To Samara!

So we are going to check out a few other towns. We need to know what else is out there, who knows, we may be back here or we may fall in love again!
So, at 9 am this morning (Friday - just in case it takes me a day or 2 to get this on!) our driver came to pick up the four of us and all our luggage (btw - we got rid of the broken suitcase, and more than 6 pairs of sweat-pants! that I had packed for the boys). So we are off to Samara. It is a small little fishing town just on the west side of the peninsula, about half way from Montezuma to Tamarindo. The direct road is only good 2 months out of the year and right now it is not open, we need to go around through Paquera and north then west that way. The trip will take between 3 and 5 hours, again depending on how the roads are.

So, again. 9am pickup. I was so excited for this trip to start, a new town, new people, new everything, and then it was 9:35. We had just passed the town of Paquera. Oscar was trying to sleep on my lap. Callym says his stomach hurts. 9:37, Callym says his mouth hurts. As I look at him, I see it. The water is starting to pour out of his mouth. ALTO! ALTO, Chris (who's in the front seat), please help Chris, stop, Callym is throwing up! What do you do when you have one child on your lap, and the other is doing his best to keep all the vomit in your small hands, cupped so that it doesn't mess up the car. I'm not sure if it was the smell, or the sound, or just because it had hit him too, but Oscar started now too. Remember, he's still 'sleeping' in my lap. Warm legs. Yuck. Finally, our driver pulled over. It's not that it took him so long to pull over, but everything else happened so quickly. Was it the Orange juice for break fast? The scrambled eggs and cheese? So we get out of the car, and strip the boys naked, (I need new pants too!) it's a good thing we had 3 bottles of water because we needed to wash all of our legs, arms, hands, face, and inside Oscar's shoes!

Ah, so it's now 10am, the car is as clean as we could manage, but we still have a 2 to 4 hours drive. In this stink, I'm not sure if we can do it. The boys want Chris to sit with them, so he does his best to hold them both over the huge bumps, and the quick swerving that our driver is doing. It stinks! I'm in the front. I feel that there isn't much I can do to help, so I start singing a little mantra like song in my head. Over and over. (to the tune of 'we are family') - We are healthy, all my Mr. Lukie's and me. we are happy, all my Mr. Lukie's and me.

It's now 11:30, I'm still singing my little mantra song. Chris is in the back, holding the boys as they sleep half on him, half hanging off the seats. But suddenly it's happeneing again. Callym again this time, no wait, Oscar too. We pull over and change everyone's clothes again. Wash ourselves, and get back in the car. Callym is asking us, 'please, can we walk the rest of the way'? Oh, my poor little babies. Every mother will know this feeling, and many fathers too. You feel helpless, and desperate, and guilty, and so stressed when your kids are sick. But we keep going. By now our driver says we only have about an hour left. Thank God! He is a very nice guy considering that we totally ruined the back seat of his 4X4. But he is driving very fast (can you blame him? the car stinks so bad). and instead of slowing down for the potholes and such, he swerves really fast, stops quickly and more. It would be a really cool drive for adventure seekers, or for the boys (for about 25 minutes).

After a few quick emergency stops, that ended up being false alarms, we are here. I haven't made a reservation anywhere, but being the slow season, I didn't think it would be a big deal. I was right. We made it to the hotel, and unpacked. Now we had a huge bag of smelly laundry to get done, and have some lunch. We are here. We are all fine. And we will have more to talk about tomorrow. The one thing we do know right now? We are not under any circumstances going back to Montezuma. At least not that way. Was this Montezuma's revenge on us for leaving such a beautiful paradise? I'm not sure.

Where are all the Monkeys???

After a nice dip and play in the Ocean, you really need to clean off. The salt sticks to you, and you feel sticky and dry all at the same time. With the heat and the humidity here, it's not a comfortable combination. Chris was off to do some international calls, and the boys were in bed having a siesta. I was going to wash up. No wait, I had also just bought Chris a treat snack of some 4$ Doritos. Yes, he hadn't opened them yet, but said he would when he got back from the phone calls. O.K., so I jumped in the shower. Then I thought I heard something. Kids talking? Where those boys up already? Checked but no, it wasn't them. I'm now drying off, and I hear it again. I look but it's still not them. As I'm drying my hair, I hear the wind blow over Chris' bag of Doritos (they are out on the balcony). All done, I'm ready to wait on the chair for Chris to come back. I'm walking towards the door, and "NO (insert foul word) WAY"! I see the sweet curl of a monkey's tail as he hops onto the balcony arm rail and into a tree. I'm running for the camera, and trying not to wake the boys up with my thundering steps. But alas, I was too slow. He was gone and across the street before I could take any kind of shot with the camera. As I come out side with the most dissapointed look on my face, I notice the Doritos. The bag is ripped into two, and there is a trail of chips all around the chairs and table. How long was he here. I'm thinking now that I could have probubly gotten some really good shots of him if I had just come out earlier. Oh well, Chris ended up throwing away the chips, and his left over beer, never know if they had some to wash down those expensive treats!

(I think) Part 2

Well today was an absolute blast! After breakfast we walked 10 minutes west and found a pretty good 'beach' area. The waves weren't too big, and there was an actual beach for the boys to make sand-castles and play. We were only there for around 2 hours, but it was so much fun. Take a look at the pictures here.


Christina picked us up for lunch and we chatted about what we are really looking for. She took us to 3 wonderful restaurants in town that are for sale under the 20000 price range. This price includes everything inside, as well, we would try to keep the cook and other's on to help. One was a pizzeria that is open right now and would only need a little work. Some paint, a new and working washroom, and an organic menu that I would have fun doing. One was an Argentinian BBQ place that is quite new and not open right now because of the low season. The last was a cute and popular place that also has some rooms to rent upstairs. I think it is a little out of our range, but something to think about. We're actually going there for dinner, so it will be a good chance to check it out.

She also showed us around a small little town called Delisias. Very cute, with about 20 homes, 1 grocery store and 2 restaurants. One of the restaurants was for sale, but it included a home and some more land - so it was out of our price range. She did show us an amazing plot.
Teak trees, howler monkeys, beautiful exotic flowers growing everywhere. But no home on it. We would need to build it. But that isn't so bad. The cost of a nice home would be between 10 and 20 thousand, and the land was going for about 20 to 30 thousand for a 1/4 acre.

All in all it was a great day. The town of Delisias is very small, but there isn't much land here in Montezuma. Actually, most of the people who work here and own business' live there. Interesting. We are considering this, but really feel like we need to not only see more of Costa Rica, but also look at at least Belize, if not a few other countries as well.

So, after a little looking, we headed off to the beach again.
So nice to finally feel the water on us. The boys really surprised us with how well they were in the water, and how much they loved it! Fearless those little boys are. It's almost the full moon and the tide is very VERY strong here. I almost got pulled out a few times, but the boys.... they would just run in head first! Have to be quick with those two! We are teaching them quick about this danger!

On the way home to clean up and go for dinner and local pulled us over and asked if we wanted to see his Monkeys? Ummm.... Turns out there was a family of 5 in his tree. We stood there in awe at the white faced monkeys, who in turn looked at us. It was too cool to see that. Real live monkeys (I know we've seen them at the zoo, but this was way different).
So now we've been up close to Monkeys and both tiny and small lizards. Today (it's now Wednesday) on the way to the beach a white faced monkey passed us on the street and took a good look at us, and at lunch the boys had fun chasing a few larger Iquana's around the grass area. Two nights ago at dinner, the waiter brought over a lizard about half the size of a lighter, it was wild, and so he let the boys play with it. This lizard went up and down their arms, into their hair, and back down. For a few minutes we lost it in Oscar's shirt, but there he was again, it was really cool for them.

Sorry this blog is a little choppy, I'm just trying to catch up.

Last night's dinner was great, but more importantly, Callym and Oscar made a great friend. Salvador's mother works at the restaurant we were at, and he was running around playing cars. Well, as soon as the boys saw a car, they wanted to go. Being North American, we didn't think it was right.... Silly Foreigners! Salvador came right up to those boys, handed them each a car, and off they all went! It was nice, but very different. We just sat at the table, and it was quite. Every 2 or 3 minutes the 3 of them would run by with there cars, driving them up and down the walls, over empty tables and having a great time. It made my heart so happy to see the boys having fun without us having to entertain them. There is something about boys and little cars that is the same in every country and every language.

Today at lunch I think I had my best meal ever! I finally found sushi! Delish, fresh avacado, rice, seaweed, and fresh yellow fin tuna. A coffee milk-shake and I was in Heaven. But 30 minutes later............

Ever heard of Montezuma's Revenge? The locals swear it has to do with a hang-over, but I didn't drink last night......... Well, someone had to get sick sooner or later, just glad it wasn't the boys!


More pictures will be on the site soon. I've been catching up for almost 2 hours, and need to get back. All our love,

The Lukies.

Monday and Tuesday (I think) Part 1

It's Tuesday now and we're going today to look at some properties, wish us luck - it may be where you come to stay! It will be really cool to see the other towns around in this area. We're hoping to be able to find a place to stay for the rest of November. Maybe in at least two other towns. Not sure. Montezuma is the smallest of them all from what we've heard. But we went into Cabyua yestaurday to walk around, some people said it was really nice with things to do. Well, it wasn't anything that we expected. Picture a town with a dozen homes, all spread out (about 2 every block) with farm land and jungle in between. The grocery store was the size of a hall closet, and there were only 2 restaurants. The town centre where we were dropped off consisted of a cross roads of 4 roadways. SMALL. But very very beautiful and it had a peacfulness that I have never been a part of before. Cabo Blanco National Reserve was just a few minutes walk outside of town, but it was so hot out today that we didn't want to make the trek with the boys. We will be going there, but maybe later in the week. After a wonderful lunch in Cabyua, we made it to the beach. The tide was out, and it's so rocky, that we just sat on some huge bolders and watched the waves. As I was sitting there, it sounded like it was raining.... I looked around, but there were no drops on the rocks. I then noticed that the beach was covered with Hermit crabs. The noise I heard was all of their shells hitting the other shells and rocks on there journey to where-ever!




I took some pictures of Montezuma, this is really the enitre 'town'. A cross-roads of 3 streets.




I hope you're enjoying the pictures so far. The boys are at the tide pool again, and I'm having some morning coffee. Very relaxing.




When we came home from dinner on Monday, we noticed that the water was out. It was raining and lightning again, but was that the reason? Chris went downstairs to ask..... Seems as though the entire town has been out of water all day! I wonder what our food was cooked in? No one has gotten sick yet, so I hope our luck continues. I don't know when the town will get there water back, but the hotel has their own supply and it was re-filled this morning! Ahh, to flush and wash your face. Things we seem to take advantage of. LOL.

Here things are both huge and tiny. Take the ants for example. You either have huge black ones the size of your thumb, or tiny red ones the size of 2 pin-pricks. Same goes for the spiders. I've yet to see a tarantula, but the tiny clear ones the size of about 2 pin-pricks are a little freaky. They are just sooooo fast! Not too many mosquitoes yet. But we do wake up with bite marks. Just a little itchy, but nothing that seems to make us worry. I don't know what is biting us, but we're fine. We saw a huge squirel today in the coconut tree. He was hanging upside down breaking open a coconut and drinking the milk. They are dark brown with a black stripe down their backs and bushy grey tails. Right now there are two 'exotic' magpies fighting in the bamboo tree.

I'm tried my hand at yoga yestaurday. It was really hard, but so much fun. I am going to try to make it to the sessions all week. Who knows, I may just learn to relax my mind and body! Here they are really into organic food, naturopathy, yoga etc. (funny how there is garbage on the roadway and no recycling containers!). Anyways, the 2 hotels up the road do yoga every day, and there is even a huge yoga retreat here at the begining of November (another reason we've been asked to move to the villa). One of the hotels actually teaches fire-dancing, but I'm not able to convince Chris to try it out, maybe later on in the trip! He's been practicing his Spanish a lot, and is getting really good at it. He's also been helping us out with it by talking to us in Spanish and then telling us what he said, and how to say it back.

Yestaurday was the first day yet that it didn't rain. Not a single drop all day. The sun was out in full force, it was super super hot, and it was just amazing! It looks as though today will be the same. This year (I'm not sure if I mentioned it before), but the rain has been really bad. Usually the Nicoya Peninsula only gets rain for 2 months, but this year it has been closer to 6! We are in search of a nice beach for the boys to run around in and play. I'm not sure if we will find it around here. Too many huge rocks. Not much beach. But if all else fails we will be on the Caribbean in December, they can get their fill in then.

our time in paradise

It's Sunday. I'm sitting here (actually, totally lazying around), drinking a beer. I want to tell you about our day yestaurday and up to today.

Well, to start, we have been feeling like we are sleeping in but in reality (what is that again?) we are up and dressed usually around 8:30 or 9am. We all usually wake up around 7am, but feel like it is way to early to start the day, so we all cuddle in together and sleep a little more. The sun is up at a time when only the surfers should be, but it is almost pure black around 5:30 pm. So anyways, we were dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. They only serve breakfast here, but it is amazing. A huge bowl of fresh fruit and some home made bread and honey. Oh yes, don't forget 4 or 5 cups of coffee between Chris and I. Callym had fresh Mango juice and Oscar had fresh Watermelon juice. Delish! We took a walk into town (Montezuma - only a 5 minute walk along the ocean) and did a little touring. Being the low season, almost nothing is open. I'd say only 4 restaurants, and 4 shops, 3 internet places, and about 5 tour companies. The buses are coming in everyday with new people, but they aren't staying yet. High season starts in November, so things should pick up then.

It started raining again so we headed into an internet place to check our email. Thank you Isabel for the beautiful email! We tried to do some chatting, but the connection was too slow. Maybe later? I'm not sure what time it was by now, but the rain had stopped again, and I was hunger. We headed over to Chico's bar and ordered a few beers and juice for the boys. No food. Opps. The boys had fun with their cars, and I ran across the street for some lunch, no one else was hungry. (If you've seen the pictures of the boys throwing rocks, please note that Callym just looks mal-nurished, but is really not!) My dellisious lunch was a monstorous tomato, cucumber and avacado sandwich made with everything fresh including the bread. Yum. I met a couple from Saskatewan during lunch. They were here for a small vacation and mentioned that when they were here 5 years ago it looked exactly the same. No new hotels, restaurants or shops. That to me is very amazing, especially in a place so beautiful. We chatted some more and found out that they just checked into the same hotel and are next door. Hope the boys don't keep them up! During this time it had started and stopped raining again. We came back to the hotel and went into the tide pool. The tide was quite low and the 'sand' (if you could call it that) was made up of small rocks and broken shells. I think it was 80% shells and 20% rocks.
We had a great time picking rocks and splashing around. Callym decided that we should make jewlery and sell them to people. He even tried selling some to some American's we met. The American's are here looking for property, staying at the same hotel, and are using one of the same realtors we will be soon!

Now time for a siesta! The boys crashed pretty hard today. I'm not sure when they fell asleep, but they didn't wake up until almost 5:30. Dark, but not too late. We headed out for dinner, and stopped by where I went for lunch. Such good food here, I won't even tell you what we had, but again it was huge portions, and everything fresh. Chris (one of the American's) saw us and chatted for a bit about his property hunt, seems he's more into the development rather than a new home - but he's had good experiences with the realtor Christina, hope she's good with us too! A small stroll around 'town' (so funny to say that seeing as it is about 24 shops/bars/etc). Not even a town. And another check on the computer. Eskimos were just about to start, but the connection was too slow to watch. Too bad for Callym and I. We headed back to the hotel and it was nearly 8pm! Where did the time go? Still too early to sleep, so we played a few games, and tried watching a dvd on the computer. (no tv, phone or internet here - so nice actually!) The waterfall and raging river is right out our hotel room so we were unable to hear the movie well. We got into our jammies (by now it was almost 10pm!) and got to dreaming. Although the waterfall/ river is loud, it is really calming to sleep to.

The owner of the hotel talked with us last night about changing rooms. They want to put in air-conditioning before the high season starts, and asked if we would mind moving to one of the villas for the same price as the 2 bed appartment. We took a look at the villa and fell in love again. A two story fully teak home with amazing ocean views! Kitchen, huge rock and tile bathroom, 4 bedroom (6 beds), and living room and up and down balconies! Ok, I think we're moving on. It's just next door to where we are now, but we are considering it. The more room we have, the more stuff we will pull out to play with, but it may be nice. Maybe if someone were to come and visit us it would make more sense having that much space??? Just throwing it out there!
Anyways, we still don't have any solid plans. We know we're going back to Heredia for a few days before we fly out to Belize on Nov. 31st. But other than that we're just going with the flow. I do think we're staying in this area, but with so many little towns around here, we really want to check out more than one. For now I think our make-shift plan is to stay at this hotel until Friday, Saturday or Sunday (see. not even sure about that!), and during that time our realtor will have taken us to a few other towns to see homes. Maybe, just maybe we'll fall in love again and stay in another sleepy town for a week or two. Just to see.

Rabbling on a bit now, but we had a fantastic sleep ( no strange critters yet, but I'm still waiting for a big one to freak me out). Another wonderful breakfast here, and we headed out towards Cabuya. We thought it would be a nice short walk, we were just strolling along the rocky beach, picking up sea-shells and looking into the jungle on the other side. (it is literally jungle on one side and ocean on the other). Humming birds were wizing by, butterflies were on every tree. The air was fresh and thick with sea salt. We were walking and walking. I'd say it was over an hour, maybe close to two. The roads here remember are muddy and narrow. Bumpy too. Pot holes the side of home! LoL. Finally someone stopped, and we found out we still have a 30 minute walk. (more like a 1 hour walk with the boys), so we turned around and headed back for lunch. Finally the four tired Lukie's made it to town for lunch. Not much was opened seeing as it was sunday, but we still have a great feast. Tried the internet again, and now we're back. I'm checking the time now and it's only 3:50, we still have time for a siesta, and picking more sea-shells. (Callym is really into it, we even bought some fishing line at the store to try it out, he wants to make all his favourite chocha's some sea-shell rings!) Well, off for now. I may write more b4 tomorrow, but I can't count on anything being as we're really getting into the beach life. Lazy Lazy days. Just as Tony the Tiger would say 'It's great'!

To the Peninsual

Today was our last day at the all inclusive in Punteranas. It was fantastic to be there, but nothing close to what we are truly looking for. We had a nice breakfast together, and took a stroll down the beach. I really wanted to get some pictures of the Lizards sunning on the rocks, and the boys wanted to throw rocks into the Ocean. Both were accomplished. The sun wasn't out, it was quite cloudy, but it wasn't raining yet, so that was nice. The boys threw rocks and I took my pictures for about an hour, then we headed back to the room and finished packing. We were trying to condense our things to one less bag (it had broken already), but were unable to this yet. (It is only a week into the trip, I'm sure we can do this by the time we arrive or leave Belize in December).

We were wondering how we were going to make it from Puntarenas to Montezuma. It's not a difficult trip, but with 2 kids and 5 large bags and 1 carry-on each (yes we brought all but the kitchen sink!) it was going to be a challenge. We decided to hire a taxi for the entire day. Another option was to take a taxi to the ferry, walk on, and hire a taxi on the other end. That could have worked, but I was worried that either there wouldn't be any around, or they would take advantage of us with all our baggage and kids (especially if it was pouring rain). Anyways, we hired a taxi, and headed downtown. Chris had an appointment at the bank, supposedly his eaten debit card was going to be there. A five minute run-in to the bank turned into almost an hour. I couldn't run in to see what was going on, I couldn't leave our bags (let along our kids!), so I sat and waited. If anything else could have happened it would have been the boys needing to use the Banos. Well, they did. But I couldn't take them either, and I was more worried about missing the Ferry. (we were told that on the weekend people lined up in there cars at 10:30 for the 12 o-clock ferry and it was already past one, would we make the 2pm one?) If that happened I wasn't sure what would be up then. Would we owe the driver more money? Would he just leave us? Etc..... Chris finally came out of the bank - without his card, seems it would now be there on Monday. Our driver actually went in to see if he needed any help, nice guy that Viktor. So we were off again. Well, the 2pm ferry left at 1:40, but it was o.k. we were on it! So glad. The debit card would have to be picked up some other time.

The 2 hour ferry was fantastic and scenic. I wish our pictures turned out better, but today was extreamly cloudy. Also, the ferry only took an hour and 40 minutes. (who says Costa Rican's are late, so far everything has been early and fast!) We landed at Paquera and it was like Gilligans Island. At first I thought that we were making a tico stop and picking up a local fisherman. Nope this was the town. Small. Slow. And so Beautiful. There were only a handful of homes together at a time. Kids riding bikes, walking. Hanging out and talking. The road was barely wide enough for 2 cars, and the potholes would make Edmonton look like a paved paradise. Some were nearly mid calf deep and 3 or 4 feet wide. (impressive when the road is only 7 or 8 feet wide). From Paquera to Montezuma it's only about 15 km, but with the recent rain, and the deteriorating roads, the trip took just over an hour. Narrow winding roads surrounded by tropical rainforest PLUS you could hear and smell the Ocean from there too. I was thinking that we had found 'our spot'. We came to the hotel and the owner was at the entrance waiting for us. ( we had called ahead for directions - actually very silly in a town THIS small), so she had our room key ready and took us right up. I explained to her that we had no plans, we could be here a day or a week, or a month. She told us that it didn't matter, whenever we wanted to leave we could just let her know. Payment was due when we left and if we needed anything she was there. I didn't catch her name (my bad), but she's only been here 3 years, she's from Sweden and did pretty much the same thing as we are. Sold it all and came looking for paradise. Perfect!

So, we have unpacked, took a wonderful rainy stroll into town ( a 10 minute walk - there really isn't a 'town', it's just a few hotels, restaurants, shops, and thing along a windy rain-forest road along the ocean). Had a fantastic dinner...... Octopus spagetti for Callym (2.50), Seafood spaghetti for me (2.50), Oscar had fresh fish (3.00) and Chris had an assorted seafood dish (3.00), 2 beers and 2 fresh coconut milk shakes, and the bill was less than 20$. I am going to love this place. We walked home (in the rain again) and stopped to pick up some apple juice, beer and snacks. Tomorrow is going to be a perfect adventure. Buenos Noche!


Lukie Love to all!

The All-Inclusive Life

I know what you're thinking. We've sold the house and our now spoiling ourselves and spending our last pennies on an all-inclusive holiday. Well, you're partly right. We are spoiling ourselves, but it was not expensive. Don't worry. Right now we are getting our bearings, and settling in. We still have beautiful plans of rooting ourselves in a paradise. It could take months, or it could not. We are in no rush, and we are also not doddling. After a 12 hour plane ride, and ending up in a hotel/apartment without a pool, the boys were very dissapointed, and rightly so. They were under the impression that we were going to the beach, jungle and there was a pool. False advertising, or a misunderstanding. At any rate, we are here for 3 nights, and are heading off on a ferry to this area Take your pick on the area, we're going to try them all out. After all, this isn't a vacation. We have no job or home to come back to. We have all the time in the world. Kind-of. We've only been here a few days. Less than a week. We are starting to get the feel of the place, but we really do need to see more. And then there is Belize in December. Wow, another paradise to discover. Well see what happens. But rest assured, we will keep in touch, and keep writing. Please write to us. We miss you all and Love you lots!

Puntarenas

I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we decided to leave Heredia early. We were ment to stay for the entire month of October, but well, for a few reasons we have left. It is a wonderful and beautiful city (town), but I think we were thinking it was different. I thought that small towns were quite. This place was not. We didin't want car alarms, radio's and traffic, (and a rooster? what kind of rooster crows all day and all night?) Anyways, we left the Apart-Hotel Roma (ended our contract early, but we worked it out that we can come back and stay for a few days for free this month or next. We are thinking of staying there when we have to come back this way for our flight from San Jose to Belize at the end of November), so all worked out well.

Do you know the feeling of loseing time? When your on vacation and you have no idea if it's lunch or dinner, if it's Monday or Thursday? Well, we are IN THE ZONE! We hired a car and driver to get us from Heredia to Puntarenas yestaurday, and got to the hotel (actaully an all inclusive, but whatever!) *I'll tell you about the drive in a moment* Anyways, we get here, and I run to reception to check in...... Ah, Miss Lukie, I can not find your reservation. Are you sure you have one? Yes, please check again, (the boys want to get into the pool NOW) So she checks again. Oh, yes Miss Lukie, I found you..... but it is not until tomorrow. Can you come back? HUH? Are you kidding? What the Heck? Too funny. Costa Rican's are so friendly, but also funny! So, we get checked in, and now have 3 days here instead of two. That will make the boys happy. (and Chris and I too I suppose).

On to the drive.

Think back to the last time you were in the mountains. You know the highway I'm talking about, the narrow, turning highway that is surrounded by tree's. And then suddenly you pass a beautiful waterfall, and the animals, and the smell. You climb higher and higher, and after one more turn see a stunning view of a city or town. It' just seems to go on forever. And you don't want it to stop. Instead, you want to stop, you don't want to enter any type of civilization. You want the calm, and the air, and the open freedom......

Well, now magnify that by 1000000000 times. This was stunning. Amazing. Beautiful. Breath-taking. I can't believe that there is such a place on earth. I've heard of the Pan-American Highway, but I thought it was just that. A highway. Well, not this part. This was a small narrow turning highway. But it was more. It was Jungle. Rainforest. Cloud forest. We were literally surrounded by trees, overhead, and on both sides. Small little villages in the little clearings and climbing up the hills. The freshest (although damp and humid) air. It was just perfect. I wanted to stop and stay. I wanted to find a little corner and build a little house out of mud and rock and stay. Well, kind-of. I don't think that would have really worked, but who knows. Another thing I didn't expect, I thought that this beauty would end once we arrived at the hotel, but it didn't! We just made a turn and were there. Ahh, Costa Rica. My new found love.

We are now at the All inclusive for a few days. Off to the Southern part of the Nicoya Penninsula for some more time. Not sure how long, we have learned now to not make huge plans. Just little ones, and take it as it comes. It's a good feeling. We're all happy, safe and of course miss you all. Thanks for calling everytime we're on line Stena, we love you.

More soon.
Purda Vida