I are beach people and we will likely not be happy unless we are conveniently near or even on the beach. We talked about different areas that we can still look at within CR that might fit the bill and there are still quite a few areas that we can look at here and Dave also kept mentioning Belize. I have considered Belize before but I have a few hang-ups about it. First it is almost crazy expensive to get there, I can get both of us to almost any other place for the price of what it will cost for one of us to get to Belize. Longer term if we are living there and not traveling back and forth much it may not be an issue but to do a couple of trips to check it out will cost us. Second, they are not known for their health care but they are improving and as I understand it most people get an international insurance plan and travel across the border to Mexico which has excellent care. Lastly, the cost of living is not as cheap in the areas that would be obvious to consider living although I have read that some people make it work in these areas and there are a couple of other not yet over discovered places that may also be a consideration. 

Lastly there is also Roatan, Honduras which has always been on my short list but this small island off the coast of Honduras also has it share of challenges that include cost of living and health care but I haven't totally ruled this place out either

An intelligent person has by now figured out that we are still looking for that "just right" place for us. I am sure that we will find it but what this means is that I will have to go back and do some more research and Dave will likely go and do some more fishing while he waits for my other suggestions. Something about this arrangement seems oddly unfair but anyone that knows us knows that this is the way it is, and we wouldn't work if it was any other way.

So, until next time...salud!

Oh yeah, I'll post my pictures soon too and hopefully some of them actually came out good!!

A Couple of Really Good Days

OK, so let's start with Sunday. Dave and I went to Playa Herradura, the nicer, calmer beach that's about 15 minutes up the road from us. We headed out about 9:00 am and figured we'd get there before too many people. Boy were we wrong, the place was packed with many tico families spending their Sunday together at the beach. We find an area to park and put our things under the shade of a nice big tree and it happens that we are next to a huge family of at least 20 with their kids, parents and even abuela (grandma) who at this point is sleeping in the sand. It's a bit early for her to be passed out so we'll assume she is just napping. They have the back of one of the cars open and music is blaring. First some reggae, then some Latin salsa music. Then the men get the grill ready, and by grill I mean some old, rusty tire rim that they have put some bottom on and they start the fire with everything they can get their hands on. Top it with a grate and soon it is ready and the grilling begins. Meanwhile the kids play soccer on the beach and go into the water. Dave and I have gone in a couple of times too.
Now we are relaxing having a beer and the tico family next to us is eating and their drinking begins as well...BTW, it is barely 11:30 now but it's all good. As we are sitting there, their dog comes next to me and proceeds to pee next to me but at least it wasn't on me, then someone is there apologizing for the dog and introduces himself as Mauricio. We begin to talk with him about nothing in particular mostly how our visit is, what areas we like about CR and a stint of time that he lived in Wisconsin. He is extremely nice and funny too. Every paragraph ends with him saying something like this: "Here its good because no one bothers you, .....except for me!". We talk with him for a while longer and then he goes back to drinking with his family and we go in the water. By now, la abuela has had her share of shots and she is singing and dancing on the beach....it is so fun just to watch this family have fun together.
Dave and I get out of the water and are having another cerveza when Mauricio comes over with a couple of shots for us and wishes us Pura Vida!!! Now la abuela is in the water trying not to get too wet but a big wave comes along and wipes her out....she gets up laughing harder then all her family is and goes right back to drinking some more as it seems to be a bit safer for her than in the water!!
It was a great day just watching Mauricio's family have fun and to speak with him and share a drink with him too!

Now on to Monday. Dave and I weren't really sure what we wanted to do today so we decided to start off driving up to Playa Agujas which we stumbled upon when we first got to this area and were driving around a bit. When we first found this beach area we heard quite the ruckus and then realized that there were macaws in the trees above us. I didn't have my camera with me that day so today we are on a quest to find the mighty macaw, camera in hand.
Of course we get to the beach and there's no sight nor sound of them so we walk around the beach area and we see a bunch of fiddler crabs on the side of a creek that runs into the ocean. We also start to see other birds like egrets and some hawks.
We go back to the trees in which we saw the macaws last time time but they are not around. While we are waiting we see a motmot and an awesome looking tiger-heron. And then we hear it, the loud squabbling sound on the macaws. They travel in pairs and make a lot of noise. Finally we see them and they are gorgeous. Big and bright and sitting on the tree just waiting to have their picture taken. Over the course of our time there we see three pairs and I try to get some good pictures (will have to post later) and my last task is to try to catch them in flight and I make Dave wait, and wait, annnnd wait but finally one of the pairs takes flight and I try to get some pictures...we'll see how good they come out.

So, overall we've had a coup!e to good days that make me glad that we spent some time in this area!!

What Day Is It Anyway??

OK, so I know its Friday, somewhere at the end of May. The date is not so important most of the time unless something significant happens and then I am sure to do a quick calendar check in my head.

Much like my laid back, no ID philosophy, I often lose track of time while on vacation, both in what time of day it is as well as what day of the week it is and as my vacations get longer, so does the time void that I find myself in. Aside from days where we actually "do something", most days consist of these vital four elements: sun, sand, water, refreshment (aka: beer and margaritas). When we are lucky enough to be by the ocean there is just such a calming that the waves crashing and the breeze blowing makes that I literally just get lost in the moment.

Right now we are in Jaco, Costa Rica and we have rented a condo that is right on the beach. This beach however is not my dream beach as the surf is way too rough and there are many rip tides. Yesterday we witnessed a young couple skinny dipping up the beach a ways and the next thing we know, the guy was swept out and they had to get some surfers to rescue him. He was conscious and breathing but he definitely got hammered out there and they were trying to keep his head still while they got him to the ambulance. I hope he is OK.
Luckily we had decided earlier in the day that this beach seemed way too rough and we spent a little time in and by the pool and then took a few hours to drive around to the nearby towns and beaches where we went searching for calmer waters which we found in Playa Herradura and Playa Agujas. The later is much calmer but we had to drive quite a ways down a dirt road while Herradura is at the end of a  smaller paved road and still calm enough.

So today, Friday, we headed to Playa Herradura. After breakfast (which Dave is still making every day) we collected our chairs, towels, water, snacks and cervezas and headed out to Herradura. This beach is more our speed. It is a nice stretch of shady, sandy beach with minimal waves. It is a bit of a cove that protects the waters and makes it much calmer than most other places. We find a spit of beach to call our own and so begins the day.

Its during this time that I begin to wonder what day it is. Then, with nothing else to do I start to wonder why when on vacation it is so easy to lose track of time and not be concerned with what time of day it is. I mean let's be real, how many times do I lose track of time when I am at home?
I know it is Monday because the weekend just went by too fast and now I am back at work.
I know it is Tuesday because the true force of the week begins to kick in.
I know it is Wednesday because well, its hump day
I know it is Thursday because only two more days till the weekend and I have to hurry to get work done in the next two days.
I know it is Friday because it is the last work day and then the weekend begins.
I know it is is Saturday because its the first day of the weekend and I have lots of house chores to do.
I know it is Sunday because its the last day of the weekend and tomorrow I have to go back to work...UGH!

Here, on vacation, I don't know what day it is and I don't really give a shit! I'll move when I want, eat when I want and drink when I want...what's the worst that could happen? I'll miss my flight back home? I wonder when that is anyway???

A Monkey, a Raccoon and an Iguana walk onto the beach

And just like that, someone's lunch is gone!!

OK, let me start from the beginning. On Monday Dave and I visited the Manuel Antonio National Park which is considered to be one of the best on the Pacific Coast if not the whole of Costa Rica. It is a combination of about 5 acres of land and 135 acres of marine reserve. You can hike through several different trails and most lead down to a beautiful beach.

The trails are easy walking and we went about 8:00 so that we could try to get a glimpse of some animals before they went into hiding for the day.

So, after paying the gringo price of $16 each we headed into the park. We chose to go without a guide for a few reasons, first because we like to take our time and challenge ourselves to find some animals on our own which we did, second because we are cheap and didn't want to pay for it and third because there were so many people with guides that for a few animals we just watched where they were looking and then looked in the same spot.

We spotted things big and small including a couple of sloths, some capuchin monkeys, a howler monkey, a whitetailed deer just grazing on the side of the path, a strange striped cricket and a couple of different lizards.

But the real show came once we got to the beach. Unsuspecting sun worshippers put their things down, laid out their towels and proceeded to strike their best pose for anyone watching. What they didn't realize was that they were not being watched by the other sunbathers on the beach but rather by the locals, waiting to make their move. You see, in this area the locals are the monkeys, raccoons and iguanas and if you are not careful they will steal your lunch, or your sunglasses or anything else they want.

I heard of these scavengers so when we arrived at the beach we found a nice tree to hang our bags on and then locked them up as well. If they wanted to get any of our things they were going to have to work for it. But alas, others were not so wise and we witnessed raccoons sneaking up behind people and grabbing things right out of their open bags, one was even brazen enough to play a tug of war of sorts with one girl for her bag. Lucky for her she won!

Most people got wise to them and started to either hang their bags or at least arm themselves with big sticks in case they were the next target. Oh, except for the lady who had the first item of the day stolen, she later proceeded to sit on her blanket with a mango in her hand and then was surprised when a big fat iguana came over to get himself a bite!!!

So we spent much of the rest of the day watching people watch their things along with seeing a few very aggressive igunanas defending their territories from each other.

As we headed out of the park Dave caught some mention in the dead leaves on the path and we caught a glimpse of the very cool looking Jesus Christ Blizzard, aptly named because it can walk on water. Cool way to end the day.

OK, We Are So Not Ever Doing That Again

I'll start this post by saying "Dave loves to fish", but most people reading this probably already know that, and every time I start to plan out a trip one of the first things Dave asks me is " Is there any good fishing there?". My initial response is always to remind him that I am planning a vacation and not some damn fishing expedition but eventually I go down that path and begin to look for fishing options as well.
To date I have found some type of fishing that we could do in many of the places that we have vacationed, but it can be really expensive at times so I have to research a bit and often times have found a fishing trip that is within our budget and seems to have good reviews.
Here are a few of the fishing trips we've done and how we fared.
Grand Bahama Island - here we fished the reefs with a man named Les and we caught things like yellow stripers, margarets, squirrel fish and the likes. We had so much luck with Les and his price was so reasonable that we fished with him all three times that we visited GBI but we've not been back there in a while now.

Green Turtle Cay - this is one of the Bahamas out islands and on this trip we actually rented a boat for the week which by itself was cheaper than some of the other one day fishing trips we've done. For this trip we did not venture far into the ocean and our reef fishing was similar to our experiences with Les along with catching a couple of reef sharks. We also tried bone fishing here and while we didn't catch any of those we did see the fish around and it was really fun trying to catch them.

Curacao - we wanted an off shore experience here and ended up on a boat with three other people an the only bites we got were for two little barracudas. The only memory from this trip was being stopped by the marine patrol when we reached the dock. No problem for us but the captain didn't have all his papers in order so he was going to have to go and get them and produce them. Hindsight should have told me from this experience to carry some ID as the marine patrol did ask us for it but they did not care that some of us didn't have any ID so I guess it didn't sink in for me.

Costa Rica 2013 - the last time we visited CR we went fishing on Lake Arenal with Capt Ron to try for peacock bass and  machaca which is much like a pirhana but we did not do well here either. Dave didn't catch anything and I only caught one machaca. Ron had warned us that fishing had been slow recently but since you never know what will happen we went out anyway. The lake itself is beautiful and it was a really nice morning, just no fish. Ron also hooked us up with one of his friends in Samara where we would be staying later in our trip. Frank was a young guy and took us on a half day trip to try to find some tuna. It was a long half day with only one small yellow fin tuna that Dave reeled in but it wasn't the big fight that he was hoping it to be. Frank was trying so hard to get us onto some fish, he even stayed out past the half day mark but the fish were just not biting. When got back in we gave our little tuna to a local family because we didn't rent a house and had no where to cook it.

Costa Rica 2015 - And that brings us to our current trip. I heard many reviews that the area we are in now has great off shore fishing so I scouted a bunch of options and decided on Quepos Fish Adventures which had good reviews and a reasonable price. We were due to head out at 7:00 so we got up at 6:00, downed a little coffee and off to the dock we went. Capt Johnny greeted us and off we went. On our way out to deeper water we saw some flying fish, several turtles floating around and as we got closer to our trolling spot we saw a sailfish jumping around and this got Dave really excited as he has never hooked onto something big with a good fight and he is ready to get started. Johnny rigs up six lines off the back of the boat and we begin to troll around, and around, and around..... Seven hours later we start to head back to the dock, fishless, biteless and feeling a bit jinxed. We got nada, none, nothing....UGH I did catch a little nap though so I guess that's something...

I only feel bad for Dave as he wants so badly to hook up onto some big fighting fish just for the thrill of it all but for now we have agreed that we will not be paying for any fishless boat trips. Maybe once we find a place to live we'll hook up with some of the locals and get lucky

For now we'll seek out ways to fish from the shores or docks for free and save our hard earned money for our retirement funds!!!

A Walkabout

OK, I know that a walkabout is really done in Australia but I'm gonna use that term for the nature hike that Dave and I did on Thursday.
The Hacienda Barú Wildlife Reserve is about half an hour from where we stayed in Dominical and everyone knows that the best time to see much of the wildlife is early in the morning. So, we woke up at 5:00 in the morning, slugged down some coffee and then filled our backpack and headed out by 5:30. I could swear that I heard my brain yelling at me because it was so early and we (my brain and I), are supposed to be on vacation. But I turn off the voices in my head and we proceed to leave for the reserve.
The reserve is quite large and while we walked about 3 miles altogether, we still only covered a little more than half of the entire place.
The park itself is very easy to walk around in since it is all pretty flat and even though we arrived there by six o'clock, it seems like most birds were already hiding on us.
We did see quite a few things though, a pair of hawks with a nest, some vultures, several butterflies and some hummingbirds too. We also saw a couple of agouti in our path, a sloth, and a great male curassow up in a tree.
I didn't realize that the SD card in my camera is not a micro version so I can't upload my pictures because my tablet uses a micro SD.. Ah, technology!!
After all this as we are heading out of the trails Dave spots, in the middle of the path a green snake about two and half feet long...some would say yuk but what really got me was the fact that he was in the middle of eating a frog and you could see the frogs legs hanging out of the snakes mouth...super yuk!!! The only good thing was that his mouth was already full so if he was poisonous and had any intention to bite us he'd have to spit out his lunch.

All in all this was actually a nice walk on a day that was fairly cool and we got to see a few cool things.
Back at our rental by 1:00, just in time to take a power nap!

Ah, The Sounds of Nature

So for our first seven days Dave and I are staying in Dominical on the Pacific Coast, "Where the mountains meet the sea" they say and yes, we are renting a little casita on the mountain. The view is pretty good. We can see the ocean and have quite a lot of forest around us so we can try to find all of the creatures that pass through this area.
The last few days have not been overly exciting for us in terms of activities as we have been chilling, two days at the beach and one at a waterfall. No, not the same waterfall that Brady took his recent leap from, but a smaller one with a nice small relaxing cool water pool. We opted not to jump nor slide down the waterfall and only saw one person attempt the slide and he dislocated his shoulder so good call on not trying that!! BTW - the guy was OK he has old injury apparently and his shoulder pops out easily which seemed evident as he just popped it back in...yuck!

Anyway, back to the story. At our casita we have seen a few animals but you have to be patient and sometimes you have to be able to hear where the noises are coming from.

A typical day begins with the sounds of nature waking up. You can hear several different types of birds, Dave and I only clearly make out the toucans because they are the loudest and most repetitive but we can tell there are many more birds around. Next to join are the howler monkeys. They sound like a bunch of macho guys trying to establish the pecking order in the group. It's actually all very cool until you realize that it is only 4:00-4:30 in the freakin' morning. Do these animals not realize that I am not a morning person. To date we have not gotten out of bed at this time to see if we can find the source of the sounds but we keep telling ourselves that we will.

Usually the noises subside a bit within what seems to be a half hour and we fall back alseep only to be woken by the daylight at about 6:15!! Did I forget to mention that our casita is totally open aired with screening where windows and doors would be and no curtains? Oops! This time we get up, make coffee and for the next couple of hours we sit on the deck listening to what is mostly birds trying to get a glimpse of them. The trees are thick and the birds hide in them well however we have glimpsed some toucans, banaquits, and a few others that were too fast to really see what they were.

This morning as we were listening to the usual sounds we heard something different...what the hell is that? Dave and I have heard this before but what the heck is it....ah yes, it is the sound of progress (I guess) and the sound of a chain saw buzzing and trees being cleared overwhelms the sounds of nature. I know that there is much protected land in Costa Rica and I do hope that Costa Rica cares enough to preserve some of the lands for the wildlife especially where people wish to build.

While we haven't gotten any pictures of the birds yet, we know that patience will prevail. By listening to the rustling in the trees we have gotten pictures of a sloth and a howler monkey near the house and have seen many beautiful butterflies including the blue morph which makes me giddy every time I see one.

As a closing note to this post Dave and I have already agreed that while this area is beautiful and is great for a visit, the mountains would not suit us as our initial p!ace to live upon retiring. We will want to be closer to the beach for sure and if Dave has to drive up and down this bumpy, curvy, rocky and at times a bit nauseating dirt road for longer than a week, I'm afraid he might just leave me up here.

OK I gotta go now cause I hear the damn toucan again and I need to get a picture of him!!