Window to Our World: 2015

This October marks 40 years that she's put up with me,

and that deserves some kind of recognition, so to thank her,

we headed to beautiful Costa Rica for 10 days!

Awwk! Just call me Marvey!

We flew into San Jose and stayed one night at the Studio Hotel,

a stylish boutique hotel that launched our trip wonderfully well!

The view from our room:

Next morning we start the day with some great coffee (locally grown)

and a sumptuous breakfast. That's right, sumptuous..

I don't know what all this stuff is, but since it came on the buffet...

In fact, ALL our hotels provide breakfast with the room, for the next ten days!

After breakfast, our driver Tito arrived to carry us to La Fortuna, a small town

that sits at the base of Mount Arenal, a volcano that was last active in 2010!

Beautiful countryside, and a "living fence". The locals lop off a tree branch,

and stick it in the ground for a fence post. But because this land is so fertile,

within a short time the posts send out roots, and begin to leaf out on top!

We stopped at this one-lane bridge, and walked across via

a pedestrian footbridge, while Tito drove the van across.

Just to prove we were here...

Next stop,

the Magic Mountain Hotel in La Fortuna!

The view from our balcony:

Chillin'!

That's Mt Arenal behind me...Wait, is that smoke coming out of the top?

After settling in, we strolled down the road to this joint
called the Vagabondo Reggae Bar!

Check out the pizza and calzone. Muy Grande!!

We've got a Philodendron on our patio, but not like THIS!

Later that afternoon, the showers arrived, as seen from our front door.

After siesta, we check out the pool. That's our room up on the 3rd floor.

Here's Linda, on the dry side of the swim-up bar.

Hmmm, what's this?

The bartender and bartender's assistant!

In Costa Rica, it starts getting dark at 5:30 pm,
but then it gets light at 5:30 too. In the AM.
So we started out for dinner at dusk, and found La Tipica!
It's a local diner, specializing in "typical" food, or food that the locals eat.
These cafes are distinguished by the names "typical" or "sodas".

Those two happy folks could be Mimi and Papa. That brick grill
sits out with the tables, but it's where all the cooking is done!

We noticed instead of Diet Coke, they serve Coca-Cola Light, in bottles!
What a wacky world!

Next morning we head to Mistico, a park in the rainforest

comprised of a dozen "hanging bridges".

More of those "living fences"...

...And Lake Arenal. We're getting close..

Once in the rain forest, we see crazy stuff, like this Bromeliad plant,
growing on the limb of a tree!

That's some kinda bird, with a blue body and a yellow head!?
No, I promise. Keep looking...

Typical of the trails through the park

You know just about anything will grow down here.

Aaah, the brave explorers on the first small bridge.

Look! Up in the sky...it's a bird...it's a plane...
No, it's a howler monkey! He was making a long, growling howl
to warn the others that "people" were approaching.

A little further along we spot this small orange frog,
which spits venom much like an asp. These guys are born non-toxic,
but develop this poison once they start eating ants. It's all that acid!

Here comes a hanging bridge. Who wants to go first?

I have no idea, but it was pretty.

They should build one of these at Six Flags.

A little later on we spot a "family" of monkeys,
four adults and at least four kiddos, but they move too fast
to get a solid count!

This parade of leaves caught our attention,

then we saw they were being carried by ants!

Well, We made it! Now let's hit the hot tub.

Next morning we move again, this time to the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

The trip begins with a ferry ride across Lake Arenal.

Along the way we spot these herons, getting ready to do some fishing.

Hmmm... I thought we would arrive at a dock or something...

Nope. Now we're back in a tour bus, making our way to the Cloud Forest.

About halfway there we stop for a short break at this bamboo hut,
which was a cafe/bar/souvenir shop.

So, this duck walks into a bar...

At mid-morning we arrive at the Cala Lodge, where we take a room on the second floor.

Our view from the balcony:

And some of the beautiful fauna around the lodge...

This is a version of Lantana, which is fragrant and attacks
butterflies and humming birds, all around the grounds!

All around the Cala grounds we saw these beautiful Blue Butterflies

For lunch, we grabbed a cab into the little town of Santa Elena,
and had lunch at the Morphos Blue Butterfly Cafe.

From the way she's smiling, you might think this is some exotic

adult beverage, but actually it's their specialty iced tea!

The ceiling of the cafe with hanging butterflies(and our waiter over there in the red!)

After lunch, we strolled around Santa Elena and booked an adventure
for tomorrow, before heading back to the Cala Lodge.

Next morning after breakfast, we head for our adventure:
That's right - Zip Lines!

We're smiling... but this is real death-defying stuff!

We start with the Tarzan Swing

They told us that from the launch platform
to the highest point away, the stride was
about 270 feet...and I believe it!

Then we moved to the first of 12 zip line platforms.
This journey starts 45 meters in the air, and zips from
tree to tree until we get back close to our starting point!
Unless a cable breaks, we won't touch the
ground again for a couple of miles!

The zip lines run between 80 meters and 300 meters, which makes for a long ride!

There she goes! Hey, wait for me!

After a couple of lines, Linda really had the knack!

Before we go any further,
we have to give a shout out
to our amazing guides:

That's Jose on the left,

and Ross on the right.

They're the BEST!
Muchas gracious, amigos!

Jose borrowed Linda's phone to take a video for us, showing

the zip-ride we were about to take. So, Here we go!

Those guys made it a blast, even though we were way up in the air...

and we couldn't always see where we would end up!

Later that evening we walked down to Don Luis' Restaurant,

a very nice place that's popular with tourists and locals alike!

Back to Cala Lodge, and our balcony.

We spent time out here after dark, when the rain arrived!

But next morning everything was quiet again!

Scrumptious breakfast in the open dining room.

One last picture, courtesy of Francisco Castro, our host at Cala Lodge!

And now we head for the coast: Manuel Antonio and the Pacific Ocean!

And here we are! The Falls Resort:

This is a real
retro-styled
place, like
"Casablanca"
with bungalows
built around a
cascading
waterfall in the
center of a
Tropical Garden!

This is
our room
up here!
>>>>

Our patio, complete with hammock!

And the bedroom. Wait, that looks like a mosquito net...?
We're not going to need that, are we?
Nawh, it's just for looks!

The view from our patio back towards the Infinity pool.
They built this so the waterfall runs up to the pool, to
give the impression you're swimming "natural"!

Wait...where did this picture come from?

After settling in, we hit the pool.

I found this loose flower, and she wore it for me! Niiice.

Later on, after dark, we try the patio bar (Guarotinis!)
and then move to the Falls Garden Restaurant , an open air
dining room run by chef Flander Bonilla. Superb!
We've had a great day, and never left the resort!

Next morning we took the bus down to the public beach.

This place was gorgeous and since it was mid week,

we were almost the only ones there! We did meet a few swimmers

and a totally rad surfer, so that inspired me to try a little body surfing.

The breakers were hitting six feet high, so my body surfing quickly

turned into ocean-assisted-cartwheels, but they were awesome!

Sorry, but since we were both in the swim, we didn't take pictures.

After awhile, we changed clothes and strolled just across the street,

where locals had set up booths offering souvenirs for sale.

This guy must've recognized a pigeon, because he became my BFF,

and yeah, I bought some stuff!

Lunch time, so we headed back to our neck-o-the-woods.
Earlier, we had spotted this restaurant El Avion, because it was near The Falls,
and we wanted to try it out. What fun! This place was actually built around an
abandoned C123 cargo plane, still intact from the 80s!

The fuselage has become the bar, and you enter through the bay doors!

And if you're very, very brave, you can climb up into the cockpit!

Cleared for take-off. Roger Wilco!

We took a table on their huge covered deck, overlooking the ocean!

Great food, cold drinks, and an amazing view!

I remember we took this picture because a sloth was chillin' in this tree,

just off the deck, about 15 feet from us. Now he's kinda hard to make out.

Anyway, I think that gray patch in the shadows is him!

We had a few postcards we wanted to mail, so we took the public bus
into Quepos which is a few miles inland from Manuel Antonio.

Public transportation here is good and reliable, with bus fare running
about 60 cents to ride anywhere on the community route. Quepos is the
most populous city in this area, and while it's certainly not a large town,
it's big enough to have a post office!

Anybody wanna buy some fresh fish?

I guess we'll just eat dinner back at The Falls, so after some
sight-seeing in Quepos, we headed back to our home away from home.

And...we're back!

This is now our "regular table" at the Falls Garden Restaurant.
It provides easy access to the bar area, and overlooks the patio and pool!

One more try at a selfie before we shove off!

The trip back to San Jose took all afternoon, and we arrived
at rush hour on Thursday evening. In San Jose, all red cars are taxis!

We loved our first hotel here, the Studio Hotel. But we wanted to explore the older,
central part of historic San Jose too, so this time we're staying at the Balmoral.

It's situated in the vibrant historical downtown area, on Avenue Central!
The Avenue is for pedestrians only, and is full of shopping and night life.
Here is the street view of the Balmoral:

Just inside, on the first floor, is the El Patio restaurant. It's a three
storied atrium that's open to guests of the hotel, and locals alike!
Each morning, they provide a full breakfast buffet for their guests.

One story up is El Bar, which starts jumping with live music at night!

The entire area is a crazy mix of some old buildings, some new offices,
cultural landmarks, some beautiful architecture from 150 years ago
and some alleys you may want to avoid!