Didn’t get many readers for the last post so I guess Costa Rica is boring everyone…but I have all this material stored up! Okay, compromise, I’ll keep this last post about CR short and won’t post as many pictures this time.
What I found out after the catamaran trip was that a few days later was going to be El Coco’s Carnival. Now in a town of only 3,000 local residents, you can understand that it wasn’t going to be like ‘Norlean’s or Mazatlan’s world famous carnival, but I wanted to attend anyway so I headed down to the CocoNutz early, had dinner, watched soccer and waited until dark for the parade to start. And here around 8 pm it finally started. I had the feeling that they delayed things for tourists to get drunk enough that they’d think it was pretty neat. It’s okay of course, but kinda lame when compared to Mazatlan’s Carnival.
And that was pretty much it. Ended around 9:30 PM. A cute gurl came and sat next to me and got all friendly, and I was kinda looped by that time and ended up handing her my phone so she could ‘put in her number’ which I didn’t really care about but I was just looped enough that I didn’t pay much attention. Then found out later that she tried to steal my FB acct. Didn’t work as FB blocked her right away and sent me a text about it so I could change my password. Fuk her.
And, there was another couple cute women next to me at the bar, one of them in a wheelchair that I got friendly with and had a good time with. They were legit people, weren’t trying to scam me or anything. So it was nice having some ‘Mericans to talk to during the festival. Wheel chair gurl had been in a car accident but had hope she’d get her legs back. Bruised spinal cord. Sad. But she was having fun, wasn’t depressed so that’s all good. I enjoyed her company. She even scrambled up onto the bar stool next to me for a while.
Lot’s of ex-pats showing off their vehicles, marching bands, local high school promotions, funny looking masks and head gear, that sort of thing. I had a good time, but drank a little too much. Turned out okay though as I carefully rode the bike back home. Dark as tar. No street lights. Some sections along the road I knew had big potholes so I stopped and walked until I was past where I thought they were. Spent much of the ride suppressing the terror of hitting one. Must have walked nearly 75% of the road home.
As I mentioned last post, a few days before, I’d fallen off the bike in broad daylight 4-5 feet down into a ditch and in the process twisted my ankle. And it swelled up like crazy. My big toe turned black and blue too. So I bought an ace bandage to wrap my ankle and that helped the pain a lot. It was funny that I could put direct weight on the ankle and there wasn’t much pain, but if I was in bed and twisted it a bit, yikes, pain. I tested it a lot in different situations and finally decided that it wasn’t broken, and that it would heal naturally, and went on with my vacation. With it wrapped up. I even kept riding the bike.
I wanted to get some pictures of the place I’m staying, the quad, and nearby stuff so I climbed up the stairs directly above my apartment to get a better view…
A few days later, Sary the hostess had her b-day on the beach. At dusk. Most of the people staying in the AirBNB and VBRO apartments in the quad were going to attend so they invited me too. It was dark and too far to walk so Will took me over on the motorcycle. Which is their vehicle. No car. They’re so close to town, it’s unnecessary. The bikes and the motorcycle work fine for all their needs. And here’s the b-day gurl holding her 55’s. Sary (the one on the right in the below picture) doesn’t look happy being 55 years old…at least in this picture but hey, not much she can do about it. She was having fun during the surprise party though. And she’s naturally cheerful anyway. The other gal always had a ready smile too, but damn, I don’t think I got more than one good picture of her being all happy like.
Had a few beers, some chips, conversion but my ankle was hurting so went home early to bed around 10 pm.
And a couple days later, it was time to leave. You remember Esteban? The guy lives right upstairs that had rented the car and given me a tour? Well, the rental place was demanding he pay for the damage to the car…I felt sorry for him and gave him another $40 even though I didn’t need to and he didn’t ask. Two days later I asked him if he could take me to the airport two days after that? First he said yes, then later that turned into a nope. So Will had to scramble to find someone that could get me to the airport by 7 am.
The day arrives, Dec. 15th, and the driver shows up at 5:45 am! Yea!
So we head off to the airport which is an hour away, and he drops me off just at the right time. I get through customs and xrays and what not, and head upstairs. It’s still a bitch and I hate it but there’s good reason for it.
I had breakfast, coffee, and waited for the Alaska Airlines flight. Here’s some shots of the airport in case you want to travel to Liberia Costa Rica for vacation some day…pretty nice. Modern.
Everything went smoothly, and soon we were in the air. I had a window seat in a 3 seat row with only 2 of us.
Much of the flight was over the desert area of Mexico. Look at all that brown. Nary a bit of green to see, except where humans had moved in.
First we had a stop over in LA, had a short wait of 2 hours, then the hop to Seattle. And again I had a seat in a 3 seat row with only 2 people. Pretty cool. I did notice that my little 10.5″ Android just doesn’t compare to my neighbors 15″ laptop. I think I’ll switch soon.
When I arrive in Seattle (SeaTac), had a 45 minute wait for my brother to show up, then we stopped off at a brew pub where I could get dinner as it was 6 PM by then. And finally, we’re at Paul and Dan’s house. I immediately went outside and got my car’s battery hooked up, started the car just fine after it had been sitting for a month, ran around the block to warm it up and parked it ready to leave.
I had thought of staying a few more days, but it looked bad weather wise. It was likely that snow would block me in if I delayed just one day. So that night I spent a lot of time online trying to see what my travel options home to Milton Freewater were and eventually, went to bed with the plan of leaving in the AM, after re-checking the weather when I got up.
Woke up at 5 AM, checked the weather and sure enough they predicted snow in the passes the next day, quickly got ready and packed my luggage into the car, and off I went. My luck with weather held but I only had that one day to make it though the pass between snow storms. It had been cleared after the last storm and the roads were dry. The alternate route heading south on I-5 to Portland, and then east on I-84 was longer and also dicey because they predicted snow in the gorge for the next day too. So it was that day, or get stuck in Seattle. Lucky for me, the trip was easy, dry, and my car didn’t have a shimmy so I could go 75 MPH if I needed. Zero snow the entire trip. I did start hitting cold weather, like 14 F on the east side of the mountains outside of Yakima. And it stayed cold hovering around 22 F the rest of the trip.
So that’s it, that’s the trip to Costa Rica. Spent 30 days in El Coco. Enjoyed most of it. Had a pretty good time. You should go.
Thanks for reading!
You picked a good winter to get away! We usually spend 3 months in Tucson, but had a relative in Seattle with a bad cancer diagnosis, so stayed in Vancouver, WA nearly all winter. We did spend 5 days in San Diego and 12 in Nuevo Nayarit but it’s been a long winter. Our ’04 Journey has just been sitting beside our house all winter. Cancer is in remission for our relative, so we’re planning on Tucson for 3 months next winter! Need to fix a loose wire on our sliding step cover – at least I hope that’s what it is. Our basement AC is still functioning – never been worked on so far.
I had a loose wire too, on the switch which operated the platform next to the passengers seat. Mine is air operated setup but the loose wire prevented operation of the air solenoids under the hood. Also found a bad air solenoid, replaced that, and found a split air pipe…replaced it with new. I use the cover so seldom, not even sure it still works.
Good to hear that the cancer is in remission. Wish my dad had been so lucky. Died of leukemia back in ’92 and now there’s a treatment for it.
This has been a brutal winter. Even here in Tucson we’ve been seeing the southern part of that monster storm that is dumping feet of snow on southern California. How ’bout that!
Your basement AC is good equipment. But you should plan on doing a maintenance routine on it here soon. It ain’t getting any younger.
I read all your posts I just don’t comment. I got a chuckle reading Dan’s post. Our Winnie’s step went on strike a few months back. Then it just spontaneously became cooperative. It’s been in the 40s and occasionally a bit lower. We got our coach in the side yard and we are pretty consistent going out to start the motor and the gennie but not the ac which is the basement variety also. Good reminder.
Oh, well, thanks for this comment than. Yeah, my brother has a wild imagination. Your step, huh? Hmm. First thing I’d do is check all the connections in the circuit.
Than I’ll say this about starting the engine…don’t do it. UNLESS you plan on driving it for 20 miles or so to get the tranni up to temp. Idling a diesel is bad for the tranni and sometimes the engine. That’s why farmers shut them down in the fall and don’t start them again until spring.
My brother went to Costa Rica a few yrs back. He loves islands beaches and sand. I’m afraid of oceans and not fond of sand unless it’s on the ground and not on me. Grew up in SF and went to the beach a lot so didn’t get sand phobia until much later. I’m a mountains girl myself.
There is one island that intrigues me in what is now called Belize. There were Confederate prisoners after the civil war I believe who were taken there. I found this cemetery when I was researching some of my Houston and Shelby ancestors — lots of Texans were rounded up at the end of the war. It would be an interesting place to visit.
Oh, hey, that does sound interesting. I’ve never heard of that special island.
Glad to hear the FB scam attempt was foiled. I imagine that you wondered about her motives a tiny bit. That’s likker for ya! I nearly got pickpocketed in Paris and I learned to stay sharp!
Yeah, I was a bit loopy and after she handed the phone back to me I remembered what a bad idea it was, but she seemed nice. To young for me of course and eventually she made an excuse and left which was okay by me as I was talking to wheelchair gurl by that time. Deep down I knew better but the warning just didn’t surface into my brain at the time.
BTW the shower valve set up in our rig that I copycatted from your fix is working great. I’ll always be grateful.
Well, you are more than welcome. Glad to hear it worked out.
Found an article about Belize etc. https://amandala.com.bz/news/brits-brought-indians-to-belize-to-labor-for-confederates-fleeing-prosecution-in-us/
Thank you. I just read it. I didn’t know about all that, though the fact that they speak English in Belize was a tip off of course. I just didn’t know about the genocide and the southern immigrants that would have brought their slavery attitudes with them.
Well shoot, I’ve been reading your posts for quite a while and sometimes it looks as if I’m it…..So don’t worry about it, I wouldn’t read them if you were posting pictures-stories about some rat-on-a-rope, or what you had to eat each day…etc.
Oh, hey, thanks for the compliment…
WordPress tried to block me from you yesterday, they said I had too many that I was following..Huh?..Just you and Kevin & Ruth, they have waay too many ads, I have no issue with ads on the sides, but theirs covered all of the swell pictures.
I don’t know what WP was doing there. No one else has complained so must be on your end.
After a couple years, I finally got a check for $100 for the ads I USED to carry on my blog. Just not worth it to annoy people like I get annoyed when I’m reading someone’s blog so I just shut them off.
So anyways which lady? was unhappy @ 55?…Shoot give me a chance to go back 20 years, I’d be a-smiling for sure…With all the $$$ I have now being a .000002% ‘er
Yeah, Sary is the one on the right. I’ll add that to the post.
Rock -on!….Think I’ve run out of space. Keep-on posting!…from 70? miles up the Columbia from you….
I will keep posting! Thanks for the encouragement.
I’m in Tucson now working on getting my eye ulcer healed. I’ll be here for another 2 months. Maybe longer. There was snow on the ground when I got up this AM. I should be back to Milton Freewater at least by June, then you can say I’m 70 miles away.
P.S. It’s 8:45 PM here not what the posting says……I’m retired I don’t get up at the 4AM they say except to old dude Pee……
I will never visit C/R..my Winnebago would have issues for sure, “Lucy” is a 1988 and has never learned fly…or swim..
Hm. Dunno what that’s going on with the time. We’ll just have to remember you don’t get up until 10AM these days.
I hate flying these days but that’s the only way to get places sometimes. When I was in Europe for 2 months, I flew there and home, and flew twice while in Europe from Marseilles to Prague, and from Bristol to Ireland. Just short 1 hour hops. Even took a ferry over to England to avoid flying. Those are islands so only Prague was an unnecessary flight…I could have taken the train, but it was $200 and 24 hours whereas the plane was $100 and 1 hour.
I enjoyed your CR trip very much, Thanks for blogging. I always read your blogs.
Happy you enjoyed the stories. And thanks for reading!