Costa Rica, part 2

8/17/02 - Did I mention the pool?  This Best Western is the best hotel in the world.  We got up at 6am to beat the heat for a run.  More dirt roads, chickens and stray dogs.  A jump in the pool, breakfast and we're watching cable by 7:45am.  We are soft.  We get organized and I obsess one last time at the Internet cafe.  We provision at the "Super Mas" and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while waiting for the 12:00 bus to San Jose.  Ok, it was a 12:30 bus, more peanut butter for me.  The bus ride, well it was unpleasant, but at least it was long.  After four hours of curvy narrow roads and the constant drone of a straining diesel engine we and 50-70 of our closest friends were in San Jose, which was as charming as it was earlier in the week.  We grab a taxi and are whisked away to the beautiful Bogainvillea Hotel.  We get a great room, shower for an hour or two and I'm off to feed on the high speed Internet in the lobby.  Room service sandwiches and CNN rounded out our day.

8/18/02 - We got a call from Frederico Alban, our tour guide, at 6:45am and learned we needed to scurry down to breakfast to meet our group.  This was going to be a busy trip.  Our group consisted of one other couple (Dan Pollner & Jessica Shuman) and a dad with two kids (Dan Austin, Kasey & Andy).  They seemed swell.  We ate and headed off to the Arenal Volcano area, a 3 hour drive.  We arrived at the very nice Tilajari Resort Hotel (www.tilajari.com) near Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano.  A sprawling resort with large grounds and even larger iguana.  We checked in, had lunch and checked out a very cool enclosed butterfly garden.  Then it was time to saddle up.  We biked about 20 miles on both very wet trails (dry feet is not an option during the rainy season in Costa Rica) and decent quality roads.  A lot of beautiful scenery, banana, mango, etc. plantations and grasshoppers the size of Texas.  It rained a couple of times, but it was a great ride.  We got back about 5:30pm.  Leanne went to the pool and I went for a run.  I ran along the road, but it was getting dark quickly and after ingesting one bug and being stung in the eye by another I thought a shorter run might do just fine.  A great dinner with the birds and iguana, then some slow speed Internet and cable TV. 

8/19/02 - After breakfast we drove about 45 minutes and saddled up near the Volcano.  It was great trail riding with occasional views of the volcano through the clouds.  On a couple of occasions we saw the volcano peak, an extreme rarity.  We rode by a friendly White-nosed Coati (a dog/ fox/raccoon looking thing).  They added a third guide, Luis, and he and I raced ahead like we had someplace to go.  Lunch was at a hot spring, a brilliant way to break up a 35 mile ride.  We stopped on a bridge near a restaurant that feeds the local iguanas and saw several biggies.  Luis and I raced back to the resort with Leanne not far behind at all.  The last 10 miles was on a heavily pot holed road.

8/20/02 - The day started with an hour drive to Puerto Viejo to get our covered flat boat to Tortuguero.  It had two outboard Yamahas, but otherwise looked and felt like a fan boat.  We zipped along the Rio San Juan that defines the Costa Rican/Nicaraguan border.  We saw lots of birds and a monstrous 15 foot Croc.  A 20 minute stretch of the river is in Nicaragua, so the boat stopped at a rinky dink passport control that reminded us of  the border crossing from Zambia to Zimbabwe (traveling snobs that we are).  We had an excellent box lunch on the boat and finally arrived in Tortuguero, a remarkable small town on the Atlantic coast.  The total ride was about 4 hours.  We headed straight to the Tortuga Lodge (www.costaricaexpeditions.com), accessible only by boat.  It's a fantastic eco-friendly lodge with great rooms and one of the best pools ever.  After checking in, Leanne and I got a ride across the canal to the landing strip where we had a run.  The strip was 1/2 mile long, so the laps were reasonable.  We cooled off walking along the beach where we saw evidence of sea turtle nesting and caught a ride back to the lodge for a swim in the remarkable pool and then a great dinner. 

8/21/02 - We got up at 5:30am for a nature walk.  Spiders, huge bugs and toucans, toucans, toucans.  They were magnificent.  The bright colors and the absurd beaks were right out of the cartoon pages.  For me, it was a highlight of the trip.  We then caught some howler monkeys in a tree, also right on the lodge property.  They were acting, well, like monkeys.  They have great leathery ape-like faces.  It is good to see the animals that sounded like dinosaurs when we first heard them in Manuel Antonio (on the Pacific coast).  Apparently, they are the loudest mammals on earth.  After breakfast we piled in an open top boat and headed down the canal into the Tortuguero National Park.  Cayman (small croc), turtles, a beautiful falcon and interesting birds.  We parked the boat and spent a couple of hours in kayaks and "hydro-bikes".  We spotted a gorgeous 2 toed sloth and I watch it for quite a while.  After lunch at the lodge we learned about giant sea turtles at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (www.cccturtle.org) and then head into different canals in the National park.  It rained heavily but it seemed appropriate for this lush rain forest/jungle.  The vegetation was extremely thick and there were Tarzan-like vines everywhere.  We saw white faced monkeys and remarkably agile spider monkeys swinging like they do in children's books.  A baby on one's back didn't stop it from making death defying leaps from one branch to another.  They were great.

We have an excellent dinner, full of laughter and then caught a boat to the beach to see the giant green sea turtles.  It was nearly pitch dark and raining heavily.  No flashlights or cameras were permitted.  It didn't take long to spot a 4 foot behemoth lumbering out of the sea and slowly laboring inland to make its nest.  It was remarkable to see the outline of this giant prehistoric creature returning to the beach they have used for hundreds or thousands of years.  Our guide found another down the beach which had started building a nesting chamber while we waited in the deluge.   The sea was high and the sky thundered and flashed.  The guides are permitted to shine a red light on the turtles only when they are laying their eggs.  Once she started we gathered around and actually watched her drop several dozen slimy eggs one by one into her nest.  It was as remarkable as it sounds.  Back to the lodge and a hot shower, our clothes may never dry. 

     
Photos from www.cccturtle.org

8/22/02 - We got up very early and packed while watching two toucans in a tree just outside our lodge window.  This place is remarkable.  We boat across the canal and pile into two Cessnas for the 30 minute flight to San Jose.  The flight is beautiful, the countryside green and lush.  We drive for an hour or two, have lunch and arrive at our river for white water rafting.  It is a beautiful sunny day, but recent rains have made the water very high and fast.  The banks are a thick green tangle, full of vines.  The water is somewhat treacherous and it doesn't take long until the raft ejects us all.  We were accompanied by safety kayaks and they sprung into action and quickly got us all to safety.  It was a bit hairy and we're glad that the worst is behind us and that lunch is ahead of us.  After lunch we safely and successfully navigate the rest of the river and head back to the Bougainvillea Hotel.  We have a pleasant and fun farewell dinner.  I upload to the web site and we pass out.

8/23/02 - 6:15am and we're off to the airport.  First class check in is a breeze and the flight a pleasure (I'm on it now).  We will catch up on some paperwork and phone calls in the Miami business lounge and meet up with Angel and the gang for dinner.  Then it's a midnight flight to Barcelona.  Stay tuned...

Costa Rica Summary -  San Jose was dirty, polluted and very third world, but we didn't spend any time there.  Like many parts of Africa, the people are very poor, but the natural beauty is awesome.  The forests were lush, green and teeming with life.  Birds, iguana, gecko, monkeys, sloth, etc.  The people we encountered were nice and helpful.  There was very little English.  It was hot and extremely humid.  It rained every day, as it was rainy season, but it was not bothersome.  Currency: $1 = 362 Colones.