Jan 18: We said goodbye to our fellow tour group as we headed to the airport at 10:30. We hung in the Copa Club for breakfast and lunch before boarding the plane for our 1 hour flight to San Jose. We arrived back in CR at about 1:40. took about 45 minutes to get through immigration, our property owner was there to pick us up and take us home! Our home for the next 2.75 months!
After a quick tour we headed to the grocery store for a few supplies for the morning.
We were greeted by a beautiful Rainbow on our arrival
Jan 19: the bed is very comfortable! always a treat. It was windy all night, very very windy.. with a bit of rain. Eduardo invited us to join him to pick coffee beans but we declined as it was way too windy and we had to do a Walmart run. The traffic was not to bad on our first real outing into a big town. We are on the northern outskirts of San Jose at about 1 mile above sea level.
The wind was strong all day long, we did manage to go for a quick walk in the afternoon. As we were sitting on the couch we had a 4.5 earthquake! the building shook! it did not last more than a few seconds. They have very strict building codes here in CR because of the earthquakes. Crazy...
Jan 20 We walked our road and to downtown Barva then headed to Maxi Pali, a much better store than we had on the coast.
Jan 21 Eduardo brought over a typical Venezuelan breakfast from Betty. Corn bread torta, meat and cheese. pretty good way to begin the day, but we had already eaten breakfast so we had it for lunch. After a morning of exploring Barva and places to hike we stopped at the Auto Mart. Very fancy grocery store.. Then we went for a walk around the property, down to the river
Thursday Jan 22: we headed up the road about 3.5 miles to Adventure Park. $20 to hike the trails. The hiking trail was a bit steep and uneasy. We went so far and decided it was too rough of a hike so headed to the road. The trail follows the river which was nice to see and walk along but hard to hear birds as the water makes a lot of noise! When we finally walked the road we did much better. Lots of bike and 4X4 paths and of course Zip lining platforms. We did not really see anyone else until we were almost back to the car. Might go back or try a new place...
Fri Jan 23: off to Bosque de la Hoya, about 3 mile drive but as the crow flies about .5 miles. We went here before going to Panama, but it was a Sunday afternoon so very crowded. This morning we pretty much had the place to ourselves until about 10:00 am when we could hear people and seen a few at 10:30. Great hiking, little birding. But a lifer!! $2000 colones ($4)
old tree?? this one caught my eye
Eduardo brought over some Eggplant Lasagna made by Betty for dinner. It was fabulous! I must say one of the best I ever had. She is renowned as a great cook, only been here 6 days and 2 meals from her!
Saturday Jan 24: we walked around the hood a little bit further than before. Today is a good day for laundry! it seems to take forever (+1 hour) for the washing machine to do its thing....
Sunday Jan 25: off to a park in San Jose. 10.5 miles away, Parque Metropolitan La Sabana. the park is huge and well used. it opens at 5:00 am. we arrived at 7:30 and found parking to be a chore! It has a 6 lane running track, volleyball courts, tennis courts, swimming pools, soccer fields etc.. and lots of woods and trees. We walked a short was to another smaller park, just to see if there was any water in the stream. No there was not..
We headed back home at about 11:30, stopped for lunch at Banco Marino in Barva. Wow the place was great. great service, great food and fast... Fish is the main food but they do have chicken and beef. We both had the fish, grilled and breaded. Will be going back for sure. and the prices were pretty cheap.
the wind finally died down up in the mountain. spent the afternoon up on the deck. It's really a pretty quiet place except for the roosters and an occasional car, we are on a dead end road.
Mon Jan 26: we went to Oxigeno Human Playground. It's a shopping mall, sports facility, concert hall and entertainment complex. we checked out the swimming pool but too complicated to figure out how it works and it's a 20 minute drive. nice shops and a few restaurants. we ended up at PF Changs 9the only one open at 11:00). food and service were both very good.
Tuesday very windy, walked the hood then hung out doing laundry and computer stuff for the whole day! Ray's flight to SJO from Dallas got cancelled so he is expected to arrive on Friday. Betty sent over some delicious home made bread and wonderful coffee! Wow we are getting spoiled...
Wed, the cleaning lady came today! $10 for about 2 hours of work.. We checked out another gym in Barva. Looks promising, will sign up after Ray leaves. Worked on a birding trip to Turrialba (about 60 miles from here) for next month. Living the good life here in CR! Pura Vida
Thurs. we headed up to the Barva Volcano today. Well, we did not plan on going to the volcano just take the road up towards it. The road was actually nice, paved, one lane in some places but 2 marked lanes in others. The wind was really howling so not too many birds. We stopped along the road at a few places to get out and walk.
Fri Jan 30: after a great morning walk at Bosque de la Hoya and a quick nap we picked up Ray at the airport. His plane arrived at 3:00pm. we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few supplies then to the house. Traffic was slow and heavy but we enjoyed the ride anyway!
This is the road to our place!! luckily it is a dead end but we have run into oncoming traffic!!
Sat Jan 31: we headed to the museum area in San Jose. We started at the National Museum of Costa Rica, got there early enough to get in for free!! Nice museum with a Butterfly garden. The museum was a jail and still has some rooms and cells to look at. We went for coffee and a snack before going to the Jade Museum. $16 per person to get in. It was nice too. It was almost 1:00 and we were museumed out! Back home to rest before going to Casa Grande in Barva for a nice early dinner. Don't want to drive at night!
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