On Our Way Home

Here we are, Fred, Lucky Ladybug and me waiting for the plane which we will board in about 3 hours. You know that I try not to be late for anything, but when given an option to keep the rental car longer and take a look at San Jose, I told Fred that I was ready to go sit and wait in the airport. In looking back over the past 8 days, I can think of so many things that I will never forget...especially the beauty of the rainforests that we were able to explore. The diverse vegetation and animals are so remarkable. I know that there are many reasons why we should all be interested in "saving" the rainforest environments, but the one that keeps calling to me is the notion of once it's gone, it will never be the same and for some of the flora and fauna, they will be extinct. We are thrilled to be coming back to share more of these experiences with our friends and students. One thing that I hope to do this year is collect some donations for the Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (Children's Eternal Rainforest). The students at The Learning Tree Montessori School (my old school) purchased one acre in this forest in 1991 to help with the maintenance and preservation. Perhaps we can do that again at Sanchez or at Riverhorse Academy. It has been great being able to share these experiences with our friends and family.

Today was fishing day, our last day that does not involve travel. We leave tomorrow for the plane ride home, via Ft.Lauderdale, FL..
We were up early for breakfast and left the hotel for the marina by taxi. We were headed out to sea at 7:30 and the first leg took us 32 miles out to a reef. The crew put out spoons and caught bait Bonita (12-15 inches) left and right. Once we had the required amount we began a slow troll. At about ten, Fred hooked up with the sailfish in the picture…what a fight. This leaper was finally boated and tipped the scales at 60 kilos. The picture unfortunately does not show the entire fish. For sailfish it’s catch and release with great emphasis on doing the least harm while documenting the size. At another time over the reef we hooked and lost a great fish. Perhaps a Snapper or Grouper or a Sea Bass…whatever it was it could not be turned. From the pull it exerted on us our guide thought it to be over 100 kilos. We witnessed a fellow in another boat land a huge Snapper, somewhere near 90 pounds, about 40 kilos. After a day on the water we returned sun-drenched but elated at the catch…the only sailfish caught in Quepos today. Gail was the able photographer and we will add the movies to our vacation DVD. I look forward to seeing my brother, and son-in-law in Ft.Lauderdale as they are fishermen too. Teresa will be there for an added treat. It will be off the airport at 7:00 a.m. to catch a flight home.

Hasta la vista, Costa Rica!!

Manuel Antonio National Park

Our walk through the Manuel Antonio National Park, a lowland humid tropical rainforest began at 7:30 this morning. We walked for about 4 hours and we could really tell the difference between being in a tropical rainforest and a cloud forest! It was very humid and rather hot. By the time we were finished our clothes were drenched with sweat and our bodies had totally given out…we were exhausted! After a cool dip in the pool, we make a good lunch and enjoyed the local Imperial cerveza, followed by a 2-hour nap.
Going back to the rainforest experience…we saw animals that we had not yet seen – squirrel and capuchin monkeys, a toucan, a 2 1/2” long iguana, a skink, a white bird that we need to identify, a white-tailed deer (Fred was surprised and happy to see her), agoutis, a sloth, some butterflies, a large grasshopper, red-legged crabs, and many hermit crabs. Part of the park went out to the beach, so we enjoyed the beautiful blue ocean and the soft sand, as we made our way up to Cathedral Point, which gave a wonderful view of the coastline and some nearby islands. As I said, we went early, and by the time we left, the beaches were crawling with sunbathers, young and old.
Our biggest delight was the troop of capuchin monkeys, which we have included for you to enjoy, too. The vegetation was different, too – there were fewer epiphytes, so the forest appeared more open and a little bit brighter under the canopy. We noticed that there were many more palm trees in the forest, including one with long spines on its trunk. Unfortunately, I did not notice the spines when I reached out to use the trunk for balance…it feels like a cactus thorn went in my finger. We will be doing our full day fishing trip in the tomorrow, so we hope to have a picture of “the BIG one” that did NOT get away.

Our day began bright and early and on the way out of town and just because we couldn’t figure out how to get on the right road, we came across several people looking up into a tree by the road…it was a two-toed sloth! Right there on the road and not in the cloud forest where we spent five hours looking for one yesterday. We stopped, of course, to take some pictures which we included in our blog.
The trip out of the mountains was down some of the steepest and curviest roads that we have been on yet. I bless my stars that Fred can drive on these mountainous, winding, gravel, pot-hole filled roads. We are now on paved roads for the rest of our trip. We checked into Hotel Verde Mar at noon…it is right on the beach and we have a pool outside our door, as well. We have already taken a dip in the ocean and in the pool. We will get up early tomorrow and walk Manual Antonio National Park. It is the smallest park in Costa Rica, but has some of the best opportunities to see monkeys and lowland birds. We are now using an Internet Café for the rest of our blogs, so unless you just happen to catch us online…no Skyping for a while. it costs $1.00 for 15 minutes! enjoy this post...by the way, everything on this pc is in spanish!

Monteverde Cloud Forest Revisited

It has been exactly 17 years this month that I, along with 20 other teachers, visited the Cloud Forest. As I walked along the paths, my head was filled with fond memories of the diverse flora and fauna. Fred and I walked for over 5 hours, taking in all of the beautiful sites, sounds and smells. We saw many types of butterfly, birds, bugs, and of course, vegetation. Trying to decide on which picture to share was really hard, but we agreed on this one. It is a Guan bird(related to a turkey) and her chicks perched in a colorful tree next to a 3 tired waterfall. I wish all of our friends and family could be here with us, as words and a few pictures cannot express the absolute beauty and uniqueness of the cloud forest. We will be on to the Pacific coast tomorrow, about a 4 hour drive south to Manuel Antonio. We will have to go to an Internet Café to post to the blog, so we hope to keep the daily updates coming.

Seafood Feast! That is an understatement, for sure. Marvin cooked the entire meal at our table. A couple from Dallas joined us, so we had it prepared for four. In one pan, drenched in garlic, butter, and white wine, was the lobster…at least 2 each. In the other pan was a seafood lovers delight: clams, mussels, prawn, shrimp, octopus, squid (calamari), 1/2 crabs, and crab legs and claws. Again these were prepared with butter, olive oil, garlic and white wine. It was quite a production. We had never seen so many different types of seafood prepared together…a once in a lifetime event.

Monteverde - Day 1

Our trip to Monteverde took about 4 hours this morning. The roads were rough most of the way and we refer to them as “washboard” like. We saw men herding cattle up the road, as well as many riding horses along the way. We are staying in another bungalow and this one has a large garden tub, which we will take advantage of later. We went to the hummingbird gallery and were astonished by the flashes of brilliant color. They flew in and out to the feeders even in the rain. We took many pictures with our 3 different cameras and plan to return there sometime before we leave. We will walk through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in the morning and perhaps do an evening walk to see the night creatures. We are going to walk down to the hotel restaurant tonight for a fresh seafood dinner. There is no internet in the room, so we have to take the computer to the lobby to blog, so there probably won’t be much Skyping here unless you happen to be on line when we are posting the blog each evening.

Rainforest experience

Breath-taking, awesome, and entrancing are words that have a new depth of meaning for me (Fred) after todays walk thru the highs and lows of the rainforest. The exhilarating sights were provided by an intricate trail that crossed canyons and rose to the top of ridges facilitated by a network of bridges. The hanging bridges were suspension bridges that spanned as much as 75 meters over chasms as deep as 150 meters below our feet. When I say below our feet I mean that is where part of the view was. The floor of these swaying wonders were grates about 4 x 2 feet and articulated to rise and fall with the treading along their surface and the sway induced by footfall. I have never seen such wonders as I beheld today and there is no camera that could capture the true wonder of these sights. Always the canopy was above and alive with birds and howler monkeys, down at our level it was occasionally so dark we had to use flash. Layer upon layer was life in the forest. Every plant, alive or dead, was a structure upon which another plant-form flourished. The clarity of the interdependency came thru to me. So often I have read about it, so many times I have told my students of it but never has it been so real to me. I will never be able to relay this to others without feeling so inadequate.

With this I will end without having really scratched the surface...and I realize I can't even find the words. This picture of a small clearwing butterfly says it all...army ants march through the forest searching for food, and as they near insects of all sizes flee their angry bites. Birds follow the ants so they can dine on the fleeing insects, and the clearwing butterflies follow close behind to sip the nutrients from the bird droppings. What if a uncaring, uneducated human decides to kill the ants...look at how many others would perish...true interdependence!

The drive to Arenal

We got up this morning and took a walk in the hotel's gardens before breakfast. I will be putting together a slide show soon, but for now you will just have to see the few that I can post. We had a dead battery, but got a jump and followed a van who was going to the airport. That put us on the right road to Arenal. It was a 4 hour drive on winding, narrow roads, but Fred was the BEST driver. Our hotel is great. We are staying in a little cabin at the base of a volcano. It does have lava activity, but on the other side. We will see it tomorrow. Today we went to the waterfall. It was a 600 meter vertical decent, which was not too bad. the climb back up was pretty tough, but we were able to do it by resting ever so often. We will be doing some canopy bridge walks tomorrow and hope to see some wildlife.

A Toast and Goodnight

Fred and I went down to the bar to have a nightcap...they know how to make a pina colada, but Fred did not recognize his margarita...worst he had ever had. Lucky was tucked into bed...no bugs allowed in the bar. We were told that our Hotel Bougainvillea has a beautiful garden, so after breakfast and before we set out to Arenal, we will take a photographic stroll.

We are in Costa Rica

Lucky helped the pilots get us here safely. Even though we were late getting off of the ground in Dallas, we arrived here and made our way to the hotel, thanks to a kind Toyota Rental Car employee. He volunteered to drive us through the dark and the rain. We would still be looking for it since there are no street names and numbers here!!! We have no phone, no GPS and a few maps...God will surely be with us on this adventure. We will be off tomorrow to see Arenal volcano which is erupting now...yeah! Fred is laughing and we are about to go exchange some $$$ 567:$1.00 US...a feel like we have earned a glass of wine or a margarita.

Lucky Ladybug is ready to travel!

Most of you who know Gail, also know that the mascot of her classroom is the ladybug. So...Lucky Ladybug is traveling with us to Costa Rica. Throughout the trip, Lucky will be posing for pictures so that, upon her return, she will be able to tell the prekindergarten children about her summer vacation. She was really happy to get to Houston Hobby this morning. Please note that Gail will be hooking Lucky on to her backpack and Fred will be taking most of the pictures. She can't wait 'till she get to the rainforest. She might even meet some of her cousins there.

Gail and her computer are going on a vacation. I am going as the driver. She and her computer will be blogging with everyone to let them know where all the wifi hot spots are in a foreign country...this will be exciting for her tech peeps. I, on the other hand, will be sampling the culture, the food, the drink and the sights. If anyone wants to know about an of this, they can call me when I get home...can't blog now I gotta watch the road.

We are staying the night with Lauren, Brad, Madeline, and Addison (Sweet Pea and Kitty and their 2 dogs and 5 cats, too). Our AC went out during the 105 degree weather today and we brought all of our bags for the trip over to the Meyer home. We will be leaving for the Houston airport at 6:30 am. We will be in Costa Rica at 7 pm mountain time. The adventure begins!

Our Itinerary

We are posting the itinerary so that our friends can follow us along the way.

COSTA RICA

July 10-18, 2009

Fri 10 Arrive in San Jose. Pick up car and drive to Bougainvillea Hotel. Overnight at Bougainvillea Hotel

http://www.hb.co.cr/

Sat 11 Drive to Arenal

The drive from Bougainvillea is about 3 ½ hours.

Overnight at Arenal Green (breakfast included)

http://www.arenalgreen.com/

Sun 12 Day to Explore Arenal or to take an optional tour.

See options here: http://www.arenal.net/arenal-volcano-tour.htm

Overnight at Arenal Green

Mon 13 Drive to Monteverde Area

The drive is about 4 to 5 hours depending on traffic.

Overnight at Heliconias Hotel

http://www.hotelheliconia.com

Tue 14 Free day in Monteverde to take tour or hike in the cloud forest

Look at some options here: http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/

Overnight at Heliconias Hotel

Wed 15 Drive to Manuel Antonio.

Overnight at Verdemar Hotel

http://www.verdemar.com/

Thu 16 Free day to enjoy the beach.

Overnight at Verdemar Hotel

Fri 17 Fishing in the Pacific Ocea.

Overnight at Verdemar Hotel

Sat 18 Flight back home

Arrive in Ft. Lauderdale to overnight with Fred's brother's family and our daughter, Teresa and husband Brad

Sun 19 Flight back to Houston and then drive home to Hutto

Only 4 Days until our Vacation

Fred and I have been very busy getting our household and our lives in order so that we can enjoy our upcoming trip to Costa Rica. Things like...getting some of those light weight zip off pants from Academy, Deet, travelers checks, some cash, passport, immunizations (ouch!), itinerary in order, rent-a-Toyota, tours reserved, refrigerator cleaned out, plans for the dogs, cat, fish, and chickens, mail, lawn...luggage...pack...that will be tomorrows job. By the time we leave on Friday, we will be exhausted. Hope we have enough energy to keep up the blog.

Getting Ready for the trip

We are only 2 weeks away from the beginning of Fred and Gail's great summer vacation adventure. We will leave on Friday, July 10 for San Jose, Costa Rica. We will be spending 8 nights in this beautiful country. Be sure and follow us as we follow one of our dreams!