Day 13 - Monteverde a little reprieve from the heat

We again visited the restaurant next door for breakfast, as it is a pretty tasty option. The kids again had an order of french toast and Correen had a typico americano breakfast while I had a breakfast burrito. After breakfast I went down to the beach again and took Elliot's googles to look for Tegan's camera. I had 30 SPF sunblock on the day before, but still got a little burn. Today I had to wear a t-shirt in the water for more protection. I was out for over an hour looking but wasn't able to find the camera, but I did manage to see the same ray twice in that time.

The kids were playing with the daughter of the lady that worked in the kitchen next door. They were playing games in the pool with her until we left, destination... unknown. I decided to opt for Monteverde and we set the gps for the destination. We were within 42 kms when a road sign appeared with Monteverde on it, well before the road the gps had selected. I decided to try it and immediately it was saying we had saved 10 kms with this chosen route. The road was good up until we reached a small old gold mining town. There were statues and other signs signify the importance of gold in this community. Once we left the town, the road got narrower, steeper and without pavement and final even more grade with even larger pot holes, rocks and other obstacles.

It was a long bumpy road and the kids were getting tossed around pretty good in the back seat. The destination I had selected was a tourist information center for Monteverde, but we didn't even make it there when I saw a sign for info at a B&B and we pulled in there to ask questions. Randall, the father of this family run business, was super helpful and gave us his opinion on the local tours and we ended up choosing to stay at his family's B&B and booking 3 different tours including a night walk that started in just 2 hours at 5:30 p.m. We had time to unload our things into our room and then do a drive into Monteverde town for some dinner.

We walked up the street and had to try the Treehouse Restaurant because it is one of the top 10 weird restaurants of the world. Ok, there is a trees that seems to be inside the restaurant but it didn't seem that weird. The food wasn't weird it was just ok and there wasn't anything weird about the service, it was good. Correen ordered a traditional coffee; it was more interesting and entertaining than anything else. Meal done, we went to the mini-super mercado next door to grab some drinks and Tegan and Elliot got to try a local fruit called "Mamon". The kids really liked them.

We drove back to the B&B quickly as we were running tight on time. We quickly got changed and headed out for our night walk. We were a couple minutes late, but it wasn't a problem. There were 4 others in our group besides us and we made our way into the woods for a 2 hour walk. We immediately saw a sloth in a tree and then the animals kept coming; mottled owl, raccoon, walking stick, katydid, emerald toucanet, armadillo, tarantula, other spiders and more sleeping birds. It was a great night to be out in the middle of the jungle, it was warm, the skies were clear and our guide was knowledgable and answered any questions we had on the area and the animals.

When we returned to the parking lot the building next to the night walk tours office was open and allowed our group to visit. The building housed the new coffee roasting equipment for a coffee co-op in Monteverde. We were given all kinds of information on coffee production and they talked about a competition to grade coffee and that seemed like a prestigious goal that they wished to enter and win at. It was a coffee geek show and Correen and Tegan were testing there own palette on the roasted grinds of 3 different temperature of roasts. Tegan seemed to have a good taste for the better roast of the 3. Kids in Costa Rica are given coffee to drink at a 3 years of age. Sounds crazy to me, hopefully Tegan doesn't acquire a taste for it yet.

It was really late and tomorrow we were waking early for breakfast and our zip line tour, so we said adios and drove to our B&B for a good nights sleep. While the kids were getting a night time story I went out and got some shots of the stars. It was so dark and the sky was full of bright stars.

Day 12 - Camera down

Tegan was pretty stoked to go surfing today. Last night she was told she could take a surfboard out and it has been the only thing on her mind since. Before breakfast the kids got to play in the pool in the warm morning sun. We had our breakfast at the restaurant next door to PGi and it was super delicious. Correen had eggs benedict and the kids shared some french toast while I had french toast stuffed with Nutella.

We all made our way to the beach with the surfboard in hand. On the way to the beach is a narrow path through a wooded area full of crabs, geckos and we saw a pretty good sized iguana as well. The beach is an amazing stretch of real estate. It is white sand beaches for more than 5 kms, beautiful waves breaking just off the shore and when you looked around the most you would see would be around 40 people, surfing, swimming or walking the beach.

The water was very warm, Tegan and I made our way out past the crashing waves with the surfboard. In between the waves I had Tegan practice getting quickly up onto the board in a center balanced position. After ditching into the water a dozen times, she decided she needed her goggles and asked Mom to go get them. Correen left and I then took Elliot out for a turn on the board. I didn't ask him to get up on the board instead I thought he could enjoy riding some waves while laying on the board. With 3 wipeouts under his belt, Elliot was ready to move back to the beach, Mom and eventually leave to go back to the pool.

With goggles in hand, Tegan and I went back out into the water. She kept trying to get up and balanced, but she kept falling. She had better luck when she bent her knees and I thought she was almost going to get it. I had the camera ready and tried to get a picture of her standing but she couldn't get the feel for it. After one spill we were recovering and getting ready for Tegan to get up on the board and then a huge wave came and I tried to get Tegan onto the board and ride over the wave, but the wave just took us and sent us up and over and we, the surfboard and the camera went too. Immediately we searched around where we were, then I sent Tegan in with the surfboard to put it on the beach. Tegan and I searched for over an hour and we didn't find it.

I returned to the beach after our lunch to search some more and still no luck. For lunch, however, we were offered some fresh fish caught by Matt, Christina and her dad Harry. Elliot devoured a good amount of the mackerel and Tegan worked her way through a few tuna fillets.
The kids played in the pool most of the afternoon, played a little ping pong and then they tried playing darts for the first time. Elliot was a little more accomplished than Tegan at this sport, I felt bad for the darts the kids were ruining by them falling onto the cement floor.

For dinner we went down the road to a different restaurant and enjoyed a different experience complete with the gecko nightlife. I think Tegan counted about 15 geckos around the room. The geckos were clinging to the walls near the lights and continued to pick off flies as the landed near to them.

For me it was a real bummer of a day, I was upset Bout losing Tegan's camera and disappointing her as well. Sorry T.

Day 11 - We've got wheels

I woke up to my alarm at 6:30 a.m. and quietly got ready to leave and pickup the rental car this morning. Elliot woke up while I was getting ready and he said he wasn't hungry enough to go get breakfast, so I set him up with Disney Jr. on tv. I too didn't feel too hungry so I passed on the breakfast and instead asked for a taxi.

The taxi driver picked me up and drove me down to the Budget rental car, which was suppose to be open at 7 a.m. Only I didn't know that the time had changed as we crossed the border with Panama. It was actually 6:10 a.m. and I was standing in the middle of San Jose. Even McDonald's wasn't open, so I sat on a step outside of a Wendy's and played on the iPad a bit.

I experienced some Costa Rican culture with the Friday night bar stragglers that coped with previous nights celebrations. When decided on going to the Quiznos for a little breakfast and kill a little more time. They were suppose to have wifi but it wouldn't connect, bummer. I suppose I should have just played a game or something to kill more time but I was afraid if I stayed away too long, Correen would worry. So on I strolled back to budget to get the vehicle. Originally I was suppose to get the vehicle at 10 a.m., it was now 7:20 a.m.

With the little SUV in hand I tried to place my phone with gps on the dash so I could get satellite signals for the gps while viewing the navigation, only it kept falling down by my feet while driving, shutting off because the power button was being pressed or it would fall over on the dash. For the first 15-20 minutes I was driving by my gut feelings as to the direction of our hotel. On Paseo Colón, I drove a ways down it, hoping the gps would start to function. I passed by a huge central square where loud dance music was being played by a DJ and some kind of celebration was happening. When I tried follow the gps at one point, not sure if had a signal, but I drove directly through the center of a street market! I wasn't the only one, but there were hundreds of people crossing the street and I had to work a SUV across it. The other thing is that the SUV was a standard so having a free hand to hold the gps wasn't an option. With satellite signals restored I was slowly navigating back to hotel, passing by familiar sights from the earlier drive this morning.

I found Correen and the kids at the hotel pool and I decided to go pack while the kids played a bit more. We loaded up the SUV and were on our way by 10 a.m. In the San Jose traffic at a set of traffic lights we saw teenagers walking up to the windows of cars looking for donations, likely for a school or club. I wondered briefly if the parents of Tegan's Irish Dance school would consider this for a fundraiser. Likely not, It was 8 lanes of traffic at that set of lights. Shortly after that we were passed on the inside by 2 men on a motorbike, the passenger carried in each arm 2 car tires wrapped in plastic wrap. So that's 4 tires, 2 men, 1 motorbike at 80 km/hr! It was about another 1/2 hour until we caught up to them and snapped the photos.

We were on our way to Tamarindo so I could get some dental work done and then off to Playa Grande our only booked stay in Costa Rica for the week. PGI or Playa Grande Inn was very inviting with its pool, lounge area and surfer vibe. We had a large room with 3 beds and A/C, the Internet was working. We arrived at dusk and the dirt road the gps had us on was a 10/10 for kid size fun bumps! Correen didn't like the Dakar rally feel of this trip. We immediately were introducing ourselves to others at PGI, enjoying some beverages, kids were playing in the pool and then we were eating some delicious food like chicken burritos and shrimp salad rolls.

We stayed up a little later and enjoyed some good conversations about travel and the local area. Tegan was offered a surfboard for use at the beach tomorrow by Justin; the manager of PGI. Tegan and Elliot also had their first go at ping pong and enjoyed sharing some love with the pet cat.