Gallery – The Adventures of Bill & Nancy

Tannum Sands on the Coral Sea * NEW STUFF A/O 16 October *

*** UPDATE ON BOOKS *** If you are a fan of my books or have a slight interest, I am proud to tell you I have published a couple recently. One is a summary of our move here. “OZ” is a short read but tells about our adventure getting settled here in Tannum Sands.

KANGAROOS: Last Sunday, Nancy and I elected to try out a new golf course. A small community near by named Calliopi boasts an 18 hole course so we decided that would be our target for the day. We had a tee time and a cart reserved, checked in, got briefed, and were off. We enjoyed the course. It had more hills than most of the other courses around here so that was a new challenge for Australian golf. We had a pleasant time, Nancy beat me as usual, and we enjoyed a Tasmanian Beer when we had finished. I didn’t take any pictures of the course but, of note, were the Kangaroos. On the 7th, 8th, and 9th hole (we only played 9) there were at least thirty or forty kangaroos hanging out in the shade of trees along the fairway. Occasionally one would cross to another tree but mostly they just layed or stood around watching us. They didn’t seem to mind when I asked them if we could play through so we did. I did take some pictures of them so here they are. (Please keep in mind that the photographer is in the bright sun and the Roo’s are in the shade).

BRUSH FIRES: We are finishing a long dry winter and spring is dryer and warmer than normal. As usual this causes brush fires. Because the area is nearly tropical there is a tremendous amount of undergrowth. Through the winter that all dies, and because here is no snow, dries out. In spring it becomes a tinderbox. We had a major fire quite close to our house just the other evening. Fortunately it was controlled and eventually went out before causing any property damage. Again, because the area is tropical, everything grows back quickly and in a month or two, you can’t even tell there was a fire … except for the lack of undergrowth.

UTEs Here’s a little feature I found interesting. Australian guys are UTE crazy. A UTE is short (remember they shorten everything) for utility truck … what we call a pick up. They really do them up and all for getting into the outback and camping. Australians love the outdoors and camp, hike, and camp all year long. Here are some photo’s of some of the UTEs I have seen.

A fairly basic Ute. Note the pipe on the right side of the windsheild. That is not for going underwater like many people believe. It is for getting clean cool air versus the super hot, gassy air along the road surface.

Them’s the UTEs … I’ll keep an eye out for more interesting ones. Once we start camping in a month or so I’m sure there will be plenty at the campgrounds.

Here’s a couple pictures from Nancy and my favorite hangouts, The Tannum Sands Hotel and The Tannum Sands Surfers Rescue Club. They are two of the three regular restaurants that serve dinner in the evening. There are other places to eat in Tannum Sands but most of them close after lunch or are carry out oriented.

Inside Dining at the Surfers Rescue Club

I will frequently add new items of interest that in find here in Tannum Sands. To save you the disappointment of checking I will update the title with the date of the newest post.

A while back we went to a special Mud Crab festival that the local pub we frequent was hosting. Not knowing what was so special about muyd crabs we decided to check it out. They catch these things and mostly eat them However, as a fundraiser, they band the claws of a bunch of them, auction them off, and race them. They were going for up to $600 each. Not sure what the winner got but it was all for charity so it was “all good’!

I mentioned earlier that we had a bif 4th of July Celebration at the campsite Andy and the family were camping at. Here’s a couple of pictures of the events.

I mentioned Andy worked here. He works at Queensland Aluminum Limited. They build a site overlook for the local people, and visitors, to see the facility. Here it is.

As I mentioned in the introduction, Gladstone hosts a very large sea port. Being part of greater Gladstone, Tannum Sands enjoys that same body of water. While some people would say we are on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, we are actually on the shores of the Coral Sea. Most locals will make that distinction. As mentioned, here are some pictures from around the local area.

These are four new pictures of Tannum Sands. They were commercial pictures I saw ina coffee shop that I took pictures of.

This is the bridge from TS to Boyne Island. Looking out to the sea.

Tannum Sands has a population of a little over 5,000 people. It does host a grocery store, a couple hotels, a pharmacy (Chemist in Aussie), a gas station with a car wash, a Domino’s Pizza, A Colonel Sanders Chicken, a Subway Sandwich shop, several local restaurants, a couple garden shops, one that features plants and fertilizers and one that features equipment. There is also a fairly big clinic, a state and a private primary school, and a state high school. It also has a variety of churches, charitable organizations, and clubs. Gladstone, when you add in Tannum Sands and Boyne Island (another small suburb) has about 50,000 people.

I will add more photos of and around Tannum Sands.

2022 – December – 4 January 2023 – South America and the Chilean Fjords

This is how we decided to spend our 2022 Christmas Holidays. We had a credit due from Viking River cruises from a cruise that was cancelled a couple years ago due to COVID-19 and we decided to use it for this cruise. We had originally planned it as a u-drive like we did Jordan and Israel but because we had the credit, we decided to do it as a cruise. Cruises are okay but you are limited to what you get to see by the cruise line. They prefer you spend your money with them rather than somewhere else. Because there are not a great deal of places to see in southern South America we figured this would work. Here’s the course of our cruise.

We did add a four day excursion to the end of the cruise. We wanted to be sure to see Iguazu (pronounced E waah zoo) Falls so after disembarking in Buenos Aires we will fly to Iguazu Falls (more about the falls later), spend a couple days there, then fly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, spend a couple days there, then fly back to the US.

17 December 2022 – We drove to Tampa for our flight to Houston, where we connected to Santiago. In Huston we hurried to the Santiago gate (because we had been delayed two hours in Tampa, and boarded with ten minutes to spare.

18 December – The flight to Santiago was nine plus hours and through the night. One of us got a good sleep, the other can’t sleep on airplanes. We arrived in Santiago at nine AM on the 18th of December. There we were met by Viking personnel who were herding passengers from various flights to a holding area. From there we boarded busses for transportation to Valparaiso where our ship was docked. The bus trip was about two hours long. Here are some pictures (through the bus window) of our first glimpse of Chile. Note: Southern Chile is not a real picturesque place. Here, being south of the equator, it is the start of summer and the coastal plains are dry and arid. Anything that is green is that way because someone is watering it through irrigation or canals.

Immaculate Conception Church … Story later.

So, the stories. The church of the Immaculate Conception: December 8th is the Roman Catholic Feast day of The Immaculate Conception. On this day, hundreds of thousands of people walk from Santiago and Valparaiso to visit this church and ask The Blessed Virgin Mary for assistance or to thank her for helping them with previous prayers and requests. The highway is closed to traffic for the entire day and night of this feast day while all the people walk to this church. Chile is ninety percent Catholic. The Trees: The indigenous trees in this region are not real big and grow slowly due to the arid conditions. Consequently, the lumber industry brought in pine and eucalyptus trees that grow faster. Unfortunately they draw much more water and have deprived everything else growing near by of any water at all. They just keep growing and have become a problem. The Grapes: The wine industry started in Chile only about fifty years ago. Is is now a flourishing industry and produces a great deal of excellent wine. Tomorrow we tour a wine producer. Lastly, the Venicular: Valparaiso is located on forty two different hills around a large bay. When the city was still young, Veniculars were built and operated to assist people to get up to their homes in the hills from the downtown area. Many of them still run having been converted from steam powered to electric.

That was our trip to the ship. We settled in and explored the ship learning our way around. We were going to explore Valparaiso but decided against it. We were tired and there didn’t seem to be much we wanted to see or do. Here are a few pictures of our surroundings in the port. I will do a tour of the ship later when we have a day at sea. For now, the Port of Valparaiso:

19 December – Today we went to a Vineyard … interesting tour … good wine. Then we visited a ranch where we had lunch and watched a display of Chilean horsemanship by Ouacha’s (pronounced wa kaz … they are the Gaucho’s of Chile). Very impressive. Lastly we visited the seaside town of Vina Del Mar which is located just north of Valparaiso. This city is an upscale area where the rich settlers of this region had summer homes and took vacations. It now has an abundance of high rise Condos and some interesting sites. We finished the day at a museum that featured the stone statues from Fiji. Crowded but interesting. Pictures from the trip:

A big rock (similar versions found centries ago)

20 December – Today we sailed. We left Valparaiso and headed south. Spent the day relaxing, exploring the ship, meeting people. Nice day.

Some comments about the ship. The ship is fairly small as cruisers go. It holds only 960 passengers (we have 850 on this cruise). There are no children on this cruise, thus no need for super slides and water activities. Most of the people are retired or close to it so the activities are a bit more sedate. There is a variety of shore excursions at each stop so you find any level of activity you seek. The boat is fairly new and exceptionally well kept. Being from Norway, it reflects the Scandinavian preference for uncluttered and modern.

21 December – We docked in Puerto Montt today. A small city that was settled by German immigrants. The town is rather worn down but still busy. We took a bus from here to an inland lake, Lianquihue Lake, and Puerto Varas on it’s shores. A very nice town, that sits on the edge of the lake. Very scenic, visited the Christmas market, etc.

22 December – Another day at sea. More exploring, meeting, chatting, etc … actually more relaxing. The ship offers many activities that promote relaxing so we try to take advantage of the ones we like.

23 December – Today we cruised into a Chilean Fjord and parked next to a big glacier. Amalia Glacier was quite impressive. We stayed parked as close as the Captain dared and everyone took pictures and watched the activities around the area. There are many glaciers along the pacific coast of Chile. Many are in smaller Fjords which are too small for this ship so this was a rare opportunity to see a glacier without having to take a smaller boat or a bus ride.

24 December – Today we pulled into Puerto Arenas, a small city in Chile that hosted a number of activities. We weren’t really interested in any specific tour or activity so we elected to walk off the boat and explore the town a bit on our own. The streets were busy with people doing their Christmas shopping at the street vendors selling trinkets and clothing. We spent about four hours walking around seeing the sights, had a latte, and a very pleasant time. Very nice town. We got back to the ship and cleaned up for the Christmas Eve festivities on the boat. The crew formed a choir and we all sang Christmas Carols for about an hour. Very nice.

25 December – MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This was our first Christmas in Chile so we decided to go for a horseback ride in the mountains. We were in Ushuaia (pronounced Ush way Ah). We got up early and opened the gifts Santa had delivered during the night and had waiting under our little Christmas setting. Then we dressed and took a small van to a ranch where we did our ride. We rode up onto a mountain, through creeks and a sub-arctic forest. The ride lasted a little over two hours and was the perfect way to spend Christmas Day in Chile. The horses were well trained and very sure footed. We saw a lot of incredible country. Christmas night we had a special Christmas dinner with some friends we had met earlier. They had rode an old steam powered train to a National Forest so we exchanged the tales of our Christmas Day experiences.

Coming into Ushuaia (Southernmost city in South America)

Christmas morning … Santa had found us after all. Life is good.

Mounted up and ready to ride … Yeeeehaw!!

26 December – Happy Birthday Andy!! … This morning the Captain took a right and we deviated south to circumnavigate the Island of Hornn. The island is named after a city in Belgium where the explorer who discovered it came from. I bet you thought it was named after the horn looking appearance of the tip of South America … Nope. Anyhow, this island is as far South as you can go in South Amorica and sits right where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet. The area is considered to be one of the most dangerous places to sail due to the currents and winds. There is a small lighthouse on the island to provide a warning to sailors. We were told that a man, his wife, and their two children live there to tend the light.

27 December – Today is a day at sea while we sail to the Falkland Islands and Fort Stanley. During the day the Captain of the ship conducted a formal ceremony inducting any of us who wished to join the Order of The Drake. This is a special group of people who have sailed around the Island of Hornn going from one ocean to the other. The order was founded by Sir Francis Drake, the explorer who discovered Drake Passage around the tip of South America. We were doused with cold water, had a special ointment placed on the tips of our nose, and sealed the ceremony with a shot of Aquavit. We were supposed to get an ear pierced as well but most people declined that.

28 December – Welcome to the Falkland Islands, southernmost English territory on the planet (If you depart the Falklands eastward and do not deviate north or south, you will not reach land until you get to the west coast of Chile). After two days of lolly gagging across the southern Atlantic we pulled in the Falklands this morning at about five thirty. It was foggy and cloudy when we arrived but by eight or so the sun started peaking out and we had a nice day … albeit with a couple showers and a high of forty five Fahrenheit with a brisk wind.

We pulled into a sheltered bay and the tenders from the ship took us ashore in small groups to meet our buses and guides depending on what tour had booked. The tenders are really life boats the ship carries but they are enclosed and motorized so the ship can run three or four of them at a time shuttling people to shore. Each one holds about forty people (picture later).

We had booked just a general tour of Fort Stanley and the area immediately surrounding it. It was the scene of the most conflict during the 1982 invasion by Argentina. Argentina said it was liberating all the people who lived there (Mostly Brits) from their English occupiers. The war lasted for two and a half months, the UK won by deploying hundreds of ships and aircraft to the Falklands. Nearly a thousand troops (both British and Argentinean) were killed and several significant fighting ships (both British and Argentinean) were sunk. The war was a staggering shock to the Brits who lived on the Falklands and still today they talk about the stress it caused them. Argentina still claims the Falklands (known to the Argentineans as the Maldives) as theirs and the UK claims it as one of their territories. Relations between the UK and Argentina are not good. We enjoyed the tour. The guide was a local old Brit who had all sorts of interesting stories and an interesting history.

The Falklands were never a whaling community but whalers from New England and England, requiring up to three years to kill enough whales to fill their ships with whale oil, would winter here rather than sail back up north. The Falklands are mostly farmers with the islands having a population of nearly a half a million sheep.

That ended our tour of Fort Stanley. It was an interesting stop. We had many discussions why GB continues to feud with Argentina regarding who owns the Falklands. Many interesting points. The people who live here, more or less govern themselves but depend on GB for diplomatic and military support. Our guide told us there were eighty nine different nationalities that live here … most are of British descent.

Tomorrow is another day at sea so there will not be any new pictures. On the 30th we stop at a small city in Argentina named Puerto Madryn where we will do the variety of tours and sight seeing excursions. See you then.

30 December – As I mentioned above, we stopped today in the Argentina city of Puerto Madryn. It is actually quite a large city but has little to offer in terms of tourism. Penguins, seals, rocky shores. Everything that was offered here as far as excursions go involved a long bus ride. As the area was originally settled by immigrants from Wales that were offered free land it has a strong English infuence about it. We elected to do the tour of the original settlement and partake of an English Tea with treats. The excursion was advertised as a four hour trip. Turns out it was two ninety minute bus rides with an hour of tea and crumpets. To make matters worse, the countryside was quite underwhelming … and I don’t like tea! Anyhow, it was something different so the day was okay. After our tour we returned to the ship walked downtown to check, out some street vendors and ended the afternoon with a local pub and a cold beer. I made the servers day when I explained to her we had been on a ship the last two weeks and asked if she knew who won the World Cup. She lit up like a fourth of July fireworks demonstration and, in her best english, told me how Argentina had whupped France to win first place. Much much enthusiasm and pride … even the Chileans, who don’t get along with Argentina, are proud that a country from South America had won the World Cup. Pictures follow:

Biggest dinosaur in the world found here, Trelew Patagonia

Most of the trees here were planted by the Welsh settlers

31 December – A day at sea today. Everyone is resting up for the BIG party tonight. Our Cruise Director assures us it will be a party to remember.

Getting ready to “Step out for the evening”

1 January 2023 – Happy New Year everyone!! As our Cruise Director assured us it was be a party to remember. At least I remember some of it. I believe a good time was had by all. It was assuring to see all the old folks on the ship that use walkers, canes, and braces suddenly get out on the dance floor and “shake their booty!!”

The swimming pool area set up for a party

So now we are still at sea today. Many people complained about the number of days we are at sea but if you look at a map, two things should catch your attention. First, there are not that many places (developed cities or towns or developed parks) to stop and do something in this part of the world. Second, we are traveling some pretty significant distances when compared to cruising the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico, or even the Med. I just tell them they should have flown on South West if they didn’t like sea days.

Tomorrow we make a call at Montevideo, Uruguay. Nancy and I are spending the day on a ranch there just to learn what the Gauchos do. After that we are off to Buenos Aries.

2 January 2023 – Welcome to Montevideo, Uruguay. We pulled into port this morning and we had a day long excursion inland to spend the day on a ranch. The day started with a bus tour of Montevideo which is the capitol of Uruguay. Many old colonial buildings mixed with modern high rise buildings. Here they do have Gauchos (like cowboys), raise cattle and crops to feed the stock. They also raise, buy, sell, and race horses of all types. Interesting, entertaining, and we had great Bar B Q lunch. The day included a welcome talk by the owner, his family hosted the days activities, a ride around the farm on wagons (it was like a hayride because we all sat on bales of straw), demonstrations of local dances, watched a horse care preparation and learned a little about the Gauchos, and life on the Pampas of Uruguay. Montevideo is located near the mouth of a large estuary that extends inland all the way to Buenos Aries. Uruguay is bordered by the Atlantic ocean, Brazil, and Argentina.

The ranch was a lot of fun, interesting, informative, and well done. The spoon story. In Patagonia the locals drink a special tea. They put the crushed dried leaves in hot water and use this spoon to stir it. The spoons are not solid but hollow with tiny holes in the spon part and the handle is hollow. They use the spoon as a straw to draw the tea up while the tiny holes strain out the tea leaves.

3 January – As I mentioned, Montevideo is located on a vast estuary formed by the Uruguay River and the Atlantic Ocean. Our next destination is Buenos Aires, Argentina. Last night we departed Montevideo, sailed back out to the Atlantic to turn back in on the channel that will take us up through the estuary to Buenos Aires. The Estuary is quite shallow and boat traffic follows specific channels to their destinations. So, here we are in Buenos Aires. Had a nice trip last night and docked this morning in a huge port.

Today we are scheduled for a ten and half mile tour of Buenos Aires on bicycles (no, not electric … foot powered!)

Following the markers up the channel to Buenos Aires

That was our day in Buenos Aires. Very interesting, quite challenging, especially in the heavy traffic, but well worth the sore butt! The stories: The large metal flower. This huge, seventeen ton, chrome flower was designed and displayed by some great artist. It was originally designed to open in the morning and fold in in the evening just like real tulips do. However, after some time, it stopped working and there is no money to fix it. Now it just stays open and is in this big park by a large museum. Argentina once had the best economy in the world. Everyone did well and the country flourished. The Army, sensing a loss of power and influence over-threw the government and the economy went into a tailspin. Now Argentina is again a third world economy and most things that are broke don’t get fixed.

The monument to Eva Peron is the symbol of a very sad story. Wife of President Juan Peron, Eva spent all her time and effort lifting up the poor and, more specifically, poor women. She became vastly popular and was urged to run for Vice President. If you recall the movie, Madonna sang “Don’t cry for me Argentina” as she portraided Eva Peron announcing to the people that she could not run for Vice President because she was dying of cancer. Eva did not sing that song in real life but she did make that public announcement. She died shortly after just as the Army was overpowering the country and, although her body was snuck out of the country to Paris, there is a horrible story of the time she died until she was returned to Buenos Aires. Look it up or read the book.

Buenos Aires is the end of our cruise, but NOT the end of our trip. As I mentioned in the beginning, we have booked a five day extension to Iguaz’u (pronounced frequently as E wa Sue … but many other different ways depending where you are) Falls and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. So early tomorrow, five AM, we leave the Jupiter and get transported to the airport for our flight to the falls. The excursion to the falls and Rio de Janerio will be in a separate post found under this one in the menu. Thanks for “Turning the Horn” with us..

Three Weeks in COSTA RICA or Costa Rica Through My Windshield – February 2021

A quick summary of details I have been asked on TripAdvisor before we start … feel free to cruise the Blog but this may be the info you seek.

TRANSPORT: We rented from Enterprise … good service, fair price, reliable vehicle, got a small AWD SUV in case we went off pavement … also provides a little more power and room. Taxis are abundant and not expensive. We used my stateside Garmin GPS with Maps I bought on-line from NAVSAT. Go to NAVSAT on Google .. go to the main site, select ‘en’ in the top right, select maps in the hash mark drop down menu on the left and order the map. They actually match their maps with your GPS … down load was easy. Driving is easy in the morning and gets more complex from noon to evening. Traffic get heavy but most CRs are courteous. Don’t try to speed and be nice and you will do fine. Ignore the motorcycles that zip around you .. it is up to them to miss you and you just get in trouble trying to avoid them … sounds bad but works well. Speed limits are low so don’t plan on going too far in a short time. Parking is crazy as the local park or stop anywhere and cause backups or go rounds … just work with it.

COMMUNICATIONS: It easiest and least expensive to just buy a SIM card for your smart phone upon arriving in Costa Rica. There are several companies that offer them. Most convenience type stores handle them and there are Kiosks at the airport. At the airport you can usually get the sales person to change it out for you. I put 10,000 Colones (About $20) mine and it lasted the three weeks doing a number of texts and phone calls. If you use your phone as a Hotspot for other devices it uses much more of your available time. I found pretty good service all over CR … except out in Corcovado NP

ROOMS: We booked all our rooms in advance through Booking dot Com. The actual Hotels we stayed at are farther down but suffice it to same some were better than others … ALWAYS GET A/C .. the humidity will kill you.

TOURS: We booked some tours ahead of time and some once we arrived … all booked on line. Pick the ones you want based on how much time you have and how much you want to spend. We always book private tours … rational below. Always get a guide if you want to see animals … this is the jungle and you will see very little unless you are accustomed for looking for things in a jungle.

MONEY: Credit cards are accepted most places … in the more remote places they want cash .. most will take dollars or Colones .. They all take Colones and the best place to get them is from an ATM (Bank Sponsored) with a debit card from your home account. Far superior rates. We never carry more than a couple hundred dollars of cash .. half US half CR. You can find Bank Sponsored ATMs most everywhere. Bank Sponsored ATMS have the name of the bank on them.

IMMIGRATION: We are US citizens … got our VISA stamp upon arrival. Make sure you get you COVID insurance before you leave home. We got our through the CR recommended company … figured less hassle here. You might save a couple bucks getting a US policy but it may cost you much more here if they won’t accept it. Make sure you do your Health Form BEFORE you leave home and print out the Q Form.

COVID: CR is very COVID conscious and they follow extensive protocols everywhere to help stop the spread. You must wear a mask at all times, except when you are seated and eating or drinking, in your room, or driving. Locals and the police will tell you to mask up if you haven’t. There are places to wash your hands entering almost every business or function. If no they have an alcohol gel or spray to use .. and they will send you back to use it if you walk by it on the way in.

COVID TESTS FOR RETURN: We went to two different Labs. One was advertising a one result using an approved quick test … it worked just like that. We had the results back in an hour. We also had the Full test that takes longer. They said they would have the results to us in 24 to 48 hours … we had them less than 12 hours later. This was at the Laboratories Echandi near downtown San Jose. They were just a store from shop collecting samples but were clean and professional .. they took a Credit Card for payment. We had friends who went to the Hospital Biblica near downtown and had similar results getting their quick test results back in less than two hours. The hospital has a reception desk set up on the six floor of their park garage to handle COVID tests. very efficient and you don’t have to enter the hospital … Good for you and them! They too took Credit Cards. Most importantly … IT IS THREE DAYS, NOT 72 HOURS prior that you must take your test. Go to the CDC website and look at their guidance … they even give you an example.

FOOD: You get a lot for not too much money … whether you like it or not is up to you. They eat a lot! Water is generally safe to drink, bottled water is abundant.

LANGUAGE: Spanish is the preferred language but many speak english … the farther out you go the less english they speak. Learning your numbers, days, and a few common phrases helps a lot.

WEATHER: We are here all of February … it is warm in the mountains, cool at night, and hot and humid along the coasts. It is the dry season but there has been quite a bit of rain … bring a light jacket and a raincoat that you can remove easily. Layer, layer, layer.

Now The Story!!!

We arrive on Sunday the 7th. I’ll start my updates then. Meanwhile, watch as the map gets updated with our planned journey around the country and an itinerary. Jungles, Volcanos, Sea Shore, Zip lining, Skywalks … it will all be here.

Here’s Our Travel Plan … Starts in San Jose and Goes Counter Clockwise

This is where we actually traveled … A Few Departures from The Plan but Overall A Very Good Trip

It’s Thursday and we are nailing down any loose ends we have. The pandemic certainly adds a great deal of work! Anyhow, tomorrow we pack. That’s when we discover if we have forgot anything. Saturday morning we pick up a rental car here to drive to Orlando where we are flying from. We are spending the night there, then Sunday morning we turn in the rental in Orlando at the airport and fly out to San Jose. The rental car thing has turned out to be the most economical way of getting to either Tampa, Orlando, or Miami, the three airports we use the most. Parking is very expensive anywhere near any of these airports and the cost of a shuttle is more than the rental cost and we don’t get packed into a van and driven all over the state picking up other people. Here’s our “Straw Man Itinerary” for the trip. On the 27th we return home.

See you in Orlando.

8 Feb 2021 – We are in Costa Rica!!! What a beautiful place … green everywhere, nice people, moderate weather. Our drive to Orlando, our stay there, and our flight to Coasta Rica yesterday all went very well. No hitches, we had all the right paperwork, the flight was on time and we had plenty of room and both of our bags made it just fine. We picked up our rental car at Enterprise , I got my GPS hooked up (It is loaded with maps of CR I got from NAVSAT) and paired with Nancy, they got us to our hotel. The hotel is nice. Not modern or fancy, but nice … Here’s some photos:

That was yesterday. We were quite bushed when we arrived here because we were up at Four AM to get ready and get to the airport leaving Orlando. The flight was good but flying always makes us tired. Then we got to the hotel and settled in, had dinner, and crashed. This morning we were up early, showered, did some research, had a lovely breakfast and started out on our day.

We saw two main attractions today. Both were on our list to see and both were absolutely incredible. The first was the Volcano named Poas. It last erupted in 2017 (yup, four years ago, and erupted until 2018. It is considered to be an active volcano so we were excited about seeing it. The second was Hacienda Alsacia which is a coffee plantation … not any coffee plantation but the Coffee Plantation that provides Starbucks it’s coffee!! A big additional bonus was the scenery and people we saw along the way. In this post I will not be mentioning how many miles we drove. Here milage is irrelivant, its time … it might take 3 hours to drive 25 miles so how far you go is not as important as how long it takes. Anyhow, no milage numbers, everything is not so far as the country is not so big. Here are some pictures from Poas:

Here We Are … Volcano Poas National Park

The Volcano was impressive and well presented. The Costa Ricans work very hard to present a progressive and historic country. More tomorrow on the rest of today. Going to bed.

Okay … That’s better … still working on the 8th. After the Volcano we headed back towards the hotel. Along the way was the Hacienda Alsacia, or the place where Starbucks runs it’s coffee bean buying business in Costa Rica. They have a very nice facility there and do tours in both Spanish and English throughout the day. Nancy had bought tickets for the two O’Clock tour but we got there just after noon and asked if we could move up to the one o’clock tour. Everyone agreed so we took a break and … had a Latte (what else would you do at a Starbucks place?)

We showed up for our tour and there was only one other person. A pleasant young lady from Monterey, Mexico. A side note here. Tourism is way down in Costa Rica. The country was shut down completely for five months until the population started demonstrating in the streets because they were all starving and loosing their businesses and jobs (sound familiar?). The country opened up to anyone from most countries last December and has been doing better but, as you know, fewer people are traveling so there are fewer people touring. Regardless, our tour started off with a polite young man doing the tour. His English was very good and he had an impressive knowledge of the coffee industry. I’ll take you through the tour via photos rather than write it all out. Here are the photos from our tour:

That finished our tour at the Coffee place. It was very interesting and contained much more information than I will ever need … but well worth the time. I guess you gain a greater appreciation for things if you understand the effort that goes into creating them.

From here we drove back to the hotel in San Jose. We had dinner at the hotel and spent the rest of the evening there. Another early bedtime … thus the interruption of this day’s post. I will close the day out showing some of the countryside, roads, and interesting aspects of driving in Costa Rica.

So That was the 8th. Great Day, two very interesting things to see. Our GPS is working well, driving is a piece of cake (everyone drives on the correct side of the road (unlike Australia) and most Costa Ricans are polite drivers. The trucks get a little aggressive but generally everyone is kind.

9 February 2021 – Started the day with breakfast and checkout from our hotel. We are going to La Fortuna that is 54 miles away … a four hour trip. Scenes along the way: (See Map at beginning)

So we got here and got our room and decided to go out and explore a little. We went to downtown La Fortuna, had some Nachos and a Beer, cruised some souvenir shops, and checked into taking a Sloth Watching tour. Checked out three different places before Nancy found someone who GUARANTEED us we would see a Sloth. Sloths are nocturnal and shy. They come from this region and the tours are very popular. So, because Nancy’s friend asked us to check out her relatives in Costa Rica we decided to take the tour. Our Guide was a very knowledgeable guy and did very well. We saw five Sloths, a couple poison frogs, a bunch of different kinds of birds and a lizard. The Sloths were difficult to photograph because they sleep way up in tall tress amongst the leaves. I did my best and here are some pictures.

See The Sloth in This Photo? … No, That’s Because There Isn’t One (Told You They Were Difficult To See!)

Okay … That’s it for today. Another busy day for us. Tomorrow we work some COVID issues. We need a test before we can get back into the states so we are finding a lab or hospital that will test us and get the results back in 72 hours before we leave. Then we are traveling on to our next destination. Its another Volcano but the weather looks like it may be socked in so it will be a slower day. Till Then .. take care.

10 Feb 2021 – Had a nice breakfast at the hotel. The young man at reception helped us set up a COVID test in San Jose when we return later this month so we can return to the states (Thanks Joe … you make life even harder!!). Then we started out for Nuevo Arenal where the Gingerbread Hotel & Restaurant is and where we are staying tonight. The trip was pleasant around this really large and picturesque lake. Before we went very far we saw the entrance to the Arenal Volcano National Park so we entered. This park is not nearly as developed as Poas was but it certainly had many things to see. We walked about four five miles, up and down hill, on narrow trails, some clear, some very rocky, some steps to see the lava flow from the 1992 eruption and a very old tree. Both were worth the walk plus the flora and birds along the way were very nice as well. The volcano was obscured at the top so we never saw the top of it but the middle to bottom was very impressive. Here’s some photos of the walk and the volcano … and the tree.

Our First View of the Lake was on our Walk Out To The Volcano

After the park we drove on to Nuevo Arenal where our hotel is. We noticed signs, many signs, for a German Bakery. Being excited about German Bakery we decided to go there first for lunch. We found it. It was a BIG disappointment. The baking was what you might expect from a cub scout and the service was lousy. Other than that we had a mediocre Latte and left. We are now secured in our room at the Gingerbread Hotel resting and waiting for dinner. We have planned our route for tomorrow which will take us around the west end of the lake and south to Monteverde … about five or six hours of driving. There we will stay for three nights. do some tours, walk some tree top sky bridges, and who knows what else.

NOTE: Costa Rica has a National Motto which is PURAVIDA … anyone know what that means?

See you tomorrow in Monteverde. I did not update our progress map today because we did not go very far.

11 Feb 2021 – We are in Monteverde (Green Mountain) which hosts the Cloud Forest. It is also a small town built up mostly to accommodate the tourist industry in this area. However, before I talk about Monteverde let me mention our departure from the Gingerbread Hotel in Nuevo Arenal.

Last night we decided to have dinner at the hotel and we are very happy we did. We had a delicious dinner that was nicely prepared and well presented. We split a humongous Greek salad for starters and then split a steak dinner that came with four steaks draped over a heap of mashed potatoes and vegetables. Very good. This morning we were up early, had a couple coffees in the room while we packed up and took everything out to the car. Then we went down to breakfast … which turned out to be delicious as well. So, well fattened we left the Gingerbread Hotel and drove to Monteverde. Here are a few photos from the hotel. I’m not going to post pictures of every one of our rooms but this one was kinda unique so please bear with me:

This Was Our Room … The Paintings Blended Right Onto The Bed

The Drive over was of concern because many of the books described the road as dirt, lots of holes, and dangerously steep in places. The road was fine … it was dirt in a few places but not bad at all. These experts that talk about roads make them sound really bad so you think they really did something. Only took a couple pictures on the road … just more green countryside.

We scouted out a couple souvenir shops after we checked in and walked about the town. Just vegging out this afternoon, will do dinner sometime. Tomorrow we take a hike in a Rain Forest Reserve.

12 Feb 2021 – Another grueling day of touring completed. Today, actually very early today, we went out to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. It is a large area that strattles the Continental Divide in Costa Rica. This causes the Reserve to have three different weather environments. The East side is moist and cloudy much of the time due to clouds coming in from the Caribbean. The Pacific side is more dry and the topic a mix of the two. They call it the Cloud Forest because it if frequently shrouded in heavy fog or clouds. This has decreased from having an average of 30 sunny days (Blue Sky) a year to over 118 a year now … although I think the high average does not include as many years as the low average. The Reserve is famed for all the plant and animal life it sustains and tours of it were highly recommended. So, we booked an early morning tour when the animals were supposed to be more active. We were early but the animals forgot to come. We saw some birds, lots of different plants (they can’t go too far) and only one animal (mammal).

Not seeing much was a disappointment (still better than the best day at work!) but it was interesting and although our guide tried to recite the Encyclopedia Britannica to us regarding birds and plants, we did enjoy the three hours of hiking through the Cloud Forest. After our guided tour Nancy and I walked to a different point to view a Cascade of water as it flowed off the mountain. they call them water falls here but they are really a series of drops from rocks to rocks … still very nice.

We finished up just before noon and had logged about three and a half miles of hiking up and down hills in the jungle. We stopped by for a Latte and a sweetie and then scouted out the location of our activity that we have scheduled for tomorrow. More on that later but now, the few pictures I took. In addition to not seeing many animals or birds, they were usually sitting inside of some brush or leaves which makes them difficult to see, then you are shooting your pictures from a dark jungle floor up into the bright sky .. so you get a lot of black shadows hiding in leaves. Here is what I got today:

This Is A Quetzal. A Rare Bird To See Here. It Is The National Bird of Guatemala. Our Guide said only About 5% of The Folks Who Come Here See One

Image result for quetzal — This is A Quetzal … I got the Picture from Google. Just Want You To Know What They Look Like

A Little Potpourri here. Following are just random shots as we waked and saw interesting things. At The end will be some shots of the water falls.

A Coatie … A Raccoon Like Mammal That wanders the Forest. they Had A Couple That Became Accustomed To Humans and Hung Around Looking For Handouts

Now we will view the water falls. It too was difficult to photograph due to the tree branches, palms, and weeds.

So that was pretty much it. Would’ve liked to see more animals but we have several more tours over the next couple weeks so maybe we will see some. Regardless, touring here is better than going to Walmart. the people are great, the weather is warm but not hot … but very humid.

Tomorrow we go to “SKY ADVENTURES” to walk amongst the treetops on high bridges and ride an areal tram above the trees. Sounds like fun but we will see.

13 Feb 2021 – Yesterday we walked through the jungle and tropical forests. Today we walked and rode above them or at least along the top. Our morning started with a cup of coffee in our room before we went to breakfast. Then had a great breakfast and drove out to Sky Adventures. The drive was about 20 minutes so we were there in plenty time for our Eight AM tour. We were told they did not do private tours and we would be with a group. However, we were the only English speakers in the group and that guide suggested that it might be better and less confusing to everyone if we just went with our own English speaking guide and his group do all Spanish … Good For Us!! Consequently, we ended up with a very polite and well versed guide who really knew his stuff and provided useful and relevant info without flooding us with worthless minutiae several times over.

Our first tour was a trek over a distance of about 2.5 kilometers and crossing five different suspended bridges that were across valleys taking you above the top canopy of the jungle. Here’s the course.

The Bridges are numbered counterclockwise but we went clockwise starting with the one on the bottom, bridge 5, and also the longest and highest bridge.

Bridge 5 … 774 Feet Long and 164 Feet above the Ground AT Its Highest Point

Nancy and Our Guide Starting Across The Bridge

The variety of vegetation is incredible. Some Grow Up from the ground, other grow down from the tree tops. Birds, monkeys, and other animals and insects spread the seeds and the weather promotes fantastic growth.

A short walk through the jungle and here we are at Bridge 4 … a little smaller.

So That was it. We Crossed all five bridges. learned a great deal, saw a lot of tree tops and varieties of trees. Here’s what the course looks like.

This was the end of the Sky Walk. Our next event was the Aerial Tram. We have rode on many cable cars over the years but we wanted to get a view from the top of the mountain where these facilities were located. So we climbed on board the tram and off we went. We were very fortunate in the it was a particularly clear day and we could see the Pacific Ocean way off in the distance and, to our great surprise, we saw the top of Arenal Volcano! Remember … we were there but never saw the top of it. So here are some pictures of the tram ride and mostly views while we went up and from the top.

A Suspension Bridge From Reception to The Tram (Left)

That ended our touring for the day. We didn’t Zip Line because we had done a quite a bit of it in Australia and didn’t want to harness up to do it again. Nancy hit a couple souvenir shops and we went back to the hotel to rest up for the evening. The Hotel hosts a special dinner, with music, tonight and we are going as guests of the Hotel’s Manager. We are looking forward to an interesting evening.

Tomorrow is Nancy’s Birthday so we getting a slow start, breakfast, then moving on to our next location. We are stopping there for the night because it brags having huge groups of American Crocodiles. Guess we will see. Till then, take care.

A comment about the Costa Ricans and their COVID Protocols. Everyone must wear a mask at all times, inside and outside. Exceptions are in your home (or hotel room), and when you are eating or drinking … actually eating or drinking … sitting at a table or bar stool does not count until you have your food or drink. There is alcohol rub for your hands everywhere and upon entering or leaving a building there is usually a hand washing station (sink with soap). They take your temperature every time you enter a business or function, and don’t mind reminding you to put your mask on. Consequently we feel pretty safe about being exposed. They do have cases here but not a real high rate … not sure of the figures. We still have to have a negative, less than three day old, Swab test before we can board our airplane home. We have that schedule for … you guessed it, three days before we leave.

14 February 2021 – Happy Valentines’ Day!!! … and Happy Birthday Nancy.

Nancy with her Birthday Presents and Valentine Heart

We were up, had a little party, had a couple cups of coffee, packed our bags, and went down for breakfast, all by 7:30. After a leisurely breakfast we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the Suzuki, and we were off to Rancho Capulin. This is a small B&B we decided to stay at as it was close to the National Park that had the crocodiles. It was about a three hour drive, quite mountainous and a big change in environment. As we were heading south and west we left the Caribbean side of the Continental Divide and were on the Pacific side … where we will be for most of the rest of this trip. As I mentioned, the Pacific side is much dryer and dry it is … almost desert like with far fewer trees and a lot of stressed plants since the rainy season is over. It made for an interesting drive. I didn’t take many pictures as there was a haze that does not do well in photos. I did take a picture of an interesting fence, and some crocodiles. There is mostly farming through the area we traveled so cows, horses, and a few pigs and dogs. Here’s the fence:

The Posts are actually Trees that They Trim Off every so Often

We ended up not going to the National Park itself … Just before the park entrance there was a fairly big bridge and people were walking out on both sides and looking down. There were a number of virus sizes of Crocodiles on both sides.

Most of Them Were Laying Partly In The Water … This Is A Smaller One

So that was it for today. We are having an early dinner tonight and going to bed early. Last night’s dinner was great and we enjoyed the music and the wine. Tomorrow we are driving to Manuel Antonio, and area on the beaches of Costa Rica. We are about half way there now.

15 Feb 2021 – We got a nice start after a pleasant breakfast and arrived in Manuel Antonio just around noon. The trip over was interesting … we stopped and took some more pictures of the croc’s. Before breakfast there were some Coaties (pronounced coe ah tees) running around behind our room and climbing into a nearby tree to eat fruit. Then at breakfast our hostess had an interesting Bird tree, then the cross:

Enough Croc’s!!!! The drive here was interesting as we were driving along the Pacific Ocean most of the way. Sometimes right on the edge and others inland a bit or in a town. Here’s some photo’s of the journey:

We finally got to our hotel but had to wait a while to check in … so, we went to their restaurant, had some lunch and a couple beers while we waited.

16 Feb 2021 – Yesterday we scheduled an early pickup and a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park. This is a small park but one of the most famous in Costa Rica. Two brother, Manuel and Antonio, were rich farmers in this area but decided to move. They sold much of their land but donated a large track of it to be a park … which became. We had a small group (5) of folks on the tour so it was comfortable and a very good guide. He took us into and through the park showing us many, many things we would not have seen if we had just walked through by ourselves. Here are pictures from the park: … Oops, I forgot to mention that on the way to the park we came across a bunch of monkeys playing on the phone and electric lines .. here they are … Then the park:

It was a fun and successful day in the park. We spent the afternoon vegging out in our room. It is very hot here and very high humidity so frequent breaks in air conditioned areas are good.

17 Feb 2021 – Today is an off day but we are doing two things. One is to walk down from the hotel, which is high on a cliff above the ocean, to the shore and back up. The other, Nancy wants to check some souvenir shops to see if we have forgotten to get some things we really need. First the walk:

The Road Down From Our Room, Past Reception, and To The Beach Path

The walk was hot and took a while but we made it. The Name of The Hotel is Shana By The Beach but it really is nowhere near the beach. So Then we went out and explored some shops … nothing special out there … and some more beaches.

And a restaurant with an airplane in it:

We spent the rest of the day in the pool, by the pool:

A Mural A Guy Was Painting In The Dining room AT The Hotel

18 Feb 2021 – Today we head south and a little west to Sierpe which our gateway to the Osa Peninsula and the Corcovado National Park. See you when we get there.

Ok … We are here … Sierpe in the Province of Osa. Our final destination here will the Corcovado National Park. Stopping in Sierpe is the first step. Tomorrow we take a boat down the Sierpe River to a town named Drake in Drake Bay. The next day we take another boat to go farther south then hike into the park, look around a bit, hike back out, take the boat back to Drake, spend the night, take an early boat back to Sierpe where we left our vehicle. Once we get the vehicle back we will drive to Puerto Jimeniz on the opposite side of the Peninsula and check into a hotel there. The next morning we pick up a guide and drive into the other side of the park a little ways and hike into the parks interior from there. Then back out. Enough itinerary for now. The drive here was interesting but mostly the same terrain I have have been posting so I won’t bore you with more pictures of palms, bananas, and the ocean. We did find a golf course though:

Here are some pictures of our hotel here in Sierpe … bear in mind we are off the beaten path and few tourists come here so things are fairly rural. The hotel is highly functional (even has A/C thank God), is operated by a very pleasant lady named Daisy, and is centrally located so we walk to most of the places we go … as in THE restaurant, THE bakery, THE boat dock, etc. The Hotel has made some interesting use of old tires:

I walked around A Bit And Took Some Pictures Around Town:

We reshuffled our suitcases because we are only taking back packs on the boat. The suitcases and all our other junk will be left in the car at the hotel. After repacking we decided to take a walk down to the dock and see what’s going on:

(Upriver) The Dock From The Club Las Vegas

So that was our day … kind of exciting but all in a days work of a serious tourist. We had some dinner and are back in the room. Waiting for the appointed hour to go to sleep. Tomorrow we are off to Drake. My Next Post will be from there.

22 Feb 2021 – No, You did not doze off and just wake up missing three days. We left Sierpe on the morning of the 20th and made it to Drake, were picked up by our hotel, and checked in. We did nothing the rest of the day but they internet was very weak and intermittent so I was unable to update my posts. I was able to take pictures the entire time so here goes. 19 Feb 2021: Getting up and boating to Drake … it was about a 90 minute boat ride, in a fairly small boat. It became very rough when we got from the Sierpe River into Drake Bay. Here are some photo’s from along the way and our hotel. But first, let me tell you a little about Drake. Drake is a very small village on the edge of Drake Bay. The streets are all dirt, the buildings are mostly shacks with no order or much upkeep. It is there mostly to facilitate tourism on the OSA Peninsula and the Corcovada National Park.

When we left our hotel in Sierpe we heard a bunch of noise and saw two Parrots feeding on the Guavass

We had dinner at the hotel and because the next days activities started at Five AM we went to bed early. The trip down the river was interesting but uneventful. We were not sure what to expect at Drake but were still rather surprised at how primitive it is. The only constant is the people, they continue to be friendly and helpful. 20 Feb 2021- We were up at 4:30, cleaned up and dressed and at Breakfast at Five. We knew we were going to get wet wading out to the boat that takes us to the National Park so we put on water shoes and no socks with intentions of socking up and putting our hiking boots on after we waded ashore at the park. So, after breakfast we climbed aboard the family truck and they took us back down to where we landed the day before. There we loaded up again in boats just like the ones we rode down from Sierpe and headed off to Corcovado National Park … another 90 minute boat ride. The trip down, both the Sierpe River and down to the Park was mostly mangrove trees palms, and jungle. You would see an occasional hut, sometimes a more substantial house but very few and far between. The Trip down along the coast from Drake to the Park:

Loading the Boat At Drake … The Captain and First Hand Hold The Boat, You Wade Out and Climb In

We disembarked in our usual awkward manner, feet wet from wading ashore and top wet from the rain. Once you got Ashore your guide checked everyone in with the Park rangers (It was mandatory to have a certified guide). Some groups were larger (10+) and some smaller. We had a Private Guide so it was just Our Guide Melvin, Nancy, and Myself. Having a private guide is my deal. I cannot stand waiting for inconsiderate people who are constantly late, talk while the guide is explaining something, and asking questions the guide answered while they were talking. I find paying a little more for a private guide saves a lot of time, allowing the guide to show you more and provide more info, while avoiding rude people who refuse to recognize they are part of a group. So, Melvin signed us in, we socked up and put on our hiking boots, applied some repellent, and we were off. Nancy and I often do these things without guides but here, I must admit, we would have missed everything if not for having a guide to point the animals, flowers, birds, and insects out to us. Walking through the jungle makes everything invisible! So here we go:

We made it back to Drake mid afternoon and went directly to the room, showered, and came down to the restaurant for a cool afternoon beverage. The telescope Melvin uses is exceptionally strong and puts whatever you focus on right in front of you. A Unique feature is that the guides can take a picture with your Smartphone of whatever you see in the Scope. I had Melvin Take a number of shots for me so here they are: We saw many animals and I will name them only if I know what they are … the rest are just birds or whatever:

This Is A Spider Monkey … He does not have An Opposing Thumb and Therefore Uses His Tail For Balance

That was our day at the National Park. Long, tiring, but very rewarding. Again, to bed early as we had a Five Thirty breakfast before being taken down to the boats for the trip back to Sierpe.

This Is What A Tucan Looks Like …. Remember Fruit Loops?

21 Feb 2021 – Our 51st Anniversary. Up early, eat breakfast, bounce in a truck down to the beach, get wet wading out to the boat, and off we go on our way back to Sierpe::

We got to Sierpe about Nine, walked back to the hotel we left our vehicle at, hoped in and departed for Puerto Jimenez which is on the other side of the Osa Peninsula but you can’t get there from here so we had to go all the way back up to the main highway, then west, then south to PJ. The drive was good but took a while. Speed limits here are mostly 35 MPH except on very good roads where it goes up to 50 MPH. In towns or congested areas it drops to 25. Anyhow, we got to Puerto Jimenez, found our hotel, and checked in. A Nice place. PJ is a bigger town and consequently has paved and organized streets, shops, a gas station, etc. We were tired when we arrived and decided we were just going to rest for the remainder of the day and all day on the 22nd. We had a Drive into the heart of the Park (From the West Side) and a long hike scheduled with a guide for the 22nd and cancelled it. We had seen sufficient jungle, animals, birds, insects, and rivers for the time being and we felt we needed a break. We took no pictures on the 21st. We did have a nice afternoon. Our Son Andy called us and wished us a Happy Anniversary, we received a nice note from Candice, Andy’s Wife, about our anniversary and Nancy exchanged emails with many of our relatives who shared our Anniversary last year. We had a nice dinner and turned in.

22 Feb 2021 – Okay!!! We are caught up. Nancy and I slept in this morning. Got up around eight and went down for breakfast. After breakfast and a couple coffees we decided too drive to the Southern tip of the peninsula. So we did. It wasn’t fr but the pavement ended at the edge of town and it was washboards, potholes, and narrow bridges the rest of the way. We didn’t mind as we had all day. Here are some pictures:

A Banana Plantation … Notice the Mistletoe In The Trees

So that catches us up to right now. Dinner t, then up tomorrow (Not Early), Breakfast, then our longest drive to the Orosi Valley just west of San Jose. On the 24th we will find a clinic to have our COVID tests done and if we test negative, we will be home on Saturday. More on all that each day.

23 Feb 2021 – Big Day today. Hard drive over two mountain chains, two cities, and beach traffic. For the first time since we were here we traveled a long distance … nearly 200 miles. Plus … we changed some of our plans .. quite a few actually so here’s what happened. We left Puerto Jimenez around seven after decided not to have breakfast. The weather was nice and driving was good. We had initially thought we would go kinda straight north and go up into the mountains while were still down by Panama but we decided we had long enough of a way to go so we followed the route we came in on until we were farther west, then cut up to Cartago where we were supposed to be staying. When we got to Cartago traffic was horrible and we were way out on the far side of the city. This meant that tomorrow we would have to drive back through the city to get to San Jose to get our COVID tests. Finally we decided to cancel the hotel in Cartago and get two more nights in the hotel in San Jose … all of which we did. We then drove in to San Jose and are staying right in the center of downtown for the next four nights. We located a couple Hospital Labs that were doing tests so we are off tomorrow morning to do our tests. It’s cram city tonite!!! I hate taking tests. I think we will be getting two sets of tests in case one does not make it back in time. It cannot be more than 72 hours old and the labs say they can turn the tests in 48 but there are many comments that they didn’t get the results in time. We’ll see what happens. Anyhow, I took a few photo’s on the way here and some in the city so here they are:

After Coming Up From The Osa Peninsula we drove west … these Mountains are Next

So that’s it for now. Have a lot of studying to do for our tests tomorrow. We have no definite plans for the next three days but I’m sure we will think of something. On a side note … it’s good to be back in civilization. We had a nice dinner and are enjoying our city stay.

24 Feb 2021 – I guess all the studying last night paid off because today we were tested and we both came up NEGATIVE for COVID-19. That means we will be able to get back to the US this Saturday as planned … isn’t that comforting? We also turned in the car. We are finished touring and the hotel charges an arm and a leg to park the car so it just made since to turn it in. The remainder of our time here we will be on foot or using a taxi. Consequently we turned in our little Suzuki SUV and got a ride back to the hotel. Not much else to report today. We did get COVID tests in two different places (A small insurance in the event of a false positive result) … four were negative so far (Two results not back yet) so all is good. Here are a couple of pictures … the first is of a tree that stands on the far side of the center from our hotel … it has beautiful blossoms and they continue to fall … like a Cherry Tree but much larger. The second is looking back at our hotel from the far side of the far side of the square towards our hotel.

25 Feb 2021 – Nice day today … It is cooler here in San Jose as we are at a higher altitude so the heat and humidity have not been bad. We slept in a bit so we had a late coffee and sweetie and decided to do some tourista stuff. So we walked around a bit, saw a couple of museums, a couple churches, and some interesting architecture. Then Nancy decided to do some souvenir shopping so went to this big market. Target rich environment for shopping tourists!! We are not back in the room and getting ready for dinner in an hour or so. Here are some random shots of things we saw today:

So that completed our touring for today. By the way, we did get our third set of COVID test results back … this was the serious test that takes 24 – 48 hours to get. We got them last night … again two negatives so we are good to go. Looks like we are having dinner at the hotel tonight and doing some more shopping etc tomorrow be fore we do our final packing for departure on Saturday. An interesting observation. While we were in the more thinly populated areas we seldom saw beggars or street people. Here in the city they are everywhere selling ink pens they find in the trash, odds and ends of stuff they found, or just standing there with a cup or their hand out. Just proves to me that cities are not good for humans. More tomorrow.

26 Feb 2021 – Our Last full day in Costa Rica. Not much planned, some last minute shopping, repack our bags, etc. Took a couple pictures last night. Had a nice dinner in the hotel. Here are the pictures I took:

Late Afternoon, Sun Was Setting, The Moon Coming Up

That pretty well wraps it up. We had a great time in Costa Rica … our schedule was more leisurely than most of our others and we kind of liked that. Issues such as time, work, health, money, etc always affect how you travel, how long, and how far. Hope you enjoyed the trip … we enjoyed sharing it with you.

A COMMERCIAL: This trip has been published as an ebook on Amazon. I’ve reformatted, cleaned up, and wrapped the entire trip so you can download read it at your leisure. If you use a Kindle Reader on a color capable device you can enjoy the photos in color and expand them to see more detail. Just put “Bill Rumpel” in the Amazon search engine and this book, and several others I have published come up. Feel free to buy as many as you like … they are very inexpensive.

Iceland For Four – In A Car – May 2016

The Fearless Four Peaking Through An IceBerg

Going to Iceland was not our idea. Actually, we had never considered going there. Then, some friends of our’s, Zack and Sharol Wittke from Wisconsin, asked us if we would like to travel somewhere with them. Zack was a classmate of Nancy and mine and we have known him and Sharol for many years so … of course we would like to travel somewhere with you!! We discussed places that might be interesting and they proposed Iceland … Really … Iceland? So off we go getting ready to go to Iceland. We were a little constrained for time as they only had a week off so we decided to drive the road that goes all the way around Iceland … they call it “Ring Road” … how original is that? We read a great deal about what there is to see along the way and decided to give it a go.

Yellow Line is the “Ring Road” around Iceland … The Route We Followed.

We divided the days up based on how far we wanted to travel each day (determined by how much we wanted to see in that area). We started in Reykjavik, went counter clockwise across the South, up the East side, then West across the top and South back to Reykjavik along the Western side … 1333 Kilometers or 828 miles. We actually ended up going much farther than that as we often took deviations to sites that were along the way either on the coast or up into the mountains.

There are not many roads that go inland because most of the inland is either mountain, glacier, or volcano. There are roads but open only parts of the year and not real automobile friendly … so we just stuck to the main roads. We drove a Hyundai I30 Combi that proved to be quite sufficient in space, power, efficiency, and comfort.

So now we had the things we wanted to see, our route, proposed stopping points, and all we needed were airplane tickets and hotel reservations.

Icelandic Air had some great deals from New York to Iceland and connected to Tampa and Minneapolis so we went with them. Hotels were another matter. More on that in a bit.

We got to Reykjavik, got the car, our luggage, and found our way to our hotel. We checked in and were all ready to go exploring … so off we went. We were a short walk from down town and the harbor so we walked around taking in the sites.

Of particular interest was a fish market we found by the harbor … actually what was interesting was the fish they had on display that had been caught in the local waters.

Once you leave Reykjavik, none of the towns or cities along the route have a great choice of accommodations. Most are old, few offer private baths, and all were expensive. We did find a few but what really saved us were campgrounds and private enterprises that set up small, completely furnished cabins that were mostly all new. Apparently someone saw the need for lodging tourists so many people put up, what appeared to be kits, that included a kitchen, small living room, one or two bedrooms, and a bath. All were neat and clean, very comfortable, and well furnished … and available at reasonable rates. So, we stayed at two different hotels in Reykjavik (one when we arrived and one when we were leaving)

and the rest of the time stayed in the little cabins. We found them all on Booking.com. I can’t say there were no hotels available but for the price, these cabins could not be beat … and the were all conveniently located. They were also mostly located on the outskirts of the towns they were by so you could take walks from them without city traffic, two were by rivers.

One night, we could not find a place to eat that we liked so we went to a local grocery store and bought “Dinner”. All the foods were labeled in Icelandic so we kinda had to go by the pictures on the packages and what we could get from other shoppers who spoke english. We went home and prepared a very nice dinner that included wine and desert. …. Never Go Hungry!!

Speaking of hunger … Many ships carrying U.S. Soldiers to and from WWII in Europe stopped in Iceland for refueling and resupply. The Americans left their mark in the form of Hot Dogs. Made famous during the the U.S. Soldiers visits, the Hot Dog can be found everywhere and is a favorite lunchtime staple. Zack was determined to have a different one each day and he succeeded … Who would’ve thought!

Back to our arrival: We found a little restaurant in the early evening and had some dinner, walked back to the hotel, and hit the sack!!! It was a long but interesting day.

Okay … So I mentioned I was going to write about the geological features of Iceland … I am … in a minute. But first, something not Geologic but both interesting and cute. The Icelandic Pony. You see these little guys most places you go. They are in pastures, farm yards, even some more generous residential areas. The pony is unique to Iceland and is a product of having been the only breed of horse on the Island for the past two centuries. They are unique in that they are the only breed of horse in the world that has five different gaits. Most horses have three gaits; walk, trot, gallop. Some add a fourth gait known as a canter. The Icelandic pony has five; Walk, trot, Canter, Tolt, and Flying Pace. The Tolt and Flying Pace are a gait only these ponies have. The Tolt is special in that one hoof is always on the ground and is exceptionally smooth … even at high speeds. The Flying Pace, as the name implies, is the fastest where both feet on one side are on the ground at one time and is likened to a fast gallop, and at one part of the gait, all four legs are in the air at the same time. If you are into horses or gaits, there is ample info on the internet. It’s just what makes these ponies special. I think it’s their extra long and bushy bangs that makes them special, but that’s just me.

Enough about horses!

The next morning we had a nice breakfast that came with the room (we love European breakfasts), loaded up the car, and headed out of town. In this Post, rather than describe our trip day by day, I am going to describe areas or features. I’ve shown you where we drove, and told you where we stayed so now I will just focus on the things in Iceland that we found most interesting. They will not be listed by preference, just as they come to mind.

Here are some photos of the terrain in SouthEastern Iceland as we drove from Reykjavik East then North along the coast. One of the photos is a sign that describes the area. Most of the terrain along the coast has to do with Lava Flows. Some old and grown over with a spongy moss, others washed out by water, some look like they just cooled yesterday. There was a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2010 that put so much ash in the air it shut down transoceanic air routes.

This photo is of a farm that is nestled against the mountains on the East side of Iceland. The people that live there documented the volcano I just described with films, narratives, and anecdotes regarding their experience as they lived through it. Right aside of the road, across from this farm, they have set up a little museum that has pictures of the volcano and features a movie they show that captures the entire event … from them motorbiking up next to it to their having to evacuate as it erupts. An incredibly interesting story, well worth the few dollars it costs to see. They ended up hauling tons of ash away as they cleaned up their farm buildings and roads leading to it. Some of the actual family members work in the museum and you see them in the film! That eruption placed layers of ash over many of the glaciers which now appears as a layer of dirt on the ice. Some of it is thin, other areas very thick … all nasty and black. You will see it when I post the pictures of the glaciers and icebergs.

Here are some of the Waterfalls we saw. They are in no particular order and I won’t try to replicate the names. Just enjoy them and if you really like them a great deal and want to see or have more to do with them, have a go to Iceland. Some of these groups of pictures include signs or names of the site we were at … you can Google that name and get more info if you are curious. Following is one of the grandest. It is a long dusty drive out to it but very well worth it.

Following the Grand Ones are a series of tall ones. This tall one is unique in that you can hike to the top of it from the side, or you can walk behind it … which we did. Some of the end photos are from behind the falls or coming out on the other end. The noise is deafening!

Enough waterfalls for now … How about some Glaciers? … Glaciers Calving, and Ice Bergs? As I mentioned, volcanic ash covers most of the glaciers and snowy areas giving them a black look. However, when they split or change the white and blue of the ice is exposed. One early morning we walked out to a large glacier and hiked around on it. Here are some of what we saw.

Driving North along the East side we came across a large lake that had a glacier running down into it. As nature has it, the glacier was calving icebergs into the lake. The lake is several miles long and at the end runs through a narrow channel that runs under a bridge and into the sea. The Icebergs follow that flow and can be seen floating along the lake, rushing down the narrow flow, and drifting out to sea. Some wash ashore after the bridge and slowly melt creating beautiful ice sculptures.

There were people all around the lake watching the Bergs float by. There was even a Couple Taking Wedding Pictures along the shore with the Ice Bergs as background.

Iceland is known as “The Land of Fire and Ice” … you have seen some of the ice, and I’ve mentioned the fire … so, as you know, when you have fire and ice, you get a lot of hot water!! There are thermal pools, vents, geysers, and hot mud fields all around Iceland. Most municipalities have a community pool that is heated by underground water sources that are hot. Many of the ares reminded us of Yellowstone and the thermal activity there.

One place even had a volcano you could climb to the top of and peek into the center. Long dormant the center is cool and a little filled in, there is a worn path to the top … however, the view from the top is great, there are little flowers growing on the volcanic rock, and its a cool experience.

Another area that we found to be very interesting was near the volcano we climbed and was a huge area of lava that apparently had flowed from the volcano at one time … there are now roads through it and vegetation growing but it is clear what come first.

The first settlers of Iceland came from the Scandinavian countries. As such they were accustomed to building with wood as there are a lot of trees in Eastern Europe. Consequently, they built their early structures using the trees they found in Iceland. Whether due to neglect, forgetfulness, or naivety they used up all the trees and didn’t have any growing to replace them. As a result of the lack of wood and the critical need for shelter they turned to using sod. In Northwestern Iceland is a restored village where the sod homes are able to be toured. They are very well presented and in addition to the structures, all of the furnishings, tools, storage facilities, and personal items are there for the visitor to see. Very impressive. In the village, there is a very old church … made of wood. Of interest was the organ that had pipes made of wood.

In the Northern part of Iceland were rolling pastures that were punctuated with crater like holes. There is a picture of the explanation. This are was populated with sheep and infested with flies. Note on the pictures from inside the car all the black spots on the window … they were flies. So first the Lava flow:

Then the craters, sheep, and flies!

To follow the Ring Road around Iceland is experiencing nearly every kind of terrain, environment, and feature of the country. The Sea is always on one side and the mountains on the other. Regardless of which way you travel you will pass over the mountains in the North.

As you can imagine, fishing is a big industry in Iceland. It follows that fish farming would also be a big deal. Here are a couple of Photos of a ship with food lines running back to “Fish Corrals where the fish are raised and harvested. We saw many of these in the various protected inlets.

Then we got to the very top of Iceland. Just South of the Arctic Circle. Couldn’t get real close but we were there!

Following is a collection of photos taken by myself and Sharol. Some more water falls, some mountains, some lakes, a little of everything. All of us found the country very interesting. The only thing we did not do, and will if we go back, is to spend more time with the locals. The bars, coffee houses, markets, etc all offer anyone a chance to rub elbows with someone interesting and, as we find nearly anywhere, people, for the most part, are kind, friendly, and helpful. They love to talk about their families, their country, and their lives, as well hear about yours. Enjoy the rest of the photos.