Saturday, July 19, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
So thats what all the dust is....
Leon- This town was built to be hot. The Ceilings are all about 20 feet high, and the old colonial Spanish buildings do a reasonably good job of keeping their contents cool during the day. Outside its hot. It starts off warm and beautiful, and slowly builds to completely unbearable, then some time late afternoon the sky opens up and cold rains sends all the street vendors and cats running- the dust settles, and it becomes a cool and clear evening with in an hour.
Its been a very relaxing and fun couple of days. We found our way into Leon on a long and hot bus ride, inside a retired American school bus with not quite enough room for POllos knees, but hey, at least we had seats unlike most of the passengers. Once we arrived we found our way (the long way) to a nice hostel, with a big open court yard and a cute kitten. Pollo was sold. they have their own kitchen and two non working blenders, so we unknowingly went out and bought lots of fruits for juices and smoothies. Got home- discovered they were just for show, so we decided we would make our first investment in our future kitchen and buy a blender! Off we wen over hill and dale in search of a liquado, which we did find, in every shop, and eventually for a reasonable price. Home again, we now have an endless supply of fresh fruit juices, and my most favorite of all, Pitaya- a bright purple cactus fruit is in season! yum!
Saturday we were out for a walk and happened to stumble upon a HUGE dance competition where hundreds of pre-teen girls were thrusting their hips and shaking thier shoulders to the beat of the same silly pop tune, over and over and over again. What a hoot! So we grabbed a street side hamburger (1% meat, 99% mayo-katsup-mustard-pickles-bread) and sat on a fountain for a while, where we watched them warming up and getting ready for their 5 minutes of fame. Mothers and fathers were primping, polishing, and coaching their kids, and siblings were jumping in for some dancing too. Very cute. The street kids were all there playing too, and one little girl decided the Brown, murky, trash filled fountain looked like a good place for a swim. She jumped in and pulled herself around on the bottom in the 10 or so inches of water, round and round throwing the trash from the water to the grass outside. Hey- someone has to take responsibility for the litter problem around here right? All the onlookers cringed.
Soon after the sky blackened with some kind of dust and rain started to pummel the streets. We all took cover, but the dust was really blinding. We did take a picture or two as the sky turned from a light blue to a brownish gray. Pollution we wondered? We later discovered it was due to a near by volcano that had erupted the day prior, and the ash had blown in.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49339/story.htm
Sunday was movie day. Pollo and I rounded up 3 street kids, and tried to get a few more, but their mothers wouldn't let them leave their begging posts. The three boys we did get however were thirlled, and we all had a blast! They all had their choice of snack from the snack bar, they picked orange soda, and we all waited, we were first into the theater. ¨Kung Fu Panda¨ was such a great movie and we had a blast, the kids loved the folding seats, the soft cushions, the big ¨beautiful room¨ as they called it. By the end they were all freezing cold, they didn't have any shoes on and wernt used to the air conditioner. Any way we had a really good time, enjoyed the movie and the company.
So today was my birthday today, Pollo snuck out this morning early and got me a big beautiful cake this morning. We had it for breakfast and left for a day trip out to see some boiling mud pits. They were interesting, about how they sound, boiling mud- it was fun- a group of local kids guided us around made sure we didn't fall in. The bus was standing room only on the way back, and we had worked up a real hunger. We stopped at a ¨¨Comador¨ and had a delicious lunch, and then crashed back into bed after a cold shower to avoid the midday heat.
So that's the update on this side of the world. Hope you are all doing well out there, send us a note!
Its been a very relaxing and fun couple of days. We found our way into Leon on a long and hot bus ride, inside a retired American school bus with not quite enough room for POllos knees, but hey, at least we had seats unlike most of the passengers. Once we arrived we found our way (the long way) to a nice hostel, with a big open court yard and a cute kitten. Pollo was sold. they have their own kitchen and two non working blenders, so we unknowingly went out and bought lots of fruits for juices and smoothies. Got home- discovered they were just for show, so we decided we would make our first investment in our future kitchen and buy a blender! Off we wen over hill and dale in search of a liquado, which we did find, in every shop, and eventually for a reasonable price. Home again, we now have an endless supply of fresh fruit juices, and my most favorite of all, Pitaya- a bright purple cactus fruit is in season! yum!
Saturday we were out for a walk and happened to stumble upon a HUGE dance competition where hundreds of pre-teen girls were thrusting their hips and shaking thier shoulders to the beat of the same silly pop tune, over and over and over again. What a hoot! So we grabbed a street side hamburger (1% meat, 99% mayo-katsup-mustard-pickles-bread) and sat on a fountain for a while, where we watched them warming up and getting ready for their 5 minutes of fame. Mothers and fathers were primping, polishing, and coaching their kids, and siblings were jumping in for some dancing too. Very cute. The street kids were all there playing too, and one little girl decided the Brown, murky, trash filled fountain looked like a good place for a swim. She jumped in and pulled herself around on the bottom in the 10 or so inches of water, round and round throwing the trash from the water to the grass outside. Hey- someone has to take responsibility for the litter problem around here right? All the onlookers cringed.
Soon after the sky blackened with some kind of dust and rain started to pummel the streets. We all took cover, but the dust was really blinding. We did take a picture or two as the sky turned from a light blue to a brownish gray. Pollution we wondered? We later discovered it was due to a near by volcano that had erupted the day prior, and the ash had blown in.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49339/story.htm
Sunday was movie day. Pollo and I rounded up 3 street kids, and tried to get a few more, but their mothers wouldn't let them leave their begging posts. The three boys we did get however were thirlled, and we all had a blast! They all had their choice of snack from the snack bar, they picked orange soda, and we all waited, we were first into the theater. ¨Kung Fu Panda¨ was such a great movie and we had a blast, the kids loved the folding seats, the soft cushions, the big ¨beautiful room¨ as they called it. By the end they were all freezing cold, they didn't have any shoes on and wernt used to the air conditioner. Any way we had a really good time, enjoyed the movie and the company.
So today was my birthday today, Pollo snuck out this morning early and got me a big beautiful cake this morning. We had it for breakfast and left for a day trip out to see some boiling mud pits. They were interesting, about how they sound, boiling mud- it was fun- a group of local kids guided us around made sure we didn't fall in. The bus was standing room only on the way back, and we had worked up a real hunger. We stopped at a ¨¨Comador¨ and had a delicious lunch, and then crashed back into bed after a cold shower to avoid the midday heat.
So that's the update on this side of the world. Hope you are all doing well out there, send us a note!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Nicaragua!
HELLO EVERYONE!
We made it back to the world of technology and we now sitting in a sweltering hot Internet cafe in the city of Rivas, in NICARAGUA! When
i say back to the world of technology, thats a joke, this place is
from the middle ages as pollo would say, so the photos from the past
few days are now on this link, which seems to upload faster then to
the blog at this moment. Check them out at
http://picasaweb.google.com/juodaspaulius/VaizdaiIsCentrinesAmerikos
Last week we did in fact see the Dr. as I am sure you all could tell from the Ultrasound pictures. He was very funny and likable, and more importantly the baby is doing great! He is upwards of 5lbs now and big for his age. The ultrasound showed he has lots of hair, and all his fingers and toes- a good start to life I suppose :) We didn't find out the gender yet, even though the Dr really wanted to tell us- we will save some surprise! So everything for the birth is set up, the hospital, Dr, house rental, and we are now on the road again until the 1st of Aug when we have to be back in San Jose.
SOOOOOO, we hopped on a bus to the Nicaraguan border, got there just in time in the middle of a huge rain storm and in the dark. When we arrived at the border it was a little sketchy, but a lovely man who was on our bus guided us through, I guess he was doing his mitzva for the day! So he got us the forms, and on the lines, and to the places we needed to get to, and soon we were on our way in a taxi at the LOCAL price, very nice indeed. He even told us the name of a nice cheap place to stay in Rivas, our next stop and transitory bus town. with the best Pizza on the mainland.
After our night in Rivas we headed out to Ometepe Island, on a lovely little ferry boat. The island is made up of two Volcano's that are still active, in the middle of a huge fresh water lake. The early morning view was spectacular, and the cool breeze felt nice. Getting off the ferry we grabbed our first Nicaraguan tacos, two fried tortillas with some chicken inside and salad ontop. They cost us 26 cordobas for the meal, or about $1.25 USD, not to bad for the price, although they did leave us feeling a little hungry.
Everyone on the island was so friendly, always smiling and saying hello as they passed us in the streets. Its all dirt roads, and the main transport is retired USA school buses, painted and covered in stickers. Much of the roads aren't actually roads at all, but rocky paths that most people would even try to drive their truck on, but these buses seem to make it just fine, even if we never went above 10 miles per hour. In any case its slow going out there, and we stayed our first nights in a midway point called Chico-largo. It was right on the lake side, our room was feet from the short. With a cool breeze, monkeys over head, fresh fruit juice, and a amazing all you can eat buffet at night (including pesto pasta, whole lake fish, salads, chicken, beans, rice, tortellini, plantains, and fresh lemonade) I didn't think things could get much better! But wait, there more! Pollo (the in-house genius) brought with him, all the way from Lithuania, two inflatable rafts! So we blew them up and floated away in the cool waters of the lake. We took turns being tug boat and pulling each other back upwind of our hotel, and shared our shore with white horses, local kids swimming, and several women doing their laundry. Heavenly!
We took a day trip up to a nearby attraction, the eye of water, which is a volcanic spring, and famous fountain of youth, at least localy. The water was clear as any I've ever seen and COLD which was just what i wanted after such hot days here. POllo translated WELCOME into Lithuanian so that they could put it on their gate with all the other languages who had visited, he is always a novelty here, as it seems no other Lithuanians have ever visited Nicaragua, or at least not as long as anyone can remember!
The next day we headed out further, to the more remote island, for the base camp of Pollos volcanic trek. As we were walking along the way we met a nice guy who recommended to us a place to stay http://www.ometepezopilote.com/ which turned out to be just the thing we were looking for. An all organic, earthy crunchy, hippy place, we arrived to find several Spanish and Italian's bead working, while listening to songs of the revolution under a thatched roof. The toilets are composting, the water safe to drink, and the entire places looks a little bit like a fairy garden, with winding paths and tropical flowers as far as you can see. Staying in our cottage were a couple of Irish guys, and pollo the they arranged for a guide for the next day to do the trek. Meal while i ordered pizza for the evening, to be cooked in a huge earthen wood stove under the stars. We sat round a table laughing and chatting with the others staying there, and watched an amazing fire spinning show, done to classical, Spanish, and techno music. BRAVO!
Pollo left early the next day for his trek, with his hiking crocks on. As the group marched off into the distance i went back to bed, and lay watching the flycatchers and hummingbirds outside my window. I got up, did some yoga, and took a long walk to the nearby town, 2 hours away, but worth the ice cream and the python sighting along the way. I even met a nice man with a pig on his bike, he stopped to talk with me for a while, but eventually had to go, as the pig was getting hot and angry.
When i got home pollo and his crew had made it down, all safe and sound, he was covered in red clay and seemingly not at all tired, only a few thousands meters later :) They took a dip in the top, in the crater pool, sounds like a great time, one girl with high tek German hiking boots fell and cut her leg, needed stitches that night, but pollos crocks proved just the right shoe- easy to clean at the end of the day too! Pollo made me a nice dinner, of organic pasta sauce and pasta, and we lay together in the hammock reading for a while, and went to bed early- but only after an exploratory pond search. We could hear what seemed to be a small army of star wars fighter jets in the lotus plants, but it turned out to be just a group of tiny yellow frogs all filled with air like little balloon's singing to the moon light.
We woke up this morning and took a walk to a nearby farm (1 hour away) where we had a great breakfast of fruit salad, beans, and sour cream, and then made our way back to the port, the ferry, the bus, the taxi, and now Rivas. We are back in the same hotel, and will leave early for the Northern city of Leon.
So that's the update of our recent movements. Everyone is still feeling great, pollo says chicolini is getting bigger, i have seen a mirror in over a week. Its been hot hot hot, four showers a day, or one per bus ride seems to do the trick. We saw a motor cycle show today and thought of all our motor cycle riders at home. Things here always remind us of our friends and family. Wish we could share them with you all. Much love, until next time- Chicolini and Company
We made it back to the world of technology and we now sitting in a sweltering hot Internet cafe in the city of Rivas, in NICARAGUA! When
i say back to the world of technology, thats a joke, this place is
from the middle ages as pollo would say, so the photos from the past
few days are now on this link, which seems to upload faster then to
the blog at this moment. Check them out at
http://picasaweb.google.com/juodaspaulius/VaizdaiIsCentrinesAmerikos
Last week we did in fact see the Dr. as I am sure you all could tell from the Ultrasound pictures. He was very funny and likable, and more importantly the baby is doing great! He is upwards of 5lbs now and big for his age. The ultrasound showed he has lots of hair, and all his fingers and toes- a good start to life I suppose :) We didn't find out the gender yet, even though the Dr really wanted to tell us- we will save some surprise! So everything for the birth is set up, the hospital, Dr, house rental, and we are now on the road again until the 1st of Aug when we have to be back in San Jose.
SOOOOOO, we hopped on a bus to the Nicaraguan border, got there just in time in the middle of a huge rain storm and in the dark. When we arrived at the border it was a little sketchy, but a lovely man who was on our bus guided us through, I guess he was doing his mitzva for the day! So he got us the forms, and on the lines, and to the places we needed to get to, and soon we were on our way in a taxi at the LOCAL price, very nice indeed. He even told us the name of a nice cheap place to stay in Rivas, our next stop and transitory bus town. with the best Pizza on the mainland.
After our night in Rivas we headed out to Ometepe Island, on a lovely little ferry boat. The island is made up of two Volcano's that are still active, in the middle of a huge fresh water lake. The early morning view was spectacular, and the cool breeze felt nice. Getting off the ferry we grabbed our first Nicaraguan tacos, two fried tortillas with some chicken inside and salad ontop. They cost us 26 cordobas for the meal, or about $1.25 USD, not to bad for the price, although they did leave us feeling a little hungry.
Everyone on the island was so friendly, always smiling and saying hello as they passed us in the streets. Its all dirt roads, and the main transport is retired USA school buses, painted and covered in stickers. Much of the roads aren't actually roads at all, but rocky paths that most people would even try to drive their truck on, but these buses seem to make it just fine, even if we never went above 10 miles per hour. In any case its slow going out there, and we stayed our first nights in a midway point called Chico-largo. It was right on the lake side, our room was feet from the short. With a cool breeze, monkeys over head, fresh fruit juice, and a amazing all you can eat buffet at night (including pesto pasta, whole lake fish, salads, chicken, beans, rice, tortellini, plantains, and fresh lemonade) I didn't think things could get much better! But wait, there more! Pollo (the in-house genius) brought with him, all the way from Lithuania, two inflatable rafts! So we blew them up and floated away in the cool waters of the lake. We took turns being tug boat and pulling each other back upwind of our hotel, and shared our shore with white horses, local kids swimming, and several women doing their laundry. Heavenly!
We took a day trip up to a nearby attraction, the eye of water, which is a volcanic spring, and famous fountain of youth, at least localy. The water was clear as any I've ever seen and COLD which was just what i wanted after such hot days here. POllo translated WELCOME into Lithuanian so that they could put it on their gate with all the other languages who had visited, he is always a novelty here, as it seems no other Lithuanians have ever visited Nicaragua, or at least not as long as anyone can remember!
The next day we headed out further, to the more remote island, for the base camp of Pollos volcanic trek. As we were walking along the way we met a nice guy who recommended to us a place to stay http://www.ometepezopilote.com/ which turned out to be just the thing we were looking for. An all organic, earthy crunchy, hippy place, we arrived to find several Spanish and Italian's bead working, while listening to songs of the revolution under a thatched roof. The toilets are composting, the water safe to drink, and the entire places looks a little bit like a fairy garden, with winding paths and tropical flowers as far as you can see. Staying in our cottage were a couple of Irish guys, and pollo the they arranged for a guide for the next day to do the trek. Meal while i ordered pizza for the evening, to be cooked in a huge earthen wood stove under the stars. We sat round a table laughing and chatting with the others staying there, and watched an amazing fire spinning show, done to classical, Spanish, and techno music. BRAVO!
Pollo left early the next day for his trek, with his hiking crocks on. As the group marched off into the distance i went back to bed, and lay watching the flycatchers and hummingbirds outside my window. I got up, did some yoga, and took a long walk to the nearby town, 2 hours away, but worth the ice cream and the python sighting along the way. I even met a nice man with a pig on his bike, he stopped to talk with me for a while, but eventually had to go, as the pig was getting hot and angry.
When i got home pollo and his crew had made it down, all safe and sound, he was covered in red clay and seemingly not at all tired, only a few thousands meters later :) They took a dip in the top, in the crater pool, sounds like a great time, one girl with high tek German hiking boots fell and cut her leg, needed stitches that night, but pollos crocks proved just the right shoe- easy to clean at the end of the day too! Pollo made me a nice dinner, of organic pasta sauce and pasta, and we lay together in the hammock reading for a while, and went to bed early- but only after an exploratory pond search. We could hear what seemed to be a small army of star wars fighter jets in the lotus plants, but it turned out to be just a group of tiny yellow frogs all filled with air like little balloon's singing to the moon light.
We woke up this morning and took a walk to a nearby farm (1 hour away) where we had a great breakfast of fruit salad, beans, and sour cream, and then made our way back to the port, the ferry, the bus, the taxi, and now Rivas. We are back in the same hotel, and will leave early for the Northern city of Leon.
So that's the update of our recent movements. Everyone is still feeling great, pollo says chicolini is getting bigger, i have seen a mirror in over a week. Its been hot hot hot, four showers a day, or one per bus ride seems to do the trick. We saw a motor cycle show today and thought of all our motor cycle riders at home. Things here always remind us of our friends and family. Wish we could share them with you all. Much love, until next time- Chicolini and Company
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A weekend in Panama
Hello everyone! Its rainy afternoon in San jose, a perfect time to
write another blog! Pollo and I have a bug, not feeling so hot, so Im happy for the rain and cool weather.
We left off with you all last thinking we were headed north up the
East cost, however when we arrived at the bus stop the bus had just
left, and there was another headed south to Panama's Bocas Del Toro.
So naturally we got tickets and piled on board not having much of an
idea at all what there was to do there other than see some tropical
islands and snorkel- which is if you ask me is reason enough.
The bus to the border was about 4 hours, and when we arrived it
dropped us in a small town much like all border towns I've ever seen,
to put it nicely a sweltering dust bowl selling little more than
bottled water, over priced food, and an endless selection of rubber
boots. I don't know, don't ask why, it just seems to be the rubber boot
capital of the world, would you like black, black,or black?
The crossing itself was very straight forward and easy, although there was a very rickety bridge we had to cross of
foot, that was a little bit scary. The planks were defiantly spaced to
far apart for comfort, and the 18 Wheeler trucks and other foot
traffic made it seem all the more daunting. On the other side we joined
a line of people waiting for the immigrations staff to finish their
lunch and stamp our passports. We were soon sprayed with a fine mist
as a truck passed and it was then i realized that we were directly
down wind of a pesticide sprayer that doused each vehicle as it
passed. YUCK! I retreated to the far side of the cement but poor Pollo
had to negotiate the line and our luggage while be sprayed with who
knows what- i hate to think.
Any way that ordeal was soon over and we were ushered into a taxi and
then a boat out to the islands of Bocas Del Toro. Here is our route . When I say ushered i
mean there wasn't even any time to eat lunch or pee, as we were always
the last to board and they were always in a hurry.
The ride out through the Mangroves was beautiful, tiny thatched huts
on stills lined the shores, and dug out canoes were the most common
mode of transport. The Water was Crystal clear and we could see
brightly colored fish swimming beneath us.
The town where we stayed leaves much to be desired if you ask me, and
is hardly worth mentioning other then to say there was no running
water or electric on two of our nights there which put a damper (or
should I say a drier?) on our 4 showers a day routine. We did have an
amusing evening however when the electric was out, sitting on our
balcony watching the street in the darkness. People on bikes and on
foot passing and even a 5 foot long tiny remote control airplane made
its way up the street with blinking wing lights! Nothing surprises me
any more.
The snorkel tour was really the highlight of this part of the trip. We
left early and made our way out to a place called Delfin bay, where we
watched dolphins play in the wake of our boat, spinning and twisting,
seemingly having as much fun watching us as we had watching them.
Then onto an offshore reef where we jumped over board to find waters
full of parrot fish, sea cucumbers, and a rainbow colored corals. It
was much better visibility then we had in Costa Rica and we swam
together for over an hour pointing to things under the water and
generally enjoying ourselves. Finally, we were the last of the group
in the water and they called us out for lunch. There was a resturant
over the water on stilts, and we lay out on the wood planks and had
sandwiches and water melon juice. They had trapped a shark in the
bamboo poles underneath us, exactly where we had just been snorkeling,
and we watched him circulating his small prison for a while. It would
have been some shock to see him a few moments earlier.
here is a map of where we went to see dolphins and snorkel, taken on pollos GPS click the pink s to see the satelite image. Red frog hike. Another spot we visited Here is the way back.
After lunch the boat took us to Red frog beach, where we took a short
walk through the jungle and met some local kids who had caught tiny
Strawberry dart frogs in lotus leaves. We talked with the kids a bit,
and I was happy that the rest of the group rushed ahead to the beach,
giving us time to really connect. POllo shared his coconut cookies
with them, for which they were grateful, all except the youngest one
who's face showed his disappointment, and who's older brother commanded
him to "JUST EAT!"
After the tour we decided we decided we had seen what we were really
excited to see in those islands and made our way back to Costa Rica
via local buses. Pollo figured out the route for us this time, and we
took the local bus with all the school children, which was much more
interesting than the tourist one we took on the way there.
In Cahuita we found that the camping is now banned contrary to the guidebook, so we took a
nice room with a big bed, a mosquito net, and a fan. The next morning we were up at 5.30am and the first ones to register in the national park that day. The howlers monkeys greeted us at the front gate and Pollo got his monkey wish. They pelted him with a small shower of mango pits,and we watched them playing in the trees. The animals were all happy to show themselves it seemed, a aqua blue dart toad, Orb weaver spiders, and even 2 sloths! We lay our sheet out under the trees and watched them ssssllllooooowwwwllllyyy eating leaves in the trees above. 8 miles later we looped back out to the main road and waved down a bus that brought us back to our starting point.
So now we are back in lovely senic San Jose, tomorrow is our first Dr. appoint here, and a metting with the midwife. We ae very excited to see our ultra sound and will post the pictures as soon as we can. Pollo works endlessly trying to get us online and updated. We are having a great time, getting fatter everyday, and enjoying the time together. Wish you could all be here with us!
write another blog! Pollo and I have a bug, not feeling so hot, so Im happy for the rain and cool weather.
We left off with you all last thinking we were headed north up the
East cost, however when we arrived at the bus stop the bus had just
left, and there was another headed south to Panama's Bocas Del Toro.
So naturally we got tickets and piled on board not having much of an
idea at all what there was to do there other than see some tropical
islands and snorkel- which is if you ask me is reason enough.
The bus to the border was about 4 hours, and when we arrived it
dropped us in a small town much like all border towns I've ever seen,
to put it nicely a sweltering dust bowl selling little more than
bottled water, over priced food, and an endless selection of rubber
boots. I don't know, don't ask why, it just seems to be the rubber boot
capital of the world, would you like black, black,or black?
The crossing itself was very straight forward and easy, although there was a very rickety bridge we had to cross of
foot, that was a little bit scary. The planks were defiantly spaced to
far apart for comfort, and the 18 Wheeler trucks and other foot
traffic made it seem all the more daunting. On the other side we joined
a line of people waiting for the immigrations staff to finish their
lunch and stamp our passports. We were soon sprayed with a fine mist
as a truck passed and it was then i realized that we were directly
down wind of a pesticide sprayer that doused each vehicle as it
passed. YUCK! I retreated to the far side of the cement but poor Pollo
had to negotiate the line and our luggage while be sprayed with who
knows what- i hate to think.
Any way that ordeal was soon over and we were ushered into a taxi and
then a boat out to the islands of Bocas Del Toro. Here is our route . When I say ushered i
mean there wasn't even any time to eat lunch or pee, as we were always
the last to board and they were always in a hurry.
The ride out through the Mangroves was beautiful, tiny thatched huts
on stills lined the shores, and dug out canoes were the most common
mode of transport. The Water was Crystal clear and we could see
brightly colored fish swimming beneath us.
The town where we stayed leaves much to be desired if you ask me, and
is hardly worth mentioning other then to say there was no running
water or electric on two of our nights there which put a damper (or
should I say a drier?) on our 4 showers a day routine. We did have an
amusing evening however when the electric was out, sitting on our
balcony watching the street in the darkness. People on bikes and on
foot passing and even a 5 foot long tiny remote control airplane made
its way up the street with blinking wing lights! Nothing surprises me
any more.
The snorkel tour was really the highlight of this part of the trip. We
left early and made our way out to a place called Delfin bay, where we
watched dolphins play in the wake of our boat, spinning and twisting,
seemingly having as much fun watching us as we had watching them.
Then onto an offshore reef where we jumped over board to find waters
full of parrot fish, sea cucumbers, and a rainbow colored corals. It
was much better visibility then we had in Costa Rica and we swam
together for over an hour pointing to things under the water and
generally enjoying ourselves. Finally, we were the last of the group
in the water and they called us out for lunch. There was a resturant
over the water on stilts, and we lay out on the wood planks and had
sandwiches and water melon juice. They had trapped a shark in the
bamboo poles underneath us, exactly where we had just been snorkeling,
and we watched him circulating his small prison for a while. It would
have been some shock to see him a few moments earlier.
here is a map of where we went to see dolphins and snorkel, taken on pollos GPS click the pink s to see the satelite image. Red frog hike. Another spot we visited Here is the way back.
After lunch the boat took us to Red frog beach, where we took a short
walk through the jungle and met some local kids who had caught tiny
Strawberry dart frogs in lotus leaves. We talked with the kids a bit,
and I was happy that the rest of the group rushed ahead to the beach,
giving us time to really connect. POllo shared his coconut cookies
with them, for which they were grateful, all except the youngest one
who's face showed his disappointment, and who's older brother commanded
him to "JUST EAT!"
After the tour we decided we decided we had seen what we were really
excited to see in those islands and made our way back to Costa Rica
via local buses. Pollo figured out the route for us this time, and we
took the local bus with all the school children, which was much more
interesting than the tourist one we took on the way there.
In Cahuita we found that the camping is now banned contrary to the guidebook, so we took a
nice room with a big bed, a mosquito net, and a fan. The next morning we were up at 5.30am and the first ones to register in the national park that day. The howlers monkeys greeted us at the front gate and Pollo got his monkey wish. They pelted him with a small shower of mango pits,and we watched them playing in the trees. The animals were all happy to show themselves it seemed, a aqua blue dart toad, Orb weaver spiders, and even 2 sloths! We lay our sheet out under the trees and watched them ssssllllooooowwwwllllyyy eating leaves in the trees above. 8 miles later we looped back out to the main road and waved down a bus that brought us back to our starting point.
So now we are back in lovely senic San Jose, tomorrow is our first Dr. appoint here, and a metting with the midwife. We ae very excited to see our ultra sound and will post the pictures as soon as we can. Pollo works endlessly trying to get us online and updated. We are having a great time, getting fatter everyday, and enjoying the time together. Wish you could all be here with us!
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