Costa Rica is such a safe, relaxed place that we are surrounded here by people who are escaping the winter in North America - mostly Canadians. In fact when I told a local driver that I was from London he immediately asked "Ontario?" Many of them are getting ready to head home in the next week or so after 8-10 weeks here. Had never thought of Jimmy C as a snowbird but I guess his annual February trip to Thailand would count!
There also a lot of Germans settled here running local businesses - including our hotel, the local bakery and the hotel and flying service that run the ultralights. Even learned this morning that Michael Owen and the Beckham's have a house near here and that Mel Gibson has just built a beachfront house on a private stretch of the coast north of Samara - didn't realise it was such a fashionable place.
Have also been able to keep up with the Premier league which is very popular here - great result today for Man City and I know Bernie will have enjoyed Birmingham's win - just hope that Arsenal can take care of Stoke later on.
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Earthquakes & Tsunamis
Woke this morning to news of the huge earthquake in Chile and the tsunami which is threatening the whole Pacific Rim. I guess it will be some time before we hear how badly it has affected Chile, but there have been major alerts across the pacific and massive coastal evacuations in Hawaii where they expect the tsunami in the next few hours.
There was an initial warning here to expect a 2m wave at around 10.30 but this was eventually withdrawn and everyone went back to the beach!
After all the kayaking that I have imposed on her, Linda's treat this morning was a flight over the coast and the mountains in an Ultralight - actually an Autogyro with a German pilot. She got a great view of the beaches and the coral reef offshore and quite a few photos, including a video of the landing - shot over the pilot's shoulder.
We have settled into the local routine without any problem - early morning swim followed by breakfast then an hour or so on the beach, a bit of shopping or internet, lunch, siesta, a dip in the pool and then back to the beach again as the sun goes down. After dinner there are the reggae or salsa nights at the beachfront bars. Its a rough old life, but someone has to do it!
Have tried a couple of the local restaurants - had some tremendous Tuna last night - but have also enjoyed being able to cook for ourselves.
There was an initial warning here to expect a 2m wave at around 10.30 but this was eventually withdrawn and everyone went back to the beach!
After all the kayaking that I have imposed on her, Linda's treat this morning was a flight over the coast and the mountains in an Ultralight - actually an Autogyro with a German pilot. She got a great view of the beaches and the coral reef offshore and quite a few photos, including a video of the landing - shot over the pilot's shoulder.
We have settled into the local routine without any problem - early morning swim followed by breakfast then an hour or so on the beach, a bit of shopping or internet, lunch, siesta, a dip in the pool and then back to the beach again as the sun goes down. After dinner there are the reggae or salsa nights at the beachfront bars. Its a rough old life, but someone has to do it!
Have tried a couple of the local restaurants - had some tremendous Tuna last night - but have also enjoyed being able to cook for ourselves.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
On the beach
Arrived here - Playa Samara on the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula - on Tuesday morning, which was a day early for the apartment we had booked. Just proves that I don´t even know what day of the week it is - which many of you have thought for sometime.
Found a very nice B/B for one night - La Mansion run by Marlene McCauley - an American lady from Arizona whose husband Alan is Irish and whose daughter and family perform in a group called Celtic Spring - Irish music and dancing - of course we got to watch the DVD before we left. Probably the best breakfast of the trip, and amusing to watch the long suffering Tica who did all the work for her 'mistress' even down to changing the channels on the TV, while Marlene sat with her feet up. However it was a great place and one to go back to.
Moved on Wednesday to our apartment at the Belvedere Hotel . It's good to have a bit more space after all this time on the road and a reasonable kitchen so that we can cook for ourselves.
Playa Samara is a beautiful beach and great for swimming, kayaking and snorkelling as the bay is protected from the sea by a coral reef. This means that there aren't any surfers here - which is probably good news.
Have decided to stay here until after the weekend when we will move back inland to the volcano at Rincon de la Vieja. We toyed with the idea of going over the border to Granada in Nicaragua for a few days but decided that we are enjoying the beach too much!
Swimming each morning at 0630 when the temperature is already in the high 20's and then laying in a shady spot during the heat of the day. Need to work on the tan before we meet up with Linda´s cousin in Mexico!
Found a very nice B/B for one night - La Mansion run by Marlene McCauley - an American lady from Arizona whose husband Alan is Irish and whose daughter and family perform in a group called Celtic Spring - Irish music and dancing - of course we got to watch the DVD before we left. Probably the best breakfast of the trip, and amusing to watch the long suffering Tica who did all the work for her 'mistress' even down to changing the channels on the TV, while Marlene sat with her feet up. However it was a great place and one to go back to.
Moved on Wednesday to our apartment at the Belvedere Hotel . It's good to have a bit more space after all this time on the road and a reasonable kitchen so that we can cook for ourselves.
Playa Samara is a beautiful beach and great for swimming, kayaking and snorkelling as the bay is protected from the sea by a coral reef. This means that there aren't any surfers here - which is probably good news.
Have decided to stay here until after the weekend when we will move back inland to the volcano at Rincon de la Vieja. We toyed with the idea of going over the border to Granada in Nicaragua for a few days but decided that we are enjoying the beach too much!
Swimming each morning at 0630 when the temperature is already in the high 20's and then laying in a shady spot during the heat of the day. Need to work on the tan before we meet up with Linda´s cousin in Mexico!
Monday, 22 February 2010
Back to sunshine
When we got to Monteverde on Saturday evening, the sun was shining and it was a lot warmer. After an early start on Sunday morning we managed a four hour hike through the Cloud Forest, which really is an amazing place - even greener and wetter than the west of Ireland. Every surface is covered in various levels of growth, from mosses and algae to the hundreds of epiphytes growing on every plant and tree - everything trying to compete for light through the canopy. There are even native orchids growing on some of the plastic fence rails.
We walked on our own and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We had not seen a lot of wildlife in the first couple of hours but as we came around a bend in the trail we spotted the irridescent green/blue colouring of a male Resplendent Quetzal.
This a real rarity even in the cloud forest and a bird that Linda was really keen to spot since it was one of the reasons for us being here in the first place. A couple of years ago, she had picked up a book at the St Giles' bookfair, written by an American Ornithologist about his attempts to sight the Quetzal in Guatemala during the Eighties and this led directly to our decision to come to Central America.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon at the Orchid Garden where they have more than 400 species of native orchids - less than a third of the total orchid species here in CR. Most of them are so small that you need a magnifying glass to see the flowers clearly.
We did a hike in one the Santa Elena reserve this morning - much smaller but even quieter and then had a lazy afternoon preparing for our next move. Tomorrow we are heading for the beach at Playa Samara on the Pacific coast - time for a bit more relaxing in the sun!
We walked on our own and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. We had not seen a lot of wildlife in the first couple of hours but as we came around a bend in the trail we spotted the irridescent green/blue colouring of a male Resplendent Quetzal.
This a real rarity even in the cloud forest and a bird that Linda was really keen to spot since it was one of the reasons for us being here in the first place. A couple of years ago, she had picked up a book at the St Giles' bookfair, written by an American Ornithologist about his attempts to sight the Quetzal in Guatemala during the Eighties and this led directly to our decision to come to Central America.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon at the Orchid Garden where they have more than 400 species of native orchids - less than a third of the total orchid species here in CR. Most of them are so small that you need a magnifying glass to see the flowers clearly.
We did a hike in one the Santa Elena reserve this morning - much smaller but even quieter and then had a lazy afternoon preparing for our next move. Tomorrow we are heading for the beach at Playa Samara on the Pacific coast - time for a bit more relaxing in the sun!
Who said the roads were bad in Ireland
Since leaving Tortuguero - where all our transport was by boat and we didn't see a car for 5 weeks - we have experienced some of the worst roads that Costa Rica can offer. Even on the main highways you suddenly come to a shuddering halt because of a pothole which covers two lanes and is deep enough to bury a couple of bodies.
However on Saturday - having given up on the Arenal Volcano, we decided to cut our losses and took the cross-country route to Monteverde - instead of the 140km drive around the lake. This involved a short bus ride to the lake, a 30 minute boat trip across the lake and then a journey in a 4x4 over dirt roads and up and down some very steep climbs - despite only being 35km, the journey took nearly 2 hours and even in the 4x4 we needed a couple of attempts to get up one of the hills.
I'll never complain about the roads in County Clare again - well not for the first week or so anyway!
However on Saturday - having given up on the Arenal Volcano, we decided to cut our losses and took the cross-country route to Monteverde - instead of the 140km drive around the lake. This involved a short bus ride to the lake, a 30 minute boat trip across the lake and then a journey in a 4x4 over dirt roads and up and down some very steep climbs - despite only being 35km, the journey took nearly 2 hours and even in the 4x4 we needed a couple of attempts to get up one of the hills.
I'll never complain about the roads in County Clare again - well not for the first week or so anyway!
Sunday, 21 February 2010
An expensive kayaking trip!
According to the plan, we were up, packed, breakfasted and ready to check out at 0730 this morning - just in time to be picked up for our kayak trip on Lake Arenal. Slightly offputting that it was still raining, but we knew we would be getting wet anyway.
It turned out to be a great trip, the rain was only intermittent amd the wind and waves only affected one leg of the trip. However we had some great bird sightings and were able to get very close without disturbing them. Saw Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers along with Snowy and Great Egrets, and three Great Blue Herons - including one which was being harassed by an Osprey! There were also Northern Jacanas, a flock of Whistling Ducks and Scarlet-Rumped Tanagers. However the real surprise was a Limpkin which is very unusual for the area.
Unfortunately, in my rush to get the binoculars from the drybag, I managed to drop my sunglasses and Linda´s watch over the side and was too slow to catch them. Guess that will cost me when we get somewhere with a proper jewellers!
It turned out to be a great trip, the rain was only intermittent amd the wind and waves only affected one leg of the trip. However we had some great bird sightings and were able to get very close without disturbing them. Saw Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers along with Snowy and Great Egrets, and three Great Blue Herons - including one which was being harassed by an Osprey! There were also Northern Jacanas, a flock of Whistling Ducks and Scarlet-Rumped Tanagers. However the real surprise was a Limpkin which is very unusual for the area.
Unfortunately, in my rush to get the binoculars from the drybag, I managed to drop my sunglasses and Linda´s watch over the side and was too slow to catch them. Guess that will cost me when we get somewhere with a proper jewellers!
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