Costa Rica - December 10-23, 2009

Photos
http://techmarketingink.com/photos/091223_CostaRica_best/

Videos
First half (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oQBJzyhPO8
Second half (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV96IzFWCVQ
uStream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/caid2007

FIRST ENTRY
Sitting in a room a room at the Millenium Hotel in San Jose Costa Rica.  Wedding music is pounding through the walls.  Im trying to type on this tiny tiny keyboard that is a Dell Mini.  I could probably get used to it but it's so delicate.  and punctuation is in different places. So this is day three in Costa Rica with Hayden.  Got here Thursday night and stayed at this same hotel.  Then walked down to the car rental place...this time Economy...and ended up paying for
liability which was more than the car!  Headed up to Irazu Volcano. Beautiful drive up to 11,260 feet.  Into the fog and $10 to enter but once inside, it cleared off and we had a spectacular view of the crater.  Hung around and hiked for a while.  Talked to a guy named Armando from Texas that was LDS and was moving his family to Costa Rica (wife was native) for a year or two for the kids to work on their Spanish.  We hiked around the caldera and then to the lookout on top where the view was hidden again so promptly laid down and went to sleep.  There was no one else around. Hiking at over 10,000 feet did feel like work and I had to pace myself walking up the path even though I felt strong.

We started driving down into the fog and found a note in the book that said there was a short cut (4 wheel drive only) to the volcano next over (Turrialba)  4X4 is an understatement!  Fantastically beautiful drive and among all kinds of vegetable crops.  Onions, potatoes, carrots and many little dairy farms.  The road wasn't well marked but we managed to stay on the right path and eventually went through the saddle and started up again.  Major holes and now mud.  We hadn't gone far when we came to a couple of barriers that blocked the road as being closed.  Oh well....

Down off the hill took a while and when we finally hit pavement, it was dark.  Decided to try one of the hotels in the book in the town of Turrialba. Saw a nice hotel on the way in but looked expensive so drove on to town into traffic.  Crowded, a little dirty and NO WHITE people! Ended up on a couple of one way streets and Hayden finally navigated us in to the Inter Americano Hotel.  The part of town we were in looked pretty bad...or maybe we had just come from the states... but the neighborhood looked scary.  The main floor had grates for doors but inside looked nice so we pulled up and the proprietor came to the door.  Yes he had rooms and we could park out front.  When queried about how safe the parking was, he said, "It's been safe for 45 years!'  $35 for a room and it looked clean and nice enough.  TV and our own shower.  Reminded me of the room I stayed in in Tiberius, Israel.  The one thing that was wild
was the combo showerhead/water heater.  There were two electrical wires with wire nuts tied to the shower head which was plastic and slightly larger than a normal one.  As it turns out, the head heats the water directly and as I found out, when the water to the hotel shuts off, the running water goes scalding in a hurry! The proprietor was a black fellow and I believe his wife was American/CR.  She spoke perfect English and had a cute little boy she was playing with.


We needed a bank and a restaurant and as it turned out, both were right across the street from the hotel.  They didn't look that good or safe but after a walk around the park and center of town, they were the best available.  Lines were really long at the bank but when we got back from the jaunt, one was down enough.  It's always mental gymnastics for me to decide how much money to get and the comma as a decimal always messes with my mind....is that a comma or a decimal point? Anyway, 60,000 (roughly $120) is what we each got.  Then upstairs to the bar/restaurant where I had rice and chicken which was good but Hayden ordered something he saw on the wall as a signature dish for the joint which turned out to be very tasty--mariscos--like all kinds of fish in lime/lemon sauce and rice.

Next morning up and headed for the Caribbean coast after a quick stop at Maxi Bodega (Costa Rican Walmart) for a supply of snacks (meat, cheese, bread and fresh ripened bananas).  The drive was beautiful and we stopped a couple of times to snap pics of the two volcanoes which were covered in clouds at the tops.  Down into Siquirres and somehow ended up off the road, driving from one end of town to the other looking for a road to Limon.  Very poor and simple with little paint but no one paid much attention to us.  Eventually found the main highway.  Book said Limon had been known to have gang murders and drugs so we didn't even go into town. It is the only real Costa Rican port city and there were yards and yards of container freight units stacked on each other.


Around one corner and suddenly, there was the Atlantic ocean pounding surf against the beach.  It was right at the airport which was a nice long stretch of asphalt paralleling the beach.

I bought the Moon travel guide book on Costa Rica and was reading it for advice on where to go.  Limon sounded bad but Puerto Viejo had some nice options so we headed there.  The $15 a
night German hostel didn't look that attractive so we opted for another which was also German run but very comfortable called the Cabina Tropical.  $35 and a nice upstairs room with mosquito nets, fan, TV and a nice shower.  Wood floors and trim and the place looked
great.

We ditched our stuff in the hotel room and headed for the beach which started a block away.  There were trees right to the sand and dense foliage.  A nice trail and we walked to this outlook where we saw miles of nice beach running south.  Very clean here and mostly foreigners but not many people at all.  Swam, slept in the sun then walked and walked.  Hayden wanted coconut and found one on the beach, threw it against rocks to break it open but it wasn’t good.  Finally this old man with his grandson came and the boy brought pole, knocked down and then he cut open with a machete.  Then used the knife to knock away the shell and delivered us a complete meat shell with a little hole in the top.  

We headed back to the hotel and at one point were startled by a couple of horses and riders galloping on the beach.  As evening darkened, it began to rain heavily but was warm and pleasant.  By the time we got home, it was completely dark.  We changed, showered and back to one of the beach restaurants for a great dinner of tuna with chutney and beans and potato
finished off with flourless chocolate cake with chocolate syrup.  Excellent food with our waitress as English and a German chef.  We walked around the town and went to a grocery store to get food for the next day.

The next day was Sunday and with no churches nearby, we read, relaxed and then decided to drive to Panama.  The crossing at Sixaola was described as “backwater at the end of 35 kilometers of bad road”.  We turned at Bribri and drove over hills and then through miles of banana plantation but never really left pavement except for a few washouts.  

It was hot when we got there and as the book said, nothing really to see.  There was a line of trucks and cars headed towards a bridge and we parked.  A fellow immediately offered to watch our car but he spoke no English and wasn’t much help in determining if it were really safe leave it there.  I stayed with the car and Hayden headed for the bridge, definitely looking out of place, tall and caucasian.  He was gone for about 30 minutes and I started to worry a little but when he returned, he had a good story.  He had just confidently walked across the bridge and snapped a couple of pictures from the other side....not even bothering to check with the border guards.  It was pretty laid back.  



NEXT ENTRY
At a hotel with fairly decent internet service so taking advantage of the bandwidth to upload a few videos to YouTube to share with the family.  Also just got off a Skype call with Mom and Dad using the iPhone.  What a piece of machinery!  I was thinking that it could be the white stone spoken of in the scriptures that gives someone an all seeing eye to everything on the earth....haha.  I have pictures and maps of the universe, language translation, can talk to people a half a world away, know my position, read the scriptures, sing hymns....  I just downloaded an iPhone app that will turn it into a full blown GPS.  We downloaded a Spanish/English dictionary which we are using constantly to look up words.  Hayden remarked that every missionary should be given one of these with the native speaker talking.  

So last writing was a Puerto Viejo.  left and drove to the Panama border at Sixaola...the forlorn border town.  We came up to a long bridge ad parked the car.  Some guy offered to guard it for us but spoke no English.  I stayed with the car while Hayden walked down to the river...then right across into Panama, took a picture of the sign that said welcome to Panama, and then walked back.  He said it was really lax although there were guys there with guns at the border.  "I just strolled ahead, confidently....," he said.  

The drive back was through kilometers of banana plantations.  At one point, we saw a helicopter dropping in low and it was spraying.  According to the book, bananas are bad for the earth as they completely deplete the soil and require a lot of chemicals to keep successful fruit coming which all washes into the rivers and ocean.  Several times over the last few decades, some sort of blight has wiped out the crops and they have to develop new pesticides to combat them.  The banana clumps all had blue plastic bags over them.  I'm guessing they are some kind of ripening agent.

We left back towards San Jose with the thought we would find a hotel in or near the Brauilo Carrillo national park but no.  Instead, a white knuckle drive.  We'd been driving through rolling farm lands and suddenly, the road turned up and into a canyon and then we were climbing, and climbing as it got dark.  Mist, clouds and then rain set in and before long, we were twisting, and winding with very little visibility and no place to turn out.  The fog was heavy and rain was coming down and people were crowding and passing on narrow two lane roads.  Hayden found the fog lights a day later.  What was wild was that there were actually motorcycles riding through that!  It is the main road from Limon to San Jose and had a lot of trucks a well.  

By the time we dropped out and down (rapidly) into San Jose, it was dry and dusty...just twenty minutes later.  I think we ended up in San Jose about the time that some festival was ending as the city was packed!  We were navigating one way streets trying to get a hotel mentioned in the book but finally got there and it looked a little scary so decided to go out closer to the airport.  

We detoured to look at the temple and found it without too much problem.  The gate was partially open so we just drove right on in past the guard station.  When we walked back up to ask him if we could be there and take pictures, he just acted annoyed and didn't speak any English.  We took a few pictures and then headed towards the hotel near the airport.

Some one way streets threw me off and we were soon driving around someplace that wasn't at all familiar and getting more lost as we went so backtracked and eventually made it back to the hotel.  Hayden remarked (and I concurred) how that you can come into a place the first time with apprehension about foreignness and then come back to it a few days later and it will seem like home.

Monday we had hotel breakfast of arroz (rice) friholles (beans), eggs and fruit.  Then headed up the Pan American highway towards Monte Verde (the green mountain).  It is a mountain town that has cloud forests and lots of dairy farms.  Much of the milk is still put in 10 gallon cans and carried to market in carts or on horses.  Another interesting fact is that part of the area was settled by Quakers in the 1950s who left Alabama to avoid the draft.  

We left the Pan American highway and climbed on rocky graveled roads for quite a while.  Just when we thought we were at the top, we would traverse to another ridge and keep going up.  Suddenly, we came to a paved road and were in the middle of a little village that looked geared to tourists with information center, hotels and restaurants.  

One of the main attractions of the area was zip lines so we looked for the most adventurous one (called eXtreme) and opted for that after checking into the Cipresses Hotel where again, it seemed like we were the only guests.  

Santa Elena (the town) is right at cloud level.  The sun can be out and sunny and 60 seconds later, it's raining (with the sun out), and then it's cloudy and misty.  A taxi picked us up and took us to the zip line center where we met up with about 9 other people who were in our group.  They outfitted us with harnesses, helmets, pulleys and gloves (welder gloves with an added layer of leather glued across the palms) and then we went for training.  One of the guides had us all say where we were from as he showed us the "ropes".  A German guy, a couple from Texas, a couple from San Diego, two girls from Vancouver, BC and a couple from Ogden.

The first to rappels were typical...not long and from tree to tree over trees.  And then....hwoung baby!!!  We hit the first of four BIG ones.  They were minimum 500 meters long (that's about 3/10ths of a mile) and were over a canyon that was about 500-600 feet down.  Pretty good rush!  Several through the trees, some hiking and then headed to the big Tarzan swing.  Just before that, the woman behind Hayden came in too fast and whacked here leg on one of the metal stands.  Hayden said he thought she had broke it and sure enough, there was a rescue afterwards and she came off in a splint and there was a doctor there.  Too bad as she was nervous about it anyway and hadn't used her hands to brake well.  They also should have had two guides on that station as one guy was trying to catch and send at the same time.  But here she was, way up on this giant tree with a broken leg and no way to get down except to rappel to the next station.

The Tarzan swing was insane! I won't even guess how far out but it was a long ways.  Bad part was that you dropped about 10 feet and hit your harness before you started the swing and Hayden got jerked pretty good.  


NEXT ENTRY
Using this word processor when I don't have access to the Internet which is often.  Friday night and here in Hermosa at the Surf Inn Hermosa.  Arrived here in a torrential downpour and just getting to guard shack to see if there was a room, I was soaked!

So, I left off at Santa Elena and the zip line.  The swing was awesome but we were held up while the lady from Texas had her leg put in a splint and was rappelled across to the doctor.  The last ride was the Superman which was five dollars extra (the price for zipping was $40).  Immediate reaction was, “No thanks!” but the girl behind the counter turned around and clicked on the computer that ran a video showing a guy doing it and it looked pretty awesome so we signed up.... it was!

There were only four of us that did and I was the first.  We had two pulleys, one that was in the middle of the back using a special harness around shoulders and waist and another that was at knees and waist.  I didn't need to hold on so was going to use my camera but the guide said no....and I needed to put my gloves on.  What a rush!  I've often had those dreams where I' m flying and by just thinking higher, I'm able to ascend or glide down.  With arms stretched out (that was the command), I flew about 800 meters across this valley that was about 500 feet below me.  The wind was blowing and it was raining but sunny at the same time and the trees and land below me was carpeted in green.  It was quite the sensation....and then it got more exciting.
I was traveling quite fast and had no way to brake without putting my hand in the pulley (and was told not to brake), but the end was coming up very, very fast.  The guides at the end had thrown out a pulley brake that they used to stop me and I was brought up short...just before I would have slammed my helmeted head into a metal pole.  Quite the ride!  Later, we asked our guide Roy, who had knowledge about everything that we asked him, if any cables had broke in Costa Rica. “Oh yes,” he said.  “Don't get on them if they look rusty!”  He said one of the big long ones broke once when a guide was going tandem with a woman from the US.  It was near the end so they only fell about 20 feet but she landed on him breaking his back.  She was only bruised.

We spent some time talking to the young couple from Utah.  They lived in Ogden and had been going for a while.  She was a recreational therapist and he was in a program for assisted living.  You could tell that she was just loving traveling and wanted to do a lot more.  He
was supportive but had to go back and she was going on for another couple of months with her sister.  She said she really wanted to go to Africa but he couldn't go and her dad wouldn't let here go with another woman.  Fun times.

We also spent quite a bit of time talking to the two girls from Vancouver.  They were both respiratory therapists and had put in a lot of overtime to get the three weeks off.  They had been to a lot of places and said they had way overspent on the food because it was so cheap compared to Canada and so good.  Melanie and Rachel and both cute girls.

Back at the hotel, we cleaned up and headed to the central square where we had dinner in the Treehouse Restaurant.  It was built up on a second story around a huge tree.  The food was excellent.  I had arroz marisco which was rice with an assortment of shellfish with a kind of fresh salsa and lime—delicious!  Pretty high tech there as waiters had all orders being taken with a iTouch, wifi for guests with a password from the waiter and a live webcam.

Hayden has been a delight to travel with.  He reminds me of Ben so much that I've caught myself a couple of times starting to call him Ben.  He also sounds like and reminds me of Doug Isom who went to the Virgin Islands with us and was a fun guy.  We've got a pretty good system down for navigating and deciding how to do things and it's working out good.  He's also interested in all my thoughts, ideas and stories and has told me a lot about his mission along with his ambitions, thoughts and ideas.

Next morning we got up, checked out...left the devil dog and headed further north.  The hotel people (and everyone else for that matter) have all been so nice and friendly.  Sometimes, we're the only ones in the restaurant or hotel and they still treat us very well even though times are a little tough with the slow “American depression”.  This hotel (Cypresses) had a little dog that was walking around the front door.  He stood there looking at me like he was waiting for something so I reached down to pet him.  Just as I did, he lunged for my hand and bit my finger and then started barking profusely.  It didn't break the skin but left a couple of teeth marks.  The owner was very apologetic.

This hotel, like several we've stayed at, had a nice big kitchen/dining area where guests are served breakfast.  They had a staff of three, nice stoves and sinks and all utensils arranged
neatly...just to serve Hayden and I breakfast of fruit, eggs and toast.

We started north, down the mountain and stopped several times to take pictures.  Coffee trees with ripe beans that were stuck to the sides of steep mountains; herds of dairy cows; milk cans; a nice little hacienda for sale.   Just coming out of Tileran, we saw a windmill farm and as the wind had been blowing for the better part of the last two days, decided to go check it out.  Almost all the blades were humming at a steady clip.  Pretty interesting and we spent time looking at several in detail.  Costa Rica is on track to be the first totally carbon neutral country and the wind in this area is helping.  We saw the huge blades that were spares or old laying on the ground as well
as the large gear heads that change the pitch of the blades and transfer power to a gearbox.  We decided to take a shortcut and all of a sudden found ourselves on the road out of Arenal where Dan, Jill and I were on the last trip.  We had stopped just below to take pictures on that trip of the windmills then and now realized they were the same ones. Arenal is very beautiful but also quite Americanized with hotels, houses and recreation.

Eventually we hit the Pan American highway and headed north to Liberia.  The road was good and no major potholes and we were soon sitting at a stop light, looking at a Mac Donalds sign that was very inviting.  A combo meal and ice cream later, we turned east, headed through town to Calle 7 and then got back into the potholes for a 30+ km drive to the base of the Rincon Volcano.  One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was to climb and active Volcano that required a little effort (we could drive to Irazu but it wasn't active....Rincon was and the hike was 8 kilometers (about 5 miles) each way.  It was well described in the guide book and we didn't anticipate needing a guide.

We wound over a  dusty road that looked like it had been cut from a cheezy sandstone across a dry and almost desert-like landscape.  The trees were dry and stubby and must have been growing on volcanic rock.  Eventually, we came to a gate and a white haired man stepped out from behind a tree to collect 700 colones per person to pass through his private land.  We had read about this in the book as a shortcut to the ranger station.  We came to a nice sign with an entrance that sort of looked like a national park and pulled inside to find it was the Hacienda Rincon de la Vieja (hideaway of the old man – translated).

At the reception desk, we asked about climbing the volcano and the fellow said we needed a guide.  I stated we had information that said we didn't need guide but he said a fellow had been lost and now everyone needs a guide.  More on that later.

A guide was $25 per person  - not bad for an all day hike.  We asked about the rooms at the hacienda and they were $67 which included a buffet breakfast...again not bad considering the niceness of the place so we took them up on both room and guide.

The hacienda was something like I've always wanted to do for the family.  It was rustic and of pretty much rough cut wood or little logs.  There was a main lodge with dining and sitting room and maybe 10-12 habitacions...little cabins with tin roofs.   The setting was idyllic with a pond, meadows, a huge tree with rappel line and little walking paths.  I took pictures of everything and how it was built.

We still had daylight and there was a sign that said “hot springs this way” so we put on our suits and sandals and headed out...into the woods.  It was quite a beautiful hike and we eventually worked our way up through a draw and to the top of a ridge where there was a station on a canopy tour but no one was around.  Kept going and the trail broke out of the trees to a view out toward the ocean with meadows and a small herd of cows.  Still we kept going thinking that the springs would be just ahead but the sun was getting lower.  We decided that once the sun was completely down, we'd better turn back as it would be dark and going through the jungle with no light wouldn't be good.  We heard some hollering up ahead and thought maybe we were there but it turned out to be a caballero on his horse, heading the cows back down another path.  Finally we turned around and set off on a fast pace in the dusk.  

Hayden was hiking in his new flip-flops that he got in Puerto Viejo.  We had tried to get a pair of Chacos the night we left but Parks didn't have any his size.  Anyway, the last ten minutes it was totally dark and I pulled out my camera and brought up one of the sunset pictures I had taken on the view screen and used that for light to get us out of the woods and back to the meadow by the hacienda.  We probably hiked about 5 miles all together and from the map we saw later, were about two thirds the way there.  All good preparation for the hike the next day!

We had breakfast of eggs, sausages, fruit and rice/beans and met our guide Roy out front.  The kitchen had made us a couple of lunches to take with us.  Roy was mild mannered and turned out to be an awesome guide!  When we said we were from Idaho, he said his dad was from Boise.  We eventually got his story and it was interesting.  His dad was a farmer but had left there and came to Costa Rica in the 1950s. At a little past 50, he had married a Costa Rican woman in her twenties and they had tried raising organic vegetables on a farm near the park.  Roy didn't give us much detail but said it didn't work out well with the farm.  In this area, there are lots of animals-monkeys, coatis, agouti and tapaurs to eat the crops and pumas, jaguars and snakes that kill the animals.  Roy raises rabbits and just two days ago, a pit viper had gotten in his rabbit cage and killed a rabbit but it was too big to eat.  Anyway, Roy was one of five or six kids.  He had been born when his dad was 57 and his youngest brother had been born when
his dad was 67.  He was now 95 and was living off his US social security.

Roy spoke excellent English and at 38, had been climbing the Rincon volcano since he was 13.  Probably over 500 times.  When Hayden asked him if anyone else had climbed the mountain as many times as him, Roy said simply, “No.”  He was very low key but knew a ton and every
question we asked, he had a good answer for.  It was amazing to watch him going up the trail.  He would hear a sound, identify the animal and then we would stand there and wait for a while until the animal or bird seemed to just appear in the trees above us.  One of the first
sightings was a spider monkey.... small head, long body and long, stringy hair swinging from branch to branch and stopping to eat leaves.  Birds, butterflies, rodents and even a sighting of a small pig-like animal.  He had a book and would show us the species but without it, I'm at a loss for the proper name.

One of his real interests was ants.  The two major types were leaf cutters and army ants.  The night before, we had come across what appeared to be large piles of saw dust with holes burrowed in it around a tree that was denuded. As it turns out, it was a colony of leaf-cutter ants.  They live in colonies of 50/500 thousand and will find a tree that is appropriate, completely strip it in 24 hours by cutting up the leaves and carrying them back to the the colony where
they fertilize and grow fungus.   They were only herbivores but the army ants were carnivores.  We came across a moving army (Roy could spot them because of the certain type of birds that were in the area to take advantage of the ant carnage).  Armies are 1 million strong
and all move together...I got a video...destroying everything in their path.  It was incredible to watch as they approached the path. Looking down on the ground there was a terror scramble of anything living in their path.  Beetles, spiders and other insects were jumping and crawling frantically to get out of harms way.

Apparently, the fellow who was lost was an American 28 years old.  He had been hiking the volcano by himself and never returned.  They looked for two weeks with dogs, helicopters and search teams but never found any sign of him.  Roy said, that he probably went off the trail
and that was his mistake.  He started describing all the snakes there—pit vipers, a type of rattlers, several brightly colored snakes and the deadly bush master—all venomous.  He either got bit by a snake or fell and broke a leg...plus with a couple of days with the army ants and there would be no trace of him.  We saw a poster with his picture and a $10,000 reward for his finding.  Hayden and I looked at each other thinking of traipsing through the dark the night before in just our sandals and swim suits. The bush master which grows up to 13 feet long wasn't found on this side of the volcano but Roy had a friend bit by one about three months ago that died from the bite...he went right through his rubber boot.

The plant life was also very interesting.  Roy could explain what each plant was and how it grew and protected itself.  Most interesting were the strangler trees.  They were actually plants that grew from the treetops down to the ground.  A bird would drop the seed in a tree of some other sort and the seed would sprout, grow vines that would descend to the ground, take root and then wrap themselves around the host.  The strangler vines would become so numerous and enmeshed that they would eventually kill the host and leave what appeared to be a hollow center to a large, living tree.

There were other vines like orchids, ferns and stringers that would latch on tightly and grow on other living plants.  It was interesting the defense mechanisms that some trees had developed to deter the parasites.  Some would have bark that peeled off in big sheets so that vines couldn't attach securely.  Some shed their bark completely. Others had an immunity to ants and hosted the ants which would destroy the vines.  All very interesting...especially when you start comparing
it to people and their habits and defense mechanisms—or lack of them.

The entire hike was 8 kilometers (just under 5 miles) up and started in almost meadow-like with fences and a couple of horses.  Then into rain forest with dense foliage and all kinds of different trees.  Some of them were fantastically large and beautiful with the tops not even visible because of the height and other plants.  The trail was a mesh of exposed roots that ascended almost in stair-like fashion. Apparently, the good soil isn't that deep and volcanic rock is
underneath so the roots all spread out.

Eventually, we moved to a palm forest where the undergrowth was less dense and the trees were shorter.  All the time moving, we were in and out of sun, rain, shade and mist...often all in the same five minute period of time.  The hacienda had been clear with winds blowing fairly steadily and the volcano had been consistently shrouded in clouds and smoke.  As we broke out onto an open ridge, we could see a steep climb ahead of us into the mist.  The plants were interesting as they now had leaves that were hard enough to be made of plastic.  There were these giant leaves (maybe 3 feet in diameter) that looked beautiful but were rock hard and felt like sandpaper.

As we got ready to leave from the hacienda, the guy that arranged the tour asked if we minded if two more people joined us.  Of course it was fine and they were a delightful couple.  Joe and Kate from Buffalo.  As it turns out, Joe was working on his Phd in Geography and had been in the Peace Corp in Tanzania for two years.  Kate was just getting ready to start medical school at Brown.  Between all of our questions, we were able get a lot of interesting information from Roy.

From the open ridge, the trail turned very steep and was rutted, rooted, trenches up through the plants for several hundred meters. Then we were on black volcanic rock with only couple of types of plants and then no plants.  The wind picked up as well as the mist and the smoke prevented visibility further then 8-10 meters ahead.  The sulfur smell was not intense but definitely there and if you looked in the direction of the wind, you're eyes would begin to sting from it. We traversed a ridge with the wind picking up to 20-25 miles per hour (I should keep my measurements all the same!) and then were into a fairly technical rock pitch.  Our guide on Grand Teton would have made us rope up but it wasn't that critical.  The pitch was maybe 40 meters and Hayden and I climbed out and waited at the top with Roy.  No Joe and Kate for several minutes so Roy went back.

On the ridge, he had said it was going to be windy and smoky and we wouldn't see the crater so it was our choice if we wanted to turn back or not.  I, thinking of and comparing this to Everest base camp, said, “Keep going!”  After 10 minutes, Roy came back and said Joe and Kate had turned back.  Apparently, she was feeling the altitude and was unnerved by all the wind and weather so he had given them instructions on how to get back to the hacienda.  I think he was thinking we might turn back as w  ell but...this was REALLY COOL so we kept going!

The trail was fairly obvious but you could only see a short distance ahead.  We were soon traversing a narrow ridge with a steep pitch off either side into the smoke. We climbed and climbed and eventually came to a point which if we'd have been climbing on our own, would have thought, “this is the summit...we're here.”  But it was just a ridge point and we dropped down and into more of a little valley.  Here it got really cool as the wind died some and eventually we came to a small stream, running over the black rock, that was warm water.  It totally felt and looked like something out of Frodo's journey.

On down, then up, then down and another stream, down another windy ridge and then Roy said, “Ok, that's it.”  A few piled rocks was all that we could see and a slope into the smoke...not much different than the last 30 minutes of hiking except for one thing....we could hear the gas bursts and bubbling of the vents. We climbed down over the ridge where we were out of the wind and could hear better and then sat down to eat our lunch while Roy asked Hayden about farming in Idaho.

He had been to Nevada but said it really made his skin dry out and his hands and knuckles crack.  What he would really like was to get some alfalfa seed that he could plant and feed to his rabbits.  They seemed to be a particular interest to him and he said he raised them for food to eat.  He knew alfalfa was the best protein for cows and I guess figured it would be best for rabbits as well.

The trip back down was even a little more exciting as the wind had picked up.  Hayden didn't have a wind measurement on his watch but I'm guessing gusts at 50 mph and i needed a wide stance and facing into it at a good angle to stay steady.  Back to the technical part (Joe said
it was more technical at that point than anything he had seen on Kilimanjaro and he had climbed that when he was in Tanzania) and the wind died down.  By the time we reached the first open ridge, the sun was out and we stripped down to shirts as it was too hot.

The trip back down the trail was a slow meander just listening and watching for wildlife.  Roy heard white faced monkeys and we stood there for several minutes...me thinking we won't see any as it was silent for the longest time.  Then suddenly there were several and we watched them through binoculars for several minutes.  A family with some large and some small.  Further down, Hayden spotted some large turkey like birds that were way high in the trees.  They looked so big and awkward you wondered how they could manage to get or stay up there.

Back at the hacienda, we talked to Joe and Kate as we cleaned our shoes and muddy clothes in the pond and then enjoyed dinner with them at the lodge that night.

Next morning, we paid our bill and checked out.  One thing that we didn't count on doing is eat as well as we have.  The prices are not dirt cheap but for the food you get, it is fairly reasonable.   Our bill for two nights, two dinners, two breakfasts, lunch and guide to the volcano top was $267.

One of Hayden's ambitions was to find a great waterfall and with there were several in the park and area that looked good for swimming.  The closest was private so we opted for that even though it cost some but we had it to ourselves.  Probably about 40 feet of fall into a pool that you could dive into.   Hayden donned his Speedo (the EU influence of his mission) and I snapped some shots and video.

Going out of the park, we checked out a couple of ICE installations. ICE is a local electric utility and they were drilling geothermal wells at the base of the volcano.  One was tapped and tied into some sort of transfer station which we went surveyed for a few minutes.  Jobs like that could be an exciting (if not deadly)--drilling for geysers at the base of an active volcano!

Back towards Liberia and the decision had to be made as to whether to go to Nicaragua or not.  Both of us wanted to go but we also wanted to not be rushed right up the end of the trip.  It would take a couple of days to drop the car at La Cruz, then bus into a point on Lake Nicaragua.  Several had said that it was really cool and cheaper there but we opted to start south toward Tamarindo.  Low on gas so filled up for the equivalent of $40.

Outside of Liberia is an international airport...small but serviced from the US.  It's a jumping off point for most of the US interests that fill beach hotels and the condos in that area.  The landscape is markedly different with fewer, shorter trees, a brown (as opposed to green) undergrowth and a better highway.  The entire Nicoya peninsula is dotted with beaches and spider roads running off the main artery to each of them.  One of the few places I researched before coming was Conchal which was headlined as the most beautiful beach in all of Costa Rica for it's white sand made from seashells.  We followed the signs and were soon driving right on the beach up to a nice fellow in an orange vest who parked us and asked for two dollars to watch our car.

The beach was beautiful with almost two thirds of a circle of sand and a breaker of large rocks in the distance that kept the bay smooth. The people were mostly foreigners but not very many and there were options where we parked for jet skis, ATVs, snorkeling, fishing and sailing.  We opted for swimming, tanning and just hiking on the sand and rocks, clear out to the rocky point.  It was a mix of sand an volcanic red rock which was pretty.  There was one rock point out at the end that we thought we would swim to and climb but when we got there, the rocks and the waves made it a little too dangerous so we just sat and watched the teaming water life.  We saw these jumping fish that would actually jump to a rock, hold and then jump to another.  Crabs were everywhere and Hayden saw an eel.  Very relaxing. The hike was a pretty good scramble over rocks for a good portion and by the next day, I was pretty sore...that combined with the volcano hike.

After about 4 hours on the beach, we headed for Tamarindo and checked out our new map for two $$ hotels.  Tired of not finding roads on the rental car map and not finding consistent signage, we sprung for a $12 water proof map in Santa Elena that has turned out to contain a wealth of information.  Details on most towns of significant size plus little signs for hotels with one, two or three dollar signs.  The two dollar signs are usually nice and in a range that we can afford ($35-65 for two of us).  We found one on the beach coming into Tamarindo that
turned out to be owned by a nice French fellow.

Time to wash clothes and the front desk informed us of a laundry in town called Backwash! They took all our dirty clothes and charged us the equivalent of $2 per pound (7lbs total) and we set about walking the streets looking for food.  Tamarindo is definitely a tourist town.  Still mostly dirt streets but lots of nice little shops, surf places, souveniers, and plenty of eating establishments.  We picked a place right on the beach that served ceviche (fish marinated in lime juice with cilantro) and I had red snapper and Hayden had mahi mahi. Live music alternated from the restaurants on either side with the ocean in the background.

The nice firm bed didn't turn out to be so firm as after a few minutes, they sagged to the middle.  I spent the night dreaming I had gotten so fat in the middle that my arms and legs were just sticks and my bellard was huge...kind of like the spider monkeys.  We uploaded some video over the slow connection and then headed out.  Pat and Carl Jorgeson have a place in Tamarindo so I emailed Mom to see if they were here.  She emailed back and we were able to connect on Skype via the iPhone (voice only) and had a good talk.  Pat and Carl were actually in Grace and wouldn't be back until after Christmas so we drove to the one golf course we had seen which turned out to be just a nice driving range.  He didn't know Carl but said the only golf course was at Hacienda Pinella.  We followed the signs as it was on the way but soon turned to dirt road so traveled on.

The majority of the Nicoya Peninsula is more arid with lots of cattle ranches.  We saw many open fields with a few trees left for shading the floppy eared Brahma cows.  Hayden calls them jack rabbit cows because of their ears.  Much drier and more open with low hills.  We passed a few melon plantations and even stacks of hay and a field with roller bales.  There was much less signs of English and nothing geared to tourism.  Kind of refreshing after Tamarindo.  We reached the Naranjo port where the ferry goes over to Punteraunes.  As we pulled up, there was a woman and a man each laying on a bench in the heat and no sign of anyone else.  From the Spanish schedule, we could tell that the next ferry was at 5:30, three hours later.

We drove south a ways to a beach that was definitely not tourist.  A few small fishing boats, some cows, some mangy dogs and a bunch of dead fish.  We walked along the shore, looked at dead fish, cows standing in water to keep cool and at all these interesting patterns on the sand made by something that bored into a hole in the center of the design.  At one point, a couple of fishing boats came in.  They had outboards but were heavy wood boats.  They came to shore, then
worked them around and took off the motors, hooked them to a 4 wheel drive and drug them up the beach.

We headed back to the pier and now it was teaming with people.  A bus had just dropped off a group of kids that were heading over to the city for the beginning of the holiday.  There were several vehicles in line including one of the extended Land Rover Defenders that we've been counting while here.  They're tough looking, heavy duty, diesel and would be great outfits for driving from Alaska to the tip of Argentina.

We still had time so bought a cold soda and played with a new iPhone application that I had downloaded that is a GPS.  The head of the line was a ten-wheeler full of cows.  Soon the line started to move and we pulled forward.  We had already purchased tickets (about $7.50 for the
car and $1.50 for each of us) but as we pulled up, Hayden had to get out and walk on with the individual passengers.   The cattle truck was held to last to pull on and as it started up the plank ramp, one of the timbers buckled under the front wheels.  The break wasn't wide enough to stop them but when tandems on the back got to the ramp they spun out.  That was it--they backed off the ramp and parked the load.

The ferry ride was really fun.  All of the kids seemed so nice and friendly.  One fellow had a guitar and started singing and all of them joined in.  We had talked to a couple from Quebec, a guy and a girl that had come to Costa  Rica, then gone to Nicaragua where they said things were half the price.  They were on a year long tour of South America.  Nice kids and a little envious of their trip but I could tell they were concerned about being frugal as the $1.50 fee was something they were trying to avoid.

The ferry was similar to the one we took across from Denmark to Germany.  Cars on a middle deck, two decks above and two below...one air conditioned with a snack deck, and one at the bottom where all the kids disappeared to the disco.

It was dark soon after we left the dock and the ride of 8.53 miles with an average speed of 8.0 miles per hour.  The ride to Jaco was uneventful.  The town has a few new condo/hotel towers and the streets are cleaner but much of it is the same.  We stopped at Pancho Villas for dinner...new changes there as the menu prices had gone up significantly and there is now no internet!

The plan was to stay in Hermosa and as we headed that direction, we hit a downpour! We pulled into a place that was lit called the Surf Inn and asked the guard if there were rooms.  In a few minutes, an American guy met us and said he had a room and showed it to us.  Very nice and new in the last year.  It was more of a small condo with nice beds, a couch and a kitchen.  The price seemed a little squishy but we ended up with set price of $250 for four nights.  It's a great place with a pool, grass right to the beach and a restaurant with wi-fi on the top floor.  Kristina and Michael are the owners and they built the place and and are great hosts.  We haven't eaten at the restaurant yet as we went and shopped for food.

Saturday, we rented a surf board from Canton...a big long board...for Hayden and I used a boogie board.  My last experience surfing was so painful with sore shoulders and arms that I decided not again unless I conditioned in advance.  Hayden worked at it for a long time and got up on a wave that dropped out from under him.  It was a nice day but in the end, there's a reason why Idaho farm boys don't surf!

Here in Hermosa, we're just kicking back.  We've cooked food, cut up a lot of fruit, swam in the pool and sat on the beach.  We drove down to Esterillos and looked at what has been happening there...nothing. Cabo Calettas looks dead.  Troy's place looks a little overgrown and nothing at all happening on Dave's property.  Down to Beujuco and nothing changed there.  Watched Pirates of the Caribbean on HBO and slept.

Today was Sunday and we employed the technology to find church in Orotina about 45 km away.  From the iPhone, we found the closest church to Jaco but the map was very zoomed out.   So, the used Orotina as the base and that gave us enough detail to take a chance on finding
it if we drove up there.  We found the general area and spotted a steeple.  The branch building looked nearly new and was very, very nice.  We were 10 minutes late but got there just as they were singing the opening song...a Christmas carol.  Yes...it is actually the last Sunday before Christmas and we got to see their Christmas program.

The fellow conducting broke out of his announcement and said, “you brethern speak Spanish?”  No....”It's a Christmas program...pretty standard stuff.”  Several people were confirmed who had been baptized the day before...looked like a couple of husbands and wives.  We didn't see any missionaries until later when we discovered that the
missionaries there were sisters.  A girl from American Samoa who had lived in Hawaii and a sister from Honduras...both and very nice.

The fellow that conducted it turns out was American and had dumped about $3million into condos south of Jaco and was working to get it back as the government had shut them down.  He seemed to be key to the Christmas program which was a series of talks and music, all accompanied by string orchestra started by clicking a mouse on a computer hooked to the sound system.

Sunday School was taught by an older woman on the Family Proclamation.  She had a wonderful spirit and could tell she was passionate about families.  After, I talked to her and said thanks and she talked and talked even though I told her I knew no Spanish.  I think she was saying that Costa Rica was really diverse and that people are all very friendly which we totally agree with.

Priesthood was a combined session which was gospel trivia competition between the men and the women.  The guy that taught spoke English and kept us sort of on the loop.  Hayden even got one of the points for the guys.  He was about the only that spoke our language though.  It was nice to attend and get a little bit of Christmas spirit.  It reminded me of several years ago when I was with Cogito and Deren and I walked in early to the Christmas program in Jerusalem and were asked to join the choir for their program.  A couple of the more memorable Christmas programs.

Back to the hotel for a dinner of sandwiches and cup of soups...and fruit.  Last night on the way back from the other beaches, we stopped at a stand and had the woman running it pick out a big papaya, watermelon and pineapple and then got a couple of chilled coconuts with straws for drinking the milk.  Very good!

Afternoon naps, watched the sunset and surfers at the beach...some big waves coming in and then fixed dinner after a short cooling off in the pool.  Which brings us up to current...right now.

Did a couple of narrations on video for posting.  Technology is really amazing and I'm more impressed with the iPhone.  It's almost like a Urim and Thumim.  We've been playing with the Star Walk which is really like an eye into the universe.  The latest updates show rise and set times for sun, moon and all major planets as well as the phases of the moon.  It's all tied to a GPS and my position so pulls right to this area.  Each photo and video ties in location if desired.  The 'live broadcast' is really going to be revolutionary and we've put together several local and live segments.

I've been telling Hayden about our trip around the world and how different communication was then.   Telegraph or make an appointment for a 5 minute call several hours in advance.  With the iPhone, I can have my friends with iPhones see where I am at any point in time on a map, anywhere on the planet.  It's like a baby monitor for 55 year olds!

Not sure I'm any closer to knowing what I should be doing...other than writing.  I write and write and have so much more detail to add but know no one will ever read it!  I did read email enough to know they have a new VP of Engineering back at work since I left.  His forte is Product
Management so will be interested to see how that works out.  It could be good.  On the other hand, just thinking of work and some of the people gives me a rash.  A thought of the Campbell place (farm in Lago), turned into a reunion club with cabins could be a noble pursuit.  Teaching is still on.  Today, thought that a series of missions to work with youth and training, teaching the gospel would be good.  But...I don't know. iReporter for CNN? They just announced that on the TV.

Frank and Melissa had their baby yesterday...or the day before.  Gladall went well!

NEXT ENTRY
So after I wrote this, I checked email and here was a collage of pictures of the baby and all of the other kids and his name, Ryan Peter.  I'd suggested several times that Frank and Melissa each had a brother named Peter and a baby would be named after two of his uncles but got a pretty strong reaction so was very pleasantly surprised that they chose the name.  In fact, I was pretty touched and had tears streaming down my cheeks as I looked at the little collage that Frank put together.  I sent an email and just checked Franks response which said,  “We're still waiting to see if he chews his tongue!”

So, I think I'm completely caught up on sleep by now.  Went to bed at midnight and woke up a a little after five, totally awake.  Awake so that I started thinking about work and how taken advantage of I feel I've been.  Not a good train of thought so I needed to get up and do something else.  It's raining outside but I think we'll go to Manual Antonio this morning and then go by the property this afternoon.

So about life...not much closer to answers than when I left but the I wasn't sure I expected to be.  Interesting how that relaxing, my body changes.  My shoulder is still sore but I feel younger and more limber.  Of course, that came AFTER a couple of days of soreness from either the volcano hike or the beach climb.  The things I've been thinking about have centered on building a lodge with cabins and maybe doing the residence club thing.  As I looked at those three little
boys of Frank's, I thought they will really need a place to play and work.  I don't know if it's possible or practical but it would be a good thing I think.


NEXT ENTRY
End of last day in Jaco.  I got up early and went for a long walk on the beach.  It was just getting light and there were a couple of surfers bobbing on their boards.  As I walked further down, car after car showed up and by the time I got back, the waves were full.  The tide was high and the waves big and crashing close to the top of the beach.  I did notice you have to be patient.  The time between rides looked like it average 20-30 minutes.

The guys having the most fun were the pelicans!  There were about 12-15 of them that would fly in formation along the top of a wave, just ahead of it.  Almost like they were surfing on the air currents that were pushed in front of a breaking wave with their wing tops just a couple of inches above the water.  As the wave ran out, they would lift up, in formation and then circle to another incoming wave and line up in single file again.  No fish, no food...just flying fun.

Quick swim in the pool and then we had breakfast and headed to Manuel Antonio.  It was a steady rain and still going when we got there.  We parked, paid our four dollars and then made our way over to the park entrance.  There was no one else around but it was early.  As it turns out, it's also closed on Mondays and the ranger turned us back.  Took a couple of shots, walked along the beach and then came back to Jaco and to the Tajo (pit) to find Victor.  

His wife was in the office but she speaks as much English as I do Spanish so we were no help to each other.  She called her son Andres who spoke excellent English and said his dad was at the bank but that he would call him and he should be there in 30 minutes.  Hayden and I looked over an old Land Rover that was there at the pit for sale and walked around.  Soon Victor showed up and gave me a big hug.  He's a good guy and always positive.  His wife was also very nice and recognized me.  We rode up to where he had been working on the road and some progress since last time.  The first overlook is still a spectacular view and he has a good base of rock and is taking it down 7 more meters for a larger flat area.  Going up further was dangerous because of the rain all morning so Hayden and I walked on to the top lots...really still a spectacular view.  Victor was telling me that the road from San Jose would be done in march and that lots of progress had been made.  “Your money is very safe with this here!” he said.

He got his son Bernal on the phone and we confirmed dinner tomorrow night near the airport before leaving.  There were some signs with numbers on them that may have indicated lots.  We'll find out more then and possibly with an architect.  The road to the top was still very steep and a base is needed for the high parts as it is still very muddy.  I was thinking that I could get a small Airstream and have Victor pull it up with his caterpillar. Then get an ATV and you'd be set.  Meeting with Victor was short and sweet and then we went to the Taco Bar for lunch.  We had smoked salmon and grilled red snapper tacos which were very good albeit a little expensive.

Final stop was to Los Suenos to show Hayden how the people with money live.  It was a cool day and the golf course was beautiful.  We walked the marina and then took a couple of shots of the huge yacht that was anchored out in the bay with a helicopter on it.  Talked over the cost of keeping one of those on payroll....go Tiger Woods (well not so fast now).

On the way back we stopped at a couple of Land Rovers with fore sale signs on them.  1970 models.  The one was refurbished with tires, battery and new plug wires.  Not much rust but definitely seen some use.  Pretty cool though.  Price is $1500 plus you would need to bring
taxes current which would be about $500.

Back to the hotel and a romp in the waves.  Tons of surfers and high tide with waves crashing on the beach.  We had a great time swimming out and avoiding  getting pounded.  I was thinking that I just about had it down how to avoid getting pounded by diving under the wave and
then.... I got pounded.

Still fun.  Hayden went through the rinse cycle and did a head drive right into the sand.  Dip in the pool, showers and then went a couple of doors down to Las Olas where we dined on “Naked Sesame Seared Tuna.” Oh... so good!  They were the hugest steaks.  I'm guessing that if that much tuna were served as sashimi at Happy Sumo, it would have been $150!  We got that plus veggies, salad, potatoes for $13.  We ate so much that we were ready to pop.  Visited with people running the restaurant for quite a while.  Everyone is so nice.  They have cabins there that go
for $15-20 per night geared to surfers.  An American owns it and in fact, the airplane people have a percentage.  They are hung up on a permit this year as the municipality now requires one.  Not sure if they will be back this year or not.

FINAL ENTRY
So I guess I never finished this up.  It’s now about three weeks later but I’ll go from memory.  Next morning we got up fairly early and walked the beach then swam for a while.  Walked through a couple of  empty lots, an unfinished building and past a boutique hotel on the beach that are all for sale. Would be a good time to buy if you had the cash and wanted to drive a deal.  

The weather was really clear and the drive to San Jose on the old road was still windy.  Weather was near perfect.  We stopped at a roadside restaurant at the top of the mountains that looked out toward the west and for the first time in the five times going there, I could see the ocean.  A great lunch for about $5.  

As we headed into San Jose, we were on the freeway and traffic was fairly heavy.  The car seemed to just die to idle but then go after a few seconds.  There was no place to pull over and it showed we still had an eighth of a tank of gas.  Several times more and then right into downtown San Jose with all the holiday traffic...people shopping and just being in public.  The car actually started dying but it would start again and was soon relieved to see a gas station.  We pulled in, filled it and the problem stopped.  Thank goodness!

Really not much to see or do in San Jose.  We strolled the walking streets with all of the shops but nothing really to buy.  I took Hayden to the big market building where I bought all of the nieces and nephews leather purses and wallets the first time I was there.  Lots of police out and about (see photos).  There was a concert about to start near the National Theatre so we waited for a while until that started.  It was a Christmas Choral and just as they started singing, sirens from a passing police car started blaring.  We walked a little more and then decided we’d had enough and took the car back to the airport and dropped it off.  

Still had several hours before meeting Bernal so we just sat in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express and read and did iPhone.  Bernal met us at Denny’s and we had a good visit with him.  He, like his dad, is a very nice guy--very warm and approachable.  We talked about the property and plans.  It has been slow and they did not move ahead with the architect that had put together the previous plan.  He has a friend that he grew up with that studied architecture in London and now is one of the leading architects in Central America and they are working on some new plans for the mountain.  He believes they can design homes and access that do very little to change the existing landscape.  I like the concept.  Bernal said they would send plans once they have some preliminary sketches.  In the end, I don’t have high hopes for any changes soon.  Money for investment has been tight and not much going on.  We had to laugh as Victor had assured us that the money was really safe and there was still opportunity but when I later asked how the pit was doing, “Terrible!” he said.  There’s no business or money! So, again, I emotional detach from any outcome and could envision one future where I never even go back and the whole thing is just written off.  On the other, I could see enjoying a new eco-designed home on that lot on top for several months out of the year.  Pura Vida!

Another funny thing...all over the country we had seen signs with a large picture of an attractive woman and the word “Laura”.  There was even a bumper sticker on Victor’s Land Rover so I asked Bernal, “All over the country, everywhere, we saw this woman’s picture.  Who is Laura!?!?”  “She is the woman who is running for president of Costa Rica.  She had a very large lead but another man in San Jose is catching up to her.  And....she is my cousin.”  Turns out, she’s his first cousin and Victor is her uncle.  I hope she wins and I hope that helps Victor capitalize on his property (and mine!).

Bernal bid us farewell and we took the transfer bus to the airport.  The flight was at 12:05 a.m. so a little miserable but all went well.  Both Hayden and I slept most of the way to Atlanta and then had breakfast while we waited for the Denver flight.  From Atlanta to Denver, Delta was letting passengers try out their new in flight wireless internet access.  I’m sure in the future that it will just be standard for everyone but was rather revolutionary compared to earlier travel.  I actually streamed a live video from my iPhone during the flight and probably could have talked to Mom if she had been on Skype.  

In Denver, we noticed that another flight was leaving for Salt Lake in 15 minutes so went to that gate and were able to get on (after being told it was full).  But...with snow and a storm, we sat on the tarmac for two hours plus waiting for de-ice and the storm to clear.  With no wireless on this flight (and my phone dead), no way to contact Shane who picked us up at the airport in Salt Lake.  When we got home,  Hayden did a little shopping and then headed for Raft River so he could see Jessica and Clayton before they had to come back to Utah.  We shopped a little and then he headed out.  

I came back tanned and relaxed, ready to do everything or nothing.  It was a fantastic trip and a great time with Hayden.  I highly recommend it!