Monteverde and the Resplendent Quetzal

Sunday Feb. 26, 2012

Hola amigos,

We are back in Nosara again after a short trip to the mountains.  On Thursday Michael surfed early in the morning and we finished packing up our stuff.  Fortunately we were able to leave some of it locked up in the bodega here at Villas Canadienses instead of lugging all of it with us.  After picking up the car from the rental office, loading up, and stopping at Rosie’s Soda for breakfast, we were on our way at about 10:30am.  It doesn’t take long to figure out that spending a lot of time driving from place to place is not how you want to pass the time in Costa Rica.  The dirt roads are bumpy and jarring.  You get used to them, but it still takes its toll on your body and mind.  We were relieved to meet the pavement again when we reached the road from Samara to Nicoya.  After that it was smooth sailing.  We were essentially backtracking the way we arrived, so the road was familiar for a good part of the trip.  There were many trees that had started to bloom with flowers since we had come through on our way to the beach at the beginning of our trip.  Light and dark pink, yellow, white; it was quite beautiful.  Andres, an Argentine jeweler who lived in Monteverde for six years before moving to Nosara, recommended we take the longer route up into the mountains because he said it had more pavement and was a better road.  A short while after leaving the Interamericana highway, we hit dirt again.  The road really wasn’t too bad, but it took us a little over 4 hours to reach Monteverde, longer than we had anticipated.  When we started up into the mountains, we encountered hairpin turns and we climbed up and down steep hills covered in trees and pasture.  Up, up we went.  Luck was on our side, as we did not meet any buses at inopportune moments.  The scenery was great and I marveled at how the cows could negotiate the steep terrain.  When we reached the towns of Santa Elena and Monteverde, we found pavement again!  That was a surprise, but not unwelcome.  Our B & B, Manakin Lodge, proved fairly easy to find and we checked in upon arrival.  It is run by a nice Tico family.  Our room had big picture windows that looked right into the treetops.  It was refreshing to have the air temperature a lot cooler too. 

After settling into our room and discussing what we wanted to do the next day, I went to the desk to see if they could book us a hanging bridges walk with a guide in the Cloud Forest.  We had decided that it wasn’t necessary for us to do a zip line tour; that we would rather do more bird watching or hiking.  Our host recommended a local guide she knew and explained that he could go with us to whichever reserve or park we wanted.  So we set a time to meet in the morning and then we went for a walk to explore a little.  We walked down the road to Art House, which is a gallery with a large collection of artwork and crafts from different parts of Costa Rica, including some by indigenous groups.  This turned out to be the best one we went to.  It wasn’t far into Santa Elena, so we walked some more and wandered the little town center.  There were lots of storefronts and signs touting Adventure tours, Night Walks in the cloud forest, Zip-line tours etc.  Since we were a little peckish, we stopped in at the Tree House Bar and Restaurant and had a drink and some ceviche.  It is aptly named as there is a huge fig tree growing right up through the middle of the restaurant.  Afterwards we walked some more, looked for a restaurant for dinner and settled on the Mar y Tierra.  Not the best choice, but I guess you can’t win them all.  There was a large table of Germans next to us.  Clearly Monteverde is on the tour route for many companies.  We saw lots of foreign tourists around town and not as many Americans, which was kind of a nice change.  It was windy and a bit drizzly or misty in the evening, but not actually raining.  After dinner we checked out the local supermarket and then took a taxi home.  The ride was only $2. 

During the night we heard a lot of wind and saw the trees outside our window swaying to and fro quite vigorously.  It seemed like it was blowing a gale, but in the morning we realized that the effect was probably magnified because we were on the second floor.  We had breakfast bright and early and met up with our guide, Johnny, who was going to drive us to the park.  He brought along a friend who was a guide in training, so there were four of us that got in the car.  Johnny is twenty-nine and grew up in the area.   He is married to an Austrian woman who is expecting their second child.  He has an excellent command of English and he seemed to know a great deal about the plants and animals of the forest and the ecology of the area.  Originally I had thought we would go to Selvatura which is a big Adventure park in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve that has everything from zip lines to hanging bridges and a butterfly garden and hummingbird house etc.  The guidebook had suggested that if you could only see one sight, this was the one.  However, after talking with Johnny on the way to the park we took his suggestion and stopped at a different one, Sky Walk.  He said it was less crowded and he would drop us at the better butterfly garden in town afterwards.  Our goal was to hike in the cloud forest and see some birds and animals and learn about it from a guide.  It turned out to be a good call.  After getting tickets we started up the trail for the hanging bridges walk.  The bridges allow you to be up in the canopy and cross steep ravines.  Right away Johnny showed us some cool tiny orchids and told us a lot about the environment of the cloud forest and all the epiphytes on the trees.  There are a lot of different types of orchids that grow in the area and a huge diversity of plant life in the forest.  We saw lots of ferns, lichen and moss, as well as bromeliads, tree ferns, fig and avocado trees, and even roots that started up in the canopy and stretched down to the ground.   Johnny knew his stuff and explained some of the medicinal uses of various plants in addition to identifying a lot for us.

Sarah with Johnny

Epiphytes

 And then there were the birds.  Johnny pointed out many for us and he knew the names of most of what we saw or heard.  While traversing the first bridge, which was actually pretty low to the ground, he made some birdcalls in response to something he heard in the forest.  We could hear the bird in the canopy and he called back and forth with it for a bit and then, lo and behold, a male Quetzal appeared.

Resplendent Quetzal!

The Resplendent Quetzal is a very fancy looking bird!  It is also culturally quite important.  It is the national bird and symbol of Guatemala and carried ceremonial significance for the Aztecs and Maya according to my guidebook.  Now it is endangered due to shrinking habitat.  It has blue-green plumage on its back and head with spiky feathers sticking up from the top of its head.  It has a bright red belly and the male has a couple of long extra feathers trailing behind that are 2-3 feet long.  I have heard that it is pretty rare and that many birdwatchers that go in search of it are not lucky enough to see one.  We saw not only one, but two males, and also a female who was building a nest!  I think the males were competing for her affections.  Our lucky day!  It was very exciting and we took lots of pictures.  Johnny had brought along a spotting scope and we used it to shoot some pictures with my camera.  Michael also got some great shots with his camera.

The female

Male and female together

Female at her nest opening

Backside of the male

After admiring the Quetzals until they moved on, we continued on the path.  We saw lots of other birds though most were moving too fast or were too far away for effective photography.  It was amazing that the Quetzals had "posed" for us for so long.  We enjoyed our two and a half hour walk very much.  I think we actually went around the circuit backwards because we did run into a few much larger groups going in the opposite direction.  We certainly didn’t mind and were very glad we had chosen to go with a private guide.  The Monteverde Cloud Forest is very lush and so full of life.  

Sarah on a bridge

After our hike, Johnny took us back to Santa Elena/Monteverde and dropped us off at the Butterfly Garden.  He called ahead to let them know he was bringing us and walked us inside to “deliver” us.  We said our goodbyes and he went off to pick up his three year old son.  We sat down for a few minutes to regroup and also talked with the biologist manning the front desk at the garden.  It turns out he used to be with the Colorado Division of Fish and Wildlife and came to Monteverde thirty years ago.  He gave us the scoop on seeing the butterflies on our own and we took off for a stroll through the gardens.  There were at least four different enclosures with flowers and plants and lots of butterflies.  It was so fun to see the beautiful Blue Morpho and others up close and in abundance.  There were some with markings like an owl’s eyes and others with nearly clear wings.  It is hard to photograph them, but we tried.

 

After our time with the butterflies we walked home to Manakin Lodge.  It was only a little after noon, but after such an active morning we took a quick nap before heading back out for lunch.   Naps are one of the delightful luxuries of vacation! 

We lunched at Stella’s bakery, which was only ok, despite the guidebook’s recommendation.  The afternoon was spent visiting some art galleries and a local artisan cooperative.  Back at our room, we relaxed for a while before dinner and caught up on some Internet time using the WiFi.  For dinner we walked down the road to Sofia, a Latin fusion style restaurant we had passed earlier.  This turned out to be a really good choice.  The food was excellent, the service was good and the ambiance was nice.  I had chicken with smoky plantain sauce since the fig roasted pork loin wasn’t available.  We enjoyed a bottle of wine and even a chocolate chimichanga for desert.  It was a very pleasant evening.

In the morning we had breakfast, packed our bags, and decided to get on the road.  Our host assured us that the road through Las Juntas was not any worse than the one we came in on and was indeed a good deal shorter.  So we drove out of Santa Elena that way and enjoyed a different set of scenery on the way out of the mountains.  Really that road wasn’t bad, so we’re not sure why Andres was so firm in his recommendation of the other road we took on the way in.  In any case, we had distant views of the Golfo de Nicoya and the peninsula, and saw more steep pastures and even some coffee plantations.  There aren’t many road signs in Costa Rica and the maps aren’t that good, so sometimes it’s a little tricky to find your way.  Nevertheless, we managed to get back to the Interamericana highway without getting too lost.  In Nicoya we stopped to buy a bike lock, which was a little adventure since we had to ask where a bicycle shop was and parking can be difficult.  We also grabbed a bite to eat before setting off for the last leg back to Nosara.  We made it back around two in the afternoon so we ran up to the Super Nosara to grocery shop and got the gas for the rental car.

Our new unit at Villas Canadienses is on the end so we have a view of the gardens.  For the most part it is identical to the other one with only some minor differences in décor and kitchen utensils.  Playa Guiones seems to be pretty busy right now and there were quite a few people on the beach at sunset.  


Pura Vida

Sojourner Sarah

Surf, Eat, Sleep, Repeat....

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

Buenas tardes,

Life continues pretty much as usual down here near the equator.  When Michael and I went down to the beach for sunset last Tuesday there was a wedding just wrapping up with pictures on the sand.  It was Valentine’s Day afterall.  We walked down the beach and around the point to Playa Pelada for dinner at La Luna.  It was fresh, Mediterranean style food, and delicious.   We saw both my surf instructors arrive with their gringo girlfriends for dinner as we were leaving.  Also, the bridal couple came to occupy the big couch-bed on the sand in the bar area which was reserved for them, so I guess we made a good pick!  On the walk home along the beach the stars were amazing and there was a lot of bio-luminescence in the water.  The waves were glowing when they broke and there were sparkles in the water when they washed up on the beach.  Very pretty! 

Last week we made some plans for our trip to Monteverde this week.  We made a reservation at a B&B and managed to confirm our car rental.  This all proved more complicated than you would think since I kept having to go somewhere else to do any internet research and it took several tries to get it all sorted out.  We are grateful to the property manager here, Kembry, who made a phone call for us to the car rental people.  She is a lovely Costa Rican woman who is here most days at least some of the time.  We also finally procured some real laundry soap.  What we had before, we discovered, was really spot remover.  It’s amazing how difficult it can be to decipher the packaging on common goods when it is in a foreign language!  Since most people here speak English and there are so many Americans, we really haven’t been practicing our Spanish the way we ought to.   We discovered some great laundry lines in the gardens at our complex and took advantage of them to get some laundry done. 

We have been dealing with some potential water shutoffs in the evening as they do some work on the water systems in the town.  It doesn’t always seem to happen, but we’re prepared with extra water for the overnight.  I also traded my surfboard in for a smaller one to try something a little different.  On Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market and found a cheese man and a sausage man, though not much in the way of fruits and vegetables.  I guess that’s mostly on Tuesdays.  The cheese man is German I think, and probably the sausage man is too.  Anyway, the cheese was far superior to any I’ve had here and I had to indulge in some cheddar and some feta cubes in herbed oil.  Yummy!

Kembry had booked us a horseback riding tour for Sunday afternoon, but the horse man called to say that his horses had got out and he had to go find them!  We rescheduled for Monday, which was probably just as well because I suddenly didn’t feel so great.  I guess I got some 24hour stomach-ish bug.  Monday morning the surf had gotten really small, which was just what I wanted to try catching green waves, but I had no energy.   I saved it all up for the horseback riding tour and it was worth it.  We were picked up and taken to a property over by the Nosara River and a little inland.  Nano was our guide.  He and his wife run Playa Ponies, which also does snorkel tours and just about anything else they can come up with.  Nano is Tico and his wife is American and expecting their first child, a girl, in about two weeks.  When we got to their property there were a couple of younger Tico boys who helped get the horses.  We guessed that perhaps they were Nano’s brothers.  There were dogs running around and a wee filly wandering in the yard.  She was quite skinny and Nano said her mother wasn’t producing milk.  I think she's only 2 1/2 months old!  

Baby!

Michael was given Rambo and I got Sebastian.  They were both very well behaved.  Our ride took us along the Nosara River where we saw an alligator lurking in the water.  We also rode through some of the Reserva Biológica Nosara where there were huge mangroves stretching high overhead and lots of birds.  We came out by the river mouth where Michael and I had hiked to one day.  It was gorgeous with black sand and lots of water birds again.  

Michael & Rambo at the river mouth

Playa Pelada

Then we rode over to Playa Pelada along the trail we had walked before.  Nano very kindly took a picture of us on the beach.  Then we got to ride on the beach all the way back to our neighborhood.  

Caballeros!

There were two dogs that came with us the whole way.  They thoroughly enjoyed the excursion and after we dismounted and said goodbye to Nano at our condo, one of the dogs stuck around.  We went in and changed back to shorts to go to the beach for sunset, and when we came out, there she was waiting for us!  We thought she belonged to Nano, but maybe not.  She didn’t go with us to the beach, but when we returned, she was lying contentedly on our porch.  She is very sweet and friendly.  There are quite a few dogs here that just wander from friend to friend.  We gave her some water and Michael gave her a little piece of tuna.  She wandered off for a bit later on, but was back before morning when we found her lying on our porch again.  She stayed around and went to the beach with us when we went to surf.  Now she has moved on, but who knows, we may see her again.  I called her Foxy because of her foxy looking face.

Foxy

This morning the conditions were perfect for me to surf.  The waves were small, the tide pretty low, and the winds offshore.  The smaller board I had rented proved not as good for catching green waves, so Michael traded me for the longboard he’d rented.  The water felt warm this morning and it was another beautiful day.  I finally caught a real wave from the outside all by myself!  Yay!  I even rode the shoulder all the way in.  What a feeling!  It is so not easy to get the timing right, but for once I did, AND managed to get up and stay up.  It was very gratifying. We are staying close by the Corky Carroll surf school which does an all-inclusive surf camp.  I’ve been watching their instructors and students in the water and on the beach since we are often surfing near them.  I think I might be guilty of a little instructor envy!  They really do a great job and they are probably the best surf camp here.  They have a lot of repeat guests.  The advantage to a surf camp is you get instruction and encouragement all the time.  You surf twice a day and they even videotape you so you can go back over it later.  Of course it can be intense, but they try to make it fun too.  I’ve enjoyed the leisurely pace of our time here and am glad I got to try out surfing without any pressure.  However I can see that if you really wanted to improve your skills, a surf camp could be a great way to go. 

Well, that’s all for now.  We leave for Monteverde on Thursday morning.

Pura Vida

Sojourner Sarah

Addendum:  Wed. Feb. 22, 2012

Well I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, so here it is today.  This morning Kembry got a call that Nano and his wife were looking for their dog.  I guess she did belong to them after all!  Anyway, we hadn't seen here since yesterday morning, which we told Kembry.  Then when Michael went to the Frog Pad to return a movie, he saw her hanging around.  He tried to get her to follow him back to the condo but she wasn't really interested.  She looked a little lost.  So he scooped her up in his arms and rode back to the condo on his bike that way.  Only Michael could accomplish this!  He's a master at carrying things on a bicycle; surfboards, luggage, dogs.  Kembry called Nano to say we found the dog and he came over and got her.  She was happy to see him.  

Valentine's Day 2012

Hello!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I have to admit it’s really nice not to be inundated with all the commercialism of the holiday that you experience in the U.S.  There has been some mention of it here, but nothing like what we’d get at home.  Of course it helps that we’re not watching TV, don’t listen to the radio, and aren’t doing a lot of shopping.  For those who choose to celebrate it, have a nice one.  We are going out to dinner at La Luna which is a Mediterranean restaurant right on the beach at Playa Pelada. 

The big news for our weekend was that we moved.  We gave up our house, Casamistad, after 30 nights and moved to Villas Canadiense, just down the road and around the corner.  We are now in a one-bedroom condo, which is part of a complex of four.  There are beautiful gardens with flowering trees and shrubs, a pretty little pool, and a ranchito, which is a thatched shelter with a peaked roof to provide shade in the common area.  There are nice lounge chairs by the pool, as well as a table and chairs under the ranchito.  Our condo has high ceilings, a white painted interior, and a covered porch with a table and chairs.  All in all, I think we did quite well for a last minute booking.  It’s also just a short walk down a jungle path to the beach.  What we will miss about the house is the extremely well stocked kitchen, the privacy of the backyard, and the rocking chairs on our porch.  Though there are enough knives in the new kitchen, they are all dangerously dull!  We are muddling through on the cooking.  We also do not have WiFi at the condo, so I will be writing when it’s convenient and then taking the laptop to a café to post and check email etc.  There are several options for this so it shouldn’t be a problem, just a new routine. 

The move itself was a bit of an adventure.  We moved by bicycle!  It took several trips for both of us but we managed it.  It was definitely better than trying to drag everything down a dusty dirt road!  We don’t have that much stuff, but when you factor in two surfboards and a bunch of groceries to move, it adds up.

Sunday we surfed from our new location on the beach.  There were some little jellyfish in the water, but we tried not to let them bother us.   I stayed on the inside again and practiced in the whitewater.  In the afternoon we went over and rented Michael a bicycle since he had to leave his at the house.  We also put some air in the rear tire of mine because it keeps getting soft every few days.  We went to the French bakery and had a treat and ran into our friend Jessica there.  I stopped in at Coconut Harry’s and booked a surf lesson for Monday morning.  Then, after some lounging at our pool, we went to the beach for sunset and chatted with three nice young men who are visiting from various parts of the U.S. and are here to surf.  We did not see the green flash, though we hope to someday. 

In the evening we decided to go over to Casa Tucan for dinner and then go to the Harbor Reef where “Tico Hendrix” was playing.  His real name is Navil Garcia and he’s a guitarist that Michael remembered from a previous visit to Nosara.  There wasn’t much of a crowd, but he did his best to get everyone involved and it was pleasant to listen to some music.  Unfortunately my rear tire went completely flat while we were at dinner, so we left it locked up behind the rental shop for the night.  Mike doubled me on his bike down the road a bit which I haven’t done since I was a teenager! 

Monday morning I had my surf lesson with Oscar.  I wanted to try going to the outside and riding green waves.  The waves were supposed to be a little smaller and they were, but it was still a big challenge.  Oscar was very patient as I struggled to stand up.  One of the hardest parts is getting back outside after you’ve fallen down trying to ride a wave.  You can get caught in the wrong spot and spend a lot of time and energy dodging waves.  The waves seemed to get bigger as my lesson went on.  Probably it was mostly the tide dropping, which makes them appear bigger because they break a little steeper.  In any case, I was pretty worn out by the end and it’s clear, I need a lot more practice!  Michael met me on the beach and we went up to retrieve my bike, which I had stopped in to explain about before my lesson.  They gave me a different bike to use since they weren’t done fixing the other one.  Then, the produce truck was in town, so we went and bought some fruits and veggies there.  You literally get into the back of the truck and pick out what you want.  There was quite a mob when we went.  I only found one banana left!  After a stop at the bakery for bread, we headed home to jump in the pool and cool off. 

This morning Michael went to surf and I enjoyed a peaceful cup of coffee and my book.  I was still feeling pretty tired from my surfing adventures of yesterday.  At 10:30 we both had massages scheduled.  Aaaah!  This afternoon we played some cribbage and now we are at the Guilded Iguana using their WiFi.  We discovered we had no water at the condo before we left.  Apparently the whole town is out.  Michael says this happened fairly frequently when he was here before because there is water rationing later in the year, but I think this one came as a surprise to everyone.  Oh well, it won't last forever.

Pura Vida,

Sojourner Sarah

Turtles!

Howdy,


We've had some nice adventures in the last few days.  Sunday we had decided it was time to go on an excursion, so we made a car reservation online for the local National office.  We couldn't seem to find the local phone number anywhere.  Our plan was to go to Samara to the south or perhaps drive north and do a little exploring.  On Monday Michael went over to the office to pick up the car but they didn't have one.  They said it takes 2 days for the online reservations to get to them, so maybe we'd have something the next day.  Consequently we decided to spend the afternoon on a different part of our beach.  After packing some towels and water, a beach umbrella we found in the house, and some fishing gear, we bicycled down to the south end of the beach, picking up a rented beach chair along the way.  We walked down the beach a ways to where Michael wanted to fish and found a spot to set up our umbrella and chair.  With the tide pretty high, the beach was narrower and we had the illusion that we were the only ones on the beach.

Sitting in my chair I could look out at the waves and ocean and see no one but Michael.  Down that end of the beach there are a lot fewer people and we only saw a few passersby.  It was as if we were on a totally different beach!  Michael did some surf casting and I watched.  After a while I started a new book, The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola.  Michael gave it to me for Christmas and I'm really enjoying it.  It is set in Les Halles, in Paris, around the mid 19th century.  The descriptions of the markets and the food are fabulous.

Monday night Michael got out the charcoal and fired up the built-in grill on our porch.  He barbecued a whole chicken he had marinated in jerk seasoning.  It was so delicious!  The charcoal really gave it great flavor.  Later we went down to the beach for a walk in the moonlight.  The moon was almost full and the tide was as low as I've seen it.  There was that eerie half light when you can see a lot once your eyes adjust, but everything is still sort of greyed out.  Michael brought his camera and we tried to take some shots with the tripod.

On Tuesday we called the car rental place with the number Michael had gotten when he went the day before.  They still didn't have any record of our reservation since their system had been down for two days.  I don't think they even had internet.  The rate they quoted for a car they had was exorbitant as they don't like to rent them for less than three days and we only wanted it for one.  Online they had no problem with one day.  They did tell us if we brought in a printout of our reservation they might be able to help.  So I went to the Frogpad and used their computer to print out a copy.  Then we rode over on our bikes to see what we could do.  We had also made reservations for a trip to Monteverde in the future and our drive back to San Jose and wanted to make sure those were going to work.  With a little coaxing and explanation we basically got what we wanted.  They had a car which they let us have for one day for, more or less, the rate we were quoted online.  Hurrah!  Success.  I think it just works better here if you do things in person, not on the phone.  The clerk was very chatty and asked a lot of questions about Colorado.  So once the paperwork was done, we went back to the house, packed up some gear, and off we went.


We had decided to drive to Samara which is a larger town about 24 Km to the south.  It may not sound like much, but the dirt roads really slow you down.  There are two ways you can go and we tried to take the more coastal route.  We didn't quite manage to come out where we intended, but we got there and we saw some pretty countryside in the process.  We even forded a river!  There were beautiful Guanacaste trees with a thick trunk that rises up to branches and leaves in the shape of an umbrella.  We also saw what we think was a teak wood farm.  Samara has a paved road going into it from Nicoya, the bigger city inland.  It is a popular destination for Ticos on the weekends or for vacation, in addition to attracting international tourists.  There is a Spanish Language and Culture Institute where you can study spanish and take lodging with locals if you choose.  Michael had spent a month there when he was here before, so he was familiar with the town.  There are small hotels and bungalows, some right on the beach, and restaurants and bars and a few souvenir shops, a Farmacia, and the usual grocery stores.  I've heard that on the weekends it's a pretty happening place and the "discotheque" is full until the wee hours.  We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called Casa Esmeralda and I had fish with Avocado Sauce that Michael remembered was really good.  He was right!  It was delicious.  He had a whole fried fish, which is one of his favorites.  After lunch we drove a little further south to the next beach over, Playa Carillo.  This is a very picturesque half moon bay with a palm tree lined beach and a paved road running the length of the beach just behind the palms.  Apparently one of the Presidents of Costa Rica was fond of this spot and so he had a road paved there so he could visit easily.  It really is gorgeous and there weren't many people.  We found a place to park and settled in the shade of the palm trees, careful not to sit directly beneath any coconuts lest they fall on us!  Michael napped in the shade and I read some more.  After a while we went back to Samara and walked around a bit.  It is different from Playa Guiones because the waves are really small by comparison, the sand is more black, and there are businesses right on the beach.  In Guiones, there is a 200m buffer  of vegetation between the beach and any house or business.  It's protected so no one can build or develop there.  In Samara we enjoyed sitting at a beachside bar and having a cold drink and some nachos for sunset.  Not a very impressive sunset, but fun to be doing something different. Before heading back to Guiones we stopped in at the grocery store for a few supplies.  Earlier we had gone to the Farmacia to get some ibuprofen.  Having gone through the supply we brought with us, we discovered that if you want more than a single dose packet, you have to get it at a pharmacy.  Even so it was sold by the dose and we found it surprisingly expensive.  Next time we'll bring more from home.  We took the bigger road home, and even though it was dark, it wasn't too bad.


Wednesday morning after a surf and walk on the beach we used our rental car to run errands.  We didn't need to return it until 1pm.  After hitting up the ATM for some more cash, we bought bread at the bakery, veggies from the truck, and drove up to Nosara to go to the Super.  On the way back we gave a woman and her young daughter a ride up the road to their house.  We've had such good fortune with rides we knew we needed to pay it back a little.  The afternoon was deliciously lazy with lots of book reading and a little napping.  In the evening we went to the beach for the usual sunset.  After the sun had gone down but the light lingered, we noticed some people down the beach had gathered and we heard there was a turtle hatch.  So we strolled down the beach and got to see an incredible sight.  There were about 30 or 40 little baby turtles scrambling over the sand towards the water and waves.  People lined their path watching and taking pictures.  Alas, I did not have the camera, so no pics for us.  I moved up to where the nest was and saw about five baby turtles climbing over each other just erupting out of the sand like a spring welling up.  Soon five turned into thirty in another wave of babies.  They were so tiny; only about 2-3 inches long.  With great determination they made their way down the beach to the water.  When they were close enough, a wave washed up and, once in the water, they swam like mad.  You could see their little heads bobbing on the surface as they got washed out to deeper water.  I can't even imagine how they made it out past the waves.  


Today we had a great day.  I had a good surf session in the morning and we read books and went for a walk on the beach and took a nap etc.  The sunset was really pretty with light reflecting on the clouds afterwards.

Pura Vida!

Sojourner Sarah