Costa Rica Recap: Day 5

Our plans for the day are to breakfast at our favorite soda, then drive to San Isidro to see the city and visit Mount Chirripo national park... home of Costa Rica's tallest mountain. You can't actually go to the top...that's a 2-day trek for experienced mountaineers. But you can drive in to see some of the highland tropical views and forest.

We get in the car and it reeks like mildew. All the seats are still wet from dripping on them yesterday. We could desperately use some Febreeze, if only they sold it here. My butt is wet as soon as I sit down, even sitting on a towel.

The drive to San Isidro is uneventful and takes only an hour or so because we're on the InterAmericana highway... The best road we've seen so far. It's always at least 2 lanes wide, there are actual pavement markings, and most of it is in very good repair.

We drive through a bit of San Isidro... It's a clean, pretty city. When we leave the city for Chirripo, the roads revert back to Costa Rican standard. And the higher we climb, the worse the roads get. It's enough to give me a bit of an anxiety attack because they are so steep, nothing but muddy ruts and rocks and the road sloughs off to the sides, falling hundreds of feet to the river below. And still you have the motorcycles and buses to contend with.

Finally we reach the entrance to Chirripo. By this time the road is nothing but piles of rock leading vaguely up the steep mountainside. There is nothing like a ranger station... just a sign indicating the trailhead for the 2-day climb. Finally we turn around to head off the mountain. We stop a couple of times for pictures and to let the kids out to run.

Scary as the roads were sometimes, it was completely gorgeous. And nice and cool at that elevation, too. I'm so glad we got the chance to see the things we did!

Finally back in San Isidro, we stop at McDonald's for a quick snack and a bathroom break. McDonald's is mostly the same with the exception of things like lime and lemon sundaes, fried chicken kids meals and pineapple in the kids meals instead of apples.They also have McPatatas, which are seasoned potato wedges. Those are really good. Also, McDonald's here is much more expensive - relative to prices at regular restaurants - than in U.S.

We headed for Dominical and things were fine until Brekken suddenly announced 'Preston threw up.' Yep, he did. Instead of telling us he felt sick, he decided to try sticking his head out the window, so he threw up partly inside, partly outside, and probably at least a little bit on the car behind us. It took an entire pack of baby wipes and assorted napkins and a partial roll of tp to clean up. So gross. The car smells even worse now.

Back to the hotel and the kids are supposed to be resting if they want to do anything else fun today. Instead they are messing around and Preston is reading over my shoulder. So I guess they will get no more adventures today after all. The end.  *Preston goes away.*

The kids never really did rest, but that's ok I guess because we weren't able to go on any adventures either. The rain started at 3 pm and continued for the next 12 hours. We stayed in reading and watching movies on the kindle. We made friends with a gecko hanging out in our room.

We had crackers, tuna, bread and jam in the room, so instead of venturing into the downpour we made our own dinner in our tiny kitchen and headed for bed.

Costa Rica Recap: Day 4

The day got off to a perfect start. We got up at 6 am to catch low tide at our local beach. Walking the 200 meters to the beach we found perfect conditions. The tide was out and waves were small. "Our" driftwood bench had been moved several meters up the beach from the force of the waves overnight. We moved out into the waves in the soft sand section. When it seemed that we were having to move to far out, Aaron decided we should move up the beach to where the waves were hitting higher on the beach. Unfortunately, that section was MUCH rockier; basically just a thin layer of sand over many many little rocks. Still, the waves were fun.

Brekken finally agreed to come sit on the sand/rocks with me and Bubba while Aaron went further in with the older two. The waves approached us gradually enough that Brekken didn't feel nervous and eventually decided he kind of liked it when the waves tickled our feet and legs. The waves in that section of the beach started to get a little high, so we moved back down to the soft sand, where the waves were now perfect.

Brekken got nervous all over again, but I convinced him to come make a sand pile that could be knocked over by the waves. Occupied with that he forgot to be nervous and soon enjoyed the waves hitting us. Before long he and Rylen were wildly chasing the waves and leaping into them. All the kids were laughing and smiling and having fun. Aaron and I were enjoying the ocean and thrilled that the kids were so happy and getting along so well. I was incredibly happy with life in that exact moment. It was just what I wanted vacation to be. Perfect.

After a late breakfast, we set out on another quest for family beaches. We had done some research and Playa Biesanz was listed as a hidden gem perfect for families. It also included a short hike to reach the beach through a jungle area populated by sloths, monkeys, and various other animals. We drove through Quepos to Manuel Antonio and looked for the entrance to the beach. We followed the road up and then down a steep track that was partially paved. At the bottom of the path we passed a couple of skeazy-looking guys standing around smoking and watching us closely as we passed. The road turned upward again and eventually arrived at The Parador - a very fancy looking hotel with a security building at the locked gates. The nice guard there gave us directions to Playa Biesanz and we turned around to try again.

Back down the twisty, steep road, past the skeazy guys and up again. At the top we drove past the frighteningly steep drop off for the road in the center and tried the third road because Haley spotted a handwritten sign saying "beach" and pointing us down this road. This one was unpaved but without the dramatic drop-off immediately after the turn that we saw on the second road. The road down started off reasonably but was soon down to only one bumpy lane twisting through the jungle. Once we saw a monkey leap overhead. The foliage was so thick around us that we could see nothing but greenery surrounding us in a tunnel curving around and over the road. At one point the holes in the road were so huge and simultaneously the grade so steep (seriously had to be 12-15%) that we were all clinging to the doors to stay in our seats.

When we finally reached the beach at the end off the road, we found one older man hanging out in a deck chair. He had posted a couple of handmade signs, similar to the "beach" signs that sent us down the road in the first place. He informed us that this was not Playa Biesanz either. It was a surf beach- he was there giving surf lessons- and waves were too wild for kids. He gave us directions too Biesanz. Up we went on the crazy road through the jungle. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive in our rental!

We learned that the kids do not know the meaning of the phrase "all hands on deck" - they shout it whenever the road is particularly bumpy or steep to tell each other to hold on tight. LOL

We reached the top and headed down the first road again, trying to follow the directions from surfer man and watching carefully for a turn off along the way. We pass the skeazy men again and this time we realize there is a small sign offering parking, beach access, and to "guard" your car. Surely this can't be the place since we know this is a public beach with free access. Keep going and reach The Parador again. The guards just laughed as we turned around again.

Back past skeazy man, up to the intersection of the three roads again. This time we're sure it must be the second road. This road is frightening in the way it drops off the main road at a super steep grade. It looks as if the road simply ends and you're about to drive off the edge. We nerve up and turn onto the road and head down, down, down. Again it's incredibly steep and twisty, only one to one and a half lanes and full of huge potholes... which is a mild term for holes big enough to hold your entire vehicle. On corners the road is often crumbling away. And even with all this, there are always motorcycles suddenly weaving past you at high speed.

And then a bus suddenly looms up in front of us! He is coming up the hill and there's only room for one vehicle. Now it's time for a game of chicken... you each keep driving slowly forward until someone caves and decides to pull over to the side as far as possible to allow the other vehicle to squeeze past. As usual, we give in first - we're not as crazy as the local drivers. So we have to back up several feet to find a space wide enough to move to the side and let the bus squeeze past with inches to spare.

I took a couple of videos of driving on the bumpy roads... these are actually the better roads we encountered... I never remembered to bring out the camera when we were on the really bad roads, probably too busy hanging on! I don't know how interesting they are, but they kind of give an idea of what it's like driving on some of the standard roads in the rural areas. Again, this is not off-roading, these are the main roads.

http://youtu.be/79dMyTjqQOM

http://youtu.be/dVIVKc-1oR8

http://youtu.be/H3zDnEJSpZg

http://youtu.be/NByZksGVb44


When we reach the bottom this time, we are at another fancy hotel. Asking here we learn that we are STILL not at Biesanz. No Biesanz is actually that little path with the "guards." After some debate, we decide that we really don't want to trust our things to a couple of guys who just decided to set themselves up in what is supposed to be a public access area. Instead, we'll go over to Manuel Antonio national park. A hike through the jungle there takes you to a good beach and even though a fee is required, at least it's going to park officials, not some scammers.

We arrive at the park and negotiate a good rate for a tour guide. You can go without one, but it's harder to spot the various animals. Our guide takes us in and within minutes she's shown us a 3-toed sloth, capuchin monkeys, iguanas, bats, banana spiders, and howler monkeys.

There is a monkey somewhere in this photo. Can't find it now. :)

Manuel Antonio with our guide. Preston really enjoyed talking with the guide. He talked her ear off. He even held her hand on the walk back to the gate. Like all the Costa Ricans we dealt with, she loved kids so she was fine with this.

Also a monkey somewhere in here. Also can't find it now.

Just as she points out a 2-toed sloth holding its baby, the first raindrops fall. Within seconds the rain is pouring down like a faucet was turned on. I stuff my camera in my shirt in a futile attempt to keep it dry, but it is less than a minute before we are all dripping wet from head to toe. Our guide is doggedly determined to give us our money's worth and forges ahead, though there are no animals visible through the driving rain that cuts visibility to only feet. We keep walking and walking... long past the time that I would have turned around. It's obvious that the rain isn't stopping anytime soon and that we aren't seeing anything other than a tropical rainstorm. Just as I am about to tell Aaron and the guide that we need to stop already, she says we'd better had back because the park will be closing in 20 minutes. Since we entered the park 90 minutes before closing, that means we spent an hour slogging through the rain. I have no idea why she's thinks we'll cover that same distance back in only 20 minutes. Still, we eventually make it, well after park closing. Soaked to the bone and yet still too hot because the temperatures here are definitely tropical.

This is what happens when you try to take a picture with a dripping camera in a tropical downpour.

We load into the car and all the seats are immediately soaked. Drive back to Dominical and change into dry clothes then cross the street to eat at our favorite little soda. We have to douse everyone in insect repellent first since it's all outdoors. It is delicious as always. Wandering neighborhood dogs keep begging for food at our table and then a couple of them decide to play/fight/chase all around our table and under our feet.

As we leave the owner calls after us, see you tomorrow! We are regulars now.

Back to the room and quickly to sleep. Everyone else in the family seems to have adapted well to going to bed at 7:30 or 8:00. Since I almost never go to bed before midnight - and more often a couple of hours later than that - I never feel tired enough to go to bed when they do. But after reading and checking Facebook and playing candy crush for a while, I am bored enough to go to bed. Still only 9:00. Sleep for hours... wake up. Surely it must be almost morning by now... nope only 11:45. Back to bed for more hours... nope, only 2 am. Will this night ever end? 4:30 now... Finally! 6:30 and I can go ahead and get up.

Costa Rica Recap: Day 3

We slept later than expected given our early bedtime. I guess we needed it. So we were up around 9:00 and went next door for breakfast. The soda (small, casual restaurant - usually open-air; bug spray is needed to dine out - or do anything else - in Costa Rica) is right across the street from our hotel and the owners are so friendly and happy to see us.

Most of us go for the gallo pinto. Haley decides to try a ham and cheese omelet. It's odd how much they love ham in Costa Rica... it's on every menu in some form. They put it in omelets or fry up a slice to go with gallo pinto. They add a slice to hamburgers and ham and cheese sandwiches are always available. I'm not a huge fan of ham, myself. Aaron loves it, but can't touch it or he'll get terribly ill, poor guy. We apply Lizano liberally to all our meals; that stuff is great. Rylen is especially fond of it.

There are more batidos (fruit drinks) for everyone. We are definitely getting our 5 daily servings here in Costa Rica! You can have your batido "con agua" - with water - this means that they blend up your fresh fruit (sometimes picked on the premises!) with water and sometimes ice to make a slushy drink. Aaron mostly did this, since he can't drink milk. The kids and I preferred our batidos "con leche" - with milk. This made for a thick, smoothie or shake-like drink. Delicious! I particularly loved the banana and blackberry drinks. (Two separate options... though a banana-blackberry batido would probably be very good, too!)

This particular soda made the batidos VERY thick... so they were piled up above the top of the glass and it was a race to eat the batido before the heat (already - at breakfast) could melt it all over the table.

After breakfast we suited up and headed for the beach. The sand here is what they call cocoa sand... it's super fine and soft and really looks like when you open a can of hot cocoa powder. It's great for sitting on and playing in, but REALLY sticks to you like you wouldn't believe.

Brekken was still unwilling to try the water, so Aaron took him to walk and explore the beach while I played in the waves with the other kids. There is a large driftwood log where we sat and waited for the waves to wash over our feet. After a while this is boring, so we moved to sit on the sand in front of the log. This was very fun until the waves got too high and we moved back to the log.

Sitting on the log the waves were rushing in almost waist high. It was exciting but starting to get a little rough so we decided it was time to go. As we start to leave, a last wave knocks into us. Preston and Haley jump away but Bubba moves the wrong direction and I have to lunge and catch him before the wave knocks him over. That works except that I lose my balance as our big tree shifts with the force of the wave and I get knocked down and dragged by the wave a foot or so. Kids are good though.

Every inch of my body is now covered in fine cocoa sand. The kids are pretty coated too. We shower off the worst of the sand at the hotel's outdoor shower, and decide that's good enough since we are planning to go to another beach for the rest of the afternoon. We go back to the room just long enough to gather some towels and extra sunscreen and bug spray. While we are there, my foot hits a patch of sand and water on the tile floor and I astonish the family with my ability to do the splits. It hurts a lot though.

I am eventually able to get up and grab my things so we can continue our beach day. We head out to beaches that are recommended in the area, but it seems that the beaches are only recommended for low tide. At high tide every beach in this area is covered in high, pounding waves. They are big and curl and break as they approach shore. Great for surfers, bad for swimmers. Especially bad for little ones who just want to play in the surf. The children are very angry when we admit that we won't be able to go to a different beach right now after all. We console them by saying we can go back to "our" beach after lunch.

After giving up our search for "soft water" as Rylen puts it, we decide to check out a waterfall we saw marked on a map. We haven't researched this one, but figure we could go check it out. After a lot of driving on steep dirt and rock roads we come to the waterfall trail entrance. Not only do you have to pay 5000 colonnes (ok, so that's only about $10 each in US funds, but it adds up fast with 6 of us) each to hike it, the trail is extremely steep and looks like rough going. Even if we got down, coming back up would be a nightmare. It's just not suitable for children. The children are angry again that we wont try the hike to the waterfall. They do admit, however, that 4-wheeling through the jungle was pretty cool.

We go back to town and stop at the super to pick up dinner items that we can fix in our little studio kitchenette, then go back to the restaurant from/last night for lunch. As always, things just take longer than planned. By the time we finish dinner and come back to the room, darkness is really falling. We decide its not safe enough to go to the beach because its just too dark to be able to keep a close eye on everyone, even at low tide. The kids are mad again and complain all through getting showered and changed into pjs, but by 7:00, everyone is in bed in anticipation of getting an early start tomorrow. We have promised that we will get up early so we can hit the beach at low tide before breakfast.

Everyone else - including Aaron - is long since asleep. I am headed that way myself... just as soon as I take care of another patch of clinging sand that I've just noticed and put some treatment cream on my sunburn. Even 80 spf is not enough protection for a redhead in the Costa Rica sunshine!

Costa Rica Recap: Day 2

Since everyone went to bed so early, the kids were up and ready to go before 7:00, so we got a decent start on the day. The hotel provided a breakfast buffet, wherein buffet means there was cereal, toast and juice with a couple of local dishes. Gallo pinto (guy-o peen-to) - rice and beans with tomato, cilantro, cumin and other spices. It's basically the national dish of Costa Rica and part of almost every meal - definitely every breakfast. OMG it is SO good! Everyone really enjoyed it. There was also plantains cooked in sweet syrup and fresh chicharrones - that's fresh pork rinds. I didn't have the plantains because I've just never been a plantain fan. I would have given the pork rinds a try but the guy in front of us scooped up the last of them.

Back at the table, the waiter had brought us each a plate of beautifully sliced and arranged fresh fruit - watermelon, papaya, and pineapple. Then he made eggs to order for each of us; just simple scrambled or fried eggs but perfectly prepared and spiced. Especially when mixed with the gallo pinto it was so tasty.

After gathering our belongings and a few tantrums and sobbing fits (a mandatory part of every day, even on vacation) we were on the road again. Driving here is INSANE. Lanes are not clearly marked. You can't always tell if you have two lanes or one or if your road has suddenly become one way only.

Drivers take crazy chances, especially motorcycles, who will zip past any obstacle with no regard food oncoming traffic. Other cars pass you impatiently in dangerous stretches. Any vehicle might just stop at any time, suddenly turning your lane into a parking area.

The guy over there on the sidewalk - he's driving there. Too impatient to wait in the traffic with the rest of us. Motorcycles were the worst. They would split lanes between cars, drive the wrong way on a one-way, pass when there was no room to pass... insane! And sometimes there were entire families on the motorcycle... 4 or 5 people, including tiny children. Thankfully, the full family motorcycles did tend to drive a bit more cautiously.

Roads have speed limits that no one pays attention to. There are hairpin turns and super steep grades with never an indication that something is coming up. We're currently falling back and forth in our seats on a twisty turn road that is just a series of step u-turns.

When you come to bridges, many are one lane only. You have to honk your horn to let oncoming drivers know that you're crossing and that they'll have to wait to go next. I'm sure glad Aaron is driving! I'm nowhere near confident and aggressive enough to dare drive here!

We went to Wal-Mart this morning. The Wal-Mart is as huge as any in the states, 2 stories with a covered parking area as the first level and the store itself is up a long flight of stairs. The parking lot is surrounded by a 10 foot iron fence and there is a guard out front who had to give you a special pass to allow you to enter and park there. Inside, it's pretty much like any U.S. Wal-Mart. Nothing exotic there - but we needed diapers and this was the best place to pick those up.



We stopped for lunch in Jaco. We briefly looked at the ocean but did not give in to the kids' begging to go play there. Beautiful beach and pretty blue water, but even if we had been so inclined, there were lots of signs posted telling us that there are lots of riptides and strong currents and swimming is not a great idea. Aaron already knew this to be true, since he went swimming at this particular beach 16 years ago and was caught by a riptide and nearly drowned. We were not going to go swimming there!

Instead, we went on into the town of Jaco to find lunch. It's a very nice little town. More modern than some. We saw lots of places we might like to eat, but we could NOT figure out the parking. There were lots of spots, but all of them were marked as pay spots and we could never find any indication of where/how to pay to park there. Eventually we settled on a lunch spot just because it had a private lot to park in. It was great food though, so we didn't regret the choice at all. More of the ubiquitous fruit drinks served with every meal. Pizza for the kids, salad for me, chicken and rice for Aaron, calimari and nachos for the table.

We ate lunch on a deck overlooking the town of Jaco on one side and the jungle growth on another. HOT but there

We continued our drive to Dominical - finally able to relax a little because in recent years they've built a new highway and it is very modern and in good repair. It has lanes and markings and everything! The other drivers are still scary, but at least the road is good. As you drive, there are huge groves of palm trees beside the road. You can tell they are cultivated rather than natural because the rows are so perfectly straight and precisely spaced. The lines of trees are an interesting sight. Also cool to see how very dark it is beneath the trees. All those leaves close together at the top block almost all the daylight from reaching the ground.

When we reached Dominical we missed the turn at first, because it's just a tiny dirt road turning directly off the highway. We turned around and went back to it (we came to call this maneuver a Costa Rica U-Turn, because roads are so poorly marked that we were constantly having to find a turnaround and go back to find someplace we missed) and drove through Dominical to find our hotel.

Dominical is basically 1 street. There is a 2nd street but it just leads to a surf camp where a lot of people camp on the beach. The road through town is rocky and bumpy and not quite 2 lanes wide. For all the tiny size of the town, though, there are lots of businesses. A couple of supers (little grocery markets - not what you think of as a grocery store in the US), probably a dozen restaurants, some surf and dive shops, and several little hotels and b&bs.

We found our b&b at the end of town. It was a little more run down than the pictures had suggested, but the rates were right.

We checked in and went to our room... down a graveled path through tropical plants and trees. There is a big spider living on a flower to the right, so we avoid him. There is a colony of leaf-cutter ants constantly toiling to bring bits of leaves and flowers back to the hive and we step carefully over their line so we don't disturb them. Iguanas live in the undergrowth and geckos climb the walls... the kids love it.

The courtyard is beautiful. I am less than thrilled to learn that our room is at the top of a long, steep flight of tiled stairs. Given my habit of falling on stairs, these make me really nervous. (Rightly so, as it turned out. I fell a couple of times on those stairs.)

Our room has 3 single beds and a double bed, a tiny kitchen area, and a bathroom. The town's plumbing is so ancient that nowhere in town are you allowed to flush any paper... no it all goes in a wastebasket beside the toilet. Ew.

The ac is blessedly effective at combating the temps and humidity - both in the high 90s. There is no tv. The kids are appalled that such a thing could be possible. The beach is a 2 minute walk, so we went to visit immediately. It is low tide, so there's lots of sand to explore. We try to show the kids how to walk through the waves and Brekken is almost immediately knocked on his butt into the warm water. (He inherited his grace from me, poor kid.) He is freaked out and will not go back in the water, choosing instead to explore the driftwood at the high tide mark.

It gets dark shortly after we get to the beach. In Costa Rica darkness falls early and quickly around 6:30 pm. We drag the kids back to the room to change and set out to find dinner as the rain starts to fall.

We choose a restaurant and the man running things comes out to direct us to the single covered parking spot and usher us inside under his umbrella. So nice of him. He makes much of the kids as we order - everyone in Costa Rica does. There's none of that suppressed dismay when you walk in somewhere with a bunch of kids. Everyone seems to just love kids and are thrilled that you've brought some. It's wonderful.

I got a tortilla and cheese. Thick, fresh-made tortilla topped with Tico cheese. It's not good. The tortilla is fine, but the cheese is a little ick. White, slightly tasteless but with just enough taste to make you think entirely tasteless would be better. It squeaks against your teeth when you chew.

Happily, this meal also introduced Lizano sauce, a Costa Rican condiment that can be added to pretty much anything. It's savory but a little tart, has a mild spice, and is addictive. Add Lizano to your Costa Rican cheese and suddenly it's ok. Add it to something good like chicken and rice or gallo pinto and it's incredible.

The rain lets up for just a few minutes as we return to the hotel. We hurry inside and the thunder and light show start again a few minutes later. Between the darkness and the lack of tv it's easy to convince the kids it's time for bed at only 7:00. Aaron and i are not far behind, still trying to recover from the first day of the trip. (I slept more on this vacation than I have in YEARS. Though I was always the last one to bed - usually by a couple of hours - that still put me in bed well before midnight every night. Unheard of on my usual schedule.)

Costa Rica Recap: Day 1

I used my Kindle to take notes each day while we were traveling because I didn't want to forget the little details. I had plans for cleaning up the notes when we got home to make nice, coherent blog posts. But now I'm realizing that if I wait to have time to do that, I'll just never share any of it. So I'm just adding the notes with all the randomness and rambling... It's likely more detail than any of you care about, but feel free to skim through for something interesting. :)

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We made the kiddos take a nap since we were starting off so late. We left the house at bedtime for our 1 am flight. The kids behaved really well going through check-in and security, but got super whiny during the wait for boarding. The gate attendant offered us priority boarding and we gladly took it. Got all the kids settled and seat-belted and they are excitedly awaiting take off.

As we're waiting in our seats on the plane a lady in a skimpy halter top is loading her bag into the overhead bin right above me... thrusting her barely concealed chest in my face. Rylen looks over and exclaims "Mommy! That lady only wearing a bra and her doesn't have a shirt!" Red-faced lady slinks away to her seat behind us as I try to hush Rylen and struggle not to laugh.

Flying with 4 young children is a mix of good and bad.

Bad, trying to entertain wiggly children in the airport waiting area. Brekken could NOT hold still. We were constantly trying to get him to settle down and pointing out that he was disturbing people in the row that backed up to ours. Then he lurched backwards yet again and bumped his chair back into the seat back of a woman behind him. Despite knowing he was in the wrong and in fact being in the middle of scolding him and telling him he'd lost the privilege of sitting in a chair while simultaneously apologizing to the woman he'd bumped, I was still furious when the woman dared to shoot a death look at a six year old and shout "Stop it!" at him.

The good... the excitement of the children during the first takeoff; and the second. Looking out the window as we flew over the ocean. Some clouds were enormous fluffy mounds in the sky, like massive mountains of whipped cream floating motionless above the endless blue of ocean and sky. Other cloud formations were massed bits of dark clouds, clinging together and moving quickly with the wind, flowing like rivers over and through the fluffy mountain.

Good... The Delta Skymiles lounges in Atlanta. We had a 4 hour layover on the way to Costa Rica and we spent it all in the lounge. They had free breakfast, lots of great seating, charging stations for all the electronic devices you might need to charge, very nice and clean bathrooms, and huge windows where the kids could sit and watch planes land and take off. Haley spent her time drawing pictures of the planes outside the window. The boys sat and watched movies on the Kindle (free wireless!), and Aaron and I may have dozed off a little. TOTALLY worth all the frequent flyer miles we traded in to get that SkyMiles membership!

 

Good... watching the scenery as we flew. I was amazed at the size of Cuba. If I'd thought of it at all in the past, I had always pictured it as a tiny, somewhat desolate island. Instead, it seemed enormous. We flew over it for several minutes and from the air, the land seemed lush and green, the coastlines inviting strips of sand with lines of breakers delineating the boundaries of land and sea.

Descending into Costa Rica, the clouds had become a dense blanket, hiding all view of the land below. When we started to sink through the clouds, the mists parted and we began to get glimspes of tall mountains and rolling hills dotted with red roofed clusters of houses, straight rows and squares of careful planting interspersed with lush green jungle growth. Everywhere we looked, green and gorgeous.

The good... efficient and friendly service as we went through immigration, customs and baggage claim. It was very helpful that Aaron speaks such fluent Spanish, but even non-Spanish speakers seemed to have little trouble.

The bad... trying to make sense of the chaotic crush of taxi drivers, shuttle drivers, and various others clustered around the airport exit - all of them shouting and hoping to convince you to come ride with them. We were to be met by a hotel rep with our name on a sign, but we could not find a sign. When a seemingly random/man asked what hotel shuttle we were looking for and began just trundling our baggage away to where he said we should wait,/ we didn't know if we could trust him. Happily, he was on the up and up, friends with people at the hotel. He got us to a good spot to wait, called the hotel to tell them where to send the driver and kept us company until he was able to help load us all into the shuttle. Sure, I could be cynical and point out that he was definitely angling for a tip - which he got - but hey, it actually was helpful and we got to our hotel without incident.

Good - Getting settled in our room just in time/for the afternoon downpour and getting to watch and hear the drama of the deluge and constant rolling thunder while cozy and dry.

Front entrance to the hotel

GORGEOUS pool... still disappointed we never had a chance to swim in it.

Beautiful flowers outside our room

Aaron says I have a dirty mind to find this decorative motif amusing (ALL over the hotel). But he saw it too. ;)

Bad... overtired and underfed children fighting and arguing until mom was ready to chuck them all in the pool without the benefit of swimsuits. Getting lost trying to find our way to a good place to eat and having to return to the hotel for directions. Finding ourselves on a toll road without the correct change to pay the toll.

Good... telling the attendant we dont have the change... insead of getting angry she seemed to think we were negotiating and we accidentally worked her down to less than half the expected toll - the amount we did have.

Bad... Costa Rican roads and drivers! OMG the roads are twisty, turny, up and down. They are narrow and pot-holed. Often really only room for 1 1/2 cars, so passing oncoming traffic is an exercise in adrenaline. The speed limits are low and claerly marked, and no one pays them a bit of attention. They drive ridiculously fast, pass on blind curves and other ridiculous spots with no warning or apparent regard for danger. You are constantly in danger of running into pedestrians and bicyclists who abruptly walk into the road at any point or walk the sides of the roads (which have no shoulder) after dark. The roads are marked badly or not at all, which means you might suddenly find yourslef driving the wrong way on a one way street with a giant bus bearing down on you (not that that happened to us... ;) )

Good... all children napping as we drove through charming towns of Sarchi and Grecia after figuring out which roads to take. Seeing some beautiful handcrafted furniture and gorgeous decoritive painting on various objects. Eating a delicious dinner in a slightly upscale Tico (Costa Rican) eatery... and having all children eat and enjoy their dinners too. A good meal did wonders to revive everyone's spirits. Watching the goldfish at the bar.

Tico nachos... the beef is like a spicy pot roast complete with gravy and there are plenty of veggies. So tasty.

Bad... using the nasty restrooms at the Tico eatery and having to rescue Preston from the men's room because he couldn't reach the towels - the dispenser was VERY high on the wall and with wet hands he couldn't open the bathroom door. And had to rescue Haley from the ladies' room because her stall door was stuck closed. The shop closed before I could do more than a quick browse before dinner; just enough to see so many things I wanted to look at some more.

Good... the shop was closed so i didnt have to restrain myself from purchasing too many beautiful and expensive things. There was a little plaza outside the restaurant where they had hand-painted oxcarts on display. These are a Costa Rican specialty. We explored the plaza and the little shops a bit after dinner.

 

It is fully dark by 6:30 pm; the kind of dark that doesn't hit until 9:00 or so at home. So it was easy to get the tired kids into bed at the unheard of time of 6:45 and everyone sound asleep by 7:30.


A long shower for me in a big, gorgeous shower. Time to myself to catch up on the day's journal, play a little candy crush and watch my favorite guilty pleasure "Dog With a Blog" (in Spanish) before getting to bed myself at 8:30.

Live Rappers on Display

As I was listening to the radio this morning, I heard them advertising an educational event for kids this weekend that would feature "live rappers on display."

I immediately pictured various rappers standing around on low pedestals, with kids gathered around each display. I'm not quite sure what the educational topics might have been, but I imagine short seminars on topics like:

• How to Choose Your Bling
• Is a Grill Right for You?
• Backwards or Sideways? How to Wear a Hat
• How Low Can You Go? Tips for Not Losing Your Pants

The announcer continued talking about the upcoming event and mentioned how much kids love to "really check them out" and get a chance to "examine them close up."

More distubing images came to mind with this; most of all with the final promise that kids will be able to "even touch some of them, under a handler's supervision."

That just doesn't sound like a good idea, for any number of reasons. Quite a relief to hear them restate the name of the event at the end of the commercial and realize that it is featuring RAPTORS on display. No rappers involved as far as I can tell.