Last Sunset from Mal Pais

December 25 was our last fullday at Nido De Aguila in Mal Pais. We decided to basically do nothing and hang out in full relaxation mode, though we did venture out to checkout some tide pools. Unfortunately, the tide was still too high and there was not much of note.

We enjoyed out last sunset over the ocean in this beautiful place.Photos were taken Christmas Day.

Christmas Day

This was our first ever tropical Christmas.  Very different from past Christmases, where we'd decorate the house and, in the past, I'd do my best at a Clark Griswold imitation with outdoor lighting.

Kelsey had brought stockings, and Santa apparently got the forwarding GPS coordinates, as they had been stocked by Christmas morning:

There were a few, small, gifts we'd brought with us:

After presents, Kelsey cooked up Huevos complete with Christmas tortillas:

We'd talked about surfing, but concluded that was too much work, so we decided to laze around Nido  de Aguila for the day, and went out later to a beach north of Santa Teresa to check tidepools.  The hammocks got a good Christmas day workout from  us.

Christmas Eve

The consensus among those at Nido de Aguila was to have a Christmas Eve party. We chipped in with John and Alli.e to hire a local cook, Chango, who came up with his wife and cooked the food we had on hand. We had gone to the fishing bay down the road and bought 2 kilos of MahiMahi for the equivalent of $16 so we tossed that into the communal food pot.

Along with the fish, we had sautéed vegetables, yucca, Russian Salad that Rita from Scotland made, and arroz con pollo. After dinner, there was salsa dancing.

Photos on Picasa

It was becoming too cumbersome posting photos on SmugMug, so most photos are on Picasaweb:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104698448426506730875/CameraAwesomePhotos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJbg-IzVuLuM4AE&feat=directlink

New Post from Several Days Ago

Just posted a post several downstream from our zip line experience in La Fortuna.

Monkeyland

We took a drive yesterday across Star Mountain to Cabuya and Montezuma. The rod is only passable in the dry season (now until May) due to there being at lest 3 river crossings and clay on the rod that looks like it'd be slicker than snot in a heavy rain. At any rate, at this time of year, the road was dry (except for the crossings) and in good she. Much better thn the drive up the hill to get to our house.

We saw Howler Monkeys on the drive to Cabuya.

Then this morning, we were visited by a band of Whiteface Monkeys who were stealing Jöerg's papayas.

First Day in Mal Pais - Surfing at Playa Hermosa

Saturday afternoon we went to Playa Hermosa north of Santa Teresa with John, Alejandra, Camille  (Alejandra's daughter) and Brian (Johns brother). They surfed, and then loaned Erika and Kelsey a board. Beautiful beach. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

We Made It!!!

Left La Fortuna in the rain but it cleared by San Ramon. Took the 2:00 pm ferry from Puntarenas and made it to Malpais at 4:30, just in time fro the sunset.

View from our place:

La Fortuna to Mal Pais

We were scheduled to leave La Fortuna on Friday, Decembeer 21, headed for Mal Pais.  Because it is Christmastime, and we'd heard a lot of Ticos head for the Nicoya Peninsula for the holiday, we wanted to get on the road at 8:00 am for the drive to Puntarenas and the ferry to Paquera.  We almost met the goal.  After the car was packed up with the luggage and goodbyes said to David and his father and mother, George and CiCi, I noticed the left rear tire on WeGo the Bego was going flat.  There was enough air in the tire to drive to the service station, and David led us there in his Frontier pickup.  The tire got changed quickly and we found the end of what looked like a small screw that had caused it to start going flat.  Better to have noticed it before we left than half-way down the road to San Ramon (think very twisty 40 km/hr road with no shoulder in most places).

Thank you David, George and Cici for your wonderful hospitality!!!

It rained steadily on the drive to San Ramon, and there was fog at the top of the mountains on the drive to San Ramon.  There is no way around the city,  so we followed the road through town to Highway 1.  Once there, we saw what appeared to be an accident with multiple police vehicles and a lot of people standing by the roadside watching.  No accident.  It was a bicycle race.  The Transito cop at the intersection waived us on and we started on the road to San Ramon.  We got maybe 1/2 km. down the road before a motorcycle cop came roaring up on the left with siren and lights flashing.  He waved us to the side.  What the hell?  I hadn't done anything wrong.  I started steeling myself for an interaction with Costa Rican law enforcement with my limited Spanish.  Turned out he wasn't stopping me but just clearing the road for ... a bicycle race.

After the bicycles and their chase cars passed, we were allowed to go on.  As we were starting off again, an American expat on the other side of the road yelled, "Welcome to Costa Rica!"  No kidding.  During the drive to Puntarenas, there were several places where Transito had stopped the San Jose bound traffic, with it lined up for quite a distance.  We were glad there were no similar roadblocks going our way, since we were concerned about not missing the ferry.  As it worked out, we made it to the ferry dock in plenty of time and eventually were loaded on the half-empty ferry for the trip across the Gulf of Nicoya.  It was a beautiful nearly cloudless day and the water was calm.  The 70 minute ride was a real pleasure, and I see the SPOT GPS tracked us across the gulf.

Once we reached Paquera, we headed for Cobano and then on to Mal Pais.  Along the way we had a chance to get acquainted with the famous Costa Rican potholes.  The road was paved to Cobano, but we had to go slow to dodge the frequent deep potholes.  In Cobano we stopped at a MegaSuper grocery for supplies, then it was on to Mal Pais.  The 14 or so km from Cobano were on rough gravel and rock.  It was clear we weren't heading to a vacation in a place like Kihei or Kailua.