Visit from Linda & Marty, Part I: Esterillos and Ciudad Colon

Marty on the beach in Esterillos

Linda on the beach in Esterillos

Amy, cast and all, on the beach in Esterillos

Amy and David enjoying the ocean at Esterillos

After dinner photo op with Juan Luis and Sandra, our neighbors in San Bosco.

The UPEACE monument for peace

Linda enjoying our yard...you too could enjoy this! Come down for a visit!

Linda, the intrepid birder, on the prowl in San Bosco :-)

Esterillos and around Ciudad Colon

During the first week of November, Amy and I were blessed with a visit from Marty and Linda (David’s parents), who came down to Costa Rica to see the birds… ha ha ha…NO! They repeatedly reassured us that they came to Costa Rica to see us (Amy and David), and that the birds were an extra benefit. While Amy and I do know that they were telling the truth about coming here to see us, at the same time Marty and Linda seemed like kids in a candy store due to the sheer number and variety of new birds for them. So, I think it is fair to say that they came down to see us, but that birds were just another incentive J

Unfortunately, David was not able to take the entire week off for their visit, and at the same time Amy was in her first week of having a cast for her partially torn Achilles tendon. So, this left Marty and Linda having to entertain themselves for the first part of the week. However, we were able to sneak off to Esterillos on the Pacific coast south of Jaco on Sunday. We had rented a car, and it occurred to me on Saturday that we could just go to the beach for a day…hmmm…pretty nice having a car. So, the day after they arrived, we packed everyone into the Toyota rental car and headed off to the beach. Being a prototypical Hoffman, I decided that it would be much more interesting to head to the Pacific via a lesser-traveled back route via Puriscal. Actually, the road was in pretty good condition, and even though it took longer, I think it was worth it since there was no traffic and the views were just incredible (including several new bird species for everyone). Perhaps the most exciting and nerve wracking part was having to cross a “Puente hamaca” (suspension bridge) that literally moved as we crossed it. The missing boards and general bad state of the bridge reminded us all that indeed we are in a developing country. The beach at Esterillos was pretty nice, and pretty empty. We enjoyed several hours of just relaxing, but the swimming was dangerous due to one of the strongest rip tides any of us had ever felt. After a nice beach side late lunch, we headed home to San Bosco

Over the next several days, we explored the general area of Ciudad Colon, San Bosco, and UPAZ with mom and dad. Marty and Linda got to meet several of our neighbors out on their walks around, and apparently did pretty good with their Spanish since all of our neighbors still talk about them being here, and are wondering when they’ll be coming back. David, Marty, and Linda managed to get themselves up one morning to do a birding adventure on the UPAZ campus. It was quite a successful venture, we saw a lot of cool birds including Oropendulas, Trogon, and a Fiery-billed Aracari (a small toucan, a.k.a. a toucanette). We spent some quality time with our neighbors Sandra and Juan Luis and their kids, enjoying one dessert with them at our place and a full meal at theirs. Amy and I got to play translator for the night, which was a challenge, but fun. Finally, we enjoyed a delicious meal, the best food we’ve had in Costa Rica, at a place called Essencia right outside of town (and at the same hotel I stayed at for my first week in country).

In the next posting, I’ll describe what we did with the rest of our week, a tour to Monteverde!

Saludos y Abrazos,
David (and Amy of course).