The Adventure of Retirement - The First Years of This Great Adventure: June 2014

This Capuchin Monkey appeared along with

six or seven others while we were

having breakfast at our hotel

Since leaving the US April 30th, May has passed us by and here we are nearing the end of June with only a few days left before we depart for Panama after our two month fact finding trip to Costa Rica.

Donna's sister Carol and her husband Ib decided to take us up on our offer to put them up in Costa Rica. They arrived June 11. They were here for two weeks and they were looking forward to the visit as they had never been to this part of the world before.

Our plan while they were here was to let them relax and take in the local scene for the first couple of days, then we would take a half day fishing trip out on the Pacific to try to beat Brad's catch of the 35 - 40 lb Red Snapper almost three weeks earlier when he and his wife Kathy (Donna's childhood friend) visited us here from Toronto. It would be nice to beat that catch but we weren't going to bet on it. The Video of the Red Snapper catch was in our last Blog.

As usual, a lady picked us up at the apartment and took us to the dock where we jumped into a dinghy and headed out to the fishing boat.

A good hour later and no fish. We thought oh oh, this is not going to be as good as the last time, but "never say never" I thought to myself. There's still hours left to put that right.

Shortly after, I managed to pull in a Tuna weighing around 17lb. Tuna is an incredibly dense and therefore a very heavy fish but oh so tasty. Donna followed my catch up with a Mahi-Mahi (Dorado), shortly afterwards. Things were starting to look up.

Just after that, Carol and Ib managed to catch a fish each, but the guys on the boat kept saying "bait fish", so they unhooked them and placed them both into a cooler for later on.

Ken's Tuna catch. We asked the guys to just cut of the head and tail and gut it and we would take care of the rest. They normally filet the fish but we wanted to have Tuna Steaks which were absolutely delicious.

Donna with her catch of the day - a nice Mahi-Mahi (Dorado) we had filleted and took back to the apartment

Carol lost one larger fish off her line. We don't know how big it was. She was winding it in but alas, it finally escaped the freezer and frying pan.

About 15 minutes later, one of the rods bent as we were deep fishing. My turn - The crew set me up in the seat and slipped the rod into the holder between my legs to stabilize the rod as I wound it in. Oh my goodness I thought. THIS IS A BIG FISH!

After about 7 minutes of trying to reel in the monster fish, I was exhausted. I had little strength left to hold onto the rod. Whatever was on the end was enormous very heavy yet it seemed to me like I was pulling in a dead weight........until that is, it decided to fight back. I watched as the reel of line run back out.

I'm a strong guy, but I could hardly hang on any longer and then all of a sudden the line went slack. I reeled in about 200 feet of line. The hook was missing but the line was not snapped. Whatever was there was now long gone. Now I know how Carol felt.

Moments later there was another fish on the other rod. Ib sat into the captains chair and started to haul it in. It took about seven minutes to show but when it did......WOW. I have never seen such a large fish in close proximity. Click below to see what he had on the end.

Catch Of A Lifetime

We were all "pumped" after coming off the boat, especially after releasing this enormous creature back into the wild as it was a protected species. We believe it was around 150 - 200 lb in weight and between seven and eight foot long. If you viewed the video above you will have seen for yourself. It was a nurse shark.

I must tell you. Ericka, the lady who owns and runs the fishing boats was very pleasant and her crew that we used captained by Warner Sigura were excellent - the nicest of people who bent over backwards to make you feel comfortable.

In case you ever come here. Ericka's contact information is below. The web site is www.flamingosportfishing.com Ericka's phone number is 506 8389 5962 (for English). She speaks fluent English. Thank you guys. It was a blast.

About four days before we left I received a phone call from Ericka. She wanted to give me a T shirt. She met me in the parking lot of our apartment and handed me a nice blue T shirt and a beautifully carved wood figure of a hammerhead shark. She told me this was for the both of us. She said they had really enjoyed their time with us. How sweet is that! Thank you Ericka, Warner and the crew. I won't forget any of you. If we return, you WILL be getting a call for another adventure.

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Up until this point, we had seen very little of the countryside south of Playa Flamingo except for a short trip to a lazy surfing village called Samara a few weeks earlier, so we planned a trip further south to Puntarenas, a port city and from there we would head further south to Quepos and beyond on the southern Pacific coast.

Puntarenas was not what we expected. The approach to the centre is not really pleasant. It's small, but we were hungry so the four of us decided to park the vehicle and grab lunch. The cafe was very small and wide open due to the heat, the big screen TV was on and the FIFA World Cup matches were in progress. All we needed now was a cold beer and some food.

Ib and I ordered the sopa de pescado del Mar (fish soup of the ocean). The girls ordered Hamburger and fries. One is often cautious about eating in these hole-in-the-wall places but when the food arrived it was absolutely delicious. We ate up while watching the World Cup and when finished, we left after thanking the waitress and telling her the food was "Bueno".

Being a member of dedicated groups on Facebook sometimes has it's advantages (and sometimes not). We had many ideas sent to us by Ex-Pats and locals who live in Costa Rica. They suggested places to visit and absolute MUST SEE locations such as Parque National Manuel Antonio just south or Quepos. We were told we would see Parrots, Macaws, Monkeys, Armadillos and Sloths to name just a few of the animals. This really appealed to us.

Driving towards the park area, the skies darkened and the rain came with a vengeance so much so that we could hardly see through the window when the vehicle was in motion.

As the rains poured in true Tico style (the word Tico is a friendly and polite reference to native Costa Ricans who call themselves Ticos).

I did notice one or two individuals actually riding bicycles in this horrendous downpour, with just shorts and a singlet on. As I drove by them, It reminded me of the tune raindrops keep falling on my head that I saw when Robert Redford and Paul Newman rode their bicycles in the rain in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid many years before.

As we neared Quepos, we passed through mile after mile of coconut plantations with coconut palms lined up perfectly - literally tens of thousands of palms tree each about 30 feet high.

It was getting on and dusk would soon be upon us so we checked into a hotel just outside the park. It was very comfortable. The rooms were offered at $105 per night, reduced from $150 as it was low season.

At this stage, we were just 197 Kms or 120 miles or roughly two and a half hours drive south to the western border of Panama.

The number of different coloured birds we saw during our travels was truly amazing, but getting good pictures of them was very difficult. We did manage to snap off the odd one as shown below.

We saw many different types and colours of birds and butterflies and all sorts of different creatures in our two months

One of the highlights of our trip was when we were all sat at breakfast when a troop of Capuchin monkeys came right into the tree located on the patio close to our table. The pictures are all ours taken as we sat waiting for breakfast.

Our pool at the hotel close to the park

We enjoyed our two nights at the hotel and spent some time in the pool as it was very hot and humid. The food was great but a little on the expensive side. More about that later.

The picture to the left is of our pool at the hotel. It was in a gorgeous setting. The rooms were all air- conditioned and set into a jungle type environment with so many plants, we could never name each one. The rooms were configured as side by side duplexes with adjoining verandas. We had no complaints about the hotel at all and would definitely return there.

Our trip to Manuel Antonio Park was a different matter. Let's say it was uneventful. We had been told by people on some Facebook groups that it was "heaven on earth" where the "jungle meets the ocean" which to be fair was true, so we were looking forward to going in.

We each paid $10 to get into the park and very quickly found that all there was to do was walk along an uneven roughly graded gravel road in temperatures that were unbelievably hot and with the high humidity level it was quite uncomfortable. One had to ensure we all drank lots of water.

Everyone we passed was dripping wet with sweat (perspiration for the ladies) from the tops of their shoulders downwards. We did see a Sloth, a large Spider and hundreds of other tourists but that's about it.

There were lots of Tico's plying their trade offering to take us into the park to guide us and to show us wildlife of all types......at a cost of course. We decided to go it alone.

We walked by many tourists that had paid their money to these guides and clearly, the guides were telling them about the forest and the trees but no Monkeys, Toucans, Parrots or wildlife could be seen from the roadside.

The forest was so thick, no-one was able to leave the roadway. It was disappointing in fact, being perfectly honest we thought it was a total tourist trap. We stopped to talk to one American who thought he had been "thoroughly ripped off"....his words not mine.

The park did have a very attractive beach however, where hundreds of tourists donned bathing costumes to swim in the warm ocean in order to cool down from the very hot and humid day we were experiencing.

While they were gone, ring-tailed racoons who obviously made this their daily task were cleaning up on lunch packs and food left open and out by those in the water. These animals don't miss much at all. They can spot an unattended backpack miles away.

Ringtail Racoon

Get Out of Here You Clever Little Animals!

We went to another beach just around the corner but there was a sign saying do not swim here a large Crocodile had been spotted in the shallow pacific waters just before we had arrived. Needless to say, we complied with the request - No argument there.

It is a well documented fact that Crocodiles are moving away from the fresh water areas into the shallow parts of the ocean as that's where the tourists are. I shudder at that thought.

On the return journey, we decided to Visit Costa Rica's highest Volcano, Volcan Irazu. To get there, we had to drive right through Costa Rica's capital city San Jose located in what is commonly referred to as the Central Valley area.

Let me tell you. The drive through San Jose was definitely not for the squeamish. The traffic was awful and there seemed to be no driving pattern to follow AT ALL. Couple that with the fact we did not know where we were going and with people coming at us from all directions on motorcycles, it was let's say interesting. But we did make it without a scratch.

The trip to the Volcano started in San Jose, and we began the climb in the SUV on the flanks of a mountainside about 15 minutes after leaving the City behind.

It was now we realized the value of our Garmin Navigation system. Donna had downloaded the map of Costa Rica before we left Nevada and it came in handy in many ways at it also has an altimeter on it.

We started up a very steep road that seemed to be taking us to the Volcano. By this time Donna had discovered that the Navigation system had the altimeter built-in. I asked her the altitude because it felt higher than normal. 5500' above sea level was the reply.

The road was getting steadily steeper as we drove onwards, and it was not long before we were not looking up at the clouds forming but we were on the side of a steep road looking down on the clouds.

Views of the very fertile soils and fields of produce on our
Way up the slopes of the mountain leading to the volcano

As we continued our ascent in the SUV, we passed what appeared to be paddy fields of rice (arroz), then the landscape changed to a rich dark fertile soil - obviously volcanic in nature. We also saw evidence of thousands of rows of what appeared to be onions (cebollas) growing on the terraced fields.

The Garmin was now reading over 7000 feet and no sign of the road becoming less steep. We glanced out of the vehicle windows at the clouds below. The thermals were driving them upwards in huge white cells.

At 8000 feet we saw dozens of workers in the fields either harvesting or planting potatoes (papas) all working very hard bent over. Not easy work for sure.

A farmer rounding up his cows for milking at about 8000 feet

Looking upwards, we could see fields full of Friesian and what seemed to be Guernsey or Jersey cows grazing on the rich grasses growing this high up.

This part of the journey reminded me of when I would drive through the Swiss Alps with my kids when we lived in Germany. It was almost identical. Chalet style buildings and neatly manicured well kept farmyards and farms, proudly kept up by their owners. 9000 feet and still rising. Wow I thought, when is this road going to end?

The Garmin's altimeter now registered 10,000 feet. There was still no sign that road would end. Onwards and upwards I thought to myself. By this time the banter in the vehicle seemed to be getting much quieter as we drove on.

At just below 11,000 feet, glancing into the rear view mirror, I could see the last of the farms disappearing out of sight. Moments later, we spotted a lone hut in the distance.

We pulled up at the 20'X10' Casita where an old gentleman was sitting in the booth looking a bit lonely. He was evidently the Park Warden. He welcomed us with a broad and friendly smile, gave us a brochure each and informed us in Spanish that it was 5,500 Colones ($10) each to get into the park and 3,500 Colones to park the Vehicle. For the uninitiated the exchange rate was 550 Colones to one US dollar.

We paid the gentleman, and he pointed for us to proceed ahead which we did as we headed into the park. We parked the vehicle and the Garmin was now reading 11,200 feet.

As we were walking towards the lip of the Volcano along a short pathway, I and others were starting to feel lightheaded, and it stayed that way for me until we started down the mountainside again.

At the rim we glanced down at a spectacular site below us. The bottom of the volcano was roughly 1000 feet below. We could not actually see the bottom as it was too deep. The rim of the volcano was roughly circular and about 3,500 feet across.

Looking down towards the bottom of the volcano which could actually not quite see

Donna, sister Carol and Ib at the rim of the Irazu Volcano

This volcano had last erupted in 1965 and had caused a lot of damage as far away as San Jose about 20 km's away. We spent some time at the summit then got back into the vehicle and sped away.

At the hut, the warden asked us for our tickets and receipt back which we readily gave him. I quietly pondered the reasoning behind that move as we left and headed downhill. Donna thinks that they wanted to make sure everyone who was sold a ticket and entered the park was out of the park by the time they closed the gates. It made perfect sense when you think about it.

Donna, Ib and Carol posing on the way down from the volcano

an Iglesia (church) as we passed through one of the villages on our decent back towards San Jose

The Navigation system took us back through San Jose at around rush hour. Never again....that's all I will say on the matter. We drove onwards paying at each of the toll booths as we exited the city then back towards Puntarenas and the journey back to Flamingo.

It was starting to look like dusk was setting in when we arrived back in Puntarenas so we had no choice but to start looking for a hotel, as I did not relish the idea of driving here in the dark.

We arrived at a hotel which also had a marina. It was probably comparable with a two star with a swimming pool but it was located in a nice location so Donna went in to see if they had rooms. They had lots of them.

The view from our balcony as we arrived at the hotel in Puntarenas

I was getting tired from all the driving on the winding roadways and in no mood to argue the price - $75 a night. We took two rooms and after a dip in the pool in the dark, a couple of drinks and some chips, we were off to bed.

The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast beside the pool and got to see what it was like.

Breakfast at Tiffany's...Well maybe not, but a very pleasant location it was over looking the pool

No doubt, it was a gorgeous location. Better than the accommodation

There were some really nice boats moored at the hotel Marina

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We stayed pretty well locally after Carol and Ib departed until we left Costa Rica. We were tired and needed a rest from all the driving/travelling and it was time to pack the bags and get ready to head out.

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Since arriving two months ago, we have visited:

Tamarindo
Playa Del Coco
Lake Arenal area (twice)
The waterfall at la Fortuna (475 steps down and up)
Samara
Playa Flamingo and beaches south and north
Puntarenas
Atenas
San Jose
Quipos
Several National Parks
The Volcano Irazu
Manuel Antonio Park
Points south to within 200 Kms or 120 miles from Panama's western most border
Liberia area

The flora and fauna has been amazing. - (It will be difficult to find the diversity anywhere else except maybe in the more remote Jungles of Borneo in Malaysia).

So now it's time to leave and also time to offer you our thoughts. We said in the about section of our blog right at the top right, we will give an honest opinion and not flower it up or exaggerate anything about any place we visit but tell it the way we see it. These are our combined impressions and no-one else's about Costa Rica. Others may disagree and of course we fully understand that we all have differing perceptions as to what is acceptable and what is not. So here goes.

Don't believe everything you are told or you read. Most of the documentation we have read is flowered up a bit for the reader, grossly exaggerated or outdated.
We found this to be true about Ecuador and it is no different here.
Costa Rica IS expensive - food is expensive, cars are horrendous prices, Electricity, air conditioning and gas is really expensive. More so in a majority of cases than Canada and double the prices of stuff in the USA.
Gas is more expensive than in Canada
The road system is poor to below average if compared to the US or Canada
Signage on roadways is not good. Some are completely overgrown by trees.
The Tico's are wonderfully friendly people.
You never have to worry about violence.
The fishing is fabulous.
There is lots of Real Estate to buy here. Too much actually. Why? because it is grossly overpriced. Many people purchased in the boom, then it crashed and they are still trying to get their properties sold for the prices THEY paid..........It's not going to happen, and if it does, it will take years to recover.
Some people are still buying here. I can guarantee that some of them are purchasing uninformed. That's what happens when you have no MLS or historical values to go by. That's what happens when buyers have no enforceable Agency Relationship between them and their Real Estate Representatives. That's what happens when there is little or no requirement of fiduciary (legal) obligations to you from your real estate person.
We had our teeth cleaning done in Huacas on Linda's advice. it was done by the dentist himself (no assistants) and he did the best teeth cleaning we ever had. Price $60 each. Not bad and thank you Linda.
The beaches are gorgeous
The surf is great if you like that stuff but it can be dangerous
Many of you have heard I am sure that you can live very comfortably on $1200 a month......NOT GOING TO HAPPEN unless you are prepared to live like a hermit or you buy a property for cash.

Would we be prepared to live in Costa Rica and lay out money on a piece of real estate? NO! Not in this present climate with prices are so high and infrastructure so poor.

Those who have read my blogs from the beginning will know how we felt about Ecuador. Was Costa Rica any better? Absolutely! 100% better and streets ahead of Ecuador. You just cannot compare the two.

Costa Rica IS a beautiful country. Of that there is no doubt. The Ticos are also very friendly and helpful and for that, we are enormously grateful. We are glad we came and happy with what we saw.

We sincerely thank the Costa Rican people for having us as guests in their country. Will we come again? Probably, but we will come as tourists not as people looking for a place to call home.

As a tourist we will view Costa Rica with a completely different set of eyes, not with critical eyes like we had on this journey and like we will have when we reach Panama in three days time. Viewing a place critically was vital to us if we were to make a judgement call as to whether we would like to live there permanently.

We have spoken to visitors who love everything about life here. We have asked them if they would move here permanently. Many would not - "it's a great place to visit but to live". We have heard that quite a few times Many Ex-Pats live here and are very happy with their lot. We have spoken to others who think exactly the same as us. Of course to quote the saying "there's always two sides to a coin" Therefore you will always have people who have differing views and opinions. Luckily once again, Donna and I are both on the same page.

Life goes on so, Panama, here we come for our next two month adventure. Our hopes are high that it will work out for the two walkabout pensioners.

In closing, we would like to say an enormous thank you to Linda Wilks who spent a great deal of time and energy showing us around, providing us with very useful information and taking us to various different places before she left for her other home in Nova Scotia. Linda will be back in November and will be very pleased to assist anyone who would like to investigate any vacation rentals. We can certainly put you in contact with Linda. Thank you Linda.

Memories Are Made Of This

Sunset From Playa Flamingo

Iguana Eating Some Pineapple At Our Poolside

We had gorgeous sunsets at Flamingo

Playa Flamingo Sunset

The tuna steaks we got off my tuna catch

View from the back windows of our apartment.

The view we have been blessed with for the past two months from the living room of our apartment.

Oh, those gorgeous blossoms in Playa Del Coco

The wonderful Malinchi Tree

Our friend Linda Wilks who showed us around a lot. We are very grateful to you Linda. If you need to contact Linda for vacation rentals - call us, and we will put you in contact with her.