Costa Rica / Nicaragua 2018: Week 3

We stayed fairly close to "home" this week, but did get out a few times.

The owners of the condo where we're staying live in Houston, TX, but were here this week checking in on things, so we got the opportunity to meet them. While they've both lived in Texas for more than 30 years, she was born in Costa Rica and he was born in Nicaragua.  They still have family in both locations and were able to give us some great advice on things to do in both countries. Due to ice in Houston, their return flight got delayed a few days so we joined them on a couple of excursions as they played tourists.

Wednesday:  We left at 6:30pm and drove to Ostional Wildlife Refuge in hopes of seeing Olive Ridley turtles.  It's about an hour and a half drive and a good hour of that is on a dirt road.  The first thing we noticed when we got out of the van was how dark it was and how bright the stars were.  Turtles are drawn to light which can disorient them, so lighting is kept at a bare minimum and only flashlights with red lighting is allowed on the beach.

We followed our guide onto the beach and it only took about 10 minutes before we saw our first turtle.  By the end of the night we had seen dozens of turtles as they came onto the beach, dug their nests, laid their eggs, and then returned to sea.

Olive Ridley turtle facts:

• They are one of the smallest sea turtles, weighing about 80-110 pounds.
• They go to shore in masses to nest. It's referred to as 'arribada' - Spanish for mass migration. At Ostional, they have had upwards of 10,000 turtles on the beach at one time!
• After they dig the nest and are ready to lay their eggs, they go into a trance and don't see or hear anything.
• They lay 2-3 clutches of eggs per nesting season.
• Each clutch contains an average of 110-120 eggs.
• The temperature of the nest determines the gender. If the eggs are kept at temperatures lower than 82°F, they will hatch as males, if the temperatures is 84-86°F, there will be both males and females and a temperature of 88-90°F will produce only females. Temperatures higher than that will not hatch.

Wait!  Lorraine, Chris, Silenea, & Billy....did you just read that?  Go back, and check out that last bullet point.  There IS an animal that has the sex determined by temperature.  I've been vindicated! Ok, moving on....

It was a long night and we didn't get back until after 11pm (we learned it's almost impossible to sleep in a van, with a Tico driving on a dirt road), but it was worth it. We got to get very close, about a foot away, while she was in a trance laying eggs.  The pictures are a little tough to see since we were limited to the single red light.

Their heads look like aliens.

This was while she was laying the eggs. Our guide dug a section out of the side of the nest so that we could watch the eggs drop into the nest.  How cool is that?!

Thursday:  We went to he Ara Project, which is a breeding and release center for the Great Green and Scarlet macaws.  This wasn't far from where we're staying (about 30-45 minutes on another dirt road) and we'd heard that you could see Scarlet macaws head to that area in the early evening hours. There was a short presentation when we got there and then just a handful of Scarlet macaws came into the area (they put out food each evening, which pretty much guarantees you'll see a few).

Great Grean Macaw facts:

• They are endangered, with only 1500-2000 left in the world. 
• 90% of their habitat is gone.



Feeding at the Ara Project

At the Ara Project

A few days later, we saw this beauty in a tree by the beach.

Friday:  My workstation isn't exactly ergonomically friendly (outside picnic-type table/bench brought inside), so Brett arranged to have a massage therapist come to our room. Great way to start the weekend:-)

Saturday:  We decided we needed a true beach day.  We rented chairs in Samara, I downloaded a book on my Kindle, and the farthest we ventured was to the ocean in front of us and the restaurant behind us.

Sunday:  Saturday was so perfect, we repeated it on Sunday.

Other pics from this week:

One of the guys staying in our condo complex, took Brett to this lagoon.  It's walking distance from the house. (If reincarnation were a thing, I'd want to come back as Brett!  He gets to see all this cool stuff while I'm at the condo working. Nope, no jealousy here. Now we just need to find a time when he can take me to see it.)   

In the lagoon.

The small marina down the hill from where we're staying.

Costa Rica / Nicaragua 2018: Week 2

We took a 3-day weekend to go to La Fortuna and see the Arenal Volcano.

We picked up the bus in Puerto Carrillo and headed to Samara to pick up the rental car.  Once we got our car, we were off for the long drive to La Fortuna.  The drive took us about 6 hours, but that time included some um, shall we say, ...poor navigating on my part.  We had brought a GPS, but had issues with it, so decided to stick with a good-old-fashioned paper map - which would have been great if there were things like, oh, maybe street signs!  We were on a poorly paved road, but I'd read and heard a lot about the roads being bad, so I think much of it.  Until this happened.  The road ended. Oops!

The landscape throughout much of the drive reminded us a lot of central and northern California; however, once we started climbing the mountain, it quickly turned into the rain forest. We stopped for lunch overlooking Lake Arenal.  While there, we got talking with the restaurant owner and learned that Rio Celeste, which was our destination for Sunday, was closed. Rio Celeste is a beautiful blue river and our plan was to hike to the waterfall.  We had heard about the large earthquake off the coast of Honduras, but hadn't heard that following that there was a seismic swarm of 12 tremors in 3 hours in the area of Rio Celeste.  The tremors caused the river to turn brown and they closed the trails to check for mudslides and safety.  (We've since learned it's now reopened and the color is coming back.)

Rio Celeste (internet photo)  We'll have to see it another time.

View of the lake with Mt. Arenal in the background

Getting closer!  So lucky to arrive on a fairly clear day.

We got to La Fortuna late in the afternoon and after some more navigation issues, found our hotel. 

We may look a little haggard after the long drive, but we made it!

View from the room.  It's hard to tell, but that's the volcano straight ahead.

Apparently, when you stay in the Rain Forest, your shower needs to have live plants.

Along the way, we saw a bunch of coatis on the side of the road.

And we saw a sloth - actually saw two of them!  This one was in the trees behind our room.  They are sooooooo slow!!! 

On Saturday morning, we got up and headed to North Fields Cafe for a coffee tour.  It was about 10 minutes away, we left 45 minutes early, and arrived about 5 minutes late.  Do you see a trend here? It was not the first, nor the last time, that Brett heard me say, in my best Phil Keoghan impersonation, "I'm sorry to tell you.  You are the last team to arrive, and have been eliminated from The Race." The good news is they hadn't started the tour yet, so we didn't miss anything.

We got a great tour of a small local coffee plantation, and went through the entire cycle, from planting seeds, to picking cherries (what the coffee beans are called), to drying, roasting, and brewing. It was kind of funny that they were upfront that the coffee from their plantation isn't good. The elevation is not ideal, so the area doesn't produce good beans, but the large coffee conglomerates pay the same, no matter what the quality is, so they sell the beans to them.  We also learned most of the workers are immigrants from Nicaragua.  They get paid $2 per basket that they pick and they are large baskets and small beans.  Costa Rica provides the children with free schooling and healthcare, but adults need to pay $40 per month for healthcare.  Sadly, some of the children end up working the fields rather than going to school as the families need the additional money.

At the end of the tour, we ground coffee beans and brewed both a medium and a dark roast for tasting. For this, we used coffee from their other plantation that is located in the good growing region and this coffee was said to be some of the best in Costa Rica.  It was awful.  Now, in all fairness, I'm not a coffee drinker, so maybe my opinion doesn't count. But it wasn't just me - several folks thought it was awful.  Maybe we just don't know good coffee?

After finishing the coffee tour, we headed to another small family operation, the Don Olivo Chocolate Tour.  The chocolate process was similar to the coffee process - pick, dry, roast, grind...enjoy!

Getting ready to head out on our adventures.

Some of the birds we viewed during breakfast. 

It's hard to tell in this picture, but those are toucans!  How cool is that?!

Getting fresh oranges at the coffee plantation.  We also got fresh papaya and my favorite, fresh pineapple.

Inside of a cocoa pod.

Cocoa beans after being roasted

The final product!  Hot chocolate.

Other miscellaneous photos from this week - 

On the drive home Sunday, it was super windy with a number of downed trees as well as a downed few utility lines, Here's one way to "flag" a line as being super low - tie a bag to it.

Brett wishing he wasn't gluten-free when he found milk and Oreos sold together.

Blue-jeans poisonous dart frog

This could have been any day this week.  Brett heading out the door to the beach, while I stayed back and worked😒

Costa Rica / Nicaragua 2018: Week 1

Brrrr!  When we planned this trip last summer, we had no idea that TN, as well as so many other parts of the USA, would be having such extreme cold weather the first of the year. For those at home, sorry, but we've got to admit, it makes this trip even better knowing that we are missing those single digit temperatures.

Here's a recap of our first week.
On January 1st, we left the house at 3am and had a long travel day ahead of us. After landing in Costa Rica around 2pm, we had a 2.5 drive to Puerto Carrillo.  The drive had us going through some beautiful farming areas with the mountains in the background.  Our driver, Luis, was very friendly and provided great information along the way.  I asked about the name of the province, Guanacaste, and what that means.  It's actually their national tree and he pointed some out.

Of course, we had to stop and get a coco frio for the drive.

We had a small hiccup along the way - a flat tire.  While Luis changed the flat, and Brett directed traffic, we heard our first howler monkeys. I first thought it was dogs barking in the distance. Here's a link to a video in case you want to hear what they sound like. Howler monkey

We were tired when we got to the condo, so had a quick bite to eat at the Soda next door. A Soda is what they call the small local restaurants.  After dinner, it was time to set up my office and test the internet.  Since I'll be working down here, having good internet and a comfortable "office" area was a must. We're staying in a studio and had to do some rearranging, but in the end, the outdoor table and bench made a good office area.

Since I'm working during the week, it's been Brett's mission to venture out and learn our surroundings.  He wanders to the beach and around the neighborhood each day.  After work, we walk to the beach, which is about 1/3 mile on a steep dirt road.  On our first walk, we saw over a dozen howler monkeys (we haven't seen any since).

On that same first walk, I had the brilliant idea of suggesting we walk to the next town over, Samara. We'd heard it was an hour walk.  Well, about 2.5 hours later, and walking mostly on the beach, we finally made it just after sunset. We saw these weird squiggly lines and mounds in the sand on Playa Samara.  I had to Google them when we got back.  I couldn't find much, but I think they are from a lugworm.  Yes, the mound does look like a turd, and from what I read, it's worm castings, so that's exactly what it is.

Of course, here we are in Costa Rica, and we found ourselves at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Then came the truly most brilliant idea of the day - we took a taxi back home.

Our condo complex is 6 units and so far we've been the only Americans staying here, with everyone else being Canadian or Costa Rican.  We had a nice man from San Jose, Costa Rica, stay here with his two boys for a few days. Brett really enjoyed chatting with him at the pool and we went with them to Samara for some beach time and dinner on Friday night.  We are staying in San Jose on our last night before we fly home, so we're hoping to be able to meet up with him again.

Brett has also made friends with a local Tico, Patricia.  Patricia speaks no English, but is very animated, so with Brett's minimal Spanish and a lot of hand waving and charades, they figure each other out.  They ran into each other by the beach the other day, so walked back together.  On the way, she stopped on the bridge and started banging on the metal rails and told Brett to do the same. Apparently, after about 10 minutes of this, the crocodile woke up and emerged. Yup. Crocodile. Yikes! Brett said it was about 5 feet long. We have seen lots of local kids playing in the shallow water just on the other side of this bridge.  So scary.

Today we decided to head to Samara again, but the plan was to take the bus.  Maria Elena, the lady who runs the condo complex, said the bus comes at 9:45 on Sunday.  However, the sign at the bus stop said 12:00, and another Tico saw us waiting and told us it would be quite awhile. So we walked back across the street to call a taxi only to have the bus drive by shortly after we left the bus stop. Next time we'll listen to Maria Elena! In the end, we decided not to call a taxi, but to walk it again. This time we came across a group of fishermen.

It was a good walk, but I now have a nice sized blister on the ball of my foot, so we'll be taking a few days off from long walks.  On the plus side, we did take the bus back and picked up a copy of the bus schedule:-)

The beach here in Puerto Carrillo is stunning.  It may well be the most beautiful beach we've seen, and while these photos don't do it justice, you can still get a glimpse of its beauty.