Spent the weekend painting the inside of the house. It doesn't go very fast when you are recovering from thyroid surgery and your husband is recovering from a total knee replacement, but what we got done looks fantastic!
Almost completely finished painting the livingroom, kitchen, and dining room (basically the bottom left side of the house) and it is amazing what a fresh coat of white paint can do for a house!!
Even got the outside of all 5 doors painted with an exterior paint and didn't realize how badly they needed to be painted until we painted them. We are trying to get the house ready so the realtors can set up an open house. The inside really needed a fresh coat of paint so we wanted to put off an open house until we did the painting. Hopefully we will be done by the middle of the week.....fingers crossed!
This will bring us one step closer to our final goal of moving and you know what they say..."Put one foot in front to of the other...and soon you'll be walking out the door."
That's our goal, now we just need to make it happen....wish us luck!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Surgery Went Well
Well, both surgeries are out of the way and now all we need to do is recover so we can get on that plane and go to Costa Rica. Bob's knee is doing great! He will be starting outpatient physical therapy next week so he should improve even faster! My surgery went well too....not so much the anesthetic though...:-(.....and I am not in a lot of pain. Very happy to be home. Now i just have to wait for all of the blood tests that follow checking different levels of....things....that need to be checked.
Bob and I are researching places to live on http://www.ticotimes.net which we subscribed to a couple days ago. It is downloaded to my email every morning and we browse through it keeping up with the happenings of Costa Rica....you should check it out! Below is an article in today's edition:
Legislators look to add to education
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
In one of is first debates since its new members arrived on May 1, the 57-member Legislative Assembly agreed to debate an initiative to increase public education spending to 8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
According to legislator Guillermo Zúñiga of the National Liberation Party, a 2 percent increase in education spending would amount to ₡ 360,000 million colones ($670 million).
Because former President Oscar Arias left office with education spending already at 7 percent of GDP – which is above the legally mandated 6 percent – an increase by one percent would only require ₡ 150,000 million.
The increase was supported by the left-leaning Citizen Action Party (PAC), which said in a press release that spending more on education has been “an aspiration that PAC has expressed since its creation and in all its electoral campaigns.”
At the other side of the political spectrum, the fiscally conservative Libertarian Movement agreed not to block the final vote on the bill.
If the bill should pass the Legislative Assembly, it would increase public spending on education (which includes higher education) by a half of percentage point annually until spending arrives at 8 percent.
The increase would be directed at general education and specialized education for rural zones.
Despite a drop in the gross domestic product last year, Costa Rican universities maintained their government funding at $388 million. In fact, the education minister agreed to increase the 2010 budget by 10 percent over the prior year.
This is just one of the articles in the paper. Enjoy!!
Bob and I are researching places to live on http://www.ticotimes.net which we subscribed to a couple days ago. It is downloaded to my email every morning and we browse through it keeping up with the happenings of Costa Rica....you should check it out! Below is an article in today's edition:
Legislators look to add to education
By Chrissie Long
Tico Times Staff | clong@ticotimes.net
In one of is first debates since its new members arrived on May 1, the 57-member Legislative Assembly agreed to debate an initiative to increase public education spending to 8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
According to legislator Guillermo Zúñiga of the National Liberation Party, a 2 percent increase in education spending would amount to ₡ 360,000 million colones ($670 million).
Because former President Oscar Arias left office with education spending already at 7 percent of GDP – which is above the legally mandated 6 percent – an increase by one percent would only require ₡ 150,000 million.
The increase was supported by the left-leaning Citizen Action Party (PAC), which said in a press release that spending more on education has been “an aspiration that PAC has expressed since its creation and in all its electoral campaigns.”
At the other side of the political spectrum, the fiscally conservative Libertarian Movement agreed not to block the final vote on the bill.
If the bill should pass the Legislative Assembly, it would increase public spending on education (which includes higher education) by a half of percentage point annually until spending arrives at 8 percent.
The increase would be directed at general education and specialized education for rural zones.
Despite a drop in the gross domestic product last year, Costa Rican universities maintained their government funding at $388 million. In fact, the education minister agreed to increase the 2010 budget by 10 percent over the prior year.
This is just one of the articles in the paper. Enjoy!!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Our Costa Rica Vacation Days 7 & 8 April 2010
Day 7/8:
All great things must come to an end and such is true of our wonderful vacation!
Today is the day we head for home. We leave for the airport at a little after 9am so we can catch our 11:45 am flight. Of course, if you have been following this blog you know that nothing has gone off without a hitch!
When we arrive at the airport we find out that our flight has been delayed until 1:20pm. That, of course, is only the beginning. Since our flight is being delayed on take off we will now miss our connecting flight in Miami. The attendant at american airlines switches our flight to am 8am flight on Thursday (we are leaving Costa Rica on Wednesday) and says that American will put us up in a hotel for the night, give us a meal, and provide transportation to and from the airport to the hotel. He had previously tried twice to book us on a flight late wednesday night at 9:55pm but is unable to do so. Everytime he clicks to take the seats they disappear.
We get the new tickets and head out to manuever our way through customs. Once we settle in and start to wait for our plane...the delays begin. We finally get ready to board the plane at a little before 3pm. We were allowed to take our water with us through customs but once we go to get on the bus to take us out to the plane on the runway, we have to get rid of it. They search our carry on luggage before they allow us to board the bus then they take us out to the plane. When we exit the bus there are several airline employees waiting for us to disembark so they can pat us down. There are seperate lines for men and woman to go through. Once we have been searched we are allowed to board the plane.
The movie showing from Costa Rica to Miami is "Up In The Air" which was absolutely horrible. I have no idea why anyone would want to see that movie! Sorry if you actually enjoyed it....
We arrive in Miami a little after 7pm and once we get through customs and find our luggage we head to american Airlines desk to try and catch that 9:55pm. We were joking with the counter attendant about how the attendant in Cost Rica said she would put us up for the night, that we had our bathing suits with us so we hoped she had a pool, and asking what time we needed to pick her up from work and suddenly she was giving us our boarding passes for the 9:55pm flight. Coincidence???
We boarded the plane and headed to Washington Dc where we warrived at a little at 12am. We left the airport in our car just before 1am and arrived back in Stoystown at 4:30am where we managed to quickly head to bed.
The trip was amazing and we were very sad to be leaving. We are very excited about our return to the wonderful country of Costa Riica and can't wait to start our new life there in June!
We are happy to be back and look forward to seeing all of our friends.
We really enjoyed keeping a blog of our trip and we hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed talking about it!
Take Care!
Patti, Bob, and Jacob
All great things must come to an end and such is true of our wonderful vacation!
Today is the day we head for home. We leave for the airport at a little after 9am so we can catch our 11:45 am flight. Of course, if you have been following this blog you know that nothing has gone off without a hitch!
When we arrive at the airport we find out that our flight has been delayed until 1:20pm. That, of course, is only the beginning. Since our flight is being delayed on take off we will now miss our connecting flight in Miami. The attendant at american airlines switches our flight to am 8am flight on Thursday (we are leaving Costa Rica on Wednesday) and says that American will put us up in a hotel for the night, give us a meal, and provide transportation to and from the airport to the hotel. He had previously tried twice to book us on a flight late wednesday night at 9:55pm but is unable to do so. Everytime he clicks to take the seats they disappear.
We get the new tickets and head out to manuever our way through customs. Once we settle in and start to wait for our plane...the delays begin. We finally get ready to board the plane at a little before 3pm. We were allowed to take our water with us through customs but once we go to get on the bus to take us out to the plane on the runway, we have to get rid of it. They search our carry on luggage before they allow us to board the bus then they take us out to the plane. When we exit the bus there are several airline employees waiting for us to disembark so they can pat us down. There are seperate lines for men and woman to go through. Once we have been searched we are allowed to board the plane.
The movie showing from Costa Rica to Miami is "Up In The Air" which was absolutely horrible. I have no idea why anyone would want to see that movie! Sorry if you actually enjoyed it....
We arrive in Miami a little after 7pm and once we get through customs and find our luggage we head to american Airlines desk to try and catch that 9:55pm. We were joking with the counter attendant about how the attendant in Cost Rica said she would put us up for the night, that we had our bathing suits with us so we hoped she had a pool, and asking what time we needed to pick her up from work and suddenly she was giving us our boarding passes for the 9:55pm flight. Coincidence???
We boarded the plane and headed to Washington Dc where we warrived at a little at 12am. We left the airport in our car just before 1am and arrived back in Stoystown at 4:30am where we managed to quickly head to bed.
The trip was amazing and we were very sad to be leaving. We are very excited about our return to the wonderful country of Costa Riica and can't wait to start our new life there in June!
We are happy to be back and look forward to seeing all of our friends.
We really enjoyed keeping a blog of our trip and we hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed talking about it!
Take Care!
Patti, Bob, and Jacob
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 6 April 2010
Day 6:
What a great way to spend our last full day in Costa Rica!
After an early breakfast (7am) we met our driver at 7:30 am and started the almost 3 hour drive to Manuel Antonio National Park/beach. The ride was really interesting and our driver made a few stops for us to get pictures and to shop. I had a great time practising my Spanish with the driver, who spoke pretty good broken English. When he got stuck I could put it into Spanish so he understood. I just have to remember not to sound out the "h" when i talk to them. :-)
Our first stop was at a roadside shopping place where we bought a few things before crossing the bridge where we got pictures of all the crockodiles below in the water. They even had someone there feeding them for the tourists. It was really interesting and Jacob got some cool pictures! The crockodiles were huge!
Then he stopped at a couple viewpoints for us to get pictures . One was of Jaco Beach, which is one of the most popular party beaches and the other was of Hermosa Beach which is where they hold championship surfing competitions in July (we will be here for that....yay!) which is a beach with black sand...pretty cool!
We saw everything you could think of today....cities, countryside, mountains, beaches, tourists, ticos, highways, dirt roads, cats, dogs, cows, lizards, monkeys, and sloths. It was amazing!
When we got to the national park/beach we were dropped off by our driver and set up a meeting time before he left. Then we headed into the park. We only had to wait in line about 15 minutes because they have a people limit on how many can be in the park at one time. When people leave they let more people in. It was interesting because while we were waiting we watched a Tico haggle himself down on a necklace from $20 to $9 without the woman saying anything!
Manuel Antonio is a national park with 3 beaches and a nature walk through the woods/rainforest of sorts on the way to the beach. We saw several big lizards, birds, monkeys, and even a sloth heading back up the tree after coming down for his weekly bathroom break. Boy do they move slow!! :-) The monkeys actually came down to the bottom of the trees and at one point there was a monkey about 2 feet away from me on the tree. That was so neat!
The beaches were really cool. We stopped at the first one which is where most of the people go. I placed our blanket under a big tree to be out of the sun and watched Jacob swim for just a little bit before Bob and I joined him. The water was very refreshing after our long walk but the tide was strong. It kept sucking us into the beach/shore and then rolling us back out to sea. If you weren't paying attention you could very easily end up on the other end of the beach by the time it got done!
When we tired of the sun...which was pretty quickly, about an hour was spent at the beach part, we finished our walk through the park stopping to take pictures as we did. The beaches were all quite beautiful and the waves crashing on the rocks made for beautiful pictures.
Once we exited the park we then went to the restaurant on the beach and ate a late lunch before meeting our driver. The ride home was pretty quiet becasue we were all exhausted from the day at the beach in the sun.
We then got back to the hotel, paid and thanked the driver, made arrangements for him to pick us up tomorrow to take us to the airport and then headed to our room.
Jake still wasn't done swimming so I went with him up to the pool while Bob rested his bad knee....he is ready for that knee replacement!
After showers we sat down to work on the computer and we will all be going to bed soon because we are exhausted and have a long day of traveling ahead of us tomorrow.
Can't wait to see all of you.
Have a great night!!
What a great way to spend our last full day in Costa Rica!
After an early breakfast (7am) we met our driver at 7:30 am and started the almost 3 hour drive to Manuel Antonio National Park/beach. The ride was really interesting and our driver made a few stops for us to get pictures and to shop. I had a great time practising my Spanish with the driver, who spoke pretty good broken English. When he got stuck I could put it into Spanish so he understood. I just have to remember not to sound out the "h" when i talk to them. :-)
Our first stop was at a roadside shopping place where we bought a few things before crossing the bridge where we got pictures of all the crockodiles below in the water. They even had someone there feeding them for the tourists. It was really interesting and Jacob got some cool pictures! The crockodiles were huge!
Then he stopped at a couple viewpoints for us to get pictures . One was of Jaco Beach, which is one of the most popular party beaches and the other was of Hermosa Beach which is where they hold championship surfing competitions in July (we will be here for that....yay!) which is a beach with black sand...pretty cool!
We saw everything you could think of today....cities, countryside, mountains, beaches, tourists, ticos, highways, dirt roads, cats, dogs, cows, lizards, monkeys, and sloths. It was amazing!
When we got to the national park/beach we were dropped off by our driver and set up a meeting time before he left. Then we headed into the park. We only had to wait in line about 15 minutes because they have a people limit on how many can be in the park at one time. When people leave they let more people in. It was interesting because while we were waiting we watched a Tico haggle himself down on a necklace from $20 to $9 without the woman saying anything!
Manuel Antonio is a national park with 3 beaches and a nature walk through the woods/rainforest of sorts on the way to the beach. We saw several big lizards, birds, monkeys, and even a sloth heading back up the tree after coming down for his weekly bathroom break. Boy do they move slow!! :-) The monkeys actually came down to the bottom of the trees and at one point there was a monkey about 2 feet away from me on the tree. That was so neat!
The beaches were really cool. We stopped at the first one which is where most of the people go. I placed our blanket under a big tree to be out of the sun and watched Jacob swim for just a little bit before Bob and I joined him. The water was very refreshing after our long walk but the tide was strong. It kept sucking us into the beach/shore and then rolling us back out to sea. If you weren't paying attention you could very easily end up on the other end of the beach by the time it got done!
When we tired of the sun...which was pretty quickly, about an hour was spent at the beach part, we finished our walk through the park stopping to take pictures as we did. The beaches were all quite beautiful and the waves crashing on the rocks made for beautiful pictures.
Once we exited the park we then went to the restaurant on the beach and ate a late lunch before meeting our driver. The ride home was pretty quiet becasue we were all exhausted from the day at the beach in the sun.
We then got back to the hotel, paid and thanked the driver, made arrangements for him to pick us up tomorrow to take us to the airport and then headed to our room.
Jake still wasn't done swimming so I went with him up to the pool while Bob rested his bad knee....he is ready for that knee replacement!
After showers we sat down to work on the computer and we will all be going to bed soon because we are exhausted and have a long day of traveling ahead of us tomorrow.
Can't wait to see all of you.
Have a great night!!
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 5 April 2010
Day 5:
Nice start to the morning.....another wonderful breakfast! Then we came back to the room and got ready for our journey to find Jacob a school. After everyone was showered and dressed in nice clothes, we went up to the hotel to talk to the receptionist...the young girl who speaks good English. She told us how to get to the schools and which bus to take. Then she got on the phone to call about setting up our trip to the beach tomorrow....Manuel Antonio.....and got us a wonderful deal. The bus comapny that takes people to the beach charges $39.00 one way per person. They pick you up at 9am(it takes three hours to get to the beach) and they make you get on the bus to come home at 2pm. Didn't sound like too good a deal to us but she was already on the phone calling "Ricky" who will pick us up at 7:30am and bring us back whenever we want and we are paying a lot less than with the bus service. She has been a godsend!
Once that was settled we headed out. We went to Alejuela to catch a bus to Heredia where we were to pick up another bus to Santa Domingo where the one school was supposed to be. I told the bus driver in Alajuela where we wanted to go in Heredia and he said okay. We drove and drove and finally went back up to the driver and asked him where we were supposed to get off. Every stop for the last 6 stops had been Heredia! Grrrrr!!! All of a sudden I hear..."You need someone speak English?" It was as if God himself was speaking to me from Heaven!! I turned and saw a young man about Jacob's age sitting in the front seat. I told him what I needed and he talked to the driver for me. We realized that we needed to get off the bus right there and find one with a sign to Santa Domingo. So we did! We are very hot at this point so we decide to go into the building behind us and get a drink. Turns out that building behind us was......A MALL!! A real mall with levels and stores and escalators......sorry I was daydreaming! :-) Once we got inside and found a drink Jacob asked the lady if there was a place to get his hair cut (in spanish!) :-) She told us where it was so we went there and Jacob cut ALL of his hair off!!! Seriously!
After the hair cut we asked the lady what was the best way to get to the school and she said it would be by taxi. So outside we go to find a taxi driver...rememeber our luck with taxi drivers? Well today was better! Geofrey was our drive and he knew where we wanted to go so off we went. He actually spoke pretty good English which was good because he didn't actually know where the school was and had to pull over for directions, but was able to do it pretty quickly because were able to determine he didn't know where he was going. Once he had directions from someone on the side of the road we headed off again only to have to turn around and go back because (1) the car wouldn't go up the side of the mountain and (2) it wasn't the school we needed. So after he had spent 10 minutes giving us more or less the scenic tour of Santa Domingo...we paid him and got out of the taxi to catch the bus to San Jose! Once we got to San Jose we had to find a taxi to take us to the school and this driver spoke English too...how did we get so lucky?
Jacob decided that the school he wanted to go to was one of the ones in San Jose called Lincoln School www.lincoln.ed.cr check it out! We took a tour of the school but Jake was in love with it before we ever started the tour. Now we start the paperwork and once that is done we set up our interviews and Jacob's testing for when we get there in June. The lady we dealt with was very helpful and even had the name of one of the mothers who is a realtor and another name of a family with a place for rent that is like a guest house on their property. (Furnished with two bedrooms and two bathrooms).It is on their property so you don't have to worry about security and it is really close to th school.
Once we had finished the school shopping we caught another taxi back to San Jose....this time with a driver who spoke no English and had no seatbelts in the back seat. Did I say he drove like a crazy man? No? Well he did! He took us to the bus depot in San Jose where we caught a bus back to Alejuela. Once we got to Alejuela we decided to do some shopping at the market where we picked up a few things for our refrigerator. We then caught a bus back to the hotel and I walked down the street to order dinner while Bob and Jake took the bags back to the hotel room. Jake then walked down to the restaurant to meet me and walk back with me.
We were going to go swimming but I was too tired once dinner was done so I am doing this note and then getting ready for bed because breakfast at 7am is going to come early.
Can't wait to go to the beach!!
Talk to all of you tomorrow!!
Nice start to the morning.....another wonderful breakfast! Then we came back to the room and got ready for our journey to find Jacob a school. After everyone was showered and dressed in nice clothes, we went up to the hotel to talk to the receptionist...the young girl who speaks good English. She told us how to get to the schools and which bus to take. Then she got on the phone to call about setting up our trip to the beach tomorrow....Manuel Antonio.....and got us a wonderful deal. The bus comapny that takes people to the beach charges $39.00 one way per person. They pick you up at 9am(it takes three hours to get to the beach) and they make you get on the bus to come home at 2pm. Didn't sound like too good a deal to us but she was already on the phone calling "Ricky" who will pick us up at 7:30am and bring us back whenever we want and we are paying a lot less than with the bus service. She has been a godsend!
Once that was settled we headed out. We went to Alejuela to catch a bus to Heredia where we were to pick up another bus to Santa Domingo where the one school was supposed to be. I told the bus driver in Alajuela where we wanted to go in Heredia and he said okay. We drove and drove and finally went back up to the driver and asked him where we were supposed to get off. Every stop for the last 6 stops had been Heredia! Grrrrr!!! All of a sudden I hear..."You need someone speak English?" It was as if God himself was speaking to me from Heaven!! I turned and saw a young man about Jacob's age sitting in the front seat. I told him what I needed and he talked to the driver for me. We realized that we needed to get off the bus right there and find one with a sign to Santa Domingo. So we did! We are very hot at this point so we decide to go into the building behind us and get a drink. Turns out that building behind us was......A MALL!! A real mall with levels and stores and escalators......sorry I was daydreaming! :-) Once we got inside and found a drink Jacob asked the lady if there was a place to get his hair cut (in spanish!) :-) She told us where it was so we went there and Jacob cut ALL of his hair off!!! Seriously!
After the hair cut we asked the lady what was the best way to get to the school and she said it would be by taxi. So outside we go to find a taxi driver...rememeber our luck with taxi drivers? Well today was better! Geofrey was our drive and he knew where we wanted to go so off we went. He actually spoke pretty good English which was good because he didn't actually know where the school was and had to pull over for directions, but was able to do it pretty quickly because were able to determine he didn't know where he was going. Once he had directions from someone on the side of the road we headed off again only to have to turn around and go back because (1) the car wouldn't go up the side of the mountain and (2) it wasn't the school we needed. So after he had spent 10 minutes giving us more or less the scenic tour of Santa Domingo...we paid him and got out of the taxi to catch the bus to San Jose! Once we got to San Jose we had to find a taxi to take us to the school and this driver spoke English too...how did we get so lucky?
Jacob decided that the school he wanted to go to was one of the ones in San Jose called Lincoln School www.lincoln.ed.cr check it out! We took a tour of the school but Jake was in love with it before we ever started the tour. Now we start the paperwork and once that is done we set up our interviews and Jacob's testing for when we get there in June. The lady we dealt with was very helpful and even had the name of one of the mothers who is a realtor and another name of a family with a place for rent that is like a guest house on their property. (Furnished with two bedrooms and two bathrooms).It is on their property so you don't have to worry about security and it is really close to th school.
Once we had finished the school shopping we caught another taxi back to San Jose....this time with a driver who spoke no English and had no seatbelts in the back seat. Did I say he drove like a crazy man? No? Well he did! He took us to the bus depot in San Jose where we caught a bus back to Alejuela. Once we got to Alejuela we decided to do some shopping at the market where we picked up a few things for our refrigerator. We then caught a bus back to the hotel and I walked down the street to order dinner while Bob and Jake took the bags back to the hotel room. Jake then walked down to the restaurant to meet me and walk back with me.
We were going to go swimming but I was too tired once dinner was done so I am doing this note and then getting ready for bed because breakfast at 7am is going to come early.
Can't wait to go to the beach!!
Talk to all of you tomorrow!!
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 4 April 2010
Day 4:
Today is Sunday and we want to wish all of our friends and family a very Happy Easter!
Another great day started with a wonderful breakfast! We got there earlier than yesterday but still did not make it in time to get a good select ion of bacon. There were two pieces left and three of us. Thank goodness they made more because the bacon was great! We had a new drink for breakfast that they haven't served yet. The orange juice was gone so we got a fruit punch combo.....orange, strawberry, pineapple, and papaya.....it was wonderful!!! I hope they have it tomorrow too.
Our young lady who works night shift and speaks very good English was still there because no one showed up for the morning shift. I guess we were lucky we even got breakfast since no one showed up. She was doing everything but washing the dishes!
After breakfast, Jacob went down to the pool to swim and we watched him from the patio. It was a wondefully lazy way to start our day. Bob and I finally got up to go back to the room but we went out front first to see if the Zoo was open...it was so we went back to our room and started to get ready. We then walked down the road just a little ways to the zoo, which you can see from the hotel parking lot, and were pleasantly surprised when the young man selling tickets to the zoo spoke English....yay!!!
We took a long leisurely tour through the zoo taking pictures and video as we went. I am posting the pictures once I am done with this note.
There were birds, alligators, deer, turtles, cougars, llamas, wild pig type things, monkeys, and much more. The funniest thing we saw was a spider monkey. We had done quite a bit of walking and this monkey was just moving from limb to limb so we stopped to watch him. After a minute or two I decided to take a picture of him because he was really visible and the pictures would show him off really well. I take a few pictures as Bob sat on the bench and as I'm finishing up I notice that the monkey is getting really agitated. I put my camera down thinking that will help the situation but it doesn't. By this time there is crowd gathered and they apparently are blocking the monkeys view of us so he is going nuts climbing as high as he can, contemplating jumping for the tree outside the range of his pen, and acting very frustrated and aggressive actually. We realize that it is Bob who is the center of this monkeys attention and he is really giving Bob the evil eye. Jacob comes over to watch and notices that the monkey is rubbing his arm which apparently is a sign of aggression, like flexing your muscles. That is when we realize that Bob was doing that earlier as we sat there watching the monkey. He apparently had an itch on his bicep and the monkey thought he was challenging him. It was the funniest thing we ever saw. Thank goodness the monkey couldn't get out of his area because I think he would have come over and tried to kick Bob's butt!!
The zoo was really neat and the pathway was covered nicely with trees which provided a lot of shade. We got some wonderful pictures so you should check them out!
After the zoo we walked a little further down the road to Restaurante Mauriel where we enjoyed a plain hamburgesa (which is actually not plain....it was a hamburger, a piece of cheese, a piece of ham, and a delicious secret sauce all on a hamburger bun) and papas fritas (french fries with more of the secret sauce for dipping). Can you image what a fully loaded burger would have on it? It was really good and we enjoyed sitting there listening to the flow of Spanish all around us as the tv played a local soccer game. Very nice!
Then we walked back to the hotel where Bob crashed since his knee was bothering him and Jake and I went up to the pool for a little while. We then came back and took showers, turned on the tv and the internet.
We are in for the night and getting ready for bed soon. We think we will head into town tomorrow to check out some schools because we want to go to the beach on Tuesday.
More tomorrow...enjoy the pictures!
The spider monkey giving Bob the stink eye.... it was soooooo funny!
Today is Sunday and we want to wish all of our friends and family a very Happy Easter!
Another great day started with a wonderful breakfast! We got there earlier than yesterday but still did not make it in time to get a good select ion of bacon. There were two pieces left and three of us. Thank goodness they made more because the bacon was great! We had a new drink for breakfast that they haven't served yet. The orange juice was gone so we got a fruit punch combo.....orange, strawberry, pineapple, and papaya.....it was wonderful!!! I hope they have it tomorrow too.
Our young lady who works night shift and speaks very good English was still there because no one showed up for the morning shift. I guess we were lucky we even got breakfast since no one showed up. She was doing everything but washing the dishes!
After breakfast, Jacob went down to the pool to swim and we watched him from the patio. It was a wondefully lazy way to start our day. Bob and I finally got up to go back to the room but we went out front first to see if the Zoo was open...it was so we went back to our room and started to get ready. We then walked down the road just a little ways to the zoo, which you can see from the hotel parking lot, and were pleasantly surprised when the young man selling tickets to the zoo spoke English....yay!!!
We took a long leisurely tour through the zoo taking pictures and video as we went. I am posting the pictures once I am done with this note.
There were birds, alligators, deer, turtles, cougars, llamas, wild pig type things, monkeys, and much more. The funniest thing we saw was a spider monkey. We had done quite a bit of walking and this monkey was just moving from limb to limb so we stopped to watch him. After a minute or two I decided to take a picture of him because he was really visible and the pictures would show him off really well. I take a few pictures as Bob sat on the bench and as I'm finishing up I notice that the monkey is getting really agitated. I put my camera down thinking that will help the situation but it doesn't. By this time there is crowd gathered and they apparently are blocking the monkeys view of us so he is going nuts climbing as high as he can, contemplating jumping for the tree outside the range of his pen, and acting very frustrated and aggressive actually. We realize that it is Bob who is the center of this monkeys attention and he is really giving Bob the evil eye. Jacob comes over to watch and notices that the monkey is rubbing his arm which apparently is a sign of aggression, like flexing your muscles. That is when we realize that Bob was doing that earlier as we sat there watching the monkey. He apparently had an itch on his bicep and the monkey thought he was challenging him. It was the funniest thing we ever saw. Thank goodness the monkey couldn't get out of his area because I think he would have come over and tried to kick Bob's butt!!
The zoo was really neat and the pathway was covered nicely with trees which provided a lot of shade. We got some wonderful pictures so you should check them out!
After the zoo we walked a little further down the road to Restaurante Mauriel where we enjoyed a plain hamburgesa (which is actually not plain....it was a hamburger, a piece of cheese, a piece of ham, and a delicious secret sauce all on a hamburger bun) and papas fritas (french fries with more of the secret sauce for dipping). Can you image what a fully loaded burger would have on it? It was really good and we enjoyed sitting there listening to the flow of Spanish all around us as the tv played a local soccer game. Very nice!
Then we walked back to the hotel where Bob crashed since his knee was bothering him and Jake and I went up to the pool for a little while. We then came back and took showers, turned on the tv and the internet.
We are in for the night and getting ready for bed soon. We think we will head into town tomorrow to check out some schools because we want to go to the beach on Tuesday.
More tomorrow...enjoy the pictures!
The spider monkey giving Bob the stink eye.... it was soooooo funny!
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 3 April 2010
Day 3:
We woke up a little later today so we didn't make it to breakfast by 7am (did I tell you they start to serve breakfast at 3am?) Anyhoo....by the time we got to breakfast we had to dig out eggs from the bottom of the pan, luckily there was just enough for all three of us. The food is great and they have a wonderful selection of fruit which we load up on every morning.After we enjoyed our breakfast we headed over to the front desk to figure out how often the bus came by the front of the hotel. They said it came every half hour and every hour. It was before 10am so we went back to the hotel to get ready for the 10:30 bus.....didn't happen. We walked up to the main entrance at 20 till eleven and I made the mistake of going inside to get change and ask a question. At a quarter till...not 1/2 past or on the hour....the bus went by. We of course were inside and couldn't get there fast enough so we just decided to go out and wait.
It was a beautiful day and we got to watch all of the cars and motorbikes go by and just take in our surroundings. When the bus arrived we got on, paid our 35 cents and took our seats. It was an interesting ride into Alejuela and we got to see a lot of houses along the way.
Once we got into Alejuela we asked our bus driver who spoke no English how to find the bus to San Jose. After several hand guestures, much pointing, and lots of nodding, we realized that the buses were across the street and one block up (we could see them from where we were standing). We walked up the street and inquired about the buses to San Jose (which we know at this point are rojo in color....FYI, tons of red buses!). These buses were nicer, and more expensive...about 85 cents one way....so we settled in for our ride to San Jose.
We get to San Jose and they drop us off at the bus station. As we get out on the street I decide to turn around and take a picture of the landscape and the bus station to help us find our way back. We then proceed up the road and over one block. There are soooooo many people in San Jose! We were walking up the street and passing vendors in the middle of the alley/road (no cars on these particular streets) listening to the constant flow of Spanish. It was a real eye opener...but very exciting!
We make it a few blocks up and finally come to a square/center of some sort. There are people everywhere! We think that they must all come to the center of town and to the parks on the weekend and just hang out. There were people of all ages just sitting around talking and even more people walking around and shopping. We watched a street entertainer working with a rope, a spinning top and a dog for a while before we decide to head across the street to a "fast food mall".
When we enter the fast food mall we notice that there is a Burger King, Papa Johns, and Church's Chicken....there are a lot of chicken places in San Jose...practically one on every corner. Jake and I order pizza and Bob has Burger King. It was all very good. The fries almost tasted like McDonald fries and the pizza was a really thin crust. As we sat there eating I noticed that no one threw their trash away when they were done. They just got up and left then someone came around and threw all the trash away. We also noticed that there was some sort of a security guard posted in the food mall/court. When he walked by we noticed he actually had a gun! That was shocking to say the least. Once we were done eating and back on the street we started to really notice all of the police patroling the streets. Some on bicycles, some walking, some in cars, and some just standing on the street corner. It was very interesting.
Once we did a little more walking, and a little bit of shopping iin a very crowded corner store where people actually stopped to stare at us (must be the blond hair) and I purchased two items...a very full bag of chips(no air in those puppies!) and a bag of sugar cookies both costing me a total of just over two dollars...we headed back to the bus station to catch a bus back to Alejuela. On the ride from San Jose back to Alejuela we were completely split up. I got to sit with a very nice woman who managed to communicate with me after about ten minutes and who I had a lovely conversation with for the rest of the way. Jacob sat in an aisle seat and managed to prevent someone from falling over who was standing up when the bus turned the corner (not sure why the guy was standing but he was) and Bob managed to get the seat next to a woman who decided to breast feed her child the whole way back to Alejuela without using a blanket to cover herself.
The trip from Alejuela to our hotel was uneventful and we finally made it home...dragging our butts behind us....no pun intended!
Jake then wanted to go swimming so I went up with him while Bob rested his bad knee which was hurting from all the walking. Jake and I then came back and played some tennis and ping pong...both of which are right outside our room.....before going up to the main part of the hotel to talk to the young lady that works at night who not only speaks pretty good English but also is very helpful. She was able to help us find the realtors in the phone book, a list of schools, a place for Jacob to get a haircut, and directions to a couple of places we want to visit on Monday.
Then back to our room for some relaxation time before bed. It is only 8:43pm here but we are all totally exhausted...it is 10:43pm at home with all of you.
I am now off to bed so we can get up in time to not be scraping the bottom of the egg pan in the morning.
We hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter and we will post more tomorrow. Everything around us will be closed because of Easter so we will just chill at the pool, play some tennis and ping pong, and maybe be online. Who knows...you may actually catch me on line and be able to talk to me!
More tomorrow...night all!
Statues in a park in San Jose
We woke up a little later today so we didn't make it to breakfast by 7am (did I tell you they start to serve breakfast at 3am?) Anyhoo....by the time we got to breakfast we had to dig out eggs from the bottom of the pan, luckily there was just enough for all three of us. The food is great and they have a wonderful selection of fruit which we load up on every morning.After we enjoyed our breakfast we headed over to the front desk to figure out how often the bus came by the front of the hotel. They said it came every half hour and every hour. It was before 10am so we went back to the hotel to get ready for the 10:30 bus.....didn't happen. We walked up to the main entrance at 20 till eleven and I made the mistake of going inside to get change and ask a question. At a quarter till...not 1/2 past or on the hour....the bus went by. We of course were inside and couldn't get there fast enough so we just decided to go out and wait.
It was a beautiful day and we got to watch all of the cars and motorbikes go by and just take in our surroundings. When the bus arrived we got on, paid our 35 cents and took our seats. It was an interesting ride into Alejuela and we got to see a lot of houses along the way.
Once we got into Alejuela we asked our bus driver who spoke no English how to find the bus to San Jose. After several hand guestures, much pointing, and lots of nodding, we realized that the buses were across the street and one block up (we could see them from where we were standing). We walked up the street and inquired about the buses to San Jose (which we know at this point are rojo in color....FYI, tons of red buses!). These buses were nicer, and more expensive...about 85 cents one way....so we settled in for our ride to San Jose.
We get to San Jose and they drop us off at the bus station. As we get out on the street I decide to turn around and take a picture of the landscape and the bus station to help us find our way back. We then proceed up the road and over one block. There are soooooo many people in San Jose! We were walking up the street and passing vendors in the middle of the alley/road (no cars on these particular streets) listening to the constant flow of Spanish. It was a real eye opener...but very exciting!
We make it a few blocks up and finally come to a square/center of some sort. There are people everywhere! We think that they must all come to the center of town and to the parks on the weekend and just hang out. There were people of all ages just sitting around talking and even more people walking around and shopping. We watched a street entertainer working with a rope, a spinning top and a dog for a while before we decide to head across the street to a "fast food mall".
When we enter the fast food mall we notice that there is a Burger King, Papa Johns, and Church's Chicken....there are a lot of chicken places in San Jose...practically one on every corner. Jake and I order pizza and Bob has Burger King. It was all very good. The fries almost tasted like McDonald fries and the pizza was a really thin crust. As we sat there eating I noticed that no one threw their trash away when they were done. They just got up and left then someone came around and threw all the trash away. We also noticed that there was some sort of a security guard posted in the food mall/court. When he walked by we noticed he actually had a gun! That was shocking to say the least. Once we were done eating and back on the street we started to really notice all of the police patroling the streets. Some on bicycles, some walking, some in cars, and some just standing on the street corner. It was very interesting.
Once we did a little more walking, and a little bit of shopping iin a very crowded corner store where people actually stopped to stare at us (must be the blond hair) and I purchased two items...a very full bag of chips(no air in those puppies!) and a bag of sugar cookies both costing me a total of just over two dollars...we headed back to the bus station to catch a bus back to Alejuela. On the ride from San Jose back to Alejuela we were completely split up. I got to sit with a very nice woman who managed to communicate with me after about ten minutes and who I had a lovely conversation with for the rest of the way. Jacob sat in an aisle seat and managed to prevent someone from falling over who was standing up when the bus turned the corner (not sure why the guy was standing but he was) and Bob managed to get the seat next to a woman who decided to breast feed her child the whole way back to Alejuela without using a blanket to cover herself.
The trip from Alejuela to our hotel was uneventful and we finally made it home...dragging our butts behind us....no pun intended!
Jake then wanted to go swimming so I went up with him while Bob rested his bad knee which was hurting from all the walking. Jake and I then came back and played some tennis and ping pong...both of which are right outside our room.....before going up to the main part of the hotel to talk to the young lady that works at night who not only speaks pretty good English but also is very helpful. She was able to help us find the realtors in the phone book, a list of schools, a place for Jacob to get a haircut, and directions to a couple of places we want to visit on Monday.
Then back to our room for some relaxation time before bed. It is only 8:43pm here but we are all totally exhausted...it is 10:43pm at home with all of you.
I am now off to bed so we can get up in time to not be scraping the bottom of the egg pan in the morning.
We hope that everyone has a wonderful Easter and we will post more tomorrow. Everything around us will be closed because of Easter so we will just chill at the pool, play some tennis and ping pong, and maybe be online. Who knows...you may actually catch me on line and be able to talk to me!
More tomorrow...night all!
Statues in a park in San Jose
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 2 April 2010
Day 2:
Woke up to the sound of what we think are cicadas. If not.....then the aliens are invading and trying to probe our minds for information!
Started the day off with our free breakfast which consisted of eggs, ham cut into small pieces and cooked in oil with onions, and what looked like some kind of pepper, and a rice and bean combination....muy delicioso!! Sat on the balcony of the hotels restaurant over looking the pool and out upon the beautiful landscape.
Once we finished with breakfast we went to the front desk to inquire about transportation into town so we could get some essentials....you know....since our suitcase was lost somewhere over the ocean.......and we needed to get toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo....things like that.
Now rememeber that it is Good Friday so almost everything is closed here....they really shut the place down over Easter. The receptionist, whose English was a little better than the taxi driver, called the airport and left a message since no one answered. They are all extremely helpful here! Then she called one of the other workers, a man we have dealt with before, and he talked to us about what might be open. Then he called for a taxi, told us it would be about ten dollars round trip, and set the appointment up for them to drive us to the mall. He told us to be back by ten till twelve so we would be ready for the taxi. We had a little time to kill so Jake went swimming before we went out front to wait for the taxi.
11:50.....11:55.......12:00......12:05......12:10.....12:15.....getting the picture?
12:20 I go back inside to inquire about the taxi. The man who made the reservation is no where around but the lady understood my Spanish so she called about the taxi. When she hung up she said they wiould be here in a minute.
Went back outside to wait and sure enough...they showed up quickly. Now things are starting to look good, right? Wrong! We get into the car and as we shut the door the guy from the hotel runs out and asks us once more what we are looking for and then tells the drive, in Spanish, what we need and where we need to go. Doesn't sound bad, right? Keep reading!
We start out from the hotel and within seconds, the taxi drivers cb radio starts to go crazy with some one on the other end. The Taxi driver picks it up and starts to talk to her very quickly. Then.....he more or less stops in the middle of the road and turns to me and starts speaking in the fastest Spanish I have ever heard. I think he is saying that the mall is closed but when I say that he shakes his head no. Frustrated, he slows his Spanish down and repeats himself. I swear he is telling me the mall is closed! Again he shakes his head. Remember we are more or less in the middle of the road...we go back and forth for a few seconds before he holds his hand up and closes his fingers together apparently making the universal sigh for when something is closed...yes you heard me right...closed! So in other words...the mall was closed!
Now that we have established that the mall is closed (and that our driver speaks NO ENGLISH!) we then try to find out if there is an open supermarket somewhere. He puts his dispatcher on and tells me to talk to her. I do so in English and it looks like things are improving because next thing we know we are moving once again. Yay for translators!
Now we are quickly moving through town, dodging in and out of traffic, just missing pedestrians, and totally ignoring all stop signs. As we are traveling along, passing what loo like open grocery store and trying to point those out to out taxi driver who appears to not hear us because he is a man on a mission, Jake and I are pointing out the sights...KFC....Taco Bell....McDonalds....did I just say McDonalds? Next thing I know he whips into McDonalds, points proudly at the front door and tells us to get out. You heard me right...McDonalds...get out. We then sit there for a minute trying to explain we need shampoo...which in spanish is champoo not that far of a stretch people!....before a very nice young man, named Kevin who works at McDonalds comes to our rescue. He is young, maybe 18/19 so I think we are saved because they teach their children English in school. He is better than our receptionist at the hotel and from another planet compared to our current taxi driver, but it still takes us several minutes before we find a grocery store which is open. Yay! We are on our way to find some champoo!!!
The taxi driver turns around and heads back out onto the street where we are once again entertained and slightly terrified by his driving skills. Traveling along at great speed and no longer afraid he can understand a word we are saying we play a game of can you spot the supermarkets he is passing as we drive by because we have now figured out what they look like....one....two....three! A few minutes later he whips into the parking lot of a supermarket and proudly proclaims that we are here.....at the first supermarket we tried to point out to him when we started.....
When the car stop no one moved until he assured us he was staying....that we do know how to say in Spanish..."wait here!" is a very important sentence to learn. He promised that he was parking right around the corner so we got out and went inside. After making a mad dash through the store, and after buying our driver a soda too, we headed back outside only to find him standing at the door waiting for us. Did he seriously think we would skip out on him? He had driven us around in so many circles I don't think we could find our way back if we tried!
Seven minutes later we are back at the hotel and when I inquire in Spanish how much we owe him, which is clearly visible on his meter as about $17.00 in colognes, he holds up 3 fingers and says "Trenta". Mistake number one.....I can change his colognes into American dollars because we know the exchange rate for the day. I look at him furrow my brows and ask in Spanish if that is the colognes amount. "What?" he says. I point once more at the meter and say..."Colognes?" he finally says yes so I oull out the 11,000 colognes he needs and hand it to him..... mot the American $30.00....and we all get out. He opens the trunk, we take our stuff, thank him, and head back to our room. As we walk down to our room I fill Bob in our what he was trying to do with the money. Scratch off taxi driver number 2!
We then go back to the room, play a few games of Rummy, and then go swimming. Had a great time at the pool and then came back to rest before dinner. While we are waiting too eat there is a knock at the door. When we open it there is the maid. She says somehting in Spanish and we invite her in to do her job. She stands at the door and says nothing. We invite her in once more and she continues to stand at the door but speaks again in Spanish. This is going nowhere so I get up, go to the bathroom, grab a wet towel and show it to her. She noddeds her head and asks me somehting in spanish then waits. Yes sounds like a good answer so I say "Si!" adn she smiles and goes away. No I am not sure if we are going to get towels or not so we go back to our game of Rummy and wait. Several minutes later there is a knock at the door and there she is with our towels. I inquire about washclothes which we have yet to see, she says something and turns away. Good, maybe she is going to get us some. We again return to our game and wait. Next thing we see is her heading down the hill towrards another set of buildings....oh well...at least we have towels!
Finally we went to dinner where we had a delicios meal of foccacia bread with ham and cheese, think pizza with no sauce, and a beautiful view of the hotel all lit up. Just before dinner is over, the lovely young receptionist, whose English is a thousand times better that anyone elses, bounces over to our table and announces that our luggage has arrived! I have never seen Jacob move so fast! Jacob returns a few minutes later with his luggage and a huge smile and we finish our meal, but not before Jacob gives his luggage a big hug!
Once again, our day ends on a high note and we go to bed planning the next day, Thanks to the young girl, with the wonderful broken English, at the front desk, we now know that you CAN get from Alejuela to San Jose by bus, which is exactly what we are going to do on Saturday.
Wish us well!!
More Saturday night!
****Foot Nnote****
After reading my notes from Day 2, I realized that it sounded a little harsh how I described the taxi driver at McDonalds. I didn't mean for it to sound as if he was throwing us out of the cab....what I meant was that he was telling us we could get out because he had done such a wonderful job getting us to where we wanted to go.At least to where he thought we wanted to go...which it wasn't.
Woke up to the sound of what we think are cicadas. If not.....then the aliens are invading and trying to probe our minds for information!
Started the day off with our free breakfast which consisted of eggs, ham cut into small pieces and cooked in oil with onions, and what looked like some kind of pepper, and a rice and bean combination....muy delicioso!! Sat on the balcony of the hotels restaurant over looking the pool and out upon the beautiful landscape.
Once we finished with breakfast we went to the front desk to inquire about transportation into town so we could get some essentials....you know....since our suitcase was lost somewhere over the ocean.......and we needed to get toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo....things like that.
Now rememeber that it is Good Friday so almost everything is closed here....they really shut the place down over Easter. The receptionist, whose English was a little better than the taxi driver, called the airport and left a message since no one answered. They are all extremely helpful here! Then she called one of the other workers, a man we have dealt with before, and he talked to us about what might be open. Then he called for a taxi, told us it would be about ten dollars round trip, and set the appointment up for them to drive us to the mall. He told us to be back by ten till twelve so we would be ready for the taxi. We had a little time to kill so Jake went swimming before we went out front to wait for the taxi.
11:50.....11:55.......12:00......12:05......12:10.....12:15.....getting the picture?
12:20 I go back inside to inquire about the taxi. The man who made the reservation is no where around but the lady understood my Spanish so she called about the taxi. When she hung up she said they wiould be here in a minute.
Went back outside to wait and sure enough...they showed up quickly. Now things are starting to look good, right? Wrong! We get into the car and as we shut the door the guy from the hotel runs out and asks us once more what we are looking for and then tells the drive, in Spanish, what we need and where we need to go. Doesn't sound bad, right? Keep reading!
We start out from the hotel and within seconds, the taxi drivers cb radio starts to go crazy with some one on the other end. The Taxi driver picks it up and starts to talk to her very quickly. Then.....he more or less stops in the middle of the road and turns to me and starts speaking in the fastest Spanish I have ever heard. I think he is saying that the mall is closed but when I say that he shakes his head no. Frustrated, he slows his Spanish down and repeats himself. I swear he is telling me the mall is closed! Again he shakes his head. Remember we are more or less in the middle of the road...we go back and forth for a few seconds before he holds his hand up and closes his fingers together apparently making the universal sigh for when something is closed...yes you heard me right...closed! So in other words...the mall was closed!
Now that we have established that the mall is closed (and that our driver speaks NO ENGLISH!) we then try to find out if there is an open supermarket somewhere. He puts his dispatcher on and tells me to talk to her. I do so in English and it looks like things are improving because next thing we know we are moving once again. Yay for translators!
Now we are quickly moving through town, dodging in and out of traffic, just missing pedestrians, and totally ignoring all stop signs. As we are traveling along, passing what loo like open grocery store and trying to point those out to out taxi driver who appears to not hear us because he is a man on a mission, Jake and I are pointing out the sights...KFC....Taco Bell....McDonalds....did I just say McDonalds? Next thing I know he whips into McDonalds, points proudly at the front door and tells us to get out. You heard me right...McDonalds...get out.
The taxi driver turns around and heads back out onto the street where we are once again entertained and slightly terrified by his driving skills. Traveling along at great speed and no longer afraid he can understand a word we are saying we play a game of can you spot the supermarkets he is passing as we drive by because we have now figured out what they look like....one....two....three! A few minutes later he whips into the parking lot of a supermarket and proudly proclaims that we are here.....at the first supermarket we tried to point out to him when we started.....
When the car stop no one moved until he assured us he was staying....that we do know how to say in Spanish..."wait here!" is a very important sentence to learn. He promised that he was parking right around the corner so we got out and went inside. After making a mad dash through the store, and after buying our driver a soda too, we headed back outside only to find him standing at the door waiting for us. Did he seriously think we would skip out on him? He had driven us around in so many circles I don't think we could find our way back if we tried!
Seven minutes later we are back at the hotel and when I inquire in Spanish how much we owe him, which is clearly visible on his meter as about $17.00 in colognes, he holds up 3 fingers and says "Trenta". Mistake number one.....I can change his colognes into American dollars because we know the exchange rate for the day. I look at him furrow my brows and ask in Spanish if that is the colognes amount. "What?" he says. I point once more at the meter and say..."Colognes?" he finally says yes so I oull out the 11,000 colognes he needs and hand it to him..... mot the American $30.00....and we all get out. He opens the trunk, we take our stuff, thank him, and head back to our room. As we walk down to our room I fill Bob in our what he was trying to do with the money. Scratch off taxi driver number 2!
We then go back to the room, play a few games of Rummy, and then go swimming. Had a great time at the pool and then came back to rest before dinner. While we are waiting too eat there is a knock at the door. When we open it there is the maid. She says somehting in Spanish and we invite her in to do her job. She stands at the door and says nothing. We invite her in once more and she continues to stand at the door but speaks again in Spanish. This is going nowhere so I get up, go to the bathroom, grab a wet towel and show it to her. She noddeds her head and asks me somehting in spanish then waits. Yes sounds like a good answer so I say "Si!" adn she smiles and goes away. No I am not sure if we are going to get towels or not so we go back to our game of Rummy and wait. Several minutes later there is a knock at the door and there she is with our towels. I inquire about washclothes which we have yet to see, she says something and turns away. Good, maybe she is going to get us some. We again return to our game and wait. Next thing we see is her heading down the hill towrards another set of buildings....oh well...at least we have towels!
Finally we went to dinner where we had a delicios meal of foccacia bread with ham and cheese, think pizza with no sauce, and a beautiful view of the hotel all lit up. Just before dinner is over, the lovely young receptionist, whose English is a thousand times better that anyone elses, bounces over to our table and announces that our luggage has arrived! I have never seen Jacob move so fast! Jacob returns a few minutes later with his luggage and a huge smile and we finish our meal, but not before Jacob gives his luggage a big hug!
Once again, our day ends on a high note and we go to bed planning the next day, Thanks to the young girl, with the wonderful broken English, at the front desk, we now know that you CAN get from Alejuela to San Jose by bus, which is exactly what we are going to do on Saturday.
Wish us well!!
More Saturday night!
****Foot Nnote****
After reading my notes from Day 2, I realized that it sounded a little harsh how I described the taxi driver at McDonalds. I didn't mean for it to sound as if he was throwing us out of the cab....what I meant was that he was telling us we could get out because he had done such a wonderful job getting us to where we wanted to go.At least to where he thought we wanted to go...which it wasn't.
Our Costa Rica Vacation Day 1 April 2010
Day one:
Started the day off by spending 5 1/2 hours in the airport in Washington DC waiting to leave. Arrived at the airport at 12:30am and left at 6am. Traveled to Miami where we changed planes before continuing on to Costa Rica. The flights were uneventful, although we did get to watch "The Blind Side" twice. It was a great movie for those of you who have not seen it yet. Once we touched down in Costa Rica, where the weather was beautiful, we proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes trying to locate the half of our luggage that did not arrive. We left DC with two pieces of luggage, and arrived in Costa Rica with only one piece. This means that Bob and I have clothes because we shared the suitcase that actually made it, but Jacob only has the clothes on his back. For those of you that know our son....this is not good! Even worse is the fact that in his luggage was the blow dryer and flat iron. We still have not received his luggage, so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. If not...we will be clothes shopping.
Once we finally filled out all necessary papers to make a claim on our lost luggage...we proceeded to customs so we could leave. While the people here are extremely friendly....they speak very little English, including the customs people who are trying to stamp all of your passports to let you into the country.Once we survived customs, we proceeded to a money exchange kiosk, where again they spoke little English, to exchange some of our American dollars into colognes...which excited Jacob to no end! :-) We then went to Alamo to get our car rental, which was supposed to be at the airport, only to have the man tell us that a bus would be there shortly to take us to the main office. For those of you who are Seinfeld fans...rememeber the episode where Jerry went to pick up a car rental and Elaine was with him and once he got there they didn't have his reservation, therefore they didn't have a car for him, and he went through the process of explaining to them exactly what a reservation actually was? IF so, then you have a good idea of how the next hour plus went for us!
Now we are in need of a taxi to take us to our hotel 15 miles away...remember that they speak very little English here.....so after the Alamo bus driver started our drive back to the airport so we could find other means of transportation, he proceeded to pull off the side of the road (Side note.....they drive VERY FAST and very reckless here, running right up on the back of the car in front of then, cutting other cars off, swerving in and out of traffic, so maybe not having a car is a blessing in disguise!) to flag down a taxi on the corner. We transfer into the taxi, after negotiating a price with a driver who knew three words of English, and proceeded on to the hotel. I am trying to figure out how we are going to get around for the rest of our vacation so I started to inquire from the taxi driver what he charges.....all of which is transpiring in Spanish because he knows only three words of English. So, Jake and I are in the back seat talking in Spanish with the driver, while Bob is in the front seat....totally confused, but very impressed! Friendly though the taxi driver was....we won't be using him for the duration of our visit.
We then arrive at the hotel, pay the taxi driver, and thank him. He was very gracious, wished us well, and said goodbye, but not before teaching Jacob a new hand shake/finger snap/fist bump goodbye. The hotel is beautiful! There is a huge pool, and the people here are very friendly. Their English? Not so good. Of course by now....our Spanish is impoving tremendously! This is where our day takes a turn for the better. Once we arrive at the counter, to a very friendly check in people, the manager comes up to say hello as the girl is checking us in. He then upgrades us to a larger room, without us even thinking to ask him too, to make our stay more enjoyable, since we are staying here for a week. We went from a one bedroom with three single beds to a two bedroom with one massive king sized bed in one bedroom and two full sized beds in the other bedroom....see attached pictures. Once they have checked us in, the bell boy drives us across the property, in a golf cart, to our room, before returning to the front desk to retrieve what is now our only piece of luggage. To say the least....that was a long 3 minutes waiting for our luggage to show up in our room.....which it did. So if yoy are keeping track, we have managed to hang onto one piece of luggage all the way to our hotel room!
Once we settle in, we then go up to the restaurant where I have a delicious meal of meat lasagna with homemade pasta and a salad, Bob has a spaghetti dish with bacon (who'd of thought) and Jacob attempted to eat their fried pizza (Which did not wow him, but which Bob and I both thought tasted very good) before returning to our room where I immediately fell asleep and Jake went swimming with Bob.
Now, everyone else is asleep....remember it has been a very long day.....and I am blogging and posting pictures for all of our family and friends.
More to come tomorrow as day two starts in what we hope will be a very exciting journey into San Jose.
Talk to you soon!
Started the day off by spending 5 1/2 hours in the airport in Washington DC waiting to leave. Arrived at the airport at 12:30am and left at 6am. Traveled to Miami where we changed planes before continuing on to Costa Rica. The flights were uneventful, although we did get to watch "The Blind Side" twice. It was a great movie for those of you who have not seen it yet. Once we touched down in Costa Rica, where the weather was beautiful, we proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes trying to locate the half of our luggage that did not arrive. We left DC with two pieces of luggage, and arrived in Costa Rica with only one piece. This means that Bob and I have clothes because we shared the suitcase that actually made it, but Jacob only has the clothes on his back. For those of you that know our son....this is not good! Even worse is the fact that in his luggage was the blow dryer and flat iron. We still have not received his luggage, so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. If not...we will be clothes shopping.
Once we finally filled out all necessary papers to make a claim on our lost luggage...we proceeded to customs so we could leave. While the people here are extremely friendly....they speak very little English, including the customs people who are trying to stamp all of your passports to let you into the country.Once we survived customs, we proceeded to a money exchange kiosk, where again they spoke little English, to exchange some of our American dollars into colognes...which excited Jacob to no end! :-) We then went to Alamo to get our car rental, which was supposed to be at the airport, only to have the man tell us that a bus would be there shortly to take us to the main office. For those of you who are Seinfeld fans...rememeber the episode where Jerry went to pick up a car rental and Elaine was with him and once he got there they didn't have his reservation, therefore they didn't have a car for him, and he went through the process of explaining to them exactly what a reservation actually was? IF so, then you have a good idea of how the next hour plus went for us!
Now we are in need of a taxi to take us to our hotel 15 miles away...remember that they speak very little English here.....so after the Alamo bus driver started our drive back to the airport so we could find other means of transportation, he proceeded to pull off the side of the road (Side note.....they drive VERY FAST and very reckless here, running right up on the back of the car in front of then, cutting other cars off, swerving in and out of traffic, so maybe not having a car is a blessing in disguise!) to flag down a taxi on the corner. We transfer into the taxi, after negotiating a price with a driver who knew three words of English, and proceeded on to the hotel. I am trying to figure out how we are going to get around for the rest of our vacation so I started to inquire from the taxi driver what he charges.....all of which is transpiring in Spanish because he knows only three words of English. So, Jake and I are in the back seat talking in Spanish with the driver, while Bob is in the front seat....totally confused, but very impressed! Friendly though the taxi driver was....we won't be using him for the duration of our visit.
We then arrive at the hotel, pay the taxi driver, and thank him. He was very gracious, wished us well, and said goodbye, but not before teaching Jacob a new hand shake/finger snap/fist bump goodbye. The hotel is beautiful! There is a huge pool, and the people here are very friendly. Their English? Not so good. Of course by now....our Spanish is impoving tremendously! This is where our day takes a turn for the better. Once we arrive at the counter, to a very friendly check in people, the manager comes up to say hello as the girl is checking us in. He then upgrades us to a larger room, without us even thinking to ask him too, to make our stay more enjoyable, since we are staying here for a week. We went from a one bedroom with three single beds to a two bedroom with one massive king sized bed in one bedroom and two full sized beds in the other bedroom....see attached pictures. Once they have checked us in, the bell boy drives us across the property, in a golf cart, to our room, before returning to the front desk to retrieve what is now our only piece of luggage. To say the least....that was a long 3 minutes waiting for our luggage to show up in our room.....which it did. So if yoy are keeping track, we have managed to hang onto one piece of luggage all the way to our hotel room!
Once we settle in, we then go up to the restaurant where I have a delicious meal of meat lasagna with homemade pasta and a salad, Bob has a spaghetti dish with bacon (who'd of thought) and Jacob attempted to eat their fried pizza (Which did not wow him, but which Bob and I both thought tasted very good) before returning to our room where I immediately fell asleep and Jake went swimming with Bob.
Now, everyone else is asleep....remember it has been a very long day.....and I am blogging and posting pictures for all of our family and friends.
More to come tomorrow as day two starts in what we hope will be a very exciting journey into San Jose.
Talk to you soon!
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