Gallery
Ordered some mattes from Moonshine today so I can begin to prepare for my show.
Got annoyed at the flickr site as they change they way things work. They are always throwing unilateral changes like this at us. Madness.
Took another look at Facebook and Twitter but can't see the point. Who's going to persuade me?
Chatted to Kristian about Website design and CSS and Joomla. Got to get this going.
This Time Last Year
I get up at 6.30am and wait for Luiz to arrive to take Carolyn to Fortuna. I hitch a ride to the airport. I want to change my flight for an earlier one but the 'computer says no'. They assure me that even though I only have one hour to change flights that this will be OK.
I grab a taxi back to Santa Ana and spend the morning on the internet. I call kristine in the afternnon and then settle down to watch Champions League football. Three games on the trot. Man U get a 1-1 draw with Lyon.
This Timne in 2007
Today was another travel day as I make my way to Monteverde and a small town called Santa Elena. This is close to the National Cloud Forest Reserve.
I spend the morning packing and leave some stuff in the Bodega (store room) which I hope Carlos will pick up next friend and bring to Fortuna as this is where we will rendezvous for the next trip.
At 1pm I take a taxi into San Jose city and find the appropriate bus-station abd join a queue waiting for the ticket-office to open. I spend my time playing cards with a couple of girls from Seattle who claim that they have been travelling for 30hrs so far!
The bus leaves promptly at 2.30pm for the 5hr ride to Santa Elena. Most of the trip (200km) is along the Pacific Highway but the last 35km is up and up a dirt road into the mountains. As we climbed we could se the Pacific Ocean and the Nicoya Peninsular in the distance.
At the turn-off we tiook a 15min break before taking the meandering road upwards as the sunset over the far distant ocean. We arrived in the dark to a slow drizzle.
Fortunately the Tree-House Hotel was just across the street, so I quickly got myself checked-in. Not bad for $30 a night, though other places in town are only $5! After dinner I sit down to watch Real vs Bayern.
Showing posts with label San Jose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label San Jose. Show all posts
Friday, 20 February 2009
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Holing out in Santa Ana
At Home
Today I draw up the itinerary for a week long canoe trip down the Dordogne River in France. I'm hoping to take my friend Eddy and his two children on the trip this summer. It is also possible that my Parisian friends Julie and Jean-Marc and their two kids may also want to do the trip.
This Time Last Year
Our last day of this trip. We are up for breakfast at 7.30am and ready to leave by 8.30am.
Everyone has decided to go for one more paddle so we make for the put-in on the Rio Puerto Viejo.
Molly, who still has her arm in a sling, will paddle with Carolyn and I'll paddle bow for her husband John. as we carry the boats down to the river I slip five huge rocks into Manuel's kayak. He doesn't notice all day! brilliant!
This is a very green and picturesque river and we see a sloth and many toucans along the way. Although it rains a lot we still have a very pleasant two hour paddle.
We say farewell to Manuel at Puerto Viejo and pack everything onto the bus for the trip back to San Jose. We stop for lunch at the junction to the Limon road before crossing over the mountains.
Carolyn and I are staying in Santa Ana but in the evening we return to the San Gildar Hotel for our farewell dinner.
This Time in 2007
Nothing much to report as it's a rest day in Santa Ana. This is what I did. Get the fauna lists up-to-date. Clean my boots. Fix my watch strap. Get two butterfly nets sewn. Went out for a pizza in the evening with all the family and Carolyn.
Jim didn't come back from the airport this time.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Pepito the Clown
This Time Last Year
I'm up at 6am to watch the birds. The usual several species of Toucans; Chestnut-mandibled and Keel-billed as well as Collared Aracari (a smaller type of Toucan). We are ready to leave by 7.30am. Today we are to paddle the Rio Sarapiqui which is the river I screwed up big time last year. I lost my glasses and hat and abandoned after an hour and Carlos continued after that and almost three boats. These adventures will feature in the Blog shortly - it's not yet a year ago! The river was big that day so I'm apprehensive about how it will be today.
As luck would have the river is completely different and I can hardly recognise it. The water is much lower and much less violent.
The rapids are still a challenge though and we have to negotiate them with care. This year though we have Carolyn with us and she is a lot more careful and circumspect than Carlos was last year. At several of the rapids we stop to examine them before proceeding - this is standard practise, though not always possible. The rapids turn out to be a lot of fun until on one corner Molly somehow contrives to dislocate her shoulder. Her paddle jarred on a rock I believe.
Her and her husband manage to pull into an eddy and the rest of us stop to assist. It's fortunate that her husband is a doctor and knows the procedure for slipping it in. So do I now. You pull the arm down steadily and strongly and you hang on for however long it takes. Eventually the muscle relaxes and the joint goes back into the socket. This can take up to ten minutes.
Of course her arm is still sore so we make a sling. Carolyn then paddles with her - she can't paddle at all now, and I paddle down with her husband. We almost capsize at the next corner as I cut into the slow water too fast and at the wrong angle and the braking effect almost has us over. Sometime it's tricky to go back to tandem paddling when you've been solo all week.
After a while we decide to explore a side-stream and paddle up there until it becomes too narrow. We do find a pleasant shady spot for lunch.
It takes us about four hours in all to paddle back to our hotel which is on the river bank. This is the first time I've paddled this river so I'm pleased to get it under my belt. Other outfitters offer rafting on this river so you have an idea of what it can be like.
We laze all afternoon reading books and chasing butterflies.
In the early evening Luis and I drive into town to pick up some wine and beer for dinner.
This Time in 2007
I was up at 6am to take photographs of the city from this great vantage point. Couldn't get a coffee out of the hotel until 7.30 though!
After breakfast, Jim, Carolyn and I jumped a taxi down to Santa Ana and checked in with out friends th
ere.
I got my laundry done and caught up with everything down at the Internet Cafe.
Jim left for the airport to go back to the USA but came back later as he was bounced. They gave him $350 for that!
In the afternoon I went with Taty and Pepito to a children's party. Taty does face-painting and Pepito is a professional clown. We drove across San Jose with a fully made-up clown driving like a madman and honking on his horn. Unbelievably he actually had a horn that sounded like a clowns car in the circus ring. I fully expected the do
ors to fall off. He drove like a lunatic too, even more so than most other people in Costa Rica. He weaved in and out of the traffic often with his head out of the window and laughing. Amazingly he got away with it and everyone else just thought it was funny. No road rage at all. Complete madness, and not something I shall forget in a hurry.
The show was great and I took a lot of shots for them.
Watched Costa Rica beat Panama at football on the TV. Dinner and bed.
I'm up at 6am to watch the birds. The usual several species of Toucans; Chestnut-mandibled and Keel-billed as well as Collared Aracari (a smaller type of Toucan). We are ready to leave by 7.30am. Today we are to paddle the Rio Sarapiqui which is the river I screwed up big time last year. I lost my glasses and hat and abandoned after an hour and Carlos continued after that and almost three boats. These adventures will feature in the Blog shortly - it's not yet a year ago! The river was big that day so I'm apprehensive about how it will be today.
As luck would have the river is completely different and I can hardly recognise it. The water is much lower and much less violent.
The rapids are still a challenge though and we have to negotiate them with care. This year though we have Carolyn with us and she is a lot more careful and circumspect than Carlos was last year. At several of the rapids we stop to examine them before proceeding - this is standard practise, though not always possible. The rapids turn out to be a lot of fun until on one corner Molly somehow contrives to dislocate her shoulder. Her paddle jarred on a rock I believe.
Her and her husband manage to pull into an eddy and the rest of us stop to assist. It's fortunate that her husband is a doctor and knows the procedure for slipping it in. So do I now. You pull the arm down steadily and strongly and you hang on for however long it takes. Eventually the muscle relaxes and the joint goes back into the socket. This can take up to ten minutes.
Of course her arm is still sore so we make a sling. Carolyn then paddles with her - she can't paddle at all now, and I paddle down with her husband. We almost capsize at the next corner as I cut into the slow water too fast and at the wrong angle and the braking effect almost has us over. Sometime it's tricky to go back to tandem paddling when you've been solo all week.
After a while we decide to explore a side-stream and paddle up there until it becomes too narrow. We do find a pleasant shady spot for lunch.
It takes us about four hours in all to paddle back to our hotel which is on the river bank. This is the first time I've paddled this river so I'm pleased to get it under my belt. Other outfitters offer rafting on this river so you have an idea of what it can be like.
We laze all afternoon reading books and chasing butterflies.
In the early evening Luis and I drive into town to pick up some wine and beer for dinner.
This Time in 2007
I was up at 6am to take photographs of the city from this great vantage point. Couldn't get a coffee out of the hotel until 7.30 though!
After breakfast, Jim, Carolyn and I jumped a taxi down to Santa Ana and checked in with out friends th
ere.I got my laundry done and caught up with everything down at the Internet Cafe.
Jim left for the airport to go back to the USA but came back later as he was bounced. They gave him $350 for that!
In the afternoon I went with Taty and Pepito to a children's party. Taty does face-painting and Pepito is a professional clown. We drove across San Jose with a fully made-up clown driving like a madman and honking on his horn. Unbelievably he actually had a horn that sounded like a clowns car in the circus ring. I fully expected the do
ors to fall off. He drove like a lunatic too, even more so than most other people in Costa Rica. He weaved in and out of the traffic often with his head out of the window and laughing. Amazingly he got away with it and everyone else just thought it was funny. No road rage at all. Complete madness, and not something I shall forget in a hurry.The show was great and I took a lot of shots for them.
Watched Costa Rica beat Panama at football on the TV. Dinner and bed.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
14 Hours on the road (and river)
This time Last year
Everyone in the group decides not to paddle the Rio Toro today but instead to take a boat trip and admire the wildlife from a safe vantage point. The boat will leave Oscar's Mother's place in Boca Tapada and
head north down the Rio San Carlos to the Nicaraguan border, then down the Rio San Juan to a place called Trinidad and then upstream on the Rio Sarapiqui to Puerto Viejo where we will stay for a couple of nights.
I, instead, will ride shotgun with Luis and the bus.
We go down to the riverside and wait for the boat to arrive. Once everyone is on board Luis and set off on our four hour drive. It's two hours before we leave the dirt road and it's quite a bumpy ride. We arrive in Puerto Viejo at about 1pm and get evryones luggage unloaded before we have some lunch. We are not at our usual place - apparently it is booked solid with bird-watchers! It'll be a bit cramped as Luis, Manuel, Carolyn and I are all sharing one room!
We pick them up in town at the ice-cream store about 4pm. They tell us they had a splendid lunch with camarones on the river-side somewhere and saw plenty of American Crocodiles. We don't often see these when we are paddling (just the Caymans) as they prefer bigger and slower rivers. These things can grow to about 5m.
We have a pleasant evening and share a bottle of run; Flora de Cana of course!
This Time in 2007
Today would turn out to be a very long travel day indeed.
We were up at 6am for breakfast and the boys arrived at 6.30am to cart our luggage through town to the dock. We me an Irish couple there who said that the 6am boat had failed to materialise. However the 7am boat was on time and we were soon on our way upstream to San Carlos.
We watched the green countryside speed past and looked at the dilapidated buildings that were scattered every now and then along the coast, We saw a huge Tarpon fish leap above the waves. It must have 1.5m long. after three hours or so we arrived in San Carlos and dragged ourselves round to Immigration before piling onto the boat for Costa Rica and Los Chiles.
It took and hour and a half to reach Los Chiles but as usual we were entertained by the birds and Howler Monkeys along the way. It took half and hour to get through the luggage check and then we found that the Immigration Office was closed. We missed the 2pm bus and had to wait for the 3pm Express. Express! It stopped every half an hour but at least we didn't have to change bus at San Carlos (Costa Rica).
Normally this bus ride would take about 5 hours but we got stuck behind a broken down Sugar Cane Truck and it took an hour to squeeze by as it was almost blocking the road. The bus almost became impaled on the truck but finally we got by. It was 8.30pm when we got to the airport in San Jose where we dropped off the public bus and Luis picked us up for the last hour to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu. Here we dropped off Lee, Florence and Carlos and Luis drove me up to the Pico Blancas Hotel where Jim and Carolyn were staying. We had dinner and a couple of beers. What a long and tedious day. More than 14 hours on the road (and rivers!).
Everyone in the group decides not to paddle the Rio Toro today but instead to take a boat trip and admire the wildlife from a safe vantage point. The boat will leave Oscar's Mother's place in Boca Tapada and
head north down the Rio San Carlos to the Nicaraguan border, then down the Rio San Juan to a place called Trinidad and then upstream on the Rio Sarapiqui to Puerto Viejo where we will stay for a couple of nights.I, instead, will ride shotgun with Luis and the bus.
We go down to the riverside and wait for the boat to arrive. Once everyone is on board Luis and set off on our four hour drive. It's two hours before we leave the dirt road and it's quite a bumpy ride. We arrive in Puerto Viejo at about 1pm and get evryones luggage unloaded before we have some lunch. We are not at our usual place - apparently it is booked solid with bird-watchers! It'll be a bit cramped as Luis, Manuel, Carolyn and I are all sharing one room!
We pick them up in town at the ice-cream store about 4pm. They tell us they had a splendid lunch with camarones on the river-side somewhere and saw plenty of American Crocodiles. We don't often see these when we are paddling (just the Caymans) as they prefer bigger and slower rivers. These things can grow to about 5m.
We have a pleasant evening and share a bottle of run; Flora de Cana of course!
This Time in 2007
Today would turn out to be a very long travel day indeed.
We were up at 6am for breakfast and the boys arrived at 6.30am to cart our luggage through town to the dock. We me an Irish couple there who said that the 6am boat had failed to materialise. However the 7am boat was on time and we were soon on our way upstream to San Carlos.
We watched the green countryside speed past and looked at the dilapidated buildings that were scattered every now and then along the coast, We saw a huge Tarpon fish leap above the waves. It must have 1.5m long. after three hours or so we arrived in San Carlos and dragged ourselves round to Immigration before piling onto the boat for Costa Rica and Los Chiles.
It took and hour and a half to reach Los Chiles but as usual we were entertained by the birds and Howler Monkeys along the way. It took half and hour to get through the luggage check and then we found that the Immigration Office was closed. We missed the 2pm bus and had to wait for the 3pm Express. Express! It stopped every half an hour but at least we didn't have to change bus at San Carlos (Costa Rica).
Normally this bus ride would take about 5 hours but we got stuck behind a broken down Sugar Cane Truck and it took an hour to squeeze by as it was almost blocking the road. The bus almost became impaled on the truck but finally we got by. It was 8.30pm when we got to the airport in San Jose where we dropped off the public bus and Luis picked us up for the last hour to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu. Here we dropped off Lee, Florence and Carlos and Luis drove me up to the Pico Blancas Hotel where Jim and Carolyn were staying. We had dinner and a couple of beers. What a long and tedious day. More than 14 hours on the road (and rivers!).
Monday, 9 February 2009
Back and Forth
This Time Last Year
Today was our transfer day to San Jose in Costa Rica. That meant a ride upstream on the Rio San Juan, then upstream on the Rio Negra to Los Chiles and a numbing five hour bus ride to San Jose. A long day.
We were up at 5am and ready to leave at 6pm. We saw our canoes going past on the slow cargo boat back to San Carlos. We sped up the river and arrived in San Carlos at 7.30am and had breakfast in the Mirador. Jim turned up having arrived on his new boat from Solentiname. We said goodbye to Pat and Dorothy who were flying out to Manugua and home to the USA that way.
The rest of us went through customs and got back on our boat to Los Chiles. Luiz was here with the bus and after customs we were on our way by 11am. We had lunch somewhere past Zarcero and arrived in San Jose at 4.30pm.
Manuel and I were going to stay in Santa Ana with friends but it turned out all the rooms were let so Luiz drove us up to the Pico Blanco Hotel in Escazu which is a strangely opulent place in an obscure part of town. It's always empty too. You get superb views though.
In the evening we had our farewell dinner with our guests at a Peruvian restaurant. And the taxi got lost taking us home!
This Time in 2007
This was also a transfer day as we left San Jose in Costa Rica to get to Solentiname in Nicaragua.
I was up at 4.45am but Luis was late picking me up (as usual!). We then went to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu to pick up my co-guide Carlos and our only guest Lee. This is the first time we run a trip with a single guest. It's going to get strange! Jim was also with us as he was returning to Solentiname. Carolyn was staying behind to recuperate from her back operation.
We left San Jose at dawn and were soon out of the suburbs and climbing the hills. We took a break at Zarcero and looked at the topiary gardens and the amazing pink church. A bit later we stopped for a pancake breakfast. After crossing the mountains we dropped down into Santa Rosa for another stop. We needed cash and peanut butter (for Lee).
Luis got us to Los Chiles in plenty of time for the Collectivo (the public boat), which will take us into San Carlos, Nicaragua. We all negotiate customs successfully except for Carlos who can't get his visa signed. Some cross-border nonsense is going on between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and making life difficult. In fact it takes three days for Carlos to get this sorted out and we have to leave him behind.
At Oscars cafe we had some pineapple juice before wandering down to the dock. the Collectivo doesn't leave at any particular time it leaves when it is full. You can pay extra if you want to ask the driver to leave now! It wasn't going to leave any time soon so we went back to Oscar's for an early lunch. In fact Jim went off to find a private boat as he feared if we waited for this Collectivo then we would miss the Collectivo at San Carlos which is to take us out to the Solentiname Islands. This latter Collectivo only goes twice a week!
That all worked out so we finally left to follow the Rio Negra downstream to Lake Nicaragua. We waved to Carlos as we left him behind! Our private boat was very fast and only took 45 minutes to get to San Carlos. The Collectivo can sometimes take 2 hours!
We get through customs with no problem and the local boys pitch up with a wheelbarrow to help us carry our stuff through the small town to the dock at the other end whre the boats to the islands leave. I notice that the main high street is now paved. It was just dirt a couple of years ago. The Solentiname Collectivo is ready and waiting and so we load our stuff onboard and say hello to those people we recognise. As usual the boat will not be leaving at any specific time so we wander back into town to buy some supplies. We go to the market to get fruit and vegetavles and a dry good store to get water and beer! I get some netting to make butterflky traps!
Eventually the boat gets under way and we have a two and a half hour ride out to the islands. At San Fernando island we unload at the dock of the Albergue Celentiname. I notice that half the dock has slipped into the lake since I was here last. I wonder how long it will take Daniel to repair it?
I have the same cabin I had last time and of course I should be sharing it with Carlos. I wonder what he is doing. Probably having a Kafkaesque experience in getting his visa signed.
After dinner we laze around in the hammocks before knocking off for an early night.
Today was our transfer day to San Jose in Costa Rica. That meant a ride upstream on the Rio San Juan, then upstream on the Rio Negra to Los Chiles and a numbing five hour bus ride to San Jose. A long day.
We were up at 5am and ready to leave at 6pm. We saw our canoes going past on the slow cargo boat back to San Carlos. We sped up the river and arrived in San Carlos at 7.30am and had breakfast in the Mirador. Jim turned up having arrived on his new boat from Solentiname. We said goodbye to Pat and Dorothy who were flying out to Manugua and home to the USA that way.
The rest of us went through customs and got back on our boat to Los Chiles. Luiz was here with the bus and after customs we were on our way by 11am. We had lunch somewhere past Zarcero and arrived in San Jose at 4.30pm.
Manuel and I were going to stay in Santa Ana with friends but it turned out all the rooms were let so Luiz drove us up to the Pico Blanco Hotel in Escazu which is a strangely opulent place in an obscure part of town. It's always empty too. You get superb views though.
In the evening we had our farewell dinner with our guests at a Peruvian restaurant. And the taxi got lost taking us home!
This Time in 2007
This was also a transfer day as we left San Jose in Costa Rica to get to Solentiname in Nicaragua.
I was up at 4.45am but Luis was late picking me up (as usual!). We then went to the San Gildar Hotel in Escazu to pick up my co-guide Carlos and our only guest Lee. This is the first time we run a trip with a single guest. It's going to get strange! Jim was also with us as he was returning to Solentiname. Carolyn was staying behind to recuperate from her back operation.
We left San Jose at dawn and were soon out of the suburbs and climbing the hills. We took a break at Zarcero and looked at the topiary gardens and the amazing pink church. A bit later we stopped for a pancake breakfast. After crossing the mountains we dropped down into Santa Rosa for another stop. We needed cash and peanut butter (for Lee).
Luis got us to Los Chiles in plenty of time for the Collectivo (the public boat), which will take us into San Carlos, Nicaragua. We all negotiate customs successfully except for Carlos who can't get his visa signed. Some cross-border nonsense is going on between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and making life difficult. In fact it takes three days for Carlos to get this sorted out and we have to leave him behind.
At Oscars cafe we had some pineapple juice before wandering down to the dock. the Collectivo doesn't leave at any particular time it leaves when it is full. You can pay extra if you want to ask the driver to leave now! It wasn't going to leave any time soon so we went back to Oscar's for an early lunch. In fact Jim went off to find a private boat as he feared if we waited for this Collectivo then we would miss the Collectivo at San Carlos which is to take us out to the Solentiname Islands. This latter Collectivo only goes twice a week!
That all worked out so we finally left to follow the Rio Negra downstream to Lake Nicaragua. We waved to Carlos as we left him behind! Our private boat was very fast and only took 45 minutes to get to San Carlos. The Collectivo can sometimes take 2 hours!
We get through customs with no problem and the local boys pitch up with a wheelbarrow to help us carry our stuff through the small town to the dock at the other end whre the boats to the islands leave. I notice that the main high street is now paved. It was just dirt a couple of years ago. The Solentiname Collectivo is ready and waiting and so we load our stuff onboard and say hello to those people we recognise. As usual the boat will not be leaving at any specific time so we wander back into town to buy some supplies. We go to the market to get fruit and vegetavles and a dry good store to get water and beer! I get some netting to make butterflky traps!
Eventually the boat gets under way and we have a two and a half hour ride out to the islands. At San Fernando island we unload at the dock of the Albergue Celentiname. I notice that half the dock has slipped into the lake since I was here last. I wonder how long it will take Daniel to repair it?
I have the same cabin I had last time and of course I should be sharing it with Carlos. I wonder what he is doing. Probably having a Kafkaesque experience in getting his visa signed.
After dinner we laze around in the hammocks before knocking off for an early night.
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