Half Way

Just when we thought our adventure had come to an end we have found ourselves stuck in Dallas, Texas for two days. Dallas was hit with snow and freezing rain over the past few days and many flights were cancelled...including ours home to Seattle. We were able to land in Dallas from San Jose, Costa Rica on Saturday but could not find 3 empty seats on any flights going to Seattle until Monday morning! Time to click back into adventure mode.

So, we donned what warm clothes we had and ventured out into the weather to hail a taxi to a nearby hotel. Lucas was chilly but happy to see some snow as we waited for a ride.

Into the taxi for the 20 minute ride to the hotel. Lucas promptly fell asleep and stayed asleep for the next 3 hours. He never moved even through carrying him from the taxi, checking in, riding the elevator to the room and plopping him on the bed. He was catching up after a couple of long travel days.

Having never been to Dallas, I had no idea what to expect. One thing for sure, it is NOT a remote island paradise in the Caribbean! The view from our hotel window is a bit different. What do you think?

View from Dallas hotel:

View from Casa Cayuco on Isla Bastimentos:

To say that we were disappointed to not get home yesterday would be a true understatement. We had said our good-byes to Central America and had turned our energy towards our re-entry into Seattle. It was a big shock to have to switch gears and adjust to an unexpected change of plans. Dallas, to be truthful, is not all that inspiring, it was especially dreary with the low, grey clouds, freezing rain and 25 degree temperature, we hadn't eaten since our 6:30am breakfast in Costa Rica, and we had no idea where to station ourselves for the next 48 hours.

We found our way to the Lumen Hotel across the street from the SMU campus (no, we did not opt to visit the George W. Bush library.) We spent the first evening eating room service, watching videos and exploring every nook and cranny of the hotel. Lucas and I discovered that the elevator opens on the 4th floor onto an outdoor sitting terrace that I'm sure is lovely when it is not covered in a sheet of slick ice!

Matt came down with a cold the morning we left Panama...not sure where he picked it up on that remote island. So, he has pretty much taken to his bed here at the hotel and hasn't moved except for a quick jaunt to the hotel restaurant for a bowl of oatmeal this morning. Lucas and I have embraced our circumstances and have resurrected our sense of adventure. We hopped in a taxi with a lovely man named, Robert, who is a born n' bred Dallasite and proud to be so. He took us into downtown Dallas for some...wait for it...ice skating! Yup, the polar opposite of where we have been for the past 6 weeks - an indoor ice skating rink in the middle of a 4 story shopping mall.

This is where we got to know Dallas a bit more. I was struck by the incredible diversity here - it was a rainbow of different colored kids and their parents on the ice. It was so wonderful to experience...something I am constantly aware is pretty much non-existent in Seattle. Latinos, Asians, African Americans, Indians, Africans, and Caucasians all shuffling around in a counter-clockwise circle on the ice. There were also countless girls and young women walking around with thick make up on and big, colorful, stiff bows on the tops of their heads. What was with the bows? I finally asked a young woman and learned that this weekend was the national cheerleading competition held every year in Dallas. 26,000 people in town for this event.

Lucas and I skated for an hour and a half with him getting more confident and faster with every lap.

It was super fun and is nothing that I could ever have imagined that we would be doing 2 days after visiting a remote, indigenous village in Panama!

We ate lunch in a Tex-Mex restaurant where we got to happily engage our waiter in Spanish. I am not ready to give that up. Then off to Hagaan Daaz for an ice cream cone before heading back to check on Matt at the hotel. He rested and watched a movie and feels a bit better.

So, we have confirmed seats on a flight tomorrow and the weather here is warming up. All looks good for our arrival in Seattle tomorrow. This little travel detour has reminded me that we don't need to go to Central America or to go away for 6 weeks to live an adventurous life. It's just about embracing what each day brings with an open and curious and adventurous spirit. The couple of days here in Dallas has been a cultural experience not too far from home. I am grateful for the experience and the reminder to continue to look for and make adventure in each day.

Home tomorrow! I am ready for some dark, leafy greens, a snuggle with Che, and catching up on all of your adventures over the past 6 weeks.

xoxo

Where There Are No Roads

Warning: This post will be long and all over the place. This is the last post of our trip, and I've got a bunch of stuff to talk about!

First, the Ngabe (pronounced Naw-Bay...I mispronounced it when I first wrote about this indigenous tribe from northern Panama.) There are many Ngobe communities across northern Panama and throughout the islands of Bocas del Toro. Where we stayed on Isla Bastimentos was very near the community of Salt Creek, fairly large at almost 900 residents. The Ngobe have traditionally been a Nomadic tribe and it has only been fairly recently that they have settled down. The Salt Creek community is about 70 years old. Hidden in the jungle, set back from the beach about 600 meters, you would never know the community was there if you didn't know where to look. There is a narrow river that opens to the sea that winds through mangroves that leads to the community. The water passage was opened by the founders of the community, hacking a path through the thick mangroves. We followed a couple up the inlet as they silently paddled their cayuco, the wooden, hand-carved, traditional Ngobe boat.

You come to a dock and a long cement (yes, cement) walkway that leads into the community. I can only imagine what it took to actually build the walkway that is incredibly long (perhaps 1/4 mile) - getting the supplies to this remote location and then actually building it over very swampy terrain.

I'm not exactly sure what I expected to find when I arrived in Salt Creek. I went with Lucas and some other guests from the lodge we were staying at. Dave and Suzanne, the owners of the lodge, are very involved here and also very liked, welcomed and respected here. Dave knows everyone by name, has an easy rapport  and is immediately swarmed by the local kids. It is an example of how gringos, tourism and native culture can come together positively and respectfully and quite beautifully. 

Salt Creek is beautiful - there is a fresh water creek, it is open and green, in the center is a soccer field adjacent to the school and small playground. It was washing day when we visited, so there was lots of color added to the landscape from laundry hanging out to dry.

There is no electricity or running water here...something that struck me in the juxtaposition with the many resorts in the islands with their blenders for fruity rum drinks and internet capability for their guests. There is very little byway of work in the village - fishing to sell at market in Bocas Town and perhaps hauling (building supplies or whatever) in ones cayuco. So, herein lies the challenge - tourism brings jobs but also brings with it exploitation, being undervalued and disrespected, unsatisfying work, and the impossible-to-bridge gap of have and have not. 

I spent all week really watching the Ngobe people I encountered - curious about their culture and life style and relationship to gringos. The relationship was so very different from our experience in Costa Rica. We found Costa Ricans very open and interested in connecting. This was not my experience with the Ngobe. I had all sorts of assumptions and questions - are they bitter and can't stand gringos? are they an unhappy/serious people? is the have/have not gap just too big? When we switched to Casa Cayuco (Dave and Suzanne's place) and I had daily encounters with the same people, I attempted to communicate every day respectful of boundaries. A lot of connection was made through Lucas. People are curious about him, find him funny and appealing, and cute as a total gringo kid. I had a lot of time with Jose, the main guide at Casa Cayuco. He has a very large family, many of whom also work at Casa Cayuco, and it was lovely to swap stories with him about our lives. 

What I learned from Dave is that in general the Ngobe are more timid. They also are wary of "letting down" gringos, worried about expectations and conceded that they can't communicate well due to language barriers. Plus, many are not used to foreigners taking interest in connecting with them like I am inclined to do. Dave explained who all of the staff are actually very chatty and silly when they are away from work...something we saw when we went to the village. 

Lucas, who didn't initially didn't want to visit Salt Creek, ended up at the playground with kids of 3 of the women who work at Casa Cayuco. It is a beautiful thing to behold - put kids together, let them play and it doesn't matter that there isn't a common spoken language between them. They all just laughed and had fun. 

When it was time to go, Lucas said, "No, I'm having so much fun. I want to live in Salt Creek!" I wish I had more time there. Relationships were just starting to spark. It is what travel is all about for me - meeting people, learning from each other, witnessing different ways of life. Where we were was so remote - everything about day-to-day life there was so different from what day-to-day life looks like for me. I would have liked to have gone deeper into it all. My heart felt so full our last night there when after dinner, Lizbeth and Maricena, who help prepare food at the lodge, wanted to say good-bye to Lucas and give him a bracelet their kids had made. Though there weren't many words exchanged over the week, connection was happening between us as moms, between them and Lucas and it turns out between their kids and Lucas as they were going home each day and talking about Lucas. It was extra special to go to the village today and see their house and have them call out "Lu-CAS" as we came up the walkway. I will think of them a lot...

Panama turned out to be a great addition to our trip despite the rocky start. The beauty, the water, the beach, the remoteness, the Ngobe, and Casa Cayuco. The best part about staying there is the bond that starts to form between the guests. We eat together and go on excursions together and hang out together. Over our 5 days there we met 2 women from Austria, 2 from the states, 2 couples from NYC and a family of 6 traveling with grandparents from New Hampshire. I miss them all and our delicious family-style meals swapping stories about our lives. 

One morning, Matt, Lucas, and I headed out on kayaks with Gerard, dad to 10-year old twin girls who Lucas LOVED. We went in search of a lion fish - an invasive, no-native fish that is causing problems. Gerard wanted to catch one. It is a beautiful fish with stripes and feathery-like bands that are actually stingers that pack a punch. So, off we went with snorkeling gear and hawaiian slings that are a sort of spear for fishing. Here is Matt getting ready to go on the hunt.

No Lion Fish were speared or even spotted, much to Gerard's disappointment. He was on a quest. The rest of the day found Lucas and me playing around on the stand up paddle board...endless fun. I've always wanted to try it but the water is just too cold around Seattle.

Oh, I know there is so much more to write about, and I find myself getting very sleepy. We are back at the Hotel Buena Vista outside of San Jose. It is strange to be in the very same room we were in our very first night in Costa Rica exactly 6 weeks ago today. We even had the same customs officer today coming back from Panama that we had the day we arrived in Costa Rica. It has been a long, somewhat crabby and unremarkable day to end what has been a truly remarkable and life-changing adventure. I started to feel a bit bummed about that and caught myself immediately. What has been so  lovely about this adventure was just letting things unfold naturally and being in the moment. This was never about trying to make it some perfect "trip" every minute we were here. So, Matt has a cold and Lucas did some acting out and I got impatient and the hotel went to the wrong place at the airport and couldn't find us so we waited for an hour and a half and then had to catch a cab and we couldn't go to our fantasy restaurant for patacones and strawberry milkshakes. We woke up to the sound of jungle birds and swam in the Caribbean Sea and toured an indigenous village and flew over dense jungle where there are no roads and a kind man at the airport negotiated a fair taxi price for us and we joked around with the waiters at the hotel restaurant and Lucas and Matt are now passed out snoring. No big fanfare to mark the end of our six weeks. Just a lot of gratitude. 

We will be up early in the morning to catch our flight home. It is time. I say that with sadness as I will miss it here and miss living the adventure, and I also know it is true. We miss our people and our place. We will carry Costa Rica back home with us in our hearts.

Getting into the Caribe Vibe

We have finally landed in a spot that feels like the right fit. Just 10 minutes down the beach from where we started and at the same time....miles away. 4 small bungalows, beautifully prepared, thoughtfully delicious food served family style at one long table, young owners from Michigan expecting their first baby in August, and time with the locals. Being here is helping to bridge our sadness over our trip ending and turning our energy towards home. We are grateful.

Here are some pictures of our "jungalow" nestled in the trees a little way back from the beach. We take turns sleeping in the big bed with the ceiling face brilliantly put INSIDE the mosquito netting!

I think my favorite spot is the "living room" on the dock overlooking the water equipped with hammocks for the new resident stuffies to relax in!

Yesterday was a superb day. We headed off shortly after breakfast for a tour at the Green Acres chocolate farm about a 30-40 minute boat ride to the mainland referred to as "Terra Scura" (meaning dark land) because of the dark, volcanic soil. The chocolate farm is nestled into about 30 acres right up against dense jungle that is habitat for jaguars, pumas, ocelot and a whole bunch of other animals. The farm was started by another ex-past couple nearly 20 years ago. Robert and his wife, Julie, bought it a few years ago when the founding couple was in their mid-80s. The first owner's wife was an avid gardener, so there is a tasteful mix of jungle, cultivated gardens and the cacao trees. Robert took us on an hour or so tour around the property and jungle sharing info about all of the indigenous plants and animals. We started the tour with opening a cacao fruit. 

The cacao seeds that eventually are what make delicious chocolate are first purple in color and covered in a white, mucilaginous coating that is actually quite sweet and fruity. We each picked off a slimy seed and sucked the coating off. The cacao seeds are quite bitter at this fresh stage. 

One of the most fascinating plants we encountered on the tour was the "Walking Palm Tree". It grows new roots really quickly - it grows like at the speed of asparagus - in the front of the tree while the roots at the back serve as pushers. It literally walks in search of access to more sunlight. Amazing! The indigenous women use the roots with the tough spikes on them to shred coconut when making coconut oil.

Matt and I were enthralled by it all, while it got a bit long for Lucas. Until, the termite nest. Robert scratched the surface of the nest to expose some of the termites and then invited the group to have a snack. Everyone sampled one of the tiny, protein-packed bugs while Lucas stayed at the tree, bellied up to the termite bar, for 10 or more minutes having a full on feast! He loved it!

I love that kid's adventure spirit! The tour ended with some homemade chocolate-peanut butter cookies baked with chocolate from the farm. Not sure what Lucas liked better - the cookies or the termites.

We stayed on the Green Acres dock for a picnic lunch with our guide Ernesto where we proceeded to have an hour conversation about religious, birth control, family, kids, etc. It was as rich and informative as our time with Robert on the chocolate tour. I am so grateful to have enough Spanish to be able to connect with folks we meet in this way. It was a delightful lunch.

Then, off to do some snorkeling. This was a first for Lucas. He took to it with gusto and guts! On with the gear and into the water. As Matt was encouraging him to put his face in the water, Lucas would say, "Poco a poco, Daddy. I am ajusting." (no "d"). He is hooked now loving every minute of it - the bravery it took, feeling super proud, holding sea stars and sea cucumbers, arrow crabs and urchins. We saw coral like I've never seen in my life. Colors so rich - teal and ruby orange and smokey purple some of which was wrapped up in equally as colorful brittle stars. This was all around a small mangrove island in the middle of a bay. It was magical.

Tomorrow holds a tour of an organic farm in the jungle for me (yay!) and more snorkeling for Lucas and Matt (yay!).  We are hoping for another snorkel adventure on Thursday that may include fishing for plate fish with a Hawaiin Sling - it's a type of spear for speak fishing. Lucas, of course, is intrigued.

Four days from now we will be landing at SeaTac airport. Quite astonishing to be saying that. How lucky to feel sad to end this life-changing journey and to feel happy to be returning to a place and community and family and group of friends that/who we love dearly and can't wait to see. I am feeling so incredibly blessed.

xoxo

Way Out in Panama

With heavy hearts we boarded the NatureAir flight to Panama on Friday and said good-bye to Costa Rica. Nos encanta Costa Rica! Pura Vida, mai! We headed off to this new land fairly unprepared...knowing very little about where we were going. Our lack of preparedness started in the San Jose airport. We thought we had left ourselves plenty of time to drop off our trusty rental car, Caballo Blanco, and get to the airport without sweating it. Think again. First, we arrived at the rental car place at the same time as another American couple. The car agency doesn't have a shuttle van, so they had to take the other couple to the airport and then come back to get us. First time set back.

Then, we got to the airport and waited in the slow-moving NatureAir check-in line with a little more than an hour until our flight. When it's our turn, the agent informs us that we have to pay our "exit tax" (yes, you have to pay $29/person to leave Costa Rica) before we can check-in. Second time set back.

Back to the check-in line with receipt saying "taxes paid". Unfortunately, the agent who helped us must be a not-so-distant relative of the Costa Rican sloth - VERY slow moving. Third time set back. With our paperwork in hand, we head to the security line with 30 minutes to go before the flight.

Only to be turned away because we hadn't filled out our customs paperwork, of so we misunderstood. Off to the corner on the floor to frantically claim that we were carrying no fresh fruits and $200 US dollars. Back to the security line, to be shut down again b/c we are missing a certain paper (we did NOT have to fill out the customs paperwork). Back to the ticket agent asking for a paper I'm not sure we need until Matt runs to find me b/c he figured out that we needed to show our "taxes paid receipt". Fourth and fifth time set backs. It's now15 mins. before our flight.

Shoes off, computers out, stuffies in the grey box and through security we go. Only to be stopped yet again because it turns out the Swiss Army knife I couldn't find ANYWHERE when I was packing earlier that morning was hiding deep in a pocket of my backpack. Ugh! Bye-bye knife. I was SO mad. Run, run, run to Gate 11 with 5 minutes to go just to sit and wait for 15 mins...time enough to have a snack. :)

We were relieved and well-schooled in the ways of the San Jose airport when the colorful twin-prop took off with us on it!

There were thick clouds around San Jose so we weren't able to see much of Eastern Costa Rica until we were just north of the border. Such different terrain - nearly roadless, thick, thick trees, banana plantations (mostly Dole and Chiquita from what we've heard), very few houses and towns. Then we circled over the islands of Bocas del Toro seeing the Caribbean Sea for the first time. Such a different color from the Pacific.

We landed in Bocas Town on Isla Colon, the only actual town in Bocas de Toro and a place to get into and out of as fast as possible. How to describe it? Gross, to put it simply. Trash literally everywhere, stagnant water and whatever else in drainage ditches along the roads, an odd and uncomfortable mix of tourists and locals. Honestly, I have no idea what would bring someone here for vacation. It's one of those places on earth (and I know there are many) where the indigenous culture and people come face to face with the culture of tourism, and it is really just an awful mix. The native people here, the Ngabe (I wrote about them a bit in my updates from Santa Maria) live very remotely and very simply with very few options for education and economic opportunity. So, on one hand, the growth of tourism provides jobs and training opportunities. There are some hotels and resorts that are taking a very proactive and respectful approach to this and most that are not where there is just exploitation and disrespect and very little value placed on the indigenous way of life.

After scampering around town to scrounge up some groceries, we met up with the boat that took us out to Isla Bastimentos, one of the most remote islands in Bocas. It was about a 30 min. boat ride to get us to our first Caribbean pad where we had rented a house - Casa Verde.

Admittedly, we've been a bit unsettled here. This is clearly a remote, tourist, resort-like destination for folks looking to get away, lay on the beach, drink fruity drinks and just hang out. Not so much what we have been doing or been looking to do on this adventure. It is a beautiful beach paradise, it's quiet, the water is gorgeous, so you ask, "What is their problem???!!" I think it's just do different from where we've been and not really how we wanted to end this journey. We miss people and speaking Spanish, and Tico culture.

Lucas, however, is thrilled, because there is a 6-month old Howler monkey living here named Rafiki. We were told that she was orphaned when a tree was cut down killing her mother (later we learned, sadly, that she is just another baby monkey intentionally orphaned by poachers who kill the mothers and then sell the babies to clueless foreigners excited about "rescuing" an orphaned monkey and having it as a pet." Lucas seeks her out all day and in turn, she seeks him out, too! She is truly amazing to watch and hold and play with. She literally wraps herself around you with her 2 hands, 2 feet and incredible tail. The only hard part for Lucas is that she is a nibbler, just doing her baby monkey thing, but she likes to nibble quite hard on any exposed body part. So, her has a love/fear fascination with her. He wants to play with her but needs a protector as well.

There are great dogs here, too, who at times are jealous of and very interested in Rafiki. Rafiki was taking a nap on Matt's shoulders while Matt was being trailed by the dog pack looking for love and also to get to the monkey!

We have had some fun in the sand and swimming a bunch. Lucas had us dig a big hole and then bury him after hearing a story about how we did this with Gus 7 or 8 years ago in Baja. The dogs found his little head sticking up quite mysterious and interesting. Some passersby on the beach didn't realize the hat was connected to a kid buried in the sand!

One more monkey story...one afternoon, Rafiki wondered into the house and immediately found Lucas's backpack full of his friends. A battle ensured between kid and monkey over the beloved Sloth stuffy named Rica.

Lucas eventually won and there was a little love lost, I believe!

We are moving up the beach to Casa Cayuco for the remainder of our stay here. We are looking forward to getting there as it is where we had wanted to stay for our full week but there were booked for the first half. I think it will be a better fit for us.

We are winding down. Lucas has said a couple of times that he is ready to get home to play with Bee and Big Bear and Scout (trusted stuffy friends) and misses Seattle. It is time.

See you very soon!

Into the Belly of the Beast

...the Beast being San Jose! We have spent the past 5 weeks basking in the Pura Vida of Costa Rica - small towns, beaches, the dense, green jungle, farms, mountains - calm and quiet and friendly and beautiful. Easy to forget that city life exists here and easy to believe that what we saw and experienced was the full Costa Rica picture. Oops!

We left the Unicorn Lodge on a sunny morning yet very cold in the house. Lucas waited under the warm covers until the much-anticipated pancakes were ready to eat. Yum! Then, went right back into a cozy cocoon to keep warm.

We were on the road by 8:20 in hopes of reaching the Poas Volcano as early as possible to avoid the usual afternoon clouds that roll in. We had heard that a section of the main highway was closed due to a landslide, so we needed to leave more time. It is hard to accurately describe the terrain and roads here in Costa Rica. The roads just charge up the hills and mountains - steep and windy beyond belief - with one lane in each direction and no shoulders and in most cases (except for in or near the city) no dividing lines.

With the road closed before we reached Cartago, outside of San Jose, we were detoured onto another road that wound its way through small towns and coffee farms on steep slopes to the south of San Jose. Trucks, cars and motorcycles sharing this road. It's amazing to watch and frustrating to be behind a big truck with a huge load slowly chug up the steep, steep hills spewing black smoke out the back. It's incredibly arduous and slow. The towns and area in these hills above the Central Valley are beautiful, but it was hard to take it in because I had to focus so intently on driving - hairpin curves, motorcycles passing on all sides, and cars daring to pass slow moving trucks on blind curves. Our journey yesterday was a total of maybe 100km. It took us 3 1/2 hours! Matt and I now have created a new driving measurement called the "Costa Rica mile!" It takes about 20 minutes to go 1 Costa Rica mile!

We were already tired and car sick (even though I was driving) when we descended into the ugly chaos of San Jose. Luckily we had a GPS to guide us through the maze of unmarked streets and fast, erratic traffic. We have named our GPS Lucia. We would have been lost many times without her. It is true what people say, do not drive in Costa Rica without a Lucia!

It's like San Jose is a different country. Outside of the city, there are "no throwing trash" signs everywhere and there is pride in having a clean town; there are beautiful gardens and plantings; there are open-air sodas and birds. San Jose is giant garbage dump. Every house and business is behind a tall, locked fence often with barbed wire at the top. Everyone we met who used to live in San Jose or still did and was working elsewhere had nothing but negative things to say about it or said how relieved they were to be away. There is little of the Pura Vida Costa Rica here. I know cities all over the world are like this. I guess I find it extra curious here in Costa Rica given the government's push towards "green" and "environment" and ecotourism, and investment in improving the quality of life of Costa Ricans in the process. Very little, if any, of that seems to have been introduced in San Jose. Why?

Despite the arduous drive, this day seems to have been blessed for us. We pushed through the chaos and came out into the hills on the north side of San Jose heading up to the Poas Volcano National Park on a very, very clear day. We would see the volcano! The farm land as you go up is breathtaking - open and wide. Cow farms and somewhat surprising, acres and acres of strawberry farms. There were roadside stands everywhere selling big, juicy berries. We promised Lucas we would stop on the way back down to munch on some.

The volcano was awesome. A crater about 2/3 of a mile across with a milky, blue lake in it. Steam and gases rise from the lake and mix with clouds coming from the east so at times the crater goes in and out of view. There is a rocky, barren swath of land to the SW where the lava has run in the past and mixed with the acid rain that forms over the volcano nothing can grow there.

We stayed until the park closed at 3:00pm. Hungry we went in search of a soda (cafe) in a Tico town for our last bit of local Costa Rica before we leave. I wanted patacones (crushed fried plantain cakes), Matt wanted a good cup of coffee and Lucas a special drink. We randomly picked Cafe Caribe in a small town coming down from the volcano. We picked THE right spot. There seems to be no end to the whipped cream -topped yummy drinks in this country. Lucas and Matt were in heaven.

And, we had the best patacones we have had yet with frijoles, guacamole, pico de gallo and carne. I savored every bite. When we had gobbled everything up we started scheming about how we could get back to Cafe Caribe after we return from Panama for one last night here before flying home. It was so good!

Our day ended with an upgrade to a beautiful "villa" here at the hotel. Nati, a woman who works at the hotel, has a thing for Lucas and remembered us from 5 weeks ago when we stayed here our very first night in Costa Rica. She surprised us with this beautiful room with a great view over the valley below and 2 very comfortable beds. We all snuggled up last night very tired and happy and feeling blessed for such an incredible day - hard and beautiful and long and exciting and delicious and tiring and fun. It was a great way to end our time here in Costa Rica - a little of so much that Costa Rica is and has to offer. We are going to miss it here.

Next stop...Panama. (I am secretly hoping that there will patacones there, too!)

Los Ultimos Dias en las Montanas

Oh the joy and playfulness of Las Cabinas Cecelia. This is where we spent Monday night. Ceclia is a women in her early 60s with hair over-dyed a deep reddish-pinkish and a true zest for life. She has 17 brothers and sisters! She is the first person we've met in this very Catholic country to outwardly share strong, negative feelings about religion. She was a joy to be around. I wish we had had more time there.

Every detail of her place makes you smile - knickknacks that have obviously been collected over many years, mosaics and paintings on walls and cabinet fronts, flowers. It was a delightful place to spend time. There are just a few cabinas that surround the center, open-air eating area. The cabinas have a Bavarian feel and each has a sign saying either "Welcome", "Wilkommen", "Bienvenue" or "Bienvenidos" over each door.

The funniest cabina is the one that reads "Matthew Mcconaughey" over the door! He stayed in that cabina 6 years ago. When she showed us the room (we didn't end up staying in it) and shared the story she said, "Oh, que lindo!" (how handsome) with a big smile on her face.

Tuesday found Lucas and me just hanging around Santa Maria while Matt went on a tour of the coffee cooperative. We went to the playground to romp around but got immediately wet from the sprinklers! So, we wandered up the street to a place with a sign that said, "las machinas de pinball." Right up our alley. Of course, we were the only ones wanting to play at 10:00am on a Tuesday morning! They turned on the machines and with some help we figured out what to do. It is different from pinball in the states. There are no flippers. You just fling the ball and leave it up to luck which hole each ball lands in. We keep waiting and waiting for the game to end, but we seemed to have an endless supply of balls. Until, this tall kind of Dutch kind of Costa Rican guy explained that you can keep playing or stop and collect our winnings. We had won 400 colones! Definitely different from the pinball at home - no skill involved and gambling! Lucas pocketed his winnings and made a plan to stop at the local pulperia on the way out of town to buy us all a lollipop.

Then back to the park post-sprinklers and now as experienced Costa Rican gamblers. While playing at the park, we were privileged to witness a funeral procession coming through the local street to the church. It was beautiful and sad and communal.

We watched as they carried the casket from the car into the church which spurred a whole bunch of questions from Lucas about the whole process of dying, burial, memorial service, etc. We watched as people arrived - in causal clothes, in their campasino pick up trucks, in high heels and stappy tank tops...so very different from the formal dress for funerals at home. We listened for a while to the hymns as the music poured out through the open church doors.

Then it was back to the cafe at the coffee coop for one last whipped cream intense special drink before leaving this beautiful valley. Our server was named Eloisa (very fun for Lucas to share that her cousin is named Eloise). Here is Lucas lost in his whipped cream, italian soda ecstasy!

Matt loved the coffee tour. He learned a ton about a whole bunch of coffee related stuff (i.e. what it means to be shade grown) and mostly about what this particular coop is doing to make the whole coffee system - growing to harvesting to roasting - a more sustainable process. For example, when they plants trees around the coffee plants to provide shade, they plant trees that are nitrogen fixing to re-nutrify the soil and are trees that provide fruit to local birds and animals. Let's see, another tidbit he found interesting was that after drying the beans, the beans get kind of "stressed out" and they "hold on" to the "chemicals" in the bean that are what ultimately give the coffee good flavor. So, they are put in a silo to "rest" for at least 2 months to relax and release. Who knew!

We got our lollipops on our way out of town and headed up, up, up out of the Santa Maria valley back to the main highway and then south back to the Savegre River Valley and the very small, almost undetectable town of San Gerardo where we had rented a VRBO house called the Unicorn Lodge.

It's a funky house in the forest that sits above the Savegre River. It's cold and smells of smoke but it has a kitchen! Oatmeal and pancakes and fried eggs with runny yolks just like Lucas likes them and home cooked dinners galore.

The stairs to the loft are so steep my creaky knees force me to come down sideways and very slowly!

What a shock to the system to wake up and dread getting out of bed because the house was so cold! We quickly jumped into our jeans, fleece and warm hats while we waited for the oatmeal to cook. Once we were out in the sun, we stripped down to shorts and t-shirts and headed off for some hiking. Matt headed solo up into the hills while Lucas and I went in search of las cataratas (waterfalls). I am sad to say we didn't have the camera with us for our hike. It was a true adventure, and I wish I could have captured where we went with some pictures. The trail was open and easy going until we came to the first waterfall. After that it was series of steep drop-offs, old metal grates spanning gaps in the rocks, old metal stairs missing steps, rope railings to keep you from careening down the slope into the river. The most sketchy was the wobbly, suspension bridge over the river that was very reminiscent of the movie Shrek. Then down, down, down old metal stairs to the base of the second waterfall but first we had to basically repel down a rock face using an old yellow rope. It was totally worth it. As Lucas said, "the waterfall was ginormous!" It was beautiful and Lucas loved the adventure...I did, too. But kept thinking that most people might think I was a little bit nuts to bring my 5 year old here. 3 1/2 miles later we had a great story to share with Daddy.

We are leaving the mountains a day earlier than we had initially planned. We feel done here. So, we are heading out early in the morning to go explore the Poas Volcano north of San Jose. We figure it would be fun to see at least one of Costa Rica's many, many volcanoes before we leave. We will spend the night outside of San Jose and then catch our flight to Panama mid-day on Friday. We are all aware that we are in the final stretch of this journey - counting our colones to be sure we have enough for the last few things but aren't stuck with a whole bunch to bring home, saying Pura Vida as much as we can, sneaking in a volcano vista - and yet are excited for our beach adventure to the Carribean side of Panama. Lucas is hoping to swim and play with dolphins!

I will post again once we are settled on the Isla de Bastimentos in Bocas del Toro, Panama.

xoxo