Warthog Pinacate

Pictures coming soon! Could we live at the beach? Could we live in Costa Rica? Can we live quieter, slower lives? Could we do it without killing each other? These were some of the questions that drove us to spend this extended vacation and what I call “sampling retirement”.

So we found ourselves a place in Playa Grande (featured in the headline photo for this blog). This place is called Faro Arriba, upstairs of the “lighthouse”. It’s a touch of whimsy, because in this area, light is very restricted due to the effect is has on the nesting leatherback turtles. Homes, hotels, and retaurants near the nesting areas must not shed light on the beach. It’s one of the few “zoning” rules in the country. So the idea of building a “lighthouse” as a form of lodging offers a kind of amusing irony. The building is in the graceful and classical lighthouse style. It houses two units with two or more levels. We spent a few nights in Faro Abajo, and it has certain charms lacking in Faro Arriba. But we like the light, the view and the privacy in the upper unit. In a room that’s round, a round bed makes sense. And, despite my reservations about a Vegas-style bed, it’s pretty comfortable.

Downstairs, we have a living area, dining table, bathroom and kitchenette. It’s pretty comfortable for us. There’s also a small pool and private patio just outside – really nice for a quick cooldown or eating breakfast on a cool (and bugfree) morning. The hotel has a turtle shaped pool, big enough for a bit of swimming, though not enough for laps. (Carolyn’s missing the PAC pool for lapswimming a lot!)

Our first mornings were very strange… the very common and always pesky magpie jays decided to greet us at first light with a barrage of beaks banging on the window panes. Bentley protested loudly, and after a few days, the birds decided to go pester someone else. Surprisingly, later on, other bird types came to take over. Bright yellow birds (one of at least a dozen bright yellow birds common in the area – heck if I know which one!) came next, and this morning, it was a black bird – going out on a limb here – I’ll call it a Grackle. (OK, that’s a bad pun – can’t help it!) Fred says it’s a Ani.

Hi,

Fred is celebrating his birthday today. A dip in the ocean at Playa Grande, a dip in the pool at our Faro, a local ice cream treat, and “lunch” at our local internet dive. (It’s too low rent to call it an internet cafe.)

I’ll be treating him to dinner at a fine restaurant at Hotel Cantarama (translation: Singing Frog) where we had a great meal just last week.

We’re making plans for some outings for diving and other stuff and finally getting our act together on Spanish lessons.

‘ta luego from Carolyn

P.S. check out www.sandcruiser.com We’ve met one of the authors, Steve, who was admiring our landcruiser and we have been swapping landcruiser tales. We’ll be having a contest for naming our ‘cruiser.

It’s difficult to capture in words and even in pictures the sense of this place. The photos miss the heat, the warmth and moisture of the air, the aromas and sounds. So many of the experiences have this fantasy – or even psychedelic – aura to them.

Like on a few evenings, we’ll find a tree full of fireflies. You can just stare at them twinkling on and off. Sometimes they emit a lime green glow, other times, they’re colored in an orange tint.

Like walking through a meadow, kicking up a bunch of butterflies with every step. I can’t even try to imagine what it would look like if the butterflies in the entire field launched all at once!

Like pulling the car over under a shade tree, only to find a troop of howler monkeys relaxing in its branches. In this group, there were two tiny young ones and six adults. They accepted us pretty well as long as we were still. They made some noises, more grunts than anything else. But when we moved around a bit, they started up the distinctive hyuh hyuh hyuh defensive roar.

Even the beach has a special magic. Here at Playa Grande, the sand is extremely fine and spiral shells about 2 inches long are everywhere. Each wave rolls shells like tiny logs toward the surf as it retreats. The primitive line drawings made by little sand crustaceans like pill bugs are undisturbed and reach an artistic and complex design before the high tide eventually washes the beach clean. These creatures are in no hurry like California sand crabs. They just casually burrow when you pick them up instead of a panicked shoveling. I saw at least 3 varieties of crabs at the beach today. My favorites are the red crabs with purple feet that scrabble along.

Just outside our “Lighthouse” wild parrots hang out in a tree and chatter at us. Their green feathers are well colored for camouflage in the tree and they are hard to pick out.

Iguanas and other large lizards are all around. Yesterday, we disturbed one about 18 inches (nose to tail) as we walked along the gravel road. He rounded a tree and disappeared into its burnt trunk.

Much of the writing about Costa Rica is filled with statistics – x number of species, more such and such than anywhere else. We’re not inclined to catalog what we see, but to just enjoy it. Pura Vida! Pure Life!

Run the faucet water for a few seconds before putting your toothbrush under it. It saves the shock of having a little brown frog with black eyes land on the bristles. (for you and the frog!)

Editor’s note: Kirsten M. pointed out that Bentley is not very well represented in our blog. So this chapter is about his adventures. Since Bentley’s not always able to express himself, this will be a ghostwriter’s guess at his impressions.

Woof! I’m Bentley! Rrrr!

We are driving and driving and driving all over the place. It’s hot. I get to meet lots of annimalls. Burrrros. Girl dogs. Boy dogs. Dogs like me. Little dogs that bark at me. I met a nice grrray horse who walked over to me to sniff my nose. He was nice! My favorite are the chickens! They run when I chase them. Mom and Dad get mad.

I thought I liked catz. I met one in Barrrra. He was nice and I wanted to play. In this town, (Samara, ed.) they know I am on a leash and they sit just out of my rrreach. I hate theze catz. I do like the beach. See me here in Mazatlan?

Now I get to meet Howler Monkeys! They roar and make me bark!

People are afraid of me a lot of times. They ask if I am “bravo”. I thought that I was being insulted – of course I am brave! But they really mean “vicious” and I am NOT vicious! I am “muy amable!”

See me in the car? I mostly sleep. I get to run on the beach. But I don’t like to get wet. I met a very nice girl rottie – she would have shared her dead fish with me if Mom had let me!
And don’t forget my Dogster web page!!! It’s at http://www.dogster.com/pet_page.php?j=t&i=98000

Waking with the bed rolling to and fro, Fred and I spouted the word in unison: EARTHQUAKE. For 15 seconds or so, the bed rolled sideways, just as if it were lying on a series of logs and being rocked from one direction then the other. Earthquakes come in many forms. With some you’re a cork floating on earthwaves, others are the shakes, sometimes a single impacting jolt. And sometimes you just roll.

This was our treat after visiting a volcanic area the day before. It was all the talk the next day, but as soon as we said we were from California, people just waved their hands and said – oh, well, you wouldn’t worry then. They must all have seen the movie (was it called LA Story???) with Steve Martin.

Costa Rica’s spine is tipped with volcanoes; Arenal, Poas, Irazu are the most famous. The day before the pre-dawn earthquake, Fred and I visited the area known as Rincon de la Vieja. The Rincon is in a chain of 5 volcanoes, with destructive flows from the most active Von Seebach as recent as 1991. Here and now, the evidence of volcanism is not lava, but bubbling mud and hot stinking vapors. The circular hike is quite beautiful at first, forest and creatures, with alpine streams. It graduates to pools of burping with liquid mud, terminating in the sere ponds of acidic liquid. Kind of hell on earth without flames.

The most exciting wildlife here was a tame coati that emerged, requesting snacks from the tourists. He had the most beautiful brushy tail. We also saw these cool lizards!

The final mother nature event of the day was as we drive up the hills above San Jose. The city was lit up below us and the sky ignited with sheets of lightning. Quite a combination for one day!

Tech Tools Toys and Tidbits

We came arrayed with a variety of tech toys and tools on this trip. Normally, our trips are short enough that it’s not worth the bother. However, on a 4000 mile drive, the boredom might be fatal to one or both of us. We need some entertainment. And besides email, we need a reliable and inexpensive way to phone friends and family and keep on top of bills, Fred’s Boojummobile work and our investments. And of course, we want to have the means to publish this blog easily,

For the long ride, we installed a new stereo with XM (satellite) radio and an iPod cable. We’re amazed that XM stayed with us nearly through the entire length of Mexico. Before leaving, I loaded the iPod with several audio books and music from our CD library, a few new downloads from allofmp3.com and itunes, and some help from Rick and Julie. We’ve got a great playlist – rock, classic rock, popular, Broadway and some classical and world music. In this part of the world, you can’t be without Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet. Don’t leave home without Eric Clapton, Queen, Willy Nelson, and a few other standbys.

Both of us must have our laptops, and are in fact, lounging on our veranda pecking away as I write. I’m on my Powerbook while Fred’s on his Dell laptop. (OK, we can’t be totally compatible!)

As far as cameras, we’ve gotten lazy. We really like our Canon digital Elph for its simplicity and compact size. 4 megapixels and 3x (real) zoom. It has its limits, but for snapshots, its great. We don’t get great wildlife photos, but that’s not entirely the fault of the camera! I forgot my USB cable, but its almost as easy to upload the pix to our computers using the CF card and PCMCIA adapter. Photoshop Elements and iPhoto are responsible for any fine tuning.

But most miraculous: Skype. Fred subscribed us to the Skype voice-over-IP (VOIP) service and constructed a Skype setup on his laptop. With Skype, you can call anywhere in the world for 2 cents a minute and get unlimited free incoming calls, computer to computer calls and voicemails. Stats say that 20% of the phone calls from Costa Rica use Skype. (Even before we got here!) It’s mind boggling – put on the BlueTooth cordless headset, connect the laptop to the internet, punch in your pal’s phone number, and amazingly, hear the ringing phone and the person (or just as often, voicemail) answering the call. Gadzooks! On top of that, both our home phone and Fred’s mobile phone are forwarded to the Skype service. For now, you’ll hear a generic answering message, but in general, it’s totally transparent to callers.

At the Internet cafes or shops we’ve found, internet connections cost just over a dollar an hour and wireless is beginning to be available.

Thought about DVD’s but didn’t get around to buying new ones.

I had also hoped to find a more portable keyboard than my Korg M1 to bring along for vocal practice. But I will have to find something here, beg, borrow, steal or even buy a small personal ‘board.

We also installed a voltage inverter in the Landcruiser dash to charge our toys as we drive. The camera battery charger can only fit upside down in the dash. After a bump, the batter jogs out and we just reinsert it. Even with our rolling charger, we set up a comical snakes-nest of gadget chargers in hotels.

All in all, this collection of gear is serving us pretty well. Stay tuned for some vignettes and “random intelligence” on our journey.

P.S.
It’s hardly a technical factor, but we are having mail forwarded from a Miami branch of Mail Boxes Etc. to Costa Rica. If you happen to need to mail something to us, it is fastest to mail to us at this address:
ATTN: Carolyn Mcclain - Occasional Plan - Rohrmoser
SJO 473
4440 N.W. 73rd Avenue
Miami, FL 33166