Costa Rica, Winter 2006
!Pura Vida!
Translated: Pure Life...and the response you'll get from locals (Ticos) when you ask how they're doing. Living in a country like Costa Rica that's a fitting reply. It was hard to capture the beauty of Costa Rica in our photos which is why we have so many links to web sites below. Some general observations about Costa Rica:
- Ticos are very friendly.
- You CAN drink the water!
- U.S. dollars are accepted just about everywhere.
- Dogs go everywhere—and without leashes.
- The beaches are all public.
- The spiders are VERY BIG.
- There are no Starbuck's in Costa Rica, amazingly!
Most Costa Ricans speak English. We stumbled our way through brief conversations in Spanish though. Like meeting our driver at the airport: Julie's attempt to introduce herself came out as 'Me llama es Julie' (translated: my llama's name is Julie) instead of 'Me llamo Julie.' By the end of the trip we got pretty good at faking it...until the conversation got past introductions, the time, ordering food, or general pleasantries.
Jan 6 & 7—Finca Rosa Blanca, Santa Barbara de Heredia
Spent the first couple days just outside of San Jose on a small coffee plantation: Finca Rosa Blanca was built in the 80's by an American woman as a place to house her artwork. The estate is now a bed and breakfast run by her family. What an incredible place. The house is a work of art—created in a style resembling works of Antoni Gaudí. The outside is whitewashed similar to homes you might find in the Greek Isles. Murals are painted throughout the main house, pool house, and villas. Paintings, sculpture, carvings, and folk art all over.
Stayed in El Cafetal the first night (startled a couple times by our patio door that kept opening and closing). We awakened to a beautiful view from our terrace. Had a traditional breakfast of gallo pinto with heuvos ( rice and beans with eggs), fried plantains, fresh orange/tamarind juice, Flor Blanca's organic coffee (one of the best cups of coffee Jim's ever had), and tastes of Costa Rica's standard table staples, Lizano and Chilero sauces. Hiked the paths around the plantation, down to the coffee bean plants, the greenhouse, and around the other villas on the property. Thought we'd go into San Jose to El Mercado Central. When we asked about getting there, the guy at the front desk said, "You want to go where?" Translation: you two look like gringos ripe for the pick pocketing. So...
We decided to walk into Santa Barbara for lunch. Walking in the burbs isn't easy; there aren't sidewalks and the roads are really narrow. We ended up walking in the concrete sewer ditch most of the time—especially when we saw a bus 
coming. There was a dog on the road who obviously didn't see a bus coming; it was flat—literally—like a cartoon dog. Made it to Banco de Mariscos had some ceviche, dos cervezas (Imperial is a great choice), and corvina (sea bass). Made it back to the finca in time to check out our new digs, the Master Suite, hang out by the pool (much needed after the 17 hours of travel on the 6th), and catch the sunset (and a rainbow) before dinner from our balcony. Enjoyed an excellent dinner at the finca before retiring early for the evening.
Off to the beach...Left the finca, caught a small flight from San Jose to Tambor and then a 45-minute drive on dirt roads to Flor Blanca (even had a couple stream crossings!). Our villa wasn't ready so we left our backpacks at the front desk and headed to the beach. Watched the surfers and played around in el Oceano Pacifico for a while. Came back, settled into our villa and realized that even mountain people used to extreme sunshine need sunscreen—especially on their feet.
The villa we stayed in was open air except for the bedroom. Even the bathroom was open and had a beautiful tropical garden. The first night , there was an enormous black spider on a wall in the bedroom. It looked just like the one on the right. See the tiny normal-sized spider below it? Thankfully, there was an anole in hot pursuit. No spider come mañana. Thank gaia for villa lizards!
Each morning we were served a platter of fresh fruit (papaya, mango, banana, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, kiwi, and something that we think was breadfruit but looked like frog eggs in a cup). Even indulged in sushi ('sushi time' was from 3–6pm). The restaurant serves great mojitos and cocobanas.
Saw our first monkey in the wild while hanging out in our villa. Unfortunately, we didn't get a good photo.
Obviously, time at Flor Blanca was spent hanging out on the beach, in the ocean, in the pool, in the hammocks, and eating. Noticed that even the iguana's do yoga at Flor Blanca: Here's Fred (above) in a Bhujangasana (cobra pose). Next, off to the Osa Peninsula for some exercise!
Jan 10 through 13- Lapa Rios near the Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula
Up early for the drive to Tambor, a flight back to San Jose, and then a flight to Puerto Jiminez (a view from the airport at right, yes, that's a donkey and cart in the distance). At the airport, we were greeted by Lapa Rios staff who warned us that the 45 minute ride to Lapa Rios would be dusty as there hadn't been rain in a while. (They have NO idea what dusty means. Come to Leadville in September, and we'll show you dusty. ) They were amazed that we traveled only with daypacks. Lots of farm/ranches on the way to Lapa Rios. At the main lodge, we were greeted on arrival by the manager, assistant manager, and with fresh juice!
Wow! What an incredible place. A 1,000 acres that buffer the Corcovado National Park. There are no phones, no TVs, no computers, and not even enough power to run a hairdryer. It was a really nice escape from technology. Hummingbirds visited the hibiscus bush in front of our bungalow all day and macaws and toucans visited the tree above our bungalow in the mornings. The food at Lapa Rios is excellent. There's not a restaurant in Leadville, probably even Breck or Vail that tops it. No elite-trained chefs either; the cooks are all local folks.
Day one: On the walk down to our bungalow, we saw a beautiful green vine snake, a quarter-sized crab spider, and the legendary lapas (macaws). Beautiful plants everywhere: banana trees, hibiscus, poinsettias the size of small trees, peace lilies, bougainvillea, orchids, impatiens, amaryllis, cannas, dieffenbachia, heliconias, and passion flowers. Weird to see these growing in the wild; we think of them as houseplants.
Settled into our bungalow and enjoyed the views of Golfo Dulce.
Day two: We did the medicine walk, checked out the beach and then later did the night walk. That day we saw beautiful blue morpho, owl, and postman's longwing butterflies, big green crickets that looked like they were wearing Dutch wooden shoes, lizards, toucans, macaws, and a coati. At night we discovered tree frogs, a gigantic smoky jungle frog (almost as big as a dwarf rabbit), whipscorpions, HUGE wolf spiders, tree crabs, bats nesting inside termite nests (yes, termites build their nests in the trees), army ants, leaf cutter ants, and an agouti. Amazing that there were no mosquitoes here. Maybe the big spiders eat them....
Day three: Woke up and watched the macaws and toucans hanging out in the tree above our bungalow. Scared up four coatis while walking up to the lodge. Did the waterfall hike and the Osa Trail. Saw two poison-dart frogs, an incredible purple dragonfly (almost six inches long with at least a six inch wingspan), a hummingbird nesting, orchids, and giant crayfish. Topped off the trip with a swim in a pool below a waterfall. Toward the end of the Osa trail we saw many monkeys: howlers, spider monkeys, and squirrel monkeys. A spider monkey tried to take out one of the other folks hiking with us. Dropped a big branch just missing the guy's head. The trail of army ants we saw during our night hike were still 
going strong on the path back. Our guide Edwin, said that when the ants invade your home, you leave for a couple hours and come back to a pest free home.
Day four: ...and the last day at Lapa Rios, we remembered that our camera had a video option. So here's the tour of our bungalow.
Back to San Jose and to another coffee plantation near the airport. Howler monkey alarm went off at 4:30am so gave us plenty of time to get ready for the trip back to Puerto Jimenez.
We were scheduled to leave at 8am so were all ready to go. When we got to the front desk, there was a fax notifying us that we would be flying a later charter back to San Jose. Apparently, the carrier we had flown over had an accident at Puerto Jiminez. The plane blew a tire on takeoff and ended up crashing. No serious injuries but it was the second accident in a month so Costa Rica Expeditions made other arrangements for us. The charter flight was incredible; it was a really small plane so we flew much lower. Saw a few dolphins in Golfo Dulce and the pilot circled down to them. Amazing how much wildness there is in Costa Rica still.
So, back to San Jose and a shuttle to Xandari. The grounds are beautifully landscaped and the villa we stayed in had a great view of San Jose. Hiked around the plantation to some of the waterfalls and through the orchard. The orange trees smelled wonderful. Spent some time hanging out in the pool; we don't get a chance to swim much living in the mountains.
Up at 4:30am Central time and off for a day of travel. Flying over Mexico City, the pilot pointed out some of the volcanoes that surround the city. Was able to get a shot of Mount PoPo.
Pretty much a day of sitting around—in the San Jose airport, on the plane, in the Phoenix airport, on the plane, and then in the car for the two hour drive home. Back to snow....
Jan 8, 9 & 10- 
