Monthly Archives: December 2006

Scooting to Quepos

Img 3533Img 3535So we got the Scooters, they pretty much just looked like mopeds. We got there a little late and then the guys weren’t even there! We had have the security give us the number to call from the store next door. We couldn’t tell him to call since for some reason he didn’t seem to understand we wanted the guys from the rental place. Duh?!? And then of course it’s like renting a car, so it takes forever. So we actually didn’t get going until 11…

On the way south we took a trip towards a beach and found a cool hotel right on the ocean. I’ll post more on that later. I’ll be staying there next time (or maybe later this trip).

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But we kept heading south and eventually made it to Quepos, it was about 70 km south. It was pretty deserted, we had a Coca-Cola and wandered around a bit, popped into some stores (got nothing) and then we had lunch. It was really really deserted. I’ve been there twice before and and it just seemed to be kinda busy both times. At the same time they were clearing setting up for a New Year’s party in the streets (stage and all). I really wish I had gotten a good photo of some of the rickety bridges we had to drive on. One lane and some pretty big gaps on the driving surface, which was railroad tracks (rails) mounted perpendicular to the way you were driving (yes, I mean the metal railroad tracks/rails, not the big wooden ties.

Then we had the ride home, which was really great except it was getting dark and all we had were sunglasses for eye protection. So that was a little tricky. The bugs didn’t make it any easier. Sometimes they were so thick I wanted to laugh but I didn’t want to open my mouth.

But we made it back. We were very happy to see the city lights verses the darkness of the highway.

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So tired…

Walked about a million miles today. Ate and drank lots too. It was a great day! It was actually a bit cloudy so it really cut down on the sun beating down on you, it was still pretty hot though.

The time I came to Jaco on the last day we rented scooters/mopeds for a few hours and it was pretty cheap and it was nice and cool to have the breeze of driving them around. The plan was to do that a lot this trip, but no one seems to do that any more. A few places have them but it’s lot more per hour (it seems like last time we thought it was incredibly cheap). One of the car rental places has some and it’s only $39 for the whole day, which might not seem like much but when you consider a car is only $55-$65 a day it’s a bit (especially since we need two). So the plan for tomorrow is to get them for the whole day and travel all around.

I promise to take lots of pictures tomorrow and post them sometime in the next few days! I just haven’t seen that much that I haven’t seen before so I don’t think to snap any.

The Hotel Balcon del Mar in Jaco, Costa Rica

Cr1902Cr1900So here’s a few shots from the balcony of our hotel, the wet stuff in the background is the Pacific (click the thumbnails for a larger photo). I really like the Hotel Balcon del Mar, it’s got everything I need. We’ve actually got a two bedroom apartment so there’s lots of room and I like that. The pocket camerea I used for these photos wasn’t wide-angle enough to photograph the room, I’ll try the other camera later.

Well, it’s not perfect, it could have WiFi (wireless internet), an elevator (Mark says there are 63 steps to our floor) and a better English speaking person. I can make it pretty difficult for people with all the questions I like to ask, imagine if they don’t speak English?!? On a side note, I was a little disappointed about the included breakfast this trip, it used to be made to order but now it’s a buffet (not made my way).

Today I was trying to figure out where to go when we leave here, I thought since I like the hotel I’d try to figure out where the people who own it might have other hotels. That conversation didn’t get me very far. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a list of other hotels that they have in there “chain”? They could keep it in the hotel room for you to look at and think “hey, maybe I’ll stay there some time…”, but of course no such list exists. If I tell them where I’m going the can tell me what’s close though :)

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We Made It!!!

We’re here, were safe and everything is great! We tried to rent a car but nothing available that we could drop off in Jaco (well, there was a $325 SUV, but I wanted a $60 car) so we took a two hour cab ride. Got dropped off at the hotel and just caught the sunset and then we checked in.

Hit an ATM (although we panicked for a second when the first bank didn’t like either of our cards but the next banco was fine) and got 100,000.00 colones from the machine (about $190.00). Got some dinner and stuff (soda, juice, water, gatorade) for the hotel room . On the way back we saw some internet places so I’m heading out to see if I can connect my computer (to post this messages) and stop at a pay phone to call Mom to say I’m alive!

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Almost there!

So while our seats were a little tight for the trip to the layover (in Charlotte, NC) the seats from there to Costa Rica are great! We got emergency row with awesome leg room, I can’t even reach the seats in front of us. Plus, there was were only room for two seats so there wasn’t even anyone next to us on the four hour flight.

I’m really, really tired though. Had to get up around 4 AM to get to the airport by 6 for a 7 AM flight. Wasn’t able to sleep at all on the flight but I’ll bet I’ll sleep well tonight.

We’re spending the first few days in Jaco but not sure for the rest of the trip. Anyone have any suggestions?

We should be landing in about 25 minutes…

Blogging from Costa Rica

I really don’t know what kind of Internet access I’ll have while I“m traveling. I’ll be writing on the laptop and postdate/time will reflect when I wrote them but who knows when I’ll get to post them (since I’ll need a place that will let me hook up my laptop).

To make things more confusing, I may have written some posts on the laptop that weren’t posted. But may get access to a computer somewhere else and write up something quick. As a result some earlier posts, may be posted later but will still be dated earlier (and as a result listed earlier farther down the list).

I found my Hieroglyphic Ring!!!!!

EgyptringI found my ring!!!! I lost it a few months ago and I realized this I was leaving my house. So I retraced my steps and dug through the garbage and everything. Plus, I examined my car from head to toe to see if I dropped it in there. But I never found it and it just had to be here somewhere…

So, I was just digging through my laptop backpack and I found it way at the bottom. So I’m pretty excited about this.

This is the ring that I bought in Egypt with the Hieroglyphic Alphabet all the way around it. It was always a little big, so now I guess I know it’s too big. It wasn’t very expensive but I’ll get it sized a tiny bit smaller. You can click the image for a larger view.

Living Abroad in Costa Rica

So in preparation for my trip I picked up Living Abroad in Costa Rica by Erin Van Rheenen. I’ve said many times I wouldn’t mind living there someday so I thought this might be a good read.

I bought it a month ago and I planned to read it then or else I would have asked Santa for it. It looks like a good book and mentions some of the smaller towns like Jaco so I’m still looking forward to reading it (eventually).