My September Disappeared in a Blur of Travel

Oh my goodness where has September gone? I am sure that time moves faster down here! It has been a great month with lots of travelling and more settling in the the rhythm of things. We got the bike all maintenanced up and inspected, which she passed with flying colors. I still won't drive her and am I not sure if I will, but so far it has worked out fine since I take the school bus to and from school and Ivan ends up using the bike to do his things. The rainy season has hit in full force this month, so that kind of cramps any significant travel plans after noon. I mean, we have rain gear, but nobody wants to drive on a moto in a monsoon, which is usually what the rain at this time of year amounts to. 

Monsoons aside, we have gotten a lot of travel in. The second week of September Ivan, eight other teachers and myself caravaned (in cars!) five hours all the way to the north pacific coast to the popular beach town of Tamarindo. Tamarindo hosts a race during this weekend each year and a few of the teachers and Ivan were participating. We got a BEAUTIFUL AirBnB rental house on Playa Grande, the beach just walking distance from the town. I say walking distance because indeed, we could walk down the beach 15 minutes and reach Tamarindo. However, there is a small watershed between the two which requires a quick boat ride across. Not a big deal during the day, but since the racers had to be in Tamarindo at 4:30am, a quick jaunt across in a boat wasn't really an option. So instead, they had to drive to Tamarindo, turning the 15 minute walk into a 45 minute drive! There is no direct road across the estuary, so to drive from Playa Grande to Tamarino you have to basically come all the way back inland and loop around, over some really rough dirt roads no less! So after getting in at 11pm on Friday night the poor racers had to be up and out the door by 3am to get to the race before they closed the roads. Despite being sleep deprived, everyone did well. Ivan did the half marathon so fast that he had already crossed the finish line by the time I arrived to cheer him on at 7:30am! The rest of the trip was so wonderful and relaxing. The beach was beautiful with perfect surfing waves and lots of pretty shells and rocks. After the race, we didn't go back into Tamarindo but instead hung out at the house/pool/beach. On Saturday night we walked around the small beach community in Playa Grande, finding a great restaurant attached to the well-known Bula Bula Hotel. We stayed through Sunday afternoon before making the trek back to San Jose. Tamarindo and Playa Grande are definitely longer weekend trips, but we had Tuesday off as a national holiday to recover, which was necessary for sure!

The next weekend Ana Ligia, our wonderful HR manager, invited a bunch of teachers to her parents' home outside of Cartago. Cartago is a small, very historical city about a half hour outside of east San Jose, well known for some of it's historical churches, most famously the cathedral that houses La Negrita, the patron "saint" of Costa Rica. Ana Ligia's parents' home was about 30 minutes outside of Cartago with beautiful views of the mountains. They have a full guesthouse/bar, so we just ate and drank and enjoyed one another's company for whole evening, with many of us staying the night to avoid the long drive home. The next morning we trekked into Cartago proper, where we had breakfast and checked out the cathedral. There were of course Sunday morning services so we couldn't get close enough to check out La Negrita. You guys really need to look up the story about La Negrita. It is really interesting! Additionally, every August 2nd one MILLION pilgrims walk to Cartago from all over the country to pay homage to this little lady, some of them finishing the last few hundred yards on their knees. I have no idea how that many people fit in Cartago, because it is not a big place, but who knows maybe I'll make the walk next year and check it out!

Last weekend was just THE BEST. My wonderful friend Sarah flew down just for the weekend to hang out! She found a great deal on Southwest, which has direct flights out of Baltimore (TAKE NOTE PEOPLE) and decided to come down for a long weekend. Ivan and rented a car (WHICH WAS SO MUCH FUN AND NOW I WANT TO BUY A CAR), picked her up at the airport at 1pm Friday and made our way to the pacific coast. We rented a two bedroom apartment on the Punta Leona Resort, which is only about an hour and a half outside of San Jose. The resort is huge, with many different hotels, chalets, apartments, homes etc, along with a number of restaurants, three pools, two beaches, mini golf and a partridge in a pear tree. We checked in and by 3:45 were at the beach! Their beach, Playa Blanca, is really beautiful with soft waves, soft sand and really nice beach chairs! We watched the sunset from the beach, which is particularly beautiful as it sets behind the mountains of Guanacaste, the peninsula across the bay. After dinner (where Ivan finally got to eat his whole fish!) we passed out happy. On Saturday we spent the ENTIRE DAY at the beach! We arrived around 8am and while Sarah and I claimed our chairs, Ivan went back to the apartment and cooked us breakfast! He showed up two hours later with egg, tomato and avocado wraps! What a great start to our day! Around 2pm a flock of scarlet macaws all randomly showed up and took up residence in a tree right on the beach. Sarah and I floated in the water just watching them eat- they were so big and beautiful! And so funny to watch interact with one another. After a half hour and without warning they ALL suddenly took off, first in one direction then the other, in almost perfect synchrony. Watching a flock of over 30 scarlet macaws flying is truly incredible! We headed home to shower, got dinner and hit up the outdoor bar for a night cap, where Sarah and I tried a drink called "silk stockings" that was make of Gin, a liquor called "Perfect Love" that was purple, evaporated milk and coconut milk. It doesn't sound all that great but it was AMAZING. We took our milk-filled bellies home, played some games and went to bed before midnight. We. are. totally. over. thirty.

On Sunday, we hung out at the beach in the morning and then decided to make the trek to Volcan Poas, a volcano north of San Jose and about two hours from the resort. Yes, it blows my mind too that I can drive two hours from a beautiful beach to a volcano. I drove the whole way and it was crazy to watch both the scenery and feel the temperature change- very hot to actually chilly. Despite our best efforts, we did not actually get to go check out the volcano- due to lightning in the area, the park was closed! We made the best of it though, buying strawberries from a street vendor and then heading to a well-known restaurant near the peak where we had the best hot chocolate of our lives, paired with some crazy dessert that mixed plantains, strawberry jam and excessive cheese. We got back home around 6pm, reconnected to our work emails and went to bed. The next morning we had breakfast together and I went to work while Ivan took Sarah to the airport and returned the rental. And now here I am on September 30th wondering where the month went, but it's pretty obvious that I just filled it to the brim! 

Two Weekends: Two Adventures!

What a fantastic two weeks we have had! We've had two incredibly adventurous weekends with two solid work weeks in between. Two Sundays ago Ivan and I met up with the San Jose Kymco Scooter club. We happened to catch a small group week, as it was just us, the leader, a 27 year old super scooter enthusiast named Ever and a charming couple in their late thirties named Jimsy and Eric. All of us had some version of a Kymco Scooter with CC's ranging from 275-500, so we were all stocked and ready for the open road. Our trip took us  down the autopista for a while and then on to a beautiful, curvy back road through some of the most beautiful mountains, hills and small towns. It looked like we were in the Shenandoah Valley, not Central America! Each small town has a town center with a lovely church, so passing through each town brings something interesting to look at. It took us a bit more than an hour on the road to reach our destination: Zarcero. Zarcero is a small town with an incredible central plaza, notable for some crazy and beautiful shrub sculptures and a beautiful church. 






We spent most of the morning into the afternoon just lounging around the plaza enjoying the day. On the way back we passed through a different set of towns, including Sarchi, famous for their artisan furniture and "ox carts", a Costa Rican-specific artisan craft that consists of a brightly painted ox cart wheel sold at great expense. On the way back we also hit some rain but I was surprised at what a non-event it was with all the rain gear on. The bike handled great and we are looking forward to going again. 

This past weekend Ivan and I celebrated our two year anniversary on another bike trip! This time, we headed for the beach. We left early Saturday morning bound for Playa Manta, one of the closest beaches to San Jose and known for having calmer waters. We found the road there just fine, but then nearly pooped ourselves hobbling over 3.5 kilometers of holey, dirt road to get finally to the beach. But it was such a great beach! The water was indeed flatter and the beach was smaller than Esterillos Oeste but lovely, palm lined and perfect for a relaxing day. We left around two after we discovered that the high tide literally pushes you all the way back into the trees! Once we were up off the sand we figured it was time to go. We headed to an Air BnB I had found that was about a half hour on the way back to San Jose, off, we discovered, another dirt road! This one was only about a kilometer. At the BnB we met the lovely Claudine, a Luxemburgian transplant to Costa Rica who had a "casita" (little house) in her back yard by her awesome pool. The casita was adorable and the "backyard" was a professionally designed tropical garden surrounded by jungle and, of course, with a really great pool. We swam, we rested, we even walked back to the main road to eat dinner at a great little soda right on the corner of street. It was just such a great find! The next morning, Claudine cooked us breakfast on her porch which overlooked the jungle and was so high up that you could see the coast and ocean, not to mention all of the scarlet macaws playing in the trees! Needless to say, we very much enjoyed our little anniversary trip! The only downside was getting caught in the rain on the way back....and choosing NOT to put on our rain gear. I won't make that mistake again!