There might be something better than the last few days here in Costa Rica, but if there is, I don’t know what it would be.
On the second morning, I was having coffee on the veranda of the cute apartment that Jody and I rented in Costa Rica and heard a strange noise.
I looked out to the mango tree, that is situated right in front of our veranda and close enough to touch, and noticed that it was moving. I walked over, looked up and guess what was there?
A little monkey having his dinner. My first animal sighting here in Costa Rica….very exciting! When I saw it, I called for Jody to come and take a look. We were both peering up at him from the edge of the veranda. The monkey saw us, got startled and began to run through the trees and eventually across the roof of the veranda. All of a sudden, the monkey came to the edge of the roof just where we were standing and poked his head over the edge and looked at us. We were face to face with the little fellow! Jody and I, brave souls that we are, both screamed and ran back into the house practically tripping over each other to get away. In the safety of the apartment, we looked at each other and Jody said, “Do you think the monkeys are rabid?” Then, we started laughing (which we have been doing a lot of, by the way). You will be glad to know that we did eventually muster up the courage to go back out and get a couple of pictures and make peace with the monkey. But, I have to say it was touch and go for awhile!
On the third morning, I was walking across our living room and just happened to look out the window. There, sitting on the back of one of the chairs on our veranda was a Toucan. I’m not kidding….it was right there, close enough to touch! When does that happen?
So far, my trip to Costa Rica has been a great success! I met Jody about 3….maybe 4 days (and several bottles of wine) ago in San Jose where we began our adventure. As we were leaving the hotel on our first day, I met a very nice woman from the United States who was wrapping up her time in San Jose. When I asked her for a recommendation of things to do, she said that she just loved walking in the downtown area. But right now, she was heading off to the the National Theater to see a classical Latin American concert. It had come highly recommended by her tour company…and, it was only $4.00. We could see the inside of the theater and see a show. What’s not to like?! So, we decided to go.
It was definitely not a professional production, but it was lots of fun and very colorful! I am attaching a picture that I just about got my hand cut off to take so that you could see it. In the end, we deduced that there were many “buxom” women in the production wearing very tiny outfits. A lot of them were red….except for the attached pictures. A little more material would have been welcome!
As I have been traveling for the last five months, I haven’t had much time to do a lot of planning for this trip, so I put much of the planning of this adventure in Jody’s hands…..and, she did a great job! We decided that we would spend one day in San Jose and explore the city and then go to an apartment near Quepos on the western coast or the majority of our time here. Quepos is about a three hour drive from San Jose. So we, of course, needed a driver. Jody checked in with the apartment people and they recommended Tony. We spent the whole day with him, and I will say he was quite a character. Among other things, we learned about hallway through the trip, that Tony had worked for Carnival cruise lines for three years and had been let go because he had an altercation with another staff member involving a large kitchen knife. HMMMMM….should we really be in the car with him?! In the end, we decided yes. He was just great and got us to our destination all in one piece….no knives. (By the way, he’s also starting his own hotel that will be a working farm with access to local tours. We loved the idea and agreed to help him pass the word along. If you want more information, let me know. We can “hook you up”!)
First, we made a stop at the cell phone store so Jody could get a Costa Rican cell phone. Tony parked in an illegal spot and I was assigned to be the “lookout” for the police. The coast was clear!
I’m not sure what I would have done if there had been a policeman. I’m glad I didn’t need to find out!
We made a few more stops along the way to include lunch with the locals, a look at some fierce crocodiles and a glimpse of some breathtaking vistas. We also made a stop at a roadside stand where we tasted and purchased some watermelon, passion fruit (the fruit of love as he called it) and some mangos. Now that I think about it, Tony did use a knife to cut some of the fruit for us to taste! I’m happy to report that there are no incidents!
Our first days here in Quepos have been filled with lots of shopping, walking on the beach and eating. On our first day, we realized that the clothes we brought were probably going to be too warm. I am now the proud owner of two new very loose fitting sundresses….kind of moo-moo like, don’t you think….. and a wide-brimmed hat that will do a much better job at covering my face than the one I have….and, it’s much more stylish, too! Always a plus!
On the food and entertainment scene….we have discovered the joys of deep fried plantains, which we bought in downtown Quepos for about .75 cents and have so far had a number of wonderful bean and rice dishes, the specialty of Costa Rica. Last night, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant to see the beautiful sunset and shared a pizza on the patio while we watched “Despicable Me” on a big screen that was set up at the wharf. Apparently, there is a movie outside on the wharf every Friday night. We plan to check this out again! We also picked up some food at the weekly farmer’s market to cook for dinner in the next days….my favorite.
So, I can report to you that in Quepos, the wildlife is plenty, the food is good and the scenes are just stunning! It’s also wildly hot. I have never been so hot and sweaty in my life……and, I have also never cared less about it. It’s a fruitless effort to worry about such things here in Costa Rica. There’s really nothing to do about it, and, frankly, we are all in the same boat!
So, my job for the next few weeks is to stay as cool as possible and to stay hydrated…..and, to have fun of course. If I drank as much water at home as I have been drinking here, I could fill Lake Nacimiento and my system would be totally flushed out! Here, it’s a drop in the bucket!
Travel With Betsy 
Leave a comment