*Relatively - high speed internet access is very limited in the remote jungle destinations on our route, which has delayed the posting of this blog. Additionally, editing videos has proved challenging with only 2gbs of ram on our traveling PC. Celeste now refers to me as "the angry tech guy" when I get frustrated with the technology "road blocks" here.
July 11th
This was a travel day for us. We packed up the car and headed north to the Central Pacific. We consulted our travel guide book (Costa Rica: The Complete Guide: Eco-adventures in Paradise by James Kaiser) to find one night's lodging en route to Montezuma. We chose a lovely bed and breakfast called Momma e Papa in Ojochal. Enzo, the proprietor and chef moved from Northern Italy to Costa Rica over 10 years ago. His property is filled with fragrant Ylang Ylang (the main ingredient in Chanel No. 5 perfume) trees and includes a delicious open air Italian restaurant, saltwater pool and air conditioned cabinas. Although Ojochal is "stamp" of a town, we found an authentic french bakery called Pancito Cafe that was SCRUMPTIOUS.
See pics below of our time in Ojochal. From left to right Ojochal Beach Cave that lets seawater in from both sides, girlz at Ojochal Beach, hotel pool, Me with Enzo, and short vid at the pool.
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We depart Ojochal and continue our drive north to catch a ferry at Puntarenas that would take us to Paquera, which is the closest port to our destination - Montezuma. The ferry ride was quite pleasant and not a bad deal ($25 for the car and ~ $4/person). The ferry crossing took about 90 minutes and allowed us to see various islands in the Nicoya Peninsula. The not so good part was that the car was stowed below and while waiting to disembark I must have breathed in more PPM of carbon monoxide in a 15 minute period than allotted in a whole life time. It seems that drivers have a need to start their car engines and let them idle as they wait to disembark.:( See pics below of ferry crossing.
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The drive from the port of Paquera to Montezuma is about 30 km via (wait for it......) a bumpy dirt/rock/potholed road. Luckily the BeGo we rented was up to the task. We stopped off at a supermarket in Cobano to stock up on provisions before arriving at the house we rented. See photo below - as the cashiers try to figure out how to get us a frequent shopper card. (Yes, we try to save where possible.)
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The house was very private on the top of a steep hill that only a billy goat would love. We dined alfresco with the bats for two weeks:-)
The stay at Villa Prana was fabulous with an infinity pool all to ourselves. The house was centrally located to the towns of Montezuma, Cabuya, Cobano, Mal Pais, Playa Carmen and Santa Teresa, which were all towns we visited during our two weeks there. Playa Hermosa near Santa Teresa (a long and wide expanse of sand with gentle waves) was a personal favorite of mine.
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July 13th - 26th
Given the scope of the following few weeks, I'm just going to post some interesting stuff we did and pictures/videos of what we captured.
We enjoyed a day of snorkeling near Tortuga Islands. See pics and vid (pay attention to the beginning of the vid to see how I lovingly coax Zuzu into the water from the boat..swim or sink).
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Another highlight in Montezuma was the canopy tour we took just 100 meters from the house, coupled with swimming at the Montezuma Waterfall. The sad part of that day was that I lost my wedding band of nearly 20 years. The ring must have fallen off when I jumped into the waterfall pool or on one of the canopy platforms. I was pretty bummed about the loss and returned on two occassions to look for it, but no luck. I felt like Gollum in LOTR...my precious was gone (Damn you Frodo!)
Celeste was looking forward to getting me a new ring, anyway (the ring had a gold rope-band that was starting to fray), so she wasn't too bummed about the loss.
On a happier note check out the canopy/waterfall fun, below!
Slide-show Video
During our stay in Montezuma we experienced some incredible storms, as well as pure lightning storms. The lightning storm was magnificent..like something out of a Dr. Frankensteen film - catch a glimpse below:
We visited a graveyard island in Cabuya, which is 15 minutes from Montezuma. Legend has it that the graveyard was established 100 years ago to bury an unidentified dead body which floated up in a boat nearby. Since then, families occasionally bury their loved ones on the island, which requires a procession by foot at low tide to access. It felt like Moses himself parted the sea for us to walk to it.
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While driving near Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve, Finn hollered out "Hey, there's a deer in that family's front yard!" When we stopped to observe it, the family invited us into their yard and told us about "Shasta". His mother was killed in the nearby reserve when he was just a baby, so the family took him in, bottle fed him and he's growing up with their chickens and kitty until he's old enough to be released. See clip below.
While in Montezuma, Cabuya and Playa Carmen we ate at some great restaurants, such as Tierra y Fuego, Puggo's, Product @, The Bakery and Cabuya Bakery and Cafe
When we weren't exploring, we relaxed at the house, swam in the pool, read and soaked in the panoramic views and gorgeous flora and fauna.
