Finally (Part Deux) - Costa Rica 1

Got whacked down again by the Never-ending Flu after I got home.  It lets me think that I've turned the corner and then bushwhacks me.  But word from Detroit is that this is a 3 week bug, so patience.  And today is better.

Costa Rica.  Why am I here in the snow and ice?  Not that it's really that bad, particularly compared to last year.  The ice fishermen in St. Clair Shores are dyin'.   They actually have to stand on the banks and fish.

It's a long trip to-from.  And worth every minute.  I drove down to Raleigh to meet the rest of the family, staying at the future in-laws because they live close to the airport and we had to be there at oh-gawd-awful in the am.   My sister and my nephew's father divorced years ago and he remarried 20 years ago, but over the years their relationship has smoothed out and they all get along fine - we all went down together and we had a ball.  It was Raleigh to Miami, Miami to San Jose, then a 3 hour ride to Manuel Antonio, where we were staying.  It included a stop to see toucans and BIG crocodiles laying along a river bank.

My photos don't begin to capture the colors - here's a toucan pic I stole off the web.  Still doesn't get the radiance.

And Villa Pelicano, our villa - WOW!:

 

And by sharing the expense, it was no more expensive than if we'd rented a big house on the Outer Banks.  Including chef and maid.

I do not like being inside.  It's one of the reasons I don't like winter.  For a solid week I was only inside to sleep, thanks to the design of the house.  I never thought I'd care about having a pool - I don't swim well and call what I do "Not Drowning Immediately" - but I loved the whole get up, have coffee overlooking fabulous green and flowers, swim, have breakfast centered around fresh fruit, swim, do stuff in area, swim,  have fabulous dinner centered around fresh fruit, swim, sleep like the dead, rinse, repeat cycle. 

Sunday having been a very long day, nothing was planned for Monday, so we explored the beach.  My only experience with the Pacific has been off San Diego and I never was really impressed.  The beaches were narrow and the water was kelp-clogged and cold.  Whole different story here.  And to say it's not crowded would be an understatement.  No life guards and lots of warning signs about rip tides, but a bad experience years ago has made me cautious and the current and waves were easy the whole time we were there.

I need to do some reading on the geology of the area.  North and South America were once separate - uplift brought Central America into being.  The rocky areas are pillow lava, which means it was extruded underwater.  But the headland in the distance is sedimentary deposits - an anticline is clearly visible.

Tuesday was catamaran day.  A big pod of spotted dolphins playing around the boat, magnificent frigate-birds (that's really their name), my first snorkeling.  You could build some leg muscles using those fins, but note to self - next time I see something and decide to dive down to inspect it I need to remember I'm using a snorkel not a scuba tank.

And now I'm having either computer probs again or Blogger is unhappy with the number of photos I've uploaded.  So, to be continued...