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Hanging Out

1/19/2019

Freddy arrives at 9:30 on Friday morning to take Mary and George to the airport. We give hugs all around and are sad to see them leave.

Most of our time is spent relaxing and enjoying the beach, pool and the patio. Paul and Kara do some boogie boarding then chilling in lounge chairs. I like sitting by the beach reading and watching the pelicans fly by and the iguanas in the trees. James and William chill out on the patio discussing crypto-mining and any other topic that comes to mind.

Saturday we watch the sunset then walk down the beach 15 minutes to Terraza del Pacifico for dinner. It is the restaurant in the only hotel on this stretch of Playa Hermosa. They offer a pretty wide menu, but most of us order some form of seafood. The meals are good, the setting is unpretentious and the prices are local. We're happy. We walk back along the beach by the light of what tomorrow will be the Super Blood Wolf Moon. Fun!

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Birthday Celebration

1/17/2019

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We spend the day enjoying the beach and Hermosa Palms. James has rented a bicycle and he rides down the beach road to check out the various local access points. Paul and Kara rent a stand up paddle board and find it challenging to use in the strong waves. The rest of us take walks on the beach. All at some point sit in lounge chairs under the palms and take a dip in the pool.

We watch the sun go down then take a taxi-van into town to El Hicaco restaurant. We are celebrating Kara, James and George's birthdays, which occur between January 18th and 21st. The restaurant is located beachside and specializes in seafood. Given the festive occasion, we splurge on desserts, including one that our waiter flames tableside. A very nice evening with very special people.

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ATV Away!

1/16/2019

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We have a leisurely morning and then head into Jaco for today's adventure at ATV Back Country Tours. We meet the owner, Joey, along with his wife and daughter, Kallina, at their storefront then travel to the finca via a taxi-van.

Joey and Kallina train us on ATV operations and the tour rules. As the tour maximum is six ATV's (in addition to Joey and his daughter), I will ride behind William. We all don handkerchiefs for keeping the dust off our faces as well as helmets and then we're off!

We have a blast climbing mountains and looking out from the plateaus and vistas. One highlight of the tour is the hidden beach, which is accessible because of the low tide. We park the ATV's and climb down from the mountainside onto the black rock beach. There are thousands of hermit crabs on the beach along the cliff wall - incredible. We split into two groups. Paul, Kara and James go for higher adventure, climbing around the point on a narrow path with Kallina to reach another beach and set of pools. Mary, George, William and I go with Joey to a hidden cave. At first we're not sure we can get back up the rocks once we get down to cave level, but William decides to just go for it and soon all of us have walked to the cave entrance and into the back. Since I am writing this, it's safe for you to assume that we all were successful and climbing back up :-). We sit for a while in the pools formed by the lava rock then return to the ATV's.

A second highlight for me is climbing up the dirt paths on the ATV's to a high point on the mountain, parking, and then climbing over a barb-wire fence to a pasture to watch the beautiful sunset over the bay.

After the sunset we ATV back to our starting point on the finca, arriving in darkness. A taxi-van soon arrives and takes us to town where we have dinner at Señor Harry's. Service is slow, so George establishes a direct relationship with the bartender. At the end of the meal the owner (Señor Harry himself) buys us a round of shots made with guaro, the sugar cane liquor of Costa Rica.

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Manuel Antonio National Park

1/15/2019

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We have booked a private tour to Manuel Antonio National Park through Freddy and promptly at 7 am Ronald appears in a 10 passenger van.  He will be our guide and driver for the day.

As we drive south on Highway 34, I explain that we did not have time for breakfast.  Ronald has a solution - a bakery in the town of Perrita.  Perfect!  We each pick up some savory pies and off we go.

About 90 minutes after we leave Playa Hermosa we arrive at Quepos, the gateway city to Manual Antonio National Park.  Ronald expertly parks the van and proceeds to pull out his spotting scope while the rest of us load backpacks with waters from the cooler.  We walk a few blocks to meet up with the ticket and entrance line.  It takes about 15 minutes and we are in.  We are not 100 feet into the park when Ronald stops by some banana plants and pulls out his scope.  Hidden in the leaves are some bats!

In describing what we would do for the day Ronald said we would walk an hour to an hour and a half to the beach, depending upon what we spot along the way. It actually takes us over two hours to reach the beach. We have a great time seeing sloths, colorful grasshoppers, a huge caterpillar, red crab, frog, iguana, spiders, a special kind of lizard and various birds and monkeys. If we didn't have Ronald with his skills and spotting scope we probably would have only seen the iguana, some birds and some monkeys. We are so happy that we decided to hire him over renting cars and doing the park ourselves (which was our original plan).

We rest and play for an hour at the beach and the start our walk out of the park. Along the way we see raccoons, monkeys and birds, even a toxic tree!

We're all starving and quickly agree to go to El Avion for lunch. In addition to great food and a good view it distinguishes itself with a complete old US cargo plane. The margaritas and cervezas go down easy. As we leave we have one more gift of nature. In the tree near the van there are two sloths and one is quite active making his way around the trees. So we take another 15 minutes to watch them.

The ride home is where Paul and William appreciate Ronald even more. If we would have been on our own they would be driving back. Instead they can put their heads back and relax.

Ronald drops us off around 4 pm, with enough time for a quick nap and a dip in the pool before sunset. This has truly been a memorable day, made even more special because it was shared as a family.

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The Gang's All Here - More Fun!

1/13/2019

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Our plan is to mostly spend a relaxing day around the beach and pool on Saturday. Playa Hermosa is a surfers beach, and they are out in full-force. There's a local surf competition scheduled starting around 4pm, 3.5km up the beach, and they may be out practicing this morning. It's fascinating to watch.

Once again Freddy arrives, this time bringing us Mary and George. Yeah, the gang is all here! As sunset approaches we meander down to the beach. There's a beach wedding at one of the houses in the community and the party is at the drinks and appetizer stage. The bride and groom pose for a photo as the sun goes down in the distance.

James makes up some burgers for our evening meal. And once again we find ourselves gathered on the patio talking and laughing after dinner.

By 6:30 am the wildlife is active and we start a slow Sunday morning laying in bed for a while listening. After a bit the Macaw's are cawing quite loudly, as if yelling at us to get up. George has already started the coffee when we make our way downstairs. About 8 am everyone is up. By 10 am several have taken walks on the beach and we've decided to go into town for breakfast and more provisions. However, we have a small glitch. Someone (probably me) has inadvertently locked us out of the master suite. We call the owner of the house and he tells us he will be here in an hour. I feel so bad about bothering him - especially on a Sunday morning. William volunteers to stay back and the rest of us pile into two taxi's.

The afternoon is spent watching the iguanas on our lawn and patio then playing at the beach and pool. We also have time to consume some of Yoyo's famous cocktails. Toward evening we make our way to the beach to watch the sunset.

James then fires up the little grill made from a car or truck rim and rebar with a grate over the top that we found in the laundry room. Quite ingenious. He grills chorizo for the crowd, finishing them off in the oven since he must work in batches. Accompanied by salad and cooked veges it's a little feast.

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Settling In at Playa Hermosa

1/11/2019

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The sounds of wildlife awaken us shortly after sunrise. There's birds calling, dogs barking and maybe a howler monkey in the background.

We packed a small amount of coffee and a few tea bags, so we enjoy morning beverages on the patio followed by a closer assessment of the kitchen and a brief walk around Hermosa Palms to get a feel for it in the daylight.  There are 60-80 large homes, a central pool, spa and bar/restaurant with a small mini-mart in the gated development.  The community is along a soft black sand beach (Playa Hermosa) without much other development around.  A wonderful place for our next nine days.

But we're hungry and need groceries, so it's time for a trip into the town of Jaco, 10 kilometers away.  The guardhouse calls us a taxi and 20 minutes later one arrives.  We tell the driver "Mas x Menos", the supermercado Yoyo suggested which is located in the middle of town.  As William pays the driver $20 we ask him for a breakfast restaurant and he points us down the next road to Jaco Rustico.  It is typical Costa Rican, with a cafeteria-style line.  We point at the food we want from about 15 choices - starting with beans and rice and ending with fresh fruits - which the staff places on a plate and hands to us at the cash register.  Dining is under-roof at simple tables, but the only walls are on the interior of the structure for the kitchen and bathrooms.  The food is simple, but very fresh and good.

It's always fun to find what we want at grocery stores in other countries, but Mas x Menos comes through with most everything on our list.  As we're buying for seven adults we end up with two grocery carts - one for beverages (bottled water, beer, wine) and one for the real food (including 60 eggs). The store security guard helps us hail a 7 passenger vehicle to haul it all back.  We pay the driver 10,000 Costa Rican Colones (approximately $16.50), the meter of 7,700 plus a tip.  He seems very happy.

Freddy arrives shortly after sundown, bringing Paul and Kara from the airport. We hug and give them a chance to settle in a bit. A little later we sit down to a great dinner which Jim has prepared. We talk and laugh for a couple of hours before heading to bed.

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A Great Start to 2019

1/10/2019

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We begin our 2019 travels with a belated Christmas in January stay in Costa Rica with family. The car service arrives at 4:45 am to get us to the airport for our 7:20 flight. We connect in Charlotte for the 3 hour 20 minute flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Everything goes without a problem and after clearing immigration and customs we walk outside the terminal to find our smiling son, James. Standing a few feet from him is Freddy, the driver who will take us to Playa Hermosa on the Pacific coast and the villa we have booked through AirBnB.

During the 1 1/2 hour drive Freddy tells us about the area. We drive past the road to Atenas, which is where William and I stayed on our first trip to Costa Rica. Freddy makes two stops on the drive, one at the crocodile river and one to watch the sunset. The sunset is beautiful, and a brilliant start to a wonderful stay in the Jaco/Playa Hermosa area.

We arrive at Hermosa Palms in the dark.  We stop at the guardhouse and have 10-15 stressful minutes when neither the custodian nor the owner of the villa can be reached.  Freddy talks with the guards and one of them offers that he knows where the keys are hidden.  After confirming the AirBnB photos look like the villa we enter, we all smile and say goodbye to Freddy.

The three of us rush over to the small restaurant at the pool for some food.  Yoyo, the owner and bartender, tells us they just stopped dinner.  Sigh.  She takes pity on us and has the kitchen prepare fish tacos for us while she pours cervezas for William and James and mixes a margarita for me.  We ask her some questions as we eat our dinner and she goes through her routine to close up the bar.  Then she opens up her small convenience store for us to buy water, cerveza and snacks. We're set for the evening.

Back at the villa we do a little unpacking and hit the beds early.  Travel days are always tiring even though we mostly just sit around.  Why is that?

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Hanging Out

Birthday Celebration

ATV Away!

Manuel Antonio National Park

The Gang's All Here - More Fun!

Settling In at Playa Hermosa

A Great Start to 2019

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Hanging Out

Birthday Celebration

ATV Away!

Manuel Antonio National Park

The Gang's All Here - More Fun!

​Settling In at Playa Hermosa

A Great Start to 2019

Author

Archives

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Settling In at Playa Hermosa