Dec 12, 2014 | Flotsam
Blending a little more ‘adventure’ with some easy site-seeing,
we headed out from Jaco Beach to
about 75km drive,
along the beautiful panoramic Pacific coast route.
We decided to engage a guide to maximize the time
plus these guys know where to find the fauna
and the Kat wanted to see her some monkeys.
Our guide, Minor Hidalgo, found us some Capuchins!
..my favourite…the White-Headed Capuchin…
…Three-toed Sloth…
(black and orange dorsal stripe = male)
…a Two-Toed Sloth masquerading as a coconut…
…the Postman Butterfly…
…can you find the Walking Stick?…
…wild coffee plant…
…Bird of Paradise flower…
…Senna Papillosa…
…Costa Rican Agouti…
…there was a whole family of these little guys
who tried to open our camera bag until we shooed them away.
…a good feed of termites for the anteaters and armedillos…
…beautiful (almost deserted) white sand beach within the park…
…we rested here for a while enjoying our packed lunch of Imperial and plantane chips
and almost didn’t notice the tide carrying François sneaker away.
A passing surfer dude noticed and threw it back on the sand.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a very unique restaurant/bar
along the highway in Quepos…
…a converted C-123
…for a cold refreshing Imperial…
…a fine watering hole it was!…
Dec 12, 2014 | Flotsam
No plans ,
No reservations,
No problem!
Time for the team to head back home.
Just two days of this adventure of ours
but it seems as though we have been away at least a week.
We were given the choice of staying on if we wished,
so at our request our ticket was booked four days later than the others.
What to do?
We threw around a few ideas…
Checked out some options online…
Did we want to stay in the same area?
…move to the coast?
…which coast?
Decision made, we hitched a ride back to San José Airport with the guys…
…that’s a lot of gear for five people…
…and why is it there always seems to be more stuff leaving than arriving?
…good job Camera Guy!
A couple of hours later we said our goodbyes at the airport,
and went in search of a car rental.
I’m always a little suspicious of overly aggressive people who insist they can help.
Such was the case here when a little guy dressed in what looked like an ‘official’ uniform
insisted he could help us find a car to rent.
We have an account with Avis.
He found us the Avis guy.
“No reservations? Sorry, no cars!”
Insistent little guy says he will ‘take’ us himself to a rental place.
My thoughts? No way José or Carlos or whatever!
But go with him we did, him jabbering the whole way,
pointing out all the nice cars in the parking lot…
…till we arrived at his car…what could be called a ‘vintage’ Mercedes…
…old T-shirts used as lovely seat covers..
He piled our luggage into his creaky trunk and off we went..
…François in the front with Carlos, me in the back.
I ground my knuckles into François’ back and whispered: “where are we going”
as we left the airport.
“No idea”!
Well, I guess sometimes you have to just trust
and this was one of those times.
Fifteen minutes of driving in some really insane traffic
(Carlos still jabbering all the way about the crazy drivers
and how many accidents there are here every single day)…
…we reached an actual car rental place.
Carlos still jabbering….”look at all these cars, all new ones, good one here for you, all KOREAN cars, those Koreans are very smart people, they make very good cars.”….
This dear little man hoisted our bags out of his trunk,
…stayed with us untill all the paperwork was signed…
…stuck around while I checked out our vehicle for any previous damage
(he found a couple of spots that I missed)…
More jibber jabbering about when we return, do we have a hotel reservation?
We had one in mind but oh no that was too far from the airport he said.
You can probably guess that yes, he had a suggestion…very near…
“I can pick you up from here when you get back and take you there.”
“I can make the reservation for you. Very nice place. Not expensive. Breakfast included.”
“Car rental can call me when you get back. What time you get back? Yes,I’ll be there”
After more jabbering about making sure we are safe and other pieces of advice,
(at least 45 minutes later and he was still with us)
François offered some compensation for his effort…
he declined…we insisted.
…this is our Carlos – our helpful, honest little man.
“Costa Ricans are very honest people”, he tells us.
We have to agree!
OK, so now we have a car and a GPS,
a destination…
…and more advice from Carlos: “just follow me and I will show you the way to the highway.”
We kind of missed the turn and ended up on a more scenic slower route through the city…
…as it turns out, a very lucky thing.
After just five minutes leaving the rental place, winding our way through narrow streets,
someone pounded on the car frantically yelling
“fuego, fuego, fuego!!!”
Sure enough, smoke was billowing from the back of the car.
Note to selves: please disengage emergency brake before proceeding.
Glad we hadn’t yet reached the highway or there might have been a big FUEGO.
…the highway, when we finally reached it was a very smooth route
through the mountains to the Pacific coast.
…our hotel,
as suggested by the car rental guy, all nicely plugged into our GPS.
It was a tired old place and a bit ‘ratty’ but the view was beautiful,
it was right on the beach,
very clean,
great staff
all inclusive and very affordable.
…and new ‘creatures’ and fresh flowers on our bed each day.
…and super fast internet (makes for one very happy blogger)…
…did I mention the view?…
…and great surf?…
…once settled in
we took a walk and got to know our camera little better…
