Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Yesterday morning we left the hotel to catch a 10:00 bus to the Caribbean coast. I didn't realize how small all the taxis were until we tried to load 4 big backpacks, a couple of carryons, and four people into one. Anyway, we wanted to get to the bus station a little early to make sure we could get seats on the 10:00 bus. I guess we weren't the only ones wanting to do that. We ended up having to wait until the 12:00 bus because the earlier one was full. The bus had no air conditioning, but the breeze through the windows was plenty cool as long as we were moving. After a 4 1/2 hour trip, we arrived at Puerto Viejo. The next thing was to find a taxi who will take us to the lodge. We made it!

The lodge is quite beautiful, but we have no air conditioning. We need to keep the glass doors to the patio closed at night to keep out the mosquitos, so we stay cool by blowing fans at ourselves. Today we caught a taxi to a beach known for its snorkeling. We had to wait about an hour for a taxi, because the "road police" were out stopping all illegal cabbies (which is most of them). They don't get paid much, so they have to stop people and hope to get some money from people who don't want to face fines or penalties.

The beach is gorgeous, but the snorkeling was a challenge. The waves and currents were quite powerful today, due to storms over the past few days. We tried snorkeling a little, but found it too difficult due to the conditions. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have better luck.

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First leg of the trip ends

This is Jenifer writing now, and believe it or not our Costa Rican tour is already completed–first 12 days over. We never dreamed our internet access would be so limited and that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with our blog more regularly up to this point. You’ve probably already stopped checking out of boredom! And Bob writes from such a different perspective than I would–stuff about conservation, birds, and traffic. Things that stand out to me are the 22 hours we went without food on our way from the States to San Jose, and the way we haven’t stopped eating since then–meal after meal after meal. Rice and beans, fried plantains, all kinds fruits, vegetables, and juices. Buffets and choices. And a general lack of desserts and chocolate! The oddness of being on an organized tour for me–not worrying about safety or watching your pos-sessions like a hawk, having everything planned for you, staying at the best places, being able to speak in English to just about everyone, others handling your bags, traveling in a new luxury van–seemed we should be clutching our wallets, arguing about where to eat, negotiating fares with taxi drivers, stumbling through everything in Spanish, staying in cramped and odd lodgings, and getting flea bites on public buses! The worst part of being on a tour: the 6:30 luggage calls and breakfasts before departing on the next leg or activity–ugh! Unique to this tour: school and home visits–extra special.

Costa Rica is the youngest country I’ve ever been too–seems just about everything here has developed in only the last 50 years or so and tourism is huge. There’s not a part of this country that isn’t breathtakingly beautiful and that foreigners like us haven’t seemed to find, purchase, and tell others about! It’s so much less crowded, poor, and culturally rich (in indigenous cultures) than the Latin America I’ve known prior.

This has been more of an adventure tour, with kayaking, river rafting, horseback riding, countless nature walks, canopy tours, etc. which of course makes it more hands-on for the kids. I loved our visit to the beach on the Pacific side and look forward to our next leg of our trip on our own when we visit the Carribean side beaches. But I know Bob and the kids like the mountains just as much.

David had a day’s bout with "the runs" but otherwise we’ve all been quite well. I made one of the biggest mistakes ever by failing to pack/bring my Imitrex/migraine medication!! I’ve only had one headache so far and can buy the pills without a prescription here but they are $30 apiece! We had a friend send it to a hotel we returned to tonight in San Jose here at the end of our tour but it didn’t arrive yet. Fortunately we will have one more chance when we come back through San Jose in another week on our way to Nicaragua.

Dad and Lilburne were the "oldsters" of the group but they did just great, keeping up and trying everything like real troopers. And so gregarious in getting to know everyone. I was terribly saddle-sore from horseback riding and Lilburne not at all! How can that be! Hopefully they will have an easier time getting home to Clemson, SC than they did getting here (40 hrs. in transit and airports without sleep). We said our good-byes tonight since they are leaving at 6 a.m. in the morning and we hope to wake up at a more social 8:00!

We I really must get to bed and we hope to attach pictures if they will be accepted so will close.

Jenifer

Alot happens in a week

It´s been about a week since we last posted. In some of these out of the way places you can´t easy get an internet connection. Now I´m working on a very slow system at an internet cafe. I can´t post any pictures because I don´t have my laptop right now, and the system would take forever anyway.

I´m going to give some highlights, but I don´t want to be too detailed. I´m worried the system will disconnect before I get a chance to send my file.

The tour started on Monday, when we found out that Jenifer´s parents did not make it to the country. They were diverted back to Miami because the fog was too thick in San Jose. They joined the group halfway through the day, after we had already completed a great tour of a coffee plantation and coffee processing and roasting facility. We got to munch on chocolate covered coffee beans.

We had a rest stop on the way to our lodge where we were able to see dozens and dozens of hummingbirds of all different varieties. We also spotted a coati. Look it up.

The eco lodge was located on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide right by the Lagoon of Arenal. You might be able to find it on Google Earth. In the midst of the tropical forest, it was a lush environment and a haven for bird watchers. From toucans to parrots to tanagers and herons, we were amazed at the variety.

Costa Rica is incredible in its commitment to the environment. It runs on a combination of hydro, wind and thermal energy. The county is dominated by its volcanos which makes geothermal power quite attractive. They have great policies to protect the environment, and a great deal of consciousness regarding the environment among the people.

We´ve done many fun things, including kayaking, river rafting, nature hikes and other guided activities. We spent one day visiting a school that the travel company supports. There we met students and teachers, watched the children perform traditional dances, and then went home with various families for lunch. Since the family we went with could not speak any English, I spent the entire lunch translating from Spanish to English and English to Spanish. Everyone finished their lunches way before I did.

Right now we are in the area of the country known as the cloud forest. We are staying at a lodge near the Monteverde nature preserve. This community was started by a group of Quakers who relocated here from the US in the late 1950´s. They were opposed to service in the military, and did not want their childrens subjected to the draft. It is an incredible area of the county, and so much has been done to promote sustainable tourism. The road are very difficult to travel, which helps to limit the amount of traffic and development here.

We´ve had a great time observing the incredible natural resources here. We had a tour through the Monteverde preserve. It was rainy the entire time, as this is both the rainy season and the cloud forest. We were on the lookout for the famous Quetzal bird, but have not yet seen one. We saw other animals today during a canopy tour on hanging bridges in the forest. We saw an agouti and a grey fox.

Tomorrow we will be heading to a new area...but I don´t remember off hand where it is. We´ll fill you in as soon as we have a good internet connection. No telling when that might be.

Until then, we hope you are having as good a summer as we are.

Bob

We're on our way!

We left on Sunday afternoon around 1:30, complete with four big hiking backpacks and 3 carry-ons. Thanks to Bob's colleague, Bob Strack, we were hauled to the airport and quickly made it to our gate. See the picture of us in our backpacks--still smiling.

Sunday turned out to be a long day. We flew from Greensboro to Atlanta and got delayed in our flight to Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived late and tired, and our hotel was not at all convenient. After sleeping about 6 hours we got up to go to the airport for our flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. The lines were outrageous--long and slow--at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Spirit airways had 25 flights taking off all in a two hour window. We hadn't had breakfast, and didn't have time to get anything at the airport. The flight to San Jose was just shy of 3 hours. We decided not to buy the four dollar pretzels and three dollar cans of soda on the plane.

After getting to our hotel, we walked around downtown, had lunch, ate at a famous ice cream shop that I used to go to when I was here in 1982. We are tired early, and will call it a day. Tomorrow the tour starts bright and early in the morning. Here's a couple of pictures from our walk in San Jose.

The adventure starts tomorrow

On Sunday we will be heading to Ft. Lauderdale for our trip to San Jose, Costa Rica on Monday. The four backpacks are all packed, along with two smaller carry-ons. The packs are crammed full and quite heavy. Before we head to the airport I'll have to take a picture of us with backpacks on our backs. I'll post the picture later.

Bob

Welcome to our blog

Welcome to the blog we're calling "Aronson Adventures in Central America." We'll be posting pictures and summaries of our adventures, including itineraries, lessons learned, highlights, moments of inspiration, and others. Hopefully our family and friends will find this helpful and enjoyable, as they share in our adventures.

The trip begins on June 15 as we leave from Greensboro for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Early on the 16th we will fly from Ft. Lauderdale to San Jose, Costa Rica. During the first two weeks we will be traveling with Jenifer's dad Bill and his wife Lilburne. We'll be traveling with Overseas Adventure Travel on their 13 day Costa Rica: Natural Parks and Tropical Forests tour.

After that we'll be traveling on our own through parts of Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. We'll rely on public buses primarily, so we'll be practicing our skills in negotiating public transport systems using our rusty Spanish.

We'll be posting more as our departure date approaches.

Bob