Amy's Arrival and Puerto Viejo

Amy cruising in Puerto Viejo (renting a bike is the best way to get around)

Amy ready for breakfast!

Horses resting on the beach in front of town.


The rocky reef remnants and tide pools in front of our hotel.

Dave staring off into space!

Yeah!

A green-backed heron fishing in front of town.

Fisherman with breakfast.

A blue-crowned motmot in our yard at home in San Bosco


Amy Arrives & Trip to Puerto Viejo 7/30-8/2, 2006:

On the 29th of July, one Amy P. Moe-Hoffman arrived to bless the fine nation of Costa Rica with her presence, and bestowed many happy hugs and kisses upon her husband…David…making him a happy man. OK, yes, a cheesy introduction to this installment of “Una Aventura Mas”, but there aren’t words to explain our reunion, other than it is really exciting to be making this a group project! We are both pleased as punch that Amy’s restless ventures as an American gypsy have finally come to an end, having worn her completely out. So, it was probably much to her chagrin that yet another few days living out of a packed bag were in store. A trip to the Caribbean coast was in order, but that will come at the end…

Amy’s first hours in Costa Rica already involved unplanned changes in arrangements for her pick-up at the airport. No, don’t worry David was actually there to meet her coming out of the airport. Rather, it was the result of the fact that there was an International Conference on Peace Education beginning the same day that she arrived, which meant that we coordinated a ride back from the airport with a busful of peace educators that were being dropped off at their homestay houses here in Ciudad Colon. It was pretty interesting to watch the reactions of the guests and the families as they arrived. Anyway, Amy and her load of six bags were dropped off at the top of our driveway because the bus would never make it out of our driveway. Finally, Amy was able to move into our little pink house, and see what the next stage of housing had in store.

Soon after her arrival, David informed Amy that he was going to have a 3 day break the coming week since both Monday and Wednesday were national holidays, plus one day taken as a vacation day. (Hey, why not?). Thus, poor Amy only had one full day in Ciudad Colon before she was forced to pack up a bag and reconnect to the inner gypsy that she had hoped to abandon upon arrival. Sunday we wandered Ciudad Colon in search of food and a few household goods that David had been living without (which really means he wanted to go and get them, but had been traveling on his days off so he just hadn’t gotten to it yet). The most important locations were pointed out: bank, vegetables, bread, meat, main grocery store, where to buy phone cards, etc. We spent a couple hours wandering around and getting acquainted, then we returned and cooked up a nice dinner and hit the sack early so that we could head out the next morning. Oh yes, it is important to mention that after much thinking and a few discussions, the decision was made to head to the Caribbean coast. Actually, the advice of a local vegetable man was what tilted us towards the Caribbean rather than the Pacific or volcanoes.

Calls were made (and we forgot to make some others…sorry Norman and Printha), taxi-man contacted, hotels reserved, and we headed to bed early in order to make the 4 AM wake-up time for the 6 AM bus to Puerto Viejo. The trip to Puerto Viejo was pretty unremarkable actually, although it was clear that many of the precipices, potholes, and creaky bridges along the route made Amy a bit nervous. So, we arrived in Puerto Viejo in record time, a full 45 minutes earlier than the bus usually arrives, which meant we were way too early for the planned pick-up by the hotelier. We decided to walk the mile to the hotel much to the surprise of the hotel owners. They were an interesting pair…one Austrian or Swiss guy (I never did ask where he was from), who had that look that many hotel owners who have been in the tropics too long take on; a bit unshaven, Hawaiian shirt, sort of spaced-out on both the general and specific details of running a hotel. His wife played the other part, she seemed to have been a long term resident of the region, but was obviously annoyed with the fact that she had been roped into both running the hotel and making up for the apparent deficiencies of her husband. Alas, two years of work without a vacation, meanwhile catering to those on vacation, creates an understandable but unfortunate negative attitude. Long story short, the hotel wasn’t great, but the location wasn’t bad and the rooms were decent. Just not the sort of place you wanted to come back to.

Anyway, that first afternoon we changed into our bathing suits and hiked through the little patch of forest to Playa Cocles, the home of Salsa Brava. It was really hot when we first got there, and the dip into the lukewarm waters of the Caribbean at least cooled you down some. Again the beach wasn’t really that busy, but we definitely had company. We enjoyed the waves, watching the surfers, and had fun attempting to interpret the nature of the interaction between a surf instructor and his three young woman students. After several hours of swimming and relaxing, we headed home to shower, change, and go eat some food. We ended up at the same Thai-influenced (Chili Rojo) place that David had been to two weeks prior…the food was exquisite, and we left the place feeling satiated, tired, and slightly tomado (a little drunk). The next day we rented bikes and headed down the coast to a point called Punta Uva (Grape Point) which was about 1/3 of the way between Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo. The beach there was fantastic, and we maybe shared it with some twenty other people. It was a really shallow area, in a well-protected bay that meant that the wave action was non-existent. It was like a big bath tub...warm water and all. We enjoyed some 4 or 5 hours there, and hit a cute lunch place right there at which Amy became introduced to good Costa Rican food: patacones. Patacones are plantains that have been mashed into a disc and then fried. Pretty yummy!! Later after cleaning up, we headed into town and had yet another fantastic meal...it was a gastronomical delight ;-)

Wednesday dawned and it was time to head back to San Jose. The ride was pretty unremarkable, and it seemed as if Amy actually dozed off for a minute of two. We got back early, and then had the delight of being asked over to Don Juan Luis and Dona Sandra’s house for a visit. We toasted Sandra and her daughter Sandrita for their birthday (the first time I have ever met a mother daughter with the same birthday, that I know of).

Since then, Amy has been dedicating herself to getting used to the house and its bugs J She says she likes the house thus far, especially the sheer variety of bichos (bugs) that enter the house on a daily basis. This evening we were blessed with our first Pica Caballo, a large spider that is related to a tarantula. Lets just say they are big. We had to shoo it out of the house. The other day we had some sort of tailless whip scorpion…an ugly thing…just chilling in our shower stall. Fun!

So, all is well, and we hope the same is true for all of you. Until the next update of our adventures we’ll leave you.

Saludos y abrazos a todos.

David and Amy