Beignets and Oysters

After spending a great weekend with Patricia and Bob at three rivers state park we headed down to the the beach and spent two nights at Grayton Beach where we enjoyed the tar free (as far as we could tell) white sand beaches.  We had a nice time relaxing, biking, and reading.  I managed to stay in my chair outside all day reading (as some random lady walking by kindly pointed out) the book Atlas Shrugged that Patricia had given Alexis and that I then stole.  After our respite we decided that it was beyond time that we get out of Florida.  Although we had a great time in parts the state has way too many old people and strip malls, this combined with the almost total lack of topography had us eager to explore another state.  In our haste to head west we ended up on yet another ferry.  I don't know how many ferrys there are along the Gulf Coast but this was the third or maybe fourth ferry ride, so I'm guessing we've managed to blindly stumble onto most of them.  We spent a night at a state park in Mississippi and then headed over to New Orleans.



We spent three nights at Fontaineblue State Park; the park turned out to be one of the nicest we've been to.  The first night we explored the park, checking out the ruins of an old sugar mill, and making a pineapple upside-down cake for my birthday.  The park was heavily damaged by Katrina but the park and volunteers had been busy planting new trees and repairing some of the old buildings.  The park, like many we found in the south, was originally built by the CCC and had a bathhouse and swimming pool before the hurricane. 



We spend two full days touring around New Orleans.  The first day we explored the French Quarter (like good tourists) having coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde (we noticed the line and figured that whatever everyone was waiting for must be good and it was), oysters at Acme (thanks Patricia and Bob), and crawfish etoufee at some random restaurant.  Lots of good sights and people watching although the best of the day was an older gentleman in a cowboy hat driving a brand new red Dodge Charger drinking a beer while a couple of frat boys on the sidewalk yelled "Sir, Sir, your drinking a beer while driving!" in a concerned voice; the man just smiled and drank his beer.  The second day in New Orleans we explored downtown and found that there was a Marti Gras parade in the afternoon.  While waiting for the parade to start we had a beer at the very pleasant Carousel Bar, the bar slowly revolves around the bartender.  Had fun watching the people and the parade (Alexis made some new friends) and getting a small taste of what New Orleans during Marti Gras official would be like.  On the way back to out camp we ran across another parade in the town of Slidell blocking our way home so we parked and enjoyed our second parade of the day.  We're now headed towards the Big Thicket in Texas, hopefully we don't get stuck.



               

Back in Florida

After our return from Costa we headed back to Tampa to visit with my great aunt Mary Esther once again.  We were able to meet her son Jud and his family and had a relaxing time watching his daughters soccer game and eating dinner at a great mexican restaurant.  From Tampa we headed north to O'Leno State Park in order to get ready for a canoe trip down the Santa Fe River starting near the river rise.  The river actually disappears below ground for ~3 miles and then reappears at the river rise.  We went for a 15 mile bike ride and had a great time on the trails, even if they were a bit soggy and required some maneuvering to avoid wet feet.  I was not completely successful in that endeavor. 

   

At the recommendation of Bob Campbell we set out for a 3 day, two night, canoe trip down the Santa Fe River.  The river is slow and meandering with beautiful clear springs adding to it all the way down to where it meets the Suwannee River.  We enjoyed the warming weather as it had once again been cold and floated lazily down the river.  Where the Ichetucknee River (the names are extremely easy to pronounce) joins the Santa Fe, we took a right and battled the sometimes very rapid current to reach the state park.  The water was clear and we could see huge gar, among other fish, looking up at us.  This was the off season and besides a lone swimmer and a few boaters we had the place to ourselves.  There was an open meadow area with the river flowing through it where we camped and it turned out to be a mecca for wildlife. 

   

We headed north to northwest once again to meet Patricia and Bob at Three Rivers State Park for the holiday weekend.  Our camp site had a great view of a large lake; however, the park forgot to mention controlled burns and we had some authentic fire ambiance all weekend long.  We enjoyed a lot of good food, a paddle around the lake, and a short hike. 

 

In three weeks we will be back in Flagstaff (staying for two weeks) so we are beginning our trip back west.  We plan on heading along the Gulf coast, through New Orleans, and then straight across Texas. 

Cosata Rica, the final chapter

We woke up early to meet our ride a little ways down the hill from Casa Mariposa (for some reason no one without four wheel drive wanted to drive all the way up).  We found our driver Roberto and his wife Mary waiting in the dark for us. I'm not sure what the deal is with people taking their families along but it provided good entertainment.  They own a touring company and drove to fill in the gaps between tours, and like 99% of Costa Ricans who had been to the states, they had lived in New Jersey.  They were both really nice and helped make sure that we got on the direct bus to Cahuita... not the stop every time someone on the side of the road waves their hand bus.  Doris, the woman Amber had rented a house from in Cahuita, arranged to have us picked up from the bus depot.  I don't think I have ever been so organized about travel in my life.  The house was a beautiful open air affair with a nice garden and, as we were to learn in the morning, lots and lots of chickens in the neighborhood.  We all woke-up our first morning to a god-awful howling and lots of roosters.  Turns out that there are also a lot of howler monkeys in the neighborhood. 

Cahuita was an interesting town of tourist, rastas, and drunks (these are not all mutually exclusive).  It did have a great beach next to it with a park full of monkeys (white-faced and howlers), sloth, raccoons, and birds.  The beach has a bit of a reputation for thievery but after seeing the people and the animals we all wondered how many wallets were up in the trees with the monkeys.  We were all pretty excited to see the sloth until we realized that it was just a blob of fur in a tree that did not move; to be fair to the sloth when we returned the next day it had moved one tree over.  We found a great beach south of Cahuita in Puerto Viejo called, and this is the real name, Playa Chiquita.  Had a great day body surfing and re-acquiring sun burns.  Our return bus was complete with stops every couple hundred feet for someone on the side of the road, crazy swerving to miss giant pot holes, and boxes and bags of chicks and chickens.

The next day Alexis and I hopped on a bus for San Jose for our flight out the next day.   We relaxed most of the afternoon at our bed and breakfast, Margaritas, run by a very helpful and friendly Dutch woman.  The following morning we lounged about and had breakfast before our taxi arrived to take us to the airport.  The only real problem with all the traveling was navigating our way through the Miami airport immigration and customs (I feel so bad for people who are new the country who have to figure it out).  We didn't take may photos of this part of our trip as we spend most of our time on the beach or relaxing at the house but we had a great time!

Chirripo National Park: The Epic Climb

Victor called us a couple times to let us know that he was stuck in traffic but was on his way (he had taken some clients to San Jose in the morning) and "don't worry my friends, don't worry", which made us all worry a little bit.  He picked us up at about 2:45pm with his wife, two kids, and small dog named poopy in tow.  We drove south along the coast and got a good look at all of the palm oil plantations and then took a left at Dominical to head over the mountains.  The road was super steep and a bit foggy due to driving through the clouds.  Upon arriving in San Isidro, Victor told us that his wife won't let him come to this city by himself due to the unusually high number of single Ticas (ladies).  We headed once again into the mountains this time for Rivas.  The communication/understanding broke down at this point as we needed to get to San Gerrado de Rivas which, it turns out, is quite a bit past Rivas.  Lucky for us it was getting dark and the road was getting smaller and sketchier by the kilometer.  Victor did the usual stop and ask locals for directions to the Casa Mariposa Hostel where we had reservations and at first no one had heard of it.  Finally we started to hear 2km more, but then we heard that a couple times after continuing 2km.  It was about this time that it was completely dark, the road was one lane with less and less pavement and getting significantly steeper.  We could hear water rushing under the bridges we were crossing, and despite attempts to remain in good spirits (the kids were bouncing around the back seats of the mini-bus giggling) we were all beginning to be a bit on edge seeing as how we did not have 4 wheel drive.  Luckily we spotted the hotel after a very exciting last climb but turning the bus around required all of us hopping out and Mark and Ron pushing the bus back up the hill.  Once inside, WA (Wendy Ann), gave us a quick tour of the place and just to settle the nerves, the hotel dog (which we later found out was blind and deaf) fell off of a pretty high rock right onto Amber who managed to break the dogs fall even if it did continue to roll down the steps finally stopping at Ron's feet.  Then it got up as if nothing happened and walked away.  At this point we explained our urgent need for food and beer and were pointed next door where we found a very reasonably priced and delicious restaurant at Hotel Uran.

 
  
Our plan was to wake early, hike down to the park office, and acquire 4 of the 10 hiking permits available daily.  There were two guys in front of us so we thought that we would definitely be able to hike the following day.  The park ranger informed us that there were only 2 permits left.  The math definitely did not work out on that one so we figured we had been swindled somehow (figured out later that they were tour guides).  Our spirits remained high due to the amazing new area we are able to explore for an extra day.  We lounged about the hostel which had a beautiful kitchen with huge windows, a cozy living room, and hammocks and then hiked with a guide through Cloudbridge Reserve where we saw a very diverse jungle with the beautiful Rio Chirripo running through it.  As luck would have it, we were able to acquire permits the following morning.  We began the climb to Chirripo (highest peak in Costa Rica) the following morning.  We planned on taking the "short-cut" through Cloudbridge that the guide had told us about but the blind and deaf dog was following us and we had to take the normal trail to ditch the dog.  It was 14.5 km to the lodge where we would be staying and then another ~5 km to the top of the peak with a total elevation gain of about 7,000 ft.  We hiked through dense jungle, a zone with oak trees up to 150 ft tall, and finally into grass and shrubs.  A couple kilometers were more trying than others, especially "the hill of repentance" as it is named.  After lunch at the lodge we decided to do a little more hiking and just so happened to be headed toward the peak.  After a little debate, even though we had been told to summit the following morning and see the sunrise, we choose to continue up to the summit during our clear weather window.  The people who had gone to the top that morning said it was cloudy and they could not see anything so we took advantage of our weather.  The vista was beautiful even if we were unable to see the Pacific and Caribbean oceans.  The lodge had a kitchen and dining area and the rooms had bunk beds.  We did a short hike in the morning and then headed back down to the hostel.  We decided to take the "short-cut" which turned out to be about the same distance as the main trial but significantly steeper.  With wobbly knees we went straight for some nachos and cervezas.  Tomorrow would be a long travel day to the Caribbean side...

  

Arrive in Costa Rica and visit the Pacific Coast

After storing our trailer and truck we took a short flight from Orlando to Miami and then on to San Jose, Costa Rica to meet up with Mark and Amber.  We have to thank Mark and Amber immensely for sharing their tropical vacation with us and for all of the fabulous organizing they did.  Lucky for us Ambers boss Craig owns a small house in Playa Hermosa that he offered for us to use for a few days.  Also lucky for us Amber had been in touch with Mary (who lives in Costa Rica and is a co-owner of the house), Mary organized a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us all to Playa Hermosa.  As Alexis and I were leaving the airport not really knowing how we were going to meet up with Mark and Amber or the driver we spotted our names on a sign just as we spotted Amber, problem solved.   The drive to the coast took a couple of hours, it could have been a little quicker but our driver suggested stopping for some cervezas for the ride, you should always listen to locals when they give advice.  We met Mary at the house where she gave us a tour and warned us not to leave anything out.  The house is just 1/2 block from the beach and we went for a swim then settled in.  We took a cab into the neighboring town of Jaco to meet Mary for dinner at Graffiti Restro Cafe, had a great dinner (even Amber who may have left her cards on the table when we left) and decided that we probably all had had enough for our first half day in the country. 

        

As mentioned Mary advised that we should not leave anything outside of  the house, I thought "who would want my old swim shorts?", well it turns out that someone did (see advice that I ignored in sentence 5 above).  We all decided to take it easy the second day and sleep in.  Luckily for us Amber chose the room without A/C so we had a great, cool, night sleep.  We swan some more at the beach, where the currents where a bit strong, and generally relaxed.  Had another great dinner at a small place on the beach where the servings of tuna and mashed potatoes were huge.  The next day Mark and Amber left early for for surf lessons in Jaco with Tex (from California) who we had met the previous night at dinner.  Alexis and I headed to Jaco a bit later to meet up with them and procure a new set of swim shorts for myself.  My backup pair of shorts held up with a rope were not really hacking it.  After Amber got her surf lesson and Mark mainly got ignored we found a traditional Soda (restaurant) for lunch and had our first casados (rice, beans, salad, and meat of your choice).  The owner of the Soda had spent 10 years in Austria and had a bunch of old school snowboarding pictures of himself on the walls.  As we left our waitress told us not to swim for at least 30 minutes but we decided to risk it and went for another swim.  Again we should have listened, not because of the meal and cramping but because of the noon day sun.  After we all realized that we were all a bit red, ok more like lobster red, we headed back to our house to drown our pain in rum.

 

After a bit too much pain medication we all woke a bit groggy, Alexis took her coffee down to the beach to watch the sun rise.  One of the numerous dogs came by where she was and peed on her coffee while another drooled on her flip flops (hee hee).  I hung out in the hammock while Mark rented a surf board and Amber and Alexis headed into Jaco for some shopping.  Went for a nice walk and spotted one of the pairs of Scarlet Macaws that had bee flying around the area. 

 

The following day we all headed into Jaco to get some cash and find a ride to our next stop San Gerrado de Rivas.  While Mark was asking about transportation at a hotel we met Victor who said that he had a taxi/driving service called Tico Taxi and would take us door to door for a reasonable price.  We all decided that it would be worth it to take a private car rather that the bus as the route was a bit complicated.  We made arrangements for Victor to pick us up the next day at Playa Hermosa.  Mark had a problem with an ATM not giving him cash but removing it from his account (he has subsequently talked with his back who assured him that the problem will maybe be resolved).  We spent the rest of the day swimming (Alexis and I) and surfing (Mark and Amber) until Amber decided not to watch the board (Mark's words) and got hit in the mouth.  Mark's sage advise went over pretty well, but a little pain medication did improve the patients outlook.  Had a good dinner Vista Hermosa (best restaurant we found in Hermosa) and some drinks at the appropriable named Dos Gringos.  We woke up excited to be off to the mountains.  Had a quick swim and waited for Victor......