Cait and I left the states on the 14th, of July and headed south to one of our favorite places, Costa Rica. We are especially lucky this trip, as we get to spend just over a month in paradise! While the two of us will be here for the full month, we will have visits from Mom (Barbara), the other two Killer Aunts (Joyce and Tita) and several other friends.
We spent our first week waking every mornning to a swim and a walk, eating great fresh fruit and vegetables and exploring local sights. We visited waterfalls, great little local spots to eat and had adventures in questionable vehicles!
Mostly what we did was anxiously await the arrival of the rest of our trio, Mom.
Finally, she arrived and we wasted little time, getting on to our first adventure. Okay....so while we didn't waste any time...we did take care of some issues that resulted in trauma...facial trauma to be exact. And while we all had a fair share of trauma, I am the only one willing to post my face, mid trauma on this blog. I know, I have no shame! This photo was about 6 hours deep in a 8.5 hour day of oral surgery.
I would like to report that I'm all better now, but its 4 days later and I'm still swollen and I suppose fairly funny looking, as Cait and Mom are quick to point out! However, I'm sure not going to let a little facial trauma and who-like appearance stop the fun.....so we moved on with our plans!
Since we had all been to Costa Rica before, and explored all the "entry level" must sees.....we thought we would venture up north near the Nicaraguan border to a less touristy and more authentic area of the country.
Thursday morning we headed north out of San Jose into the Nocoya Peninsula. If you look at a map of Costa Rica, this is the peninsula in the northwest part of the country. We headed out to Pacific side of that peninsual to a little village called Nosara. It seemed like a good spot to start!
The road seemed fine at first, a highway of sorts. In Texas it would be considered a Farm to Market road, but by Tico standards it was definitely a highway. Because it is undivided highway and we were driving through the mountains, the going was pretty slow at times, however we did NOT adapt to the Costa Rica practice of passing multiple cars on blind turns! We just plodded along, not too worried about the time.
When we though we were about 3/4 of the way through our trip, our Farm to Market road suddenly turned into a dirt road!
The bridges were at least smooth....however, they were one car....well, one vehicle.....okay.....one traveler....bridges!
Needless to say, the last quarter of our trip took us considerably longer than we expected! Lucky for us it was amazing scenery and we had Cait to entertain us!
Many of you who don't know my mom well, will shake your head disapprovingly at this next part.....but we had made arrangements to stay at a place called Jungle's Edge. It is, no big surprise, located on the edge of the jungle, just a short distance from the beach. We knew to expect all sorts of wildlife in this area, and to make it just a big more exciting, we were staying in a tent! Now, granted, this tent was the mac-daddy of tents and had two nice blow up mattresses for us to sleep on....but it was still a tent! Just as we expected, Mom was excited with the spot when she saw it and though the hot, humid afternoon made us a bit concerned about the temperature at night, we decided to go ahead with the plan.
After checking in, we headed out for some dinner at a great little local spot right on the pacific. Our tent-keeper, Dave, had recommended Olga's to us, and he certainly steered us in the right direction. The beach was lovely, with local families enjoying the surf and we soon discovered that Olga's was the definite hangout for all the people of the village. The beer was ice cold, the sunset gorgeous, the food...well, the best grilled red snapper I've ever had....and all the while we were entertained by the local surfers who were engaged in a very serious soccer game right in front of our table! What a great evening!
During dinner I was eavedropping (I know, I know, say it isn't so) on some locals who I THOUGHT said that the turtles were hatching one beach up. So we decided to make the trek on the iffy roads to see. Well, though I obviously misheard or misinterpreted what was said because there were no hatching turtles on Playa Ostional, we did get to have an unplanned treat thanks to Cait's keen eye. Howler monkeys! Right above the road on the trees and power lines, one even carrying its baby. Luckily for me, they were also "howling" at one another, which would prove to be useful later in the night when the sounds outside the tent would have been a bit frightening had I not known it was just the monkeys!
Once back at the tent, we found that it was still pretty hot....however, it didn't take too long for the cool jungle air to move in and we slept comfortably.....amazing how soothing the sounds of nature can be. While we saw very little at night other than some shiny eyes in the dark, we could hear the sounds of animals all around us and awoke to the chatter of the monkeys and the birds. It was really a once in a lifetime experience and once again I was blessed to get to experience it with both my mom and my daughter!!!
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