Costa Rica | When Sparks Fly

Archive for the Costa Rica Category

Time with Friends in Costa Rica

By Witt on August 9, 2014

After a quick three days on the road, we arrived at our house in the hills above Alajuela, Costa Rica. When we arrived, we noticed a few things right away. Salmon-colored cabinets and bath fixtures, an empty swimming pool (although the hot tub was full), and water dripping onto the bed in one of the bedrooms. Not a great start to a five week stay, but fortunately the owner, Frank, and manager, Mike, are very friendly and are going out of their way to get things sorted out.

Since before our trip began Jen and I have been following the adventures of Discover Share Inspire, a family of eight traveling in a veggie oil powered truck. They are living in Costa Rica, and we were finally able to meet them in person for a picnic in a park in San Jose.

A few of the kids from Discover, Share, Inspire

We had a few days on our own, then the first of three sets of friends arrived from the US. Brian and Lisa and their daughter Amy lived a few blocks from us in Denver.

After they spent a day relaxing from their red-eye flight, we visited the Poas Volcano, an active volcano 20km up the hill from our house. It was a little overcast, but cleared enough for us to get a view into the crater.

The sulfur smell from the volcano was strong on the hike up to the rim.

We had a great time hiking around the park.

At a nearby wildlife sanctuary.

Quinn the explorer documenting his adventures

Wouldn’t want this guy creeping around your bedroom at night!

The kids got a big kick out of the monkeys.

Quinn’s take on the experience:

Frank and Mike put on a barbeque for us at the house. This is us with Carlos, one of the maintenance staff, and his family.

On Friday we packed up and drove to a house that Brian and Lisa rented in Monte Verde, an area high in the cloud forest and known for eco-tours and wildlife. It was a rainy day, which made the drive a bit of an adventure.

It was raining too hard for a picnic outside, so all six of us crowded into the van for lunch on the way to Monte Verde.

Climbing into the cloud forest, we can see where it gets it’s name.

The last 30km or so into Monte Verde is only now in the process of being paved. On our way up, a very muddy looking car headed the other way flagged us down to ask if we had four wheel drive and warn us of mud ahead. Fortunately Brian and Lisa had rented an SUV, so after jumping out to lock the hubs we pressed on in the rain.

This wasn’t the worst of the mud; I didn’t want to get out there to take pictures.

There was only a short stretch where the road crews had scraped off all of the road base to create a nice mudhole. We didn’t have any problems, but it was a little scary when a car coming down the hill toward us started sliding around!

After a couple of hours on rough, windy roads, we were happy to arrive at our little house tucked into the forest.

The next day we went for a hike in a nearby forest reserve. We saw several birds and a Coati, which we decided looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater.

Photographer Brian and his creative director Amy

Whoa! Big tree!

What to do after a hike but catch up with your friends on Facebook. Look at me in Costa Rica!

This entry is filed under Costa Rica. | 4 Comments

Back to Costa Rica

By Witt on July 31, 2014

With our hosts Will and Cate returning from Uruguay, we reluctantly packed up the van for the trip to the house we’ve rented in Costa Rica for August. We’re sad to leave beautiful Boquete and the wonderful house we’ve been staying in, but we’re very excited to have 3 different sets of friends and family from home visiting us in Costa Rica!

Last happy hour in Boquete

Shortly after leaving Boquete the van turned over 100,000 miles. 20,000 of those have come since we started on our trip last June. It’s weird to think that we drove all the way from Denver to extreme northern Canada, then to Panama, and only covered as many miles as some people do driving back and forth to work every day. Having been that person in the past, I’d have to say the past year’s miles have been much more fun!

We planned to drive up the Carribean coast on our way back. The drive along the narrow, winding road across the continental divide was very pretty, with cool cloud forests and lots of fog.

We left the cool of the highlands and arrived on the sweltering Carribean coast. We used a different border crossing this time, and it was probably the easiest border we’ve done in Central America. Knowing that Costa Rica is expensive, we stocked up on booze at the duty free at the border. Gotta love $4 bottles of wine.

This is serious fruit and banana country. We saw plants belonging to Dole, Chiquita, and Del Monte, and even had to stop at a banana crossing.

Really, there are bananas in the blue bags. Here are banana trees with the bagged bananas.

We drove a little way into Costa Rica and found a great campground by the beach near Cahuita. The camp host was super friendly and we spent the evening lounging in the hammocks listening to the waves crash.

The beach!

We spent a couple of days in the beautiful Orosi Valley before heading to Alajuela to check into our rental house. We spent time sightseeing and enjoying the cool weather.

Looking down into the Orosi Valley

This is what’s left of the oldest church in Costa Rica.

Our campsite had a pool and a very nice setting.

These vultures arrived early in the morning to dry their wings in the sun

We were visited by a pair of raucous parrots.

We stopped by a botanic garden on our way to Alajuela. It’s famous for it’s orchids.

This entry is filed under Costa Rica, Panama. | 3 Comments

Welcome to Panama!

By Witt on July 6, 2014

Here’s a short video showing the street flooding from our hotel in El Salvador and the celebration after the Costa Ricans won their match against Greece in a penalty shootout.

Our last night on the road en route to our house sitting gig in Panama was spent on Costa Rica’s hot, steamy pacific coast. After setting up camp we spent the afternoon playing in the sand on the beach.

Playing on the beach in Costa Rica

Our campsite amongst the palms

The next morning we set out early, hoping to cross the border into Panama and be in Boquete in time to watch the USA-Belgium soccer match. The Panama border went much like the rest of them and took about two hours. At many of the borders, especially the more chaotic ones, there are “helpers.” These are guys who look for tourists like us and help find all of the various offices, inspectors, and stamps needed to successfully navigate the border formalities.

The helpers range from outright crooks to great guys. Sometimes it’s worth getting one just to keep the others from hassling you. Elias, the helper I got for Panama, was great. He was calm and didn’t try to hurry things along, which can be stressful when you’re trying to make sure you don’t lose track of all of the different bits of paper you’re carrying around.

Bienvenidos a Panama!

Elias helped us navigate the process and saved us lots of time. He knew we needed a particular stamp on a particular form from an un-marked office up some stairs. When we got there no one was in the office, so Elias reached in the window and grabbed the stamp and stamped the paper himself. He said the woman who works in that office leaves the stamp accessible so he can do that. He said she was probably out watching the soccer match.

Border formalities completed, and after driving through the fumigation station, we were on our way. It took us about 2 hours to reach Boquete. As we turned inland and climbed into the hills we were happy to notice things cooling off outside!

Boquete is an expat haven set in a beautiful valley filled with coffee plantations. The valley looks vaguely Swiss as you enter. We found Will and Cate, who are currently renting the house we will be sitting, in a bar watching the football match in town. We joined them and had a late lunch in the bar while cheering on the USA.

Our temporary abode

Will and Cate left for Uruguay, where they are thinking of moving next, two days later. We moved in and made ourselves at home.

Boquete is very much an expat enclave. It was recently rated the #4 place in the world to retire, and is home to many gringos and some super-expensive houses. The difference between Boquete and Panajachel (in Guatemala) is that in Pana you always know you’re in Central America and are sometimes surprised by little reminders of home. Here it feels like you’re living in a small town in the US, and sometimes you get reminded that you’re not. But there’s lots to do in the area and we’re looking forward to a couple of weeks of exploring before it’s time to move on once again!