Day 21 and Beyond

It's over.  I'm writing this from the relative comfort of my kitchen in New Hampshire after a grueling long day of traveling.  Despite the wealth of rich experiences we've had, the Costa Rica reality is already fading into the past.

We left Manuel Antonio midday after a last swim and some shell searching.  For the most part, there are not beautiful shells to collect on this beach, or any of the others we've visited here.  Mostly, there is a mixture of soft and coarse black to grey sand with stones of varying sizes.  There are some swaths of pebbles and small bits of stones where the high tide dumps them, and this is where I searched today.  I gathered some interesting stones and some colorful shell fragments perhaps for future jewelry making projects.  Then it was time to go.

Our destination was Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose.  We had originally planned to take the bus which would take 2  1/2 hours.  Our flight was at 1AM!  We wanted to have as short a wait as possible.  After a lot of hesitation, we decided to splurge and hire a private driver to take us there.  Unlike the bus, with a driver we could pull over whenever we wanted, and take back roads to find new things.  Carlos, picked us up at 3PM in a minivan and made it clear he was at our service.  He was in no rush, although he hoped to get back home before 11PM.  Our two requests were food related: to find some empanadas and some fresh guava.  We drove past a palm seed oil plantation and he told us a great deal about the company that owns the plantation as well as detailed accounts of how palm seeds are grown and processed for their oil.  I now know more about the life cycle of a palm seed oil palm than I ever knew was possible!


We saw some magnificent coastal views as we drove north along the ocean's edge..  After turning east towards San Jose, Carlos pulled over to show us some mackaws flying and a dozen or more HUGE crocodiles soaking up the sun in a river bed.  He jokingly told us that when his mother-in-law is being unpleasant, he says, "You should go swimming in the Rio Tarcoles!"   These were the largest healthiest crocs I have ever seen both in the wild and captivity.

A crocodile family

Immediately after the bridge was a soda, a family owned restaurant, where we got our last empanada fix! Yummy, greasy and filling before our flight.  We stopped 2 more times at fruit stands and got some mamoncillo or honeyberry, a member of the soapberry family.  They are different on the inside, but similar to the rambutan which is called mamon.  Kind of hard to eat because they get stuck in your teeth, but very sweet and juicy.  We also tried a fruit called Nancy.  They look like yellow cherries or tiny plums with a pink blush.  They taste like perfume.  Cloying and smelly. 

Mamoncillo

After a rambling drive through the back streets of a few San Jose suburbs we arrived at the airport at 8PM.  There was nothing left to do but wait.  It was too early for boarding passes and security.  We found a comfortable spot on the floor and rested and waited....until we were hungry.  Tim figured out that there was a free shuttle bus driving in a loop between the airport and some restaurants and hotels.  Having only 4 more hours to wait, we decided to try our luck at a nearby restaurant.  We ended up, of all places, Denny's.  As we sat in their closed-walled air conditioned building eating American food off of a menu written in English it was hard to tell we were even in Costa Rica. It was really an anti-climax. 

Jacob with flower

There are so many ways to explore and discover Costa Rica.  We had tried a few ways ourselves, and ended up likeing the rural way most of all.  But here, back near the airport,  the sounds of air-conditioning had replaced that of the cicada and cricket, the smell of ylang-ylang blossoms had been replaced by frying potatoes and the waitresses here automatically spoke in English despite the fact that I answered them in Spanish.   It felt as if the trip were already over.

At last we returned to the airport and the kids slept on the floor until our 1AM flight.  Both flights were uneventful except for the SLOW customs and security lines almost making us miss our connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  But "almost" doesn't count, except in horse shoes, and at 10AM we were back in Boston.  We waited one hour for the Boston Express shuttle, drove an hour north to the park-and-ride where we found our car and drove the final 45 minutes home.  After three weeks of warm weather, our yard looked a bit like a jungle, but shorter!

So, Dear Reader, thank you for following our adventures these past 21 days.  Writing "to" the blog helped me pay closer attention to details, provided me with an opportunity to reflect on our experiences more than I might have otherwise, and electronically immortalized (another oxymoron?) the events of the Gibney Costa Rica Adventure.  We wish you all safe travels and hope that someday we'll have blogs to read about your adventures too!

And as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean we bid you all Adios!

Day 20

A three-toed sloth we saw today

Female iguana

Capuchin monkeys

Well maybe one more walk.  After a sugary breakfast provided by our hotel, we set off for Manuel Antonio Park for a self guided tour.  After our entry, we were approached by several guides who offered their services, super powered monocular in hand.  We declined, determined to notice all the flora and fauna wonders on our own.  There was an exclusive air about these guides.  Once they were hired, they acted as if they had right-of-way for seeing anything interesting.  They hushed their voices as non-subscribers passed by in order to withhold valuable information from us.  On many occasions they would announce to their customers what they would miraculously find for them next, and then they would set up their scopes and, voila, they delivered. Meanwhile, we were finding lizards, big and small, spiders, mostly small, birds, butterflies, cool flowers and fruits and, happily, sloths and monkeys.  We saw howler monkeys, white faced Capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys.  As disrespectful as it may be, we thought they were all incredibly CUTE.

A dead log filled with fiddler crabs

Manuel Antonio Beach

The hike to Cathedral Point

A rest along the way

More monkeys in the trees!

After a few hours exploring and discovering, we dragged our hot and tired bodies back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, some lunch, and then a swim in the ocean.  The ocean swim didn't last long.  We were too hot and tired.  Rose and Jera and I decided to walk to a cash machine together.  That sounds simple, doesn't it?  It turned into another one of my ridiculously long walks to nowhere, accompanied by two impatient and annoyed girls.  After a two and a half mile uphill walk, we got our cash (that was the closest machine, according the the three separate people I asked.), and walked back.  Along the way we passed some interesting restaurants- two were built out of old train cars, and one called El Avion was built around and incorporated an old cargo plane.  We looked at menus on the way back and I created an incentive to walk and not hail a taxi or bus: if we save money on the taxi/bus we can go out to dinner.  They bit, and we returned back to the hotel room with sore feet.

A tree crab checking us out

We arrived by taxi at El Avion tired and hungry.  Dinner was very good.  The menu was not particularly regional, but the coconut flan was and it was exceptionally good.  We took the bus home, and got ready for bed.  That was our last dinner here in Costa Rica.  Well, tomorrow night we'll eat somewhere near or in the airport.  We have a very late flight tomorrow and we plan, once more, to sleep in the airport.  That idea doesn't phase the kids anymore.

Day 19

The main beach at Manuel Antonio

On the walk to Playa Biesanz

Playa Biesanz

Our dining room and kitchen at Inn on the Park hotel

Walking back to Playa Manuel Antonio

Like Mother like daughter

It felt good to NOT travel today.  We spent time in the pool before breakfast, and ate a breakfast of local fruits, eggs to order, home-fries with vegetables, yogurt, juice and cereal.  We checked out another hotel down the road, got our laundered and DRIED clothes from the hotel owner’s aunt, and packed up our things.  We walked 1/10^th of a mile to our new home for two nights.  Although La Posada is lovely, this is an upgrade.  Inn on the Park is less expensive and larger, plus there is a full kitchen!  We borrowed boogie boards and walked off to the beach.  First we stopped at Joseth’s, a market and bought some food for lunch, and then off we went.  The main beach is wide and busy with vendors trying to sell you the use of a chaise or sun umbrella, a banana boat, a para-sail, a jet ski, snacks….We decided to walk 2-3 kilometers to a secluded beach across a small peninsula.  Getting to Playa Biesanz was not a short stroll.  First we had to walk all the way to the end of the beach, and then along a dirt road.  I was surprised at the complaining from the kids, but they were hungry.  I could have timed it better and the road was quite steep up and then down. 

When we arrived we were glad for the effort though.  It was a real cove.  The waves were less intense and it was very scantily dotted with people.  There were two Russian men, Lenin and Yeltsin renting snorkeling equipment for $10 and we got one set and shared it.  There was nothing to see.  The water was too turbid from the crashing surf.  After peanut butter and mango sandwiches everyone felt positive and energetic.  We played in the cove for 3 hours and then walked home.  No one complained and everyone, but Tim, agreed it was easier going back.  Tim had a sun-burn on the tops of his feet, and his sandals were irritating him.   As we walked along the length of the beach again, we were particularly happy for the occasional fresh water stream which had eroded the sand into a narrow stream beds as the water made its way out to sea.   The cool water was a welcome change from the tepid ocean.

Having a kitchen allowed us the option of eating in, so we stopped at Joseth’s once again and got what we needed for dinner, breakfast, and lunch.  Things are twice as expensive here as they were in the villages near Finca Ipe.  I resent the inflated tourist prices, but appreciate the beach and our proximity to Manuel Antonio preserve which we will explore tomorrow.  We saw a whole troupe of monkeys in the trees today.  It was very reminiscent of Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.  These monkeys were tossing down mangoes instead of hats, so we didn’t stay to watch them long!

A dinnertime Skype session with Uncle Richard gave us a preview of our return home.  The seedlings are waiting to be planted, the plumbers are doing work on the house, and the baby bunnies need to be held more.  It’s good for us to think of these things before we return.  This trip has become the norm for us.  Three weeks really is long enough to get used to a new lifestyle. 

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Rose got me to wear her bikini today. We shared tops and bottoms and I was told I looked pretty good.  No feedback on that, please.

Day 18

A transition day for us, we spent, the entire morning cleaning our house, Glen Brook style.  Sheets, towels, throw rugs all were laundered, everything was dusted, scrubbed, wiped and put back how it was.  I even scrubbed off the door knobs and greasy finger spots on the doors.  The refrigerator was emptied and cleaned, leftover food was cooked for lunch or given to other Finca Ipe residents, shelves were emptied and wiped and clothing was packed tightly into bags whether it was dry, damp or soaking wet.  Line drying in Costa Rica is an oxymoron.

Samuel decided to gift his book Mother West Wind's Neighbors by Thornton Burgess to Ava, the Australian girl.  When we arrived to say goodbye and give the gift, they were on the computer buying books on Amazon.com because they only had one other book, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Samuel also decided to gift his homemade bamboo truck to the other family.  He warned them, "It will break a thousand times a day.  But you can glue it again."

The seasoned traveler resting on his pack

Final goodbyes to all the animals, and we walked up the steep path with all of our bags to wait for the bus.  As we boarded the bus for Quepos we waved farewell to Finca Ipe and at back to enjoy a restful 1 1/2 hour bus ride.

Adios Finca Ipe!

The bus ride was uneventful.  Being a Sunday, there were several stops made for families probably on their way to family gatherings-grandparents and grandchildren alike.   I wondered if these people were less stressed because of their rural lives.  Did they consume as much media as Americans? We passed one community which was literally centered around a large palm seed oil plantation.  It went on for a couple of miles along the highway, trees planted in perfectly straight rows as far off the road as the eye could see in all directions.  This farm must generate many jobs and establish the focus of many people's lives.  At one point, the field of towering palms was interrupted by a village;  a large school with an arched entryway, a perfectly groomed regulation soccer field, and a neat row of houses around the school grounds and along the edges of the palm groves.  Imagine working in the trees around your home, sending your children to the school next door and having many friends and family within walking distance.  Plus, a public bus passes by several times a day to carry you to nearby villages and towns.

A statue in our room wearing Jacob's hat

We arrived in Quepos in the rain and walked a tenth of a mile to see the ocean.  Then we found a restaurant and ate our fill.  We caught the next bus to Manuel Antonio which was our destination for the day.  Our hotel, La Posada, was literally at the gates to the National Park and 1/4 mile walk to the beach.  I saw two squirrel monkeys up in a tree, and the rest of the family swam for a while in the pool.   We had a swim at the ocean as well, using the hotel's boogie boards and left he beach after the sun had set.  The beach was empty when we arrived and left.  Dinner was simple but filling at Costa Linda.  We indulged ourselves with smoothies tonight.  The walk home involved some research.  We decided to stay an extra night here, and since our current hotel is not available, we need to find another place.  We looked at 3 places, and decided on the house across the street. It is a tiny room with three beds and a private bathroom for $40/night.  A room, nothing more.

We borrowed some videos from the hotel lobby, Scooby Doo: Aloha and a Carole Burnett anniversary special which made us laugh and laugh, and we fell asleep tired and ready for more adventures tomorrow.

Day 17

Wet, soggy, chilled, squelchy,  if that's a word, wilted.  These are all words about today.  Tim arrived Thursday on a day that it never rained.  The next day was bright and sunny until after sunset as well.  Today he got full Rainy Season treatment.

Owl butterfly

Up, up and away!

We left the house early and took a bus to Hacienda Baru, a preservation and plantation.  The lands are protected here and include many trails and gardens, including a butterfly garden where we saw Owl butterflies and several other species.  The trails had intermittent plaques to explain the area you were standing in or general rainforest information.  We explored one trail which lead us onto a beach on the Pacific and a large sandbox-like turtle hatchery.  Nothing was hatching today, but we imagined them paddling their way up to the surface, over the edge and down towards the sea.  Our main purpose here today, was to take part in Flight of the Toucan, a zip line canopy tour.  Originally I was skeptical about the zip line approach to seeing the Rainforest. As one guide book put it, "There are two kinds of canopy tours.  Those during which you can watch the animals as they live in the trees, and those during which you can ACT like animals in the trees."  Today, at Hacienda Baru, with our guides Pedro and Victor, we had opted for the "ACTING" like animals version.  There were 8 zip lines, each of them about 200 ft long.  You would zip down one, and then walk to the next launching platform.  Despite my original skepticism and fear of heights, everyone loved the experience, even me.   The last zip line we took backwards in the beginning of a torrential rain.  Tim's hat wilted.

A thoughtful moment on the beach inspired by The Thinker by Rodin

 When we were done zipping, we sat down for a picnic of guava, pickles, avocado, cheese, tomatoes, bread, rambutan and nuts, and then decided to walk 3 kilometers to Dominical to catch a bus.  Otherwise it would be a 3 hour wait for the next bus where we were.  Along the edge of the highway we marched, one behind the other, soaked to the skin, and resigned to our tired feet.  The downpour continued.

Then, a black pick-up stopped after passing us, clearly wondering if we wanted a ride.  Tim and I, without speaking, agreed we would accept an offer in the back of the truck.  Hitchhiking is common in Costa Rica and there are no stories of murderous outcomes.  It's considered safe.  So we ran forward to climb aboard, and Tim looked in the window to ask if they were going our way, and lo and behold, it was a friend we had met at the Communal Dinner!  Happily we climbed on board, and road for 10 minutes in the pelting bullet-like rain, shivering a bit, and were dropped off right at the driveway of Finca Ipe.  It was a joyous ride and it took the edge off our exhaustion.  The kids collapsed on the couches and I let them listen to a book on tape, and I cooked tons of warming foods, hung clothes to dry, and began the final planning for our trip.  We leave Finca Ipe tomorrow, and continue our Costa Rica Adventure along the Pacific coast.

Day 16

And what a day it was.  It started with animal chores, this time with Tim's help.  There were varying levels of endurance today as the sheep stalls, goat stalls, chicken coops, rabbit pens all were cleaned and refreshed.  Today would be our last day of animal chores here. 

One of the several reassuring signs along the way

After a hearty breakfast we prepared our packs with food and water and began our trek to Nauyaca Waterfalls, the nearby cataract which we did not reach two days ago.  I felt more prepared to take the kids to this place now that Tim was here.  It would be a 7.54 mile round-trip hike (12 kilometers), much of it at a steep grade.  We left at 9:35AM and realized we had 8 1/2 hours before it grew dark.  It should be plenty of time to take a slow pace and rest at the river both to and fro.  Off we went, taking a quick stop at the Pickle Ladies to drop off some empty jars.

Slow and steady

Tim and I told the children to take their time.  We wanted them to feel relaxed and unhurried.  We looked at trees and flowers and ants and spiders, saw cows grazing in fields, horse hoof prints, and fresh droppings.  The trail was actually a dirt road inaccessible to any car without 4-wheel drive.  Some Ticos owned horses to get up to the main road, and had a fenced in area for the horses to wait until they returned- a horse parking lot.  A Park and Ride with a Central American twist!

Hillside pastures

 At times the path was extremely muddy, at times it was a stream bed. Our closed toed shoes became muddy and then wet as the options for a dry trail dwindled.  By the time we grew near the falls, we had resigned ourselves to wet shoes and socks and pruned skin.  Each kilometer was marked with a sign to indicate how many more kilometers it was to the falls.  It was a great incentive to see the numbers get lower and lower.  At last we arrived, paid the 9,000 colones ($18) entry for all of us, and marched up the trail to swim in the waterfall.

The steep steps to the lower falls

Alas, it was not to be.   The rocks at the edge of the pool beneath the falls were slick and dangerous, and the falls themselves were roaring Niagra-like cascades.  The pool beneath was a churning white-water whirlpool.  Rose said the sight made her stomach queasy.  We could not swim there today, so, with disappointment and escalating hunger and fatigue, we took a snack break and decided to walk back to the river.  With the promise of a full lunch and a refreshing rest and swim, everyone trudged along for 4 kilometers up and down and through the mud again until we reached the banks of the Rio Baru.

The lower falls

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A nymph of the giant red winged grasshopper on Jacob's leg

Juicy delicious rambutans, another fruit from the market

Here  is a video of Jacob and Rose swimming across the Baru River and learning how to let the current pull them downriver without panicking.  Tim stood nearby just in case. After stopping on the way back at a house that runs horse rides to the falls and feeding some caged parrots, peacocks and toucans, we saw a wild toucan and a striped grasshopper.  We also saw some large ants with glistening yellow abdomens which are called tiger ants and found what appears to be the leg of a blue crab in one of the stream beds.



This grasshopper to the left decided it like Jacob's leg.  I've identified it as a nymph of Tropidacris cristata, the giant red-winged grasshopper, the biggest grasshopper in the tropics.  You can google to see what an adult looks like.











We made it back by 5PM feeling tired but elated at what we had accomplished today.  The evening ended with a communal dinner, bigger than last time.  Some residents of Fuente Verde, the sister community of Finca Ipe, attended, and they were very happy to answer all of my questions about themselves and the farm.   If we ever come back here, that would definitely be a place to visit. We said goodnight, filled with good food and the sense that we had met a very special group of dedicated people who have found a way to build community as well as live deeply connected to the land.  There must be a way to do this while living in New Hampshire.  Am I already doing part of it, and what changes would move my family towards this more harmonious way of life?

Day 15

Today was a big surprise for the children.  It all began a about one week ago when I noticed that the cost of flights to Costa Rica had plummeted.  Perhaps Tim could come and join us here for our last week of travel!  We conspired together and planned it all.  He arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at midnight, slept in a hostel and woke up this morning to take the 7:30AM bus to San Isidro.  But there was to be an interesting twist today.

I told the children that we had to go to San Isidro for two reasons: every Thursday was the biggest open air market in the country and I wanted to buy a few things, and there was a package arriving for us at the bus station. 

A typical stall at the Market

We arrived in San Isidro and explored a bit.  We visited a bakery, a home store where we bought a ladle to replace the one was had broken, a lot of yummy fruit and some veggies at the Market, a shady spot in the central park and some comida tipico, typical local food at a cafe.  Now it was time to pick up the package.
We learned that the bus had been delayed due to road work.  We waited at the station for "the package," Tim,  until we couldn't wait any longer without missing our own bus.  So we went back to our bus stop and, blessedly, another resident from the farm, one I trust, was there with his little girl.  So I begged a favor, which was easily granted, and I dumped the kids on the bus with him, and waited for Tim myself, promising to return in 5 hours. 

It turned out that the bus was an hour and a half late because the road had washed out from last night's heavy rains!  So Tim and I had 4 hours to ourselves in San Isidro waiting for the next bus to come back to the farm. We roamed about the city buying various necessities, and eating ice cream at yet another Pop's.  When we returned, they were thrilled to see who the "package" really was.  They set about introducing him to every bush, flower and beetle which they have come to consider part of their personal environment.  It was like an abridged version of the previous two weeks: a demonstration of picking a coconut, using a machete,  the spider on the path, the woodshop,  the tool shed, the animal pens, our open-air house, this is guava, this is yucca, this is guayaba and on and on and on.  Finally we settled down to a dinner of boiled and fried yucca, salad, caimate-banana-starfruit-coconut-water smoothies, and one cookie each which Tim and I had purchased during our 4 hour honeymoon in San Isidro.

 A Blue morpho butterfly.  We saw one this morning.

Now that the sun has gone down, he has been introduced to the house gecko, a number of katy-dids and moths which come nightly, and given another round of hugs by 4 very happy children.  In a way the adventure begins all over again tomorrow as we share our Costa Rican experience with Tim.