Lovely Ladies

Its so hard to say goodbye, especially to the 4 most inspirational women in my life!

My mother (Betsey), cousin (Meghan), Aunt Judy and Aunt Janie came to visit during the start of December 2009. What an amazing visit it was! Catamaran sailing and snorkeling, walking on the beach, hot springs, playing in the water and my favorite, cocktails by the swimming pool.

I picked them up at Liberia Airport in Guanacaste early afternoon. Took them to a nearby soda for their first taste of Costa Rica and then headed to Arenal and Tabacon Hot Springs. What a treat?! We soaked in the, what felt like 200 degree waters of the springs, played on the water slide into the hot swimming pool and walked through the beautiful gardens. This something I was really happy to share with them, its such a relaxing tranquil place. After we were thoroughly cooked, we headed to the Asian themed buffet. (NOTE: I hate buffets. BUT, and big BUT, this is the classiest and tastiest (and cleanest) buffet I have ever been to.) Then off to our hotel, Arenal Lodge.

Stop at the soda near Liberia Airport.


Dinner at Tabacon.


Tabacon Hot Springs (during the day).




The next morning we returned to Tabacon to take a few pictures and purchase some goodies from the Guatemalan women across the way. Everything was "handmade by them and it took them months to do" and it only cost $60. Think thats true or were we suckers? Hmmmm...

Suckers at the Guatemalan stand.


Lake Arenal on our return trip to Tamarindo.


We then headed back to Tamarindo to check into our private villa, Villas Cerca del Mar in Langosta (managed by Horizon Pacific). Everyone was very surprised and extremely pleased to have such an amazing place to spend the week. We relaxed by the pool, drank some cocktails and took it all in.

Picture of Villa Cerca del Mar.


The following days were filled with hours of relaxing on the beach, relaxing by the pool, relaxing sunsets, "relax-fully" collecting sea shells, eating relaxing dinners and sipping relaxing cocktails...sounds rough huh?!

Here are some relaxing pictures:





Dinner at Season's by Shlomy and serenaded by local mariachi (Nana you would have loved it.).

Dinner at Dragonfly. Yum!

Dinner at Vita Bella/Bruno's, delish Lebanese food. Followed by a cramped, but hysterical and tipsy ride home in an tiny little taxi.



Collecting Sea Shells...Playa Grande, Playa Avellanas, and Playa Langosta.





We did enjoy a trip to Playa Avellanas. Mom's favorite place. We read on the beach, collected sea shells and lunch at Lola's restaurant, where it could be that my family was suckered into buying more "hand made goods".




We enjoyed multiple rousing games of Cranium. Of course Meghan and I won!



I think we all enjoyed the Blue Dolphin Catamaran, we went snorkeling, had some cocktails and enjoyed a beautiful sunset!







The hardest part for me was saying "goodbye", but better goodbye, then never having had you down here.

It was an amazing week and I'm so lucky to have these women in my life. Lucky to be able to share this with them. I know its not something that can happen every year and it means so much to me. Thank you and I love you! The pictures and the memories will last forever!

Fish don't wake up until 12:30.

Today was a great day! Ain't nothing like a Sunday morning spent trying to fish, chatting with friends, getting some sun and watching the sea life.

I spent the day with Patrick and his poker buddies on a friend's deep-sea fishing boat, Capullo, which means asshole or idiot in Spanish (Spain). We got up around 5:45am to get ready and head out. Got on the boat, headed straight out to sea. A few miles later the boat staff prepared the lure and bait. Patrick was to bring in the first fish and me, the second. We were very ready, I didn't realize this was a sport of patience. Luckily there was a lot going on.

About 1 and a half hours into the trip, Patrick found himself crying, "Ralph". I felt awful for him, but not bad enough to not take a picture.

Perhaps a little chum will help to catch a fish or 2...fat chance!



And yet another one, cause I like it...





We had a humpback whale spotting. Check back later to see the video, can't seem to get it to work right now.

It took me about 30 minutes to get this thing in! Okay okay, its the bait!


Learning about the different hooks. Did you know if you use a round hook verses a flat or straight hook, that it does less damage to fish if you want to catch and release? This is great really, but after not even a bite in 4 hours...catch and release, shmatch and shmelease, I WANT SUSHI!


The boat! Great picture thanks to Patrick.


A picture of the boat from the front. I climbed up there to watch the dolphins play under bow of the boat


Here are the dolphins.


Our return trip back into the bay. We pulled in around 12:15pm empty handed. I guess the fish don't wake up until 12:30.


Had a great time! Thanks Captain Steve, with Capullo Costa Rica Sportfishing, looking forward to the next time!

Little Corn Island, a "country" of its own!

Every 3 months or 90 days, one must leave Costa Rica to renew his/her Visa. This is the only requirement to reside here.

My friends Philine, Jon, Melissa and myself all went to Little Corn Island. Little Corn Island (we'll call it LC for short) is about 3 kilometers off the Caribbean coast of Big Corn Island, which is about 10 kilometers off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. To get to this itsy bitsy island was quite the adventure, had it been in the states, it would take approximately 3 hours, maybe, but in Costa Rica and Nicaragua its so much more of a "treat". Really, it is part of the allure.

We left my apartment at about 0800 (pronounced, Oh 800) hours. Its about a 2.5 hour drive to the boarder, which might I say, is quite the enjoyable place. Picture 5 tour buses pulling up and unloading passengers to go through customs, this is the line you have to wait in. You have 20 dirty cheating men in your face asking if you want to change your money to the Cordoba (Nicaraguan currency). They're cheating, because all the calculators are rigged, so if you don't know, then you could loose some money in the transaction. Then you get up to customs, they don't do anything, just stamp your passport, no questions, nada. I think the guy in front of me had a picture of a 4 year old, Asian girl, he got through. Then you have to walk along a dirt path, where they make you wait again and stamp your passport. Don't know what they're doing, cause the stamp looks exactly like the last one to me. Look, I'm just following the 4 year old, Asian girl (45 year old Tico).

FINALLY, its approximately 1200 hours (is that how you say it?) and we've made it! Across the boarder. We grab a cab. This is fun, cause there are 4 of us, not including the driver, who looked a bit like a Latin Elvis (we'll just call him Elvis), so we are 5 people in a tiny little car. The AC is broken, thank goodness the windows "work" at least 2.5 of them do. Its HOT needless to say! Its okay though, the airport is only 2 hours away. Elvis was really funny. At one point Jon asked Elvis if he would like a SIP of water from the water bottle. Elvis takes the water bottle and squeezes it as hard as he can, fills his mouth with water and has it running down his chin and onto his shirt. The four of us (minus Elvis) were laughing hysterically, because we couldn't believe he did that. Then Elvis started laughing, who knows why, cause we were laughing at him. I'll stop here, because I think you had to be there. Just about 30 minutes before we arrive, Elvis began praying, because Jon told him, if he didn't get us there in time for our flight, he wouldn't get paid. So he started praying. We got there with an hour to spare.

Nothing interesting about the flight, only that the airplane was an old thing (you'll see pictures).

We arrive on Big Corn Island at about 1600 hours. You then need to take a boat over to LC. It was quick and painless. We've made it. At 1700 hours (9 hours after we left little Tamarindo) we arrive at the dock, little did we know this was more or less the main attraction. We unloaded our stuff and went to find a room. There are no roads, only one long concrete path and little dirt paths branching off of it. It was charming. Everyone has a wheelbarrow. This is how you bring your goods from the dock to your house. The shops have 3 bottles of water, 2 bags of Cheetos, 4 packs of gum, 6 rolls of toilet paper, and good luck looking for anything beyond that, oh and Flor de Cana, which is the Nicaraguan rum. Very tasty. Little did we know that some people speak Spanish, some speak English, some speak both, and some, well you don't know what they're saying (Creole). And you cannot bank on having electricity. If you're lucky. The place we stayed was running on a diesel generator. We payed $75/night. Imagine what the general population has?! Its certainly a "country" of its own, I guess the population of 400 has found a way to make it work here and wouldn't know any different. We found our place, unpacked and enjoyed the rest of the long weekend.

Here are some pictures from the trip. Enjoy! I'll explain as we go along.

The airplane that flew us in from Managua to Big Corn Island.


Relaxing on a tiny little private beach.



This is the beach we were on.


Phil, Phil's baby (bump), and me.


Our own little private beach.


Here is our cabina. Notice the shower, with all the water you want as long as you don't go over 6 minutes. Which is a good thing, considering we only had 4 people. That was all sarcasm, had you not noticed!


The view from our cabina!


Makes you feel like you were there huh?! Doesn't it, doesn't it?!


The following are just pretty pictures from our walk around the island.




Just taking advantage of a little wind. Yes, electricity.


Monkeying around! Hahahahahaha!




This grass was pillowy. It looks as though it would be hard underneath, but you sit down and just sink.


This is walking back through the middle of the island. This is what most of the paths look like.


For some reason, we only saw three monkeys the whole trip. They were all on leashes. To give you an idea, we see wild monkeys pretty much outside of our back door in Tamarindo.


Kids playing baseball.


The dock I was telling you about.


A pretty house.


It was quite the sunrise!!!!! Breathtaking!


It was an amazing trip. I recommend it to anyone!