Back Home Again

We made it home safe and sound after spending one final vacation evening down in Fort Lauderdale.  That gave us Friday to Sunday to get things back in order here before I head back to work on Monday.  They made a little bit of progress on the house but for the most part we had them on hold until we got back.  I'll post some updates sometime next week.

We did a refresh on Herman's grave site to make it look more like late spring/summer.  We also added a 2nd flag behind Linda's stone just to make it look more balanced. 

Tina and her family lost one of her cousins the last week we were in Costa.  Be well Rusty and rest in peace.

Day 21 - Saying Farewell to Costa

So it's the morning of our final day here in Costa.  The transport will be here to take us back to Liberia airport in a couple of hours.  A couple final shout outs before we wrap this vacation posting up.

To Diego Solis - one of the best all around horse guides we've ever enjoyed.  Anybody coming to the central Pacific part of Costa should consider doing an outing with him.  His website is:

 http://www.costaricahorsevacation.com/

To Colin Garland - a gentleman we met at the end of our hike to Witch's Rock.  Colin has a wildlife reserve up around Monteverde and he spends 6 months a year teaching students ranging from high-school graduate to college graduates about the plight of the wildlife here in Costa.  He also spends 3 months a year down in South Africa, another 2 months a year in Siberia or other similar places with wildlife concerns, and finally 1 month a year back in his home in Minnesota.  Anybody with aspirations about dealing with wildlife who wants hands-on experience to go along with the book smarts you can get from schooling should consider his non-profit.  The website for it is:

http://globalclassroom.net/Home.html

To the wonderful people of Costa Rica we met - you make tourism a joy here in your country.  It is obvious it is one of the high priorities within your culture and that's apparent every place we went.  Congratulations on establishing a fantastic environment to be enjoyed by all.

To anybody who followed along on this portion of the blog - thanks for taking the time to check in on this part of our journey.

Farewell Costa Rica from Tom and Tina's Travels

Day 20 - One Final Beach Day

Day 20!  Our last full day in Costa.  Somewhat sad that it's coming to an end but then vacations wouldn't be so special if they lasted forever.  We did one last day trip to a town described as a "sleepy surf town" named Nosara.  Little did we know that the roads to get to Nosara, while not as bad as the ones to Witch's Rock, ranked as 2nd worst of our trip here which says they were pretty darn bad.  Then when we got to the actual town of Nosara it wasn't just sleepy ... it was totally passed out cold.  Fortunately when you drive down to the Nosara Beach (about 2 miles away from town) you find a bit more activity.

 

Both coast lines of Costa are covered with such varying and unique beaches that are hard to do justice to with pics.

 

And with a final glimpse to our fine feathered friends and a look back at the beautiful Nosara Beach we said goodbye to one more amazing part of Costa.

 

And it seemed only fitting that this beautiful country shared one more spectacular sunset with us on our final evening here.

 

Goodnight Costa Rica!

Day 19 - Nice Neighbors

There once was a time when I thought Tina and I had really nice neighbors.  Ron is an ENT doctor who still  does all his own yard-work and gardening.  I think he and I may be the only ones on Rockledge Drive that still do that.  :)  His wife Jeanann is a super nice person who would do anything to lend a hand.  So they had us fooled into thinking they were truly nice people.

...

Until they found out we were going to Costa and said we simply HAD to take a trip to Witch's Rock beach!  You can get to Witch's Rock by charter boat which I'm now fully convinced is what all the sane people do in the world.  The insane ones opt for driving there through Santa Rosa National Park.  Even though I'd read online that it was a rough road and the park ranger at the entrance said the road was in terrible shape, we'd had it recommended to us by people we though were good friends.  How bad could it possibly be?

The road starts off easy enough leading you into a false sense of security.  It soon gets more rocky with potholes ready to bottom out the vehicle.

We even had the added benefit that it's the very end of the dry season and where you would normally have to drive through rivers was all dried up.

We were rewarded with our first spotting of a deer in Costa in the wild.  While it was nice to see a couple of them at the Jaguar Rescue Center, it's always more special finding them in the wild.

But after a 2 1/2 hour drive where the last 45 minutes were over a road our GPS system didn't think existed, we made it to the beach known as one of the best around for surfing.  Obviously it wasn't the best of days for surfing, but it was a perfect day for hiking.  In the second pic you can see our destination of Witch's Rock.

 

Due to the unique shape of this beach line, the waves travel a long ways up before finally settling into the flat area above.  As such a lot of things wash up on this beach.

It was a little more than 1.5 miles down the beach to Witch's Rock.  It was so named because a witch one of the Indian tribes blamed for a volcanic explosion was banished to this rock according to legend.  Doesn't seem like an overly hospitable place.

 

We did finally run into a lone surfer who was a guy who worked for a non-profit doing  fish stocking up in Idaho and the job affords him to spend 2 months every year down here in Costa.  Somehow I'm in the wrong line of business.  Also down at this end of the beach is a HUGE salt water estuary attracting birds, fish, and crocodiles.  Our Idaho friend told us the crocs hang out in this estuary for part of the day and then swim out in the ocean (right past surfers if they happen to be out there) and down to another estuary at the far end of the beach.

 

While taking this second pic I was constantly being yelled at by somebody who will remain unnamed (but who's not from Idaho) about getting away from the estuary and it's crocodiles.

The path back took us into the wooded area above the beach.  Believe it or not all these tree's are alive and healthy even though they make it look like your walking through the middle of an evil forest.

 

It was a lot hotter up in the wooded area without the benefit of the ocean breeze but it was another unique portion of nature of the wildly varying country.

 

Thank goodness we had 4 wheel drive for the ride back up because those rocky area's are even more challenging when going up hill. 

Until the next post ...

 

Esté Bien!

 

PS - Our neighbors are still really nice people.

 

...

 

A bit insane perhaps but that's probably why we get along!  :)

Day 18 - Tina and Her Crocs

We started the day out early, heading off to do a farewell hike around Manuel Antonio National Park.  It ended up being about 5 miles and left us absolutely drenched in sweat ... again!  Fortunately we had enough time to go back to the hotel and shower before packing up to leave.  The hike was up and around the point of land adjacent to the beach we were at the other day and is the same one I posted some pics of from the catamaran trip.  Although the path was well maintained, I'd say there was probably 500 to 600 steps to be negotiated.  Doing the first 100 or so of those steps brought us to the first lookout point.

As we continued on (and on and on and on with the steps) we reached an inland high point where we kept hearing shuffling through the leafs adjacent to the path.  Finally we spotted this unique crab.  Why it exists perhaps 1000 feet up from the sea is beyond me, but we must have seen a couple dozen of them.

 It's always difficult to get a good pic of a butterfly since they enjoy moving around too quickly.  This guy cooperated at the next overlook.

 

And then it was back to the room to get cleaned up for the 5 hour drive back to the starting point of this journey, Tamarindo.  But on that trip we finally fulfilled Tina's OCD wish.  We saw a ton of people gathered at a bridge over a river and on the far side of the bridge was a restaurant called "Crocodiles Gathering".  We'd finally found Tina's elusive crocodiles.

 

They hang out in the river here enjoying the muddy smell of all the other croc's and then when high tide rolls in from the ocean they make there way towards it feeding along the way. 

So that's it for this day other than to do another shout out to our grand-dog Kodi who's heading off tomorrow to his new home in Dallas, TX.  I think he needs to talk his parents into letting him chase sticks in the oceans of Costa.  This is one happy, satisfied dog.

Adios for now!