Costa Rica day 59 Mar. 7 Samara

We ate a quick breakfast, got packed and called a taxi as we were anxious to get to our new place. It's really nice and Jim again made us familiar with everything we needed to know. The place is quite large and has shutters on all the windows. The safe is under the master bed but too small to be of any use to us other than our passports and money (if we had any)
We unpacked and began making up a shopping list. We then hung one of our hammocks up on the deck where there is a nice breeze. You can't really see the ocean from the balcony due to the trees in front which provide shade but you can certainly here the crashing waves as it's only about 100'.
I introduced myself to a lady about our age who rents the only other unit. She is Norwegian and is translating something from English to Scandinavian. She's been here about two months and speaks very good English
About noon we headed down the beach for the 10 minute walk to the grocery store. I took one of the backpacks as we had quite a list. Now that we have the fridge filled up and a new bottle of rum we're all set. Tomorrow I think we'll head into town and have breakfast and then go to the wireless place to get things caught up. It's very quiet here so far and everyone speaks English. Col. Klink and his buddies will have to find someone else to irritate now.
We went to the beach around 4:30 but from here the actual sunset isn't visible although I still managed to get some good pictures. By six pm it's totally dark so we came back, made a sandwich and then listened to a few more chapters of the audio book I'd downloaded before we left. Jo lasted for about a half an hour and then it was lights out. She didn't sleep very well last night as the nazis were making a racket and kept her awake. They're worse than the dogs. We'll see what tonight holds in store
LINK OF THE DAY
Show people this album by sending them this public link:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30164&l=4f7e7&id=680056043

Costa Rica day 58 Mar. 6 Samara

We headed down to the other end of the beach this morning. The tide was a long way out due to the nearly full moon and there were pieces of coral littering the beach. In places the beach had to be 200' wide. We stopped in Samara on the way back and checked our email. Nothing but junk. We then headed over to the grocery store and picked up some coke, water and limes. Next door is a coffee shop so Jo had her fix and I had a coke. On the way back to the beach we stopped at a small bakery and while waiting outside I noticed they had a sign wi fi. Yahoo and it's fairly close to where we're moving to tomorrow and it's free. The other place we went to were charging $3.00 an hour! Crooks.
This place we're in is nice but so full of Germans I feel like I'm in Hogans Heroes and Klinks are everywhere. I guess we should have guessed that with a name like Kunterbunt Cabinas. Really looking forward to the place tomorrow as it's a beautiful two rooms overlooking the ocean and the mngr/owner Jim seems like a pretty nice guy and speaks English. It comes complete with two fans, hammocks, a fridge, and a safe in the room so I can lock up the mac when we leave. It's also about 10 minutes closer to downtown so we can bring groceries back to the room and keep them cold without having to share a fridge with Col. Klinks buddies and a bunch of dirty dishes.
We watched another beautiful sunset tonight and I'm not sure we'll be able to see it from the new place. It clouded over this afternoon but it was still stifling hot. It doesn't start to cool off until 4 p.m. when a bit of a breeze comes up. We should get more from our new balcony as this one is at right angles to the ocean.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30163&l=ba46f&id=680056043

Costa Rica day 57 Mar. 5 Samara

Last night we had a great sleep until the 4 a.m rooster got going. That woke up the dogs who woke up the birds and that was the end of the sleep.
We skipped breakfast and headed down the beach towards Samara. We passed a couple of hotel/cabinas for rent and inquired at the first one. $85.00 a night. We got out of there fast. The next place was about 200' farther down the beach. It looked like a nice place and the manager was busy painting pictures which he sells as a sideline. He also wanted $40 night but we thought we'd take a look. It was up over the office and was beautiful! Two rooms finished in hardwood. Three beds, a separate room with a fridge, table, and a coffee maker. No cooking facilities but with a fridge we can make sandwiches and have our granola and yogurt for breakfast and make icecubes. It also has a balcony facing the beach which is 100' away from our room. It's very nice and he mentioned that the local roosters were now soup. We also didn't see any dogs. They're probably also in the soup. This is a good sign! One of the dogs that woke us up is the same breed as the neighbours dog back home. Small a yappy says Jo. They should be used as dog food for good dogs. Too bad they don't have anti freeze down here.
We went on to Samara and hit the bank and the grocery store and had breakfast at a nice place in town. We stopped at a hotel that advertised wireless to see if we could rent some time but the owner said it was for guests only but that the other two places in town also had wireless. Our new place is only a few hundred yards from downtown so it will be very handy as well as close to the grocery stores.
After we got back here we walked the other half of the beach which is covered with bits of coral from the offshore reef. The surf has been high since we got here and no good for snorkelling although there were some surfers a long way out who were really doing well.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30162&l=460da&id=680056043

Costa Rica day 56 Mar. 4

Our bus didn't leave until 9 a.m. so we had breakfast and then headed to the bus station 4 or 5 blocks away. What we thought might be a 4 or 4 1/2 hour bus trip was taking much longer and it was an hour in a traffic gridlock before we even got out of San Jose. There was a pit stop about 11:30 and we weren't even near the halfway point. About 2:45 pm we stopped at a roadside busstop to let someone off when we saw a hwy. sign indicating Nicoya. We were headed to Liberia where we'd planned to catch another bus back to Nicoya. Jo asked the driver about it and we jumped ship and crossed the road to catch the Nicoya bus. This ultimately saved us at least two hours and probably more. The third bus to come along about 3:30 took us into the Nicoya bus station where we caught another bus to Samara about a half an hour later. Our first stop in Samara was to the bank which had closed 5 minutes earlier so we went to a restaurant and had supper and then picked up a bottle of rum and some coke. They called a cab for us but it never showed up so they got a friend to drive us to the "hotel". We're about 3 miles out of Samara and across the street from the water. The other half of the hotel is directly across the street and is on the beach. There are tables and chairs out on the beach side as well as a couple of hammocks. When we checked in we were told the room is $40 a night (exactly twice what the 2007 book said) We'd expected to pay $20 and were hoping to stay for the remainder of our time here but I don't think that's going to happen now. We're booked for three nights and will spend some of that time looking for a cheaper place maybe closer to town. It's only a 20 minute walk along the beach and we can go in there to get some groceries as this place has a fridge and hotplate downstairs that we can use.
Update ..... we found a place on the beach closer to town. It's the same price but it's beautiful. It's an upstairs 2 room suite with a fridge! Yahoo icecubes and cuba libras,
The manager is a hippie about my age who paints as a sideline. Originally from California he's seems like a great guy and he didn't give us the same flak we got here as far as maybe not being able to stay due to bookings coming in for Easter. We are the only ones upstairs and have our own balcony, hammocks, and a coffeemaker. It's right on the beach and we should be able to see the sunsets from our room. We move in on the 7th and have booked it for the full two weeks until we meet up with Jim,Patty, Marion and Don in Islita until we leave on the 25th.
This beach is crescent shaped and directly North of one of the other places we've stayed. There's also a reef out in front so we may be able to get in some snorkelling, something we haven't really been able to do to this point.
The alarm clock here starts to crow at 4 a.m. quickly followed by the howler monkeys and then the dogs chime in. By 7 a.m. all the Germans who are staying here start coughing in case we managed to sleep through the earlier cacaphony. They were out at the tables last night and seemed to be having a race to see who could smoke the most. One nice thing about this place is that they sell beer and will make you breakfast for $6.00. We'll probably pick up some granola and yogurt for our breakfast. There's also internet in town but unlikely to be wireless. I'm not sure how theft proof this place is so for the next little while I'll carry my laptop with me.
It's nice to be near the water again and we're looking forward to soaking up a few rays and getting in for a swim.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30161&l=0b4a4&id=680056043

Costa Rica day 55 Mar. 3

It was a long day today. We got up at 5:30 and after a glass of orange juice we packed over to the bus station. The 6 a.m. bus left promptly at 5:55. Too bad if you were late. It was first gear for the next 15 minutes while we crept through the sleeping village picking up people as we went. Initially there were about 10 on the bus but by the time we reached David an hour later it was full. We bought our tickets to San Juan and left a half an hour later. By 9:30 we reached the border. More chaos. First it was over to get our passports stamped. We then got into another line to turn in our entry permit that we recieved 5 days earlier. Then it was into a room with our packs and a drug sniffing dog did his thing. Next we put our packs on a table for inspection. All this was just to get out of Panama. We then took our packs back to the bus which had disappeared. We found him about a block away and loaded our packs back on the bus, drove a hundred yards and started all over again on the Costa Rica side. This time we gave our passports to the driver who took them somewhere while we waited in a compound. When he returned the customs guy had our passports and called out names to come and pick them up and show him your bags at the same time. He didn't even open ours. Guess they trust Canucks. That's the last border crossing for us until we leave in three weeks yahoo!
The whole process took about an hour and a half which is better than some we've been through. The next stop was at the midway point at the summit of the mountains we'd been climbing. We had a half an hour to grab our first bite of the day so we bought some chicken, rice, and salad with a couple of cokes and some pineapple and watermelon. It was very good and was under $10. We saw some beautiful sites en route. Mostly fields being prepped for pineapple cultivation and in various stages of growth. We were on the opposite side of the bus so the view was different than on our trip down. We followed the Rio Grande for many miles.
Arriving in San Jose at 5 p.m. we were ready for a shower and a beer. First we walked to the bus stop (a different one) and bought our tickets to Liberia for tomorrow. It was about $4.00 each for the 4 1/2 hour ride. We had our room booked at the Classic Hotel B&B for the 4th time and ate some supper and had a beer. Then it was onto their computer to see if we'd rec'd an answer back to our email of last night attempting to book a room in Samara. It was there and we're good to go. It's a cabina a short way out of town and not far from the beach. This will be three weeks of basking and no travelling!
While eating our supper in the lobby of the B&B we overheard a guy from Seattle telling someone he was having all his dental work done here over the next week. The dentist speaks English and has some very modern computerized xray equipment. He was going in to get three caps done and ended up getting 10 done for $50 each! That sure beats the $1,000 each our crooks charge. So I'm going to check it out in Samara to see what I can get done. Hell for $50 he can use a chisel on me.
Our bus doesn't leave until 9 a.m. so we've got time to enjoy the complimentary breakfast that we missed on our last stay. We can even sleep in. It's been a long day with 11 hours on a bus so the shower and sleep are welcome. Hopefully we can find a wireless outlet in Samara. We know we can get money there as we hit the bank there a couple of months ago. Thats our day
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30159&l=b714d&id=680056043
Al & Jo