And the sunsets. I swear these photos were not altered, it really looked that dramatic. It was fun to shoot, and when we looked at the results you just giggled.
Manuel Antonio, CR – November 28, 2012
Monteverde Cloud Forest, CR – November 26 – 27, 2012
Imagine a blizzard… What comes to mind? High winds howling, occasionally shaking the windows, wet; the air is colder because of humidity, snow moving horizontal across your view, and a deep desire to wear all the warm, soft clothes you own while drinking tea. If you took the single instance of snow from the previous description and substituted clouds it would describe a cloud forest. Perched at the top of the mountain, in the clouds, it has one of the worlds greatest diversity in bird and mammal life. Much of the land is still primary forest.
The town had an amazing frog farm, nocturnal, of course. Off we go, frog area one to the next, illuminating frogs with our flashlights. And cameraman Dave snapped away. The happy frog always has a smile on his face, blue jeans frog is red, but if you look closely, the legs are blue like the frog is wearing jeans. It was interesting to see all the different varieties.
And it is not so easy to get here. We Carl, Julie, Dave and I, we’re driving for HOURS on rough, wash gullied roads, thankful for our 4×4, heavy with people and luggage. Willing it up the passes, down shifting, sure that the bobbing of our heads and the encouraging words made the difference. But at the end it had a sort of magic.
Low hung clouds laying on the green hills, hanging bridges, nocturnal hikes to find critters and birds asleep with their wing over their eyes. There were butterfly farms, but they were also asleep, something about needing sunlight to be active ….. And there was definitely NOT sunshine. So like butterflies we flew away to the beach.
Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica – November 23 – 25, 2012
Carl and Julie, our friends from Littleton, joined us in San Jose a few days before and it was fun to visit these places with them. Another big draw was the thermal hot springs. In the town we found these giant developments, 20 pools and hundreds of people no thank you. While we were figuring out what to do, we discovered our new piece of paradise contained their own thermal to spring. Half the time we were the only people there, and the best part was it was only a 3 minute walk to your room (and a cold bottle of wine) rather than a drive and a changing room, etc. The fellow from the front desk assured us the water in the pools came directly from the underground springs.
We took a floating safari while we were there. Monkeys, birds, caimans and even a toucan but mostly it was two hours of beautiful scenery as the world floated past. The “snack” after the water portion was probably the most interesting, the takeout was at a farmers field and the lady of the house squeezed fresh fruit for juice, gave us cheese made from their cows, and some cake that had just come out of the oven. Sure beat the normal bottle of water and a cut up orange you find in America.
Private House, Stars and Beaches – November 11 – 16, 2012
We rented a house near Playa (beach Hermosa) on the Northern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and spent 5 wonderful days enjoying the private pool and some downtime. It felt like we were home. The house was a 4 bedroom beautiful home is owned by a family in Dallas. We had Internet, american TV and even a Dallas phone number. It was truly amazing and was one of those things that we wanted to try out, renting a home during our travels. Today we moved to the Nicoya Peninsula near Montezuma.
Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica – November 6, 2012
The white faced monkeys were so much fun to watch, you could be entertained by them all day long. The colorful lizards, snakes and spiders all seem so exotic, next to the pounding surf only 50 feet away. It was a great day, the kind of day where it takes you 4 hours to walk 3 km and you make new friends and great memories
Animal Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica – October 20, 2012
Of course it all makes for great photography, since you can hear toucans, but so hard to photograph them, you can spend time in the chimps because they need to be held, or see a 2 or 3 toed sloth close up, in the wild they are 50 feet above your head in a blob of brown, and the best of all is the red-eyed tree frog which is nocturnal but they wake them for the tourists. I have wanted this picture for years, and now I can truly say I am in Costa Rica.
Pura Vida.
12 stitches $2; emergency room fee $8; an afternoon in Panama urgencia, PRICELESS – October 29, 2012
David and I biked to the far end of town for lunch, and after, Dave hopped on his mountain bike and headed toward the street. Mountain bike, right, no problem! Unfortunately, his foot came off the metal, serrated pedal as it went over a curb and the pedal back-lashed into his shin and cut upwards. The result was a “v” formation 2.5 inches on one side and 2 inches on the other.
A cab helped us to the urgencia and luckily for us they take the person gushing the most blood first. Of course, the nurse flopped over the skin to scrub away dirt, and you could see the bone. It made both our stomachs flip, but poor David did not have any numbing solution. O M G ! They did numb before the stitches, and the nurse told us they charge by the stitch, so dollar signs are dancing in my head. When we got to the cashier window and the total bill was $10 plus another $6 for the antibiotics we decided we did not have to submit it to insurance after all, and David gets to bring home a souvenir from Panama.
Stitches need to be removed in 7 days, which was the day we were traveling to Costa Rica. We checked with our new hotel and they informed us that there was a clinic in our new location. We moved onward to CR and went to the clinic that afternoon. The doctor told us that the stitches were not ready to be removed and to come back on Wednesday. We did just that and they were removed. Doc said that it is healing nicely but no swimming for a week and make sure David does not bump his shin. If he does he is likely to have the injury reopen which will require surgery.
Morales Campbell Family/Bocas del Torro – October 21 – November 3, 2012
The family provided a bed, board and a bike to ride to school. We had our own room and shared a bath with another student from Switzerland. We contracted to have two meals a day, and it was standard Panama fare: lots of beans and rice, Johnny cakes with coconut milk, plantains, fried green bananas, and ox tails. We just could not get ourselves to eat oxtails, although the family pops them into their mouth, mmmmmmmm. Karen has lost 6 pounds so far.
Momma and papa celebrate their 20th anniversary in a couple months and the oldest daughter goes to university in February. So, as a thank you gift, we volunteered to take a family photo. It worked out great, so great in fact, they called their sisters and family over to see the results, and we photographed 5 additional families before we left. There are no photographers on the island, we could be rich, what a niche.
We learned to have a furnished house with utilities is about $400/month. A beach house is $500, so we are dreaming about going back to school and living there for 6 months, to really get this Spanish thing down. That is until we get to Costa Rica and then we love it here too. We have met several expats who all exclaim it is so easy to get citizenship. One fella, from Alaska, (and school) bought a beach house for $130,000 and plans to spend 6 months a year there. He also is a retired fed, who worked for BLM at the same office building with people I know. Small world.
Nov 3 was Panama Independence day. Our papa, a volunteer fireman, is also the town tuba player and he stands out in a crowd. Of course, we had to go to the parade and cheer everyone on, the little girls in local costumes are always so cute.
Habla Espanol – Boca Del Tores, Panama – October 22 – November 2, 2012
Habla ya Is “I speak” in Spanish. Unfortunately, neither of us did that…speak Spanish thing. So with some trepidation, we began an immersion Spanish experience. Oh la la. We really lucked out and we were the only two people in our class, so basically it was private lessons. We spent two very short weeks in school, 4 hours every morning, and the afternoons with extracurricular activities like taking the water taxi to another island for lunch or biking down to the beach for a swim. And evenings doing HOMEWORK! Only three pages a night, but it pushed us to a new level every day. After all 0 to 4 is a 400% increase, but not so far in the big picture.
The teacher encouraged us thru all the standard phrases, hello, where are you from, etc. and we finally made it to sentences. Short, need based (necessito el bano, el banko, el medico) but definitely useful words. So we’re done with school now and on our very own. But we are determined to continue on and use it, even if there is English spoken. The people are happy to correct our stuttering and hesitant pronunciation and are good natured at our self depreciated response.
It will be true, Habla ya.
Sea Turtle Young and Old – October 20, 2012
The turtle spotters do not let visitors on the beach for the egg laying process, but once it is finished we were welcome to come along on the turtles return trip to the sea. I was shocked by how fast an animal that large could move. Our turtle, was a good 3 feet long and 250 pounds. They do not allow photographs so we snitched one from the internet. David and I were lucky. The eggs deposited in August became hatchlings in October. One little fella ran to the light and ended up in our restaurant. Perhaps he wanted some ice cream for his birth day. Luckily he was not turtle soup, the owners picked him up and set him right back on the beach and off he ran to the water. When we walked the beach we would see tracks of mommas and hundreds of babies, even one that seemed to say ADIOS, before he went into the sea (as all good Spanish turtles would!)
Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica – October 16 – 19, 2013
Costa Rica and Panama – October 15, 2012 – January 15, 2013
Autumn Colors in New Hampshire – September 25 – October 9, 2013
Hot Springs Cove – September 5, 2012
The hot springs are only accessed by boat or seaplane and are 26 miles from Tofino BC. Tofino is located on the Pacific Ocean (west coast) of Vancouver Island. We took the boat over which took 90 minutes and the airplane back for a short 15 minute flight. First time in a seaplane, which was a 1947 Beaver, loaded with 7 passengers and lots of camping gear. Not ours, three guys camped at the springs.
After getting off the boat there is a 45 minute walk thru the Forrest on a boardwalk to get to the springs. The boards of the boardwalk are engraved by past hikers. We found one that could of been ours: Happy Campers, from Denver CO.
Ucluelet and Tofino, BC – September 4 – 7, 2012
We left the RV in Nanaimo and took a 4 day mini vacation and drove 135 miles west to the Pacific side of Vancouver Island to a town called Ucluelet. We stayed in a lovely cottage where the road ends at the Pacific Ocean.
Being on the west side of the island we had great sunsets while hiking the wild pacific trail. The weather typically is cloudy and wet, but the weather gods were were with us and gave us clear skies and temperature reaching nearly 80.
As we kayaked we saw Black Bears, Eagles, Star Fish and Sea Lions. The Sea Lions swam and barked along side us beckoning us to get out of the kayak and play. The bear tipped rocks, as if they were feathers, looking for food. We stayed our distance, but Karen without realizing it drifted a little close. We wandered how fast they can swim.
Full Moon Kayaking – August 31, 2012
As the sun was setting we launch at the Brechin Boat Launch and decide to kayak to the south toward the Nanaimo bay and the south side of the island. We continue around the island and enter the open water as the sun was setting and the moon was rising. The calm water became choppy with larger waves. This was the no-go or go point, where we were about 1/3 of the way around the 7 mile route around the island. We can see the lights of cruise ships and ferries in the distance, and decide to continue. We turned off our headlamps and it was dark. The headlamps served two purposes, one for others to see us and second to see any waves were approaching us. As a pilot, if you turn on the landing light and don’t like what you see turn it off. We kept the lights on. As we approached 2/3 of the way we heard a large horn and bright light pointed at us. It was the BC ferry headed toward Departure Bay, the same place we were headed. The ferry was in the middle of the open water as we hugged the coast line of the island. As the ferry passed, we wandered how their wake would affect us. There were waves, but only slightly higher waves, that we already had encountered. As the ferry docked we passed behind it to enter Departure Bay and the Newcastle Passage. We had the lights of the take out point in site. What a great 2 hours we had kayaking around the island in a full moon, a definite highlight.
Cowichan River Float – August 30, 2012
Cowichan Lake, BC – August 30, 2012
We approach the weir this time from the lake side and ring the bell for the attendant to open the gate. We enter the weir and the attendant slowly lowers the creaking sounding gate. He then slowly opens the river side gate and we slowly get lowered three feet to the level of the river.
This gave us great experience for this fall we will be entering the panama canal and lock system in a slightly larger water vessel.
Ferry to Vancouver Island – August 22, 2012
We drove off the ferry and arrived at the RV park, Living Forrest Oceanside RV Park 10 minutes later. We will be staying at this park Nearly three weeks touring the island.
Whale Watching Tour – August 14 and August 21, 2012
Well we went on the tour again the following Tuesday, without Chase since he was already home, and saw whales about 1//2 hour from leaving the dock. The boat followed the family of whales for 2 hours. What a site when the whales breached the water to a height what seemed like 20 feet.
Seattle – August 17 – 18, 2012
We had a great 12 days with Chase. He concludes his trip by taking him to Seattle for an early Saturday morning flight back to Denver. On Friday, after a two hour drive from Seattle and spending nearly 2 hours at the US border, we visited Boeing’s Future of Flight Museum and took a factory tour. This is where Boeing builds their jumbo jets such as the 747 and 787.
After seeing Chase off at the airport we did some shopping in Seattle for those items that we had missed and not available in Canada. We then drove to Bellingham WA to look at RV storage locations. This is where we would like to store the RV and truck for the winter. We found a storage facility that had large covered car ports for RVs that our Camp Casa will enjoy the relative mild Washington winter months.
Vancouver’s Stanley Park by bicycle, August 12, 2012
In a belated moment, Chase had wished he had gone swimming at the beach, so we found Sunset Beach and lo and behold, the water was COLD!!!!!! so that was a quick swim. Better to have ice cream with Grandma and Grandpa. The RV park where we are staying has a unique set of rules, all cars and trucks are kept at the front of the park, by the office. The upside is that the roads within the park are mostly empty during the day, the perfect place for kids on their bikes, and playing ball and running all over the place. It really is kind of nice to have such a kid friendly park, who has kept the cars far out of the way , especially since we have a kid who is right in the thick of cops and robbers.
Abbottsford Air Show, August 11, 2012
Harrison Hot Springs, August 9, 2012
It is surrounded by snowcapped mountains, and a glacier fed lake. A lake so beautiful and so large, it empties into a gently flowing river, 10 feet deep. Perfect kayaking for the boys. Three hours across the lake, down the river, goofing around, taking pictures, making memories. Chase asked if he could go home a take a nap!!! So off they went, while grandma sat and talked, sat and read, sat and sunned. A win, win sort of day for the whole family.