Are We There Yet? Travel Log

I can't believe it's our last day already. It seems like a long time ago we were at the Panama Canal or the Lost and Found lodge, but here we are facing our last long bus ride and our last beach for a while. I also can't believe we would be tired of looking at monkeys, but now they are just a passing glance unless they do something really crazy. Howlers are very interesting though. They are so loud for such a small monkey and they bob up and down while they growl. We spent yesterday at the beach and all got sunburned. We had sunblock on and sat in the shade, but the closer you get to the equator the more intense the sun is and we were no match for it. It gets oppressively hot here around four in the afternoon but by six the breezes kick up nicely and the world seem all right. Last night it was a full sensory experience. I was sitting in a hanging chair,rocking gently, while watching and listening to howler monkeys and an amazingly loud cicada. There is a flower blooming...

Im doing this post entirely from my phone so if there are no photos it's because I didn't figure out how to get them uploaded. We arrived in Montezuma with no hotel reservations, but a few ideas. Unfortunately none of them panned out. We did find a hostel right on the beach but the rooms were sparse and the kitchen terrible. We enjoyed the beach setting for one day, but the noise and uncomfortable rooms had us looking for a new place at dawn. Luckily, we got to move to Luna Llena, our first choice, and I am very happily relaxed on the large porch lounging couch while listening to howler monkeys get closer. We were told that they will visit us here at least once a day. Yesterday we spent all afternoon at the beach. Cora was in the water for four straight hours. Tate built a fire pit and gathered wood (our children: water and fire). Steve and I went to buy food for dinner and by the time we were done shopping a storm blew in. It rained hard for several hours. All we could do...

The ride to Santa Elana was very nice. Having the boat trip in the middle broke it up and the mountain views were gorgeous. We were in and out of the cloud forests and drove by many coffee plantations. We had never seen coffee flowering before and the smell is really nice. Very fragrant.  Our first choice hostel had a good room available so we are very happy here for two nights. Tina´s Casitas. Stave making lunch while I sit in the hammock There are lots of dogs here. Cora made friends with Snoopy and Charlie. They don´t like Tate though. They snarl and chase him. It´s very funny to watch. The bad thing is the transportation to get anywhere from the Monteverde area is really expensive and it's like they have fixed it so travelers have to use that expensive transport. The public buses are at 4:30am (!) or 2:30pm which makes you too late to get the ferry to the coast. There is one at 6am but it would take us seven hours as opposed to three because of the route. In...

Yesterday we got up with no plans for the day. We made some breakfast, used the Internet cafe and called the debit card company. We are still in a holding pattern with that because we don't want to give up our cash line. I am keeping a close eye on the account but at this point we think the card got turned in to a bank. We decided to spend the afternoon at Baldi Hot Springs and included dinner in the tickets. We spent the afternoon lounging around in the thermal hot springs, which were varying degrees of temperature. There were about 20 of them  Steve and I took cat naps while the kids played on the watercourse.   Tate was very popular because when he came down there was a huge splash when he hit the water. Dinner was ok. Kinda like cruise ship food. After that the pools were lit up and most of the people were gone so it was really relaxing. This morning when we woke up the top of the volcano was visible. It peeked in and out of the clouds all day. I hope we ...

We went whitewater rafting today on the River Picuare. We had to get up early for a 6am pickup. After a two hour bus ride we had a hearty breakfast at the base then we rode in a van up into the mountain so we could raft down. There are not words for how awesome this day was. We basically went between a mountain and a volcano. Both covered with dense jungle vegetation. There were about 40 rapids and gorgeous deep canyons and a lightly cloudy sky so we didn't fry in the sun. Our guide (who looked like a Costa Rican Adam Sandler) was so great. We could not have asked for a better experience. One of those "it is awesome to be alive" days. No pictures though. Our camera is not waterproof. Right now we are relaxed and tired and on a 3 hour mini-bus (with the tour company we rafted with) ride to Volcan Arenal with people from Japan, Canada, Austria, and our Costa Rican bus driver. I'm listening to some Javier Mendoza and loving the travel life. Cora asl...

I'm having a hard time getting used to the money in Costa Rica. We were able to use American dollars in panama but here they use the Colon. The exchange rate is 500 colons to the dollar. Yes, that was 500! It's hard to wrap your head around paying 1500c for water or getting 200,000c out of the ATM. I'm gonna catch up with some pictures now. Here is La Costa de Pepita front desk area and restaurant. Our front porch and Cora in her bunkbed with a mosquito net. Yesterday morning we had a delicious breakfast here at the hotel then walked about a kilometer to the Jaguar Rescue Center. Absolutely amazing! We got to hold and play with monkeys, pet several different types of sloths, Tate made friends with the little squirrel, Lino, and it rode on his back most of the time. This is the most I've ever seen Tate interact with an animal. Cora was in absolute heaven. Some of the monkeys were babies and would just crawl up on our shoulders. We also saw a hawk...

Again, this computer will not take an SD card. However, I am drinking the best coffee I've ever had while writing this so it's mas-o-menos. (good and bad) We were only able to spend the one night in Bocas del Toro because we made reservations at a specific hotel in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and they only let you cancel if the can rebook. Thus, for the third day in a row we were on the move. That is really exhausting so I'm glad we are in one place for at least three days now. It took us about five hours to get here from Bocas. We first had to get a water taxi to get back to mainland. They were very busy that day so we had to wait an hour for that. Then I splurged and paid for us to get a direct minibus to the border. Otherwise that would have been a taxi then two different busses to get there. Then we spent 30 minutes getting visas and stamped out of Panama. After that we walked across a rickety, rusted bridge into Costa Rica. From there another office for cus...

Sorry, no photos today. This computer won´t accept my SD card. It also has a sticky shift key so please forgive any bad grammar. We left Boquete on Thursday morning and went down to David so that we could go to a professional baseball game. A playoff game at at that. It was very hot in David and it is a larger city so I left the three of them at a restaurant and went looking for a hostel. The first two places I went were booked but I finally found a good room at Hotel Iris just off the square. Double bed and two twins, air-con, and a hot shower. That´s as good as it gets. The person at the front desk said we should get baseball tickets early so Tate and I took a cab over to the stadium around 3pm. We certainly got a lot of stares.  I bought four tickets and a team t-shirt for Steve and spent $18. About an hour after we got back to the room I went out for some food and the most forceful rain I have seen in a long time started.  It must have rained four inches in less than a...

Cora always says we have a daily dose of danger when we travel. Well, we used a week of that up yesterday. Our hostel has motorscooters you can rent really cheap. We paid $6 for two scooters for two hours. The deal is, we are in the mountains and the motorbikes (as they call them here) are a bit big for me. Cora said ¨Which one do I get to drive?¨ So we thought it would be good for Tate to ride with me. Wrong! It was too much weight for me to handle on turns so we crashed. It was a spectacular crash too. We went into the gravel, the seat came off the bike, and I was pretty bloody after. Shaken up too. We thought we might have to quit but Steve took Tate for a spin and they were fine so we carried on. Bless Cora for jumping on the bike with me without blinking an eye even though I had just laid the bike down. We spent our two hours driving around the mountain roads and looking at amazing vistas and many coffee plantations. Not many pictures though. We only had the two hours and wit...

As you may have read and yawned through yesterday, we left Panama City on Monday and took a really long bus ride to Boquete. It is absolutely beautiful here. The town is at about 3,600 feet up in the mountains and is nestled in a valley. It is much cooler here and the views are wonderful. Unfortuantely,  Ive been taking most of my pictures with my phone and I can´t get those onto the computer. Now that I know this won´t work, I´ll comandeer the real camera back from the children so that we get good photos and not more like this. We are very pleased with our hostel here. It is the most beautiful we have ever stayed in. Our rooms have a hot shower and a TV that works so the kids are happy. There is a kitchen here so we were able to buy and cook some vegetables, which was really nice to have after so much chicken and rice. The hostel is next to a small river and we can hear it out our window at night. We spent yesterday taking it easy. We walked to a beautiful garden that su...

Yesterday we got up and took a taxi to the bus station. We rode the bus for 7 hours to David and then another bus for 1 hour to Boquete. It was fine. Our hostel is very nice. There is a river next to it. We went to dinner last night and then went to bed. Here is a pictures you might enjoy.

We always have trouble finding our hostel the night we arrive in a new country. This time we decided to take a taxi straight to the hostel becase of Steve´s broken foot and because it was so late. We figured that would guarantee we wouldn´t get lost; but that meant we had to take a taxi. If you´ve read this blog before you`ll know that I have no love of taxi drivers. We have had more problems with taxi drivers over the years than all other things combined.  Except getting lost, but that is just an expected thing now that we don`t count that as a problem anymore. So we got a taxi and the dude was a jerk, but we were dropped at the door of the hostel. Great!  Except that the rooms weren´t´. There are many reasons why that place was not good for us but that is not the point of this this story. The gist is that we found ourselves back on the street with a pathetic map and a general idea of where there might be a room. And at this point it was 10 pm.  Kharma must have been...

We drove to St. Louis last night and stayed at a hotel because our flight was scheduled for 8am.  We got up at 4:30am to get the 5:30 shuttle and be in the airport by 6. (International flights require a 2 hour check in ahead of time) When we got here we found out our flight to New York was canceled but they put us on a direct flight to Miami. That flight leaves at 11:50am. It's good that we don't have to do the extra NY leg, but I could have used the extra sleep.  We had a one day pass for the Admiral's Lounge for Steve and the kids are free so it was only $50 for me and we could hang in there for the extended time.  Money well spent.  The seats are comfortable, there is no noise, and the drinks and snacks are free.  A significant savings when you consider we have Tate. So, the Windmoeller Hillbillies moved in. We also have free computer use (thus, the blog post) and free "drinks" for the adults. Not one to ever let a free Bloody Mary pass...

So, here we are again the night before travel and everyone is tense and snapping at each other. For the past three days I have been asking myself if all of the extra work and pressure are worth it. Then I read some of our past adventures that I posted on this blog and I remember that yes, the pre-travel hassle is worth it with the fun and education we have had. So, the goal is for all packing to be completely done tonight. We did most of the big stuff this weekend. Here are our clothes bags. Everyone gets the clothes they are wearing and what they could fit in this bag. This shows the size of the bag. I might be cheating though. That's Tate's shoe. Size 14 The rest of the stuff includes a travel pillow, sleep sack, shower flip flops, a light jacket, a poncho, and some toiletries for each person. We also have two snorkels, a laundry line, flashlights, and other small flotsam. Each person also gets a small day pack with books, ipods, water bottle, snacks, etc. All in all, ev...