costa rica 2007 - santa elena / monteverde

day 5 - tamarindo to monteverde / santa elena, the monteverde / santa elena part of the day

the grayline bus picked us up at our hotel. the first bit of the drive was fine. it was pretty flat and the rest stop was nice enough. we switched buses for the last leg of the trip and turns out it was only the two of us and the two girls i had met on the beach two days previously on this bus. odd how these things work out.

what we hadn't considered was that this last 39 km was all in the mountains. mountains make for a very long trip. you have to go up and you have to go down. and back and forth and back and forth. those 39 km took us almost 4 hours. we saw an amazing sunset but we were cold and tired and jolted and we didn't know ahead of time how long the trip was so we weren't exactly prepared for the 5 hours it took. (we will now know to inquire about the length of a trip before heading out.)

we arrived in santa elena and were dropped off at our hotel, hotel don taco (apparently some mob reference that j knows that i don't) and turns out the two girls were staying there too. it was raining - the first time we'd seen rain since arriving - and it was cold. it's all relative because 20 C felt cold. but it was damp and not at all like the tropical paradise we'd left.



santa elena and monteverde are basically the same place, but different mountains. we stayed in santa elena but did things in both places since they were so close.


day 6

we woke up early and found ourselves a shuttle to the santa elena reserve from downtown. the drive was pretty twisty and bumpy. the whole area has purposefully left its roads unpaved to deter tourists. it was only about a 20 minute drive but there was a super annoying american who would not shut up. this guy's wife was "sick" and staying at the hotel where they were staying. i think she was taking a breather from her annoying husband. we got to the park and ran off so we could get away from this guy. he was THAT annoying.

the santa elena reserve is a cloud forest and was very cool and damp and sounded like a million faucets were dripping. it was very peaceful and quiet. (apparently, the monteverde cloud forest reserve is the main tourist attraction in the area and is crowded and busy and loud and good luck seeing any wildlife, so we chose to skip that one.)



we didn't see much wildlife but we had a good two hour hike and avoided our american friend. we caught a shuttle back into town where we had lunch and decided to go to the butterfly farm.

there are tons of butterflies in costa rica and the butterfly farm had lots of insects that j was able to hold (i didn't but i'm not regretting this at all). he got to hold a tarantula and adult and baby cockroaches and a whip-tailed scorpion.





the babies were on the under side of his hand.



if you have questions about how any of these creatures felt to hold, you will have to ask j next time you see him. the guided butterfly garden then took us through 4 enclosures that represented the 4 major habitats in the country. it was really neat.



on our way back to town we stopped at the monteverde serpentario. we saw lots of snakes but my favourite was the turtle cage:



we took it easy the rest of the day and even tried to do laundry in the sink. too bad santa elena was so damp our clothes hardly dried. but really, we wore the same thing every day because we didn't have a whole lot of warm clothing to choose from.

day 7

today is the day for hanging bridges and canopy zip lines! we were up early to catch the shuttle up the mountain. the hanging bridge tour was first. our guide was great and we were able to see lots of wildlife.



and at one point we got to climb up the middle of a fig tree.



then it was down the mountain a bit to the zip line place. we had to wait for a bit, but then got all geared up and were zipping in the canopy after a quick safety lesson.



we were with some very nice people thankfully because at one point i was so scared. there's a tarzan swing and apparently this scared the crap out of me and i was shaking really badly. you had to climb up a bunch of stairs to a platform with a gate. they hook you onto this super long rope and then shove you off the platform (i say shove, but the guides were all very nice and very good at putting people at ease). i almost turned back and went down the steps but i went and i screamed the whole time. there were probably 15 zip lines, the last one we had to go together and it lasted a couple of minutes. it was incredible.

we spent the rest of the day talking about how much fun the zip line tour was and thinking about where to go next.

day 8

we decided to visit the frog pond. our guide was very knowledgable and funny. he was able to point out all sorts of frogs that i'm sure we wouldn't have been able to find without him. we saw some big ones, some poisonous ones and some very bright ones (tricked you! poisonous ones and almost always bright.. to advertise their posion).



we booked our transportation to our next destination, la fortuna, at the hotel and then headed out for our night hike. this was one of the creepier things we did because we got to see tarantulas in the wild.



we also learned about banana plants (did you know they are a hybrid and were developed to fruit only once and then die? shoots come off the plant and that becomes a new plant. there are no seeds and no fertilization) and birds that sleep in the banana bunches and saw a sloth!

after the night hike, we stopped at the frog pond again. our tickets were good to another visit and they recommend coming back at night when the frogs are active. it was a game trying to spot the frogs without a guide. we did well.

day 9 - monteverde / santa elena to la fortuna, the santa elena part of the day

we learned from our trip from tamarindo to santa elena that it's nice to get to the new place when it's light out. it's less disorienting that way. so we hopped on a shuttle after scarfing down our continental breakfast and finding out that the hotel didn't take credit cards. we were down to less than $20 cash and unable to get money out of the bank machines. let's just say we were both a little worried about our cash situation, j more than me. i knew we'd figure it out somehow. "hi, mom and dad, please send money."


next post: la fortuna

neglectful

i don't like not posting. and believe me, i would like to be posting more often. but these costa rica posts are hanging over my head. i feel bad that i've only done two so far and i feel bad posting about my regular day-to-day stuff when i have so much to say about our trip, but we did so much and saw so much that it's overwhelming. one of these days, i'm going to sit down and do it, but until then....

while i'm here i can tell you about me. i've been working with my brother to put together a surprise party for my dad tomorrow afternoon. today is my dad's last day of work. he doesn't officially retire until may sometime but he has enough leave pilled up that he can stop going into work today. so we're having a party! i'm really excited because i know he'll be happy and we'll have fun.

i've been trying to come up with a design for a golf shirt to give my dad. i came across some sayings online, but retirement sayings are apparently few and far between and corny as hell. plus it's a golf shirt so i've come up with more of a logo type thing. i wanted something like those no smoking signs with the cigarette in the circle with a line through it. but the circle was really limiting so i decided instead to spell "work" and cross it out.

then i went back and forth on whether to use capital letters or small letters (oh the choices!) and decided i would try different fonts at work in both capital and small letters, print it off and check them out. i felt kind of obsessed or just plain crazy but came up with a design i'm happy with. but the whole thing gave me inspiration for my picture of the day:

absolute madness

my baseball team is hosting yet another fundraiser at absolute comedy. this time it's wednesday, april 4th. it's only $5. it's always a fun time and will be a great way to kick off the easter long weekend. any takers?

we had our last volleyball game last night. our last because we lost. we placed 2nd in the league and had to play the 8th place team. something happened and we just never pulled it together despite never losing to that team in the regular season.

so now i'm down from three teams to one. tuesday nights until june i'm still playing hockey. this gives me plenty of time to start running. i told myself i was going to run a half-marathon this may so i have to get to it! that's not a lot of time to get my body into the shape it needs to be in to run more than twice as far as i've ever run before. j says he'll train with me. that i'll make him run slower. at least i can be of service.

facebook face time

i finally gave in and signed up for facebook friday night. holy people i haven't seen in years! how many of you are there? tons. the answer is tons.

quick update: friday night we went to the live lounge to watch permanent daylight in live 88.5's big money shot. they were good but unfortunately didn't advance past round one. there was some interesting music that night. i can't forget the country-ish band with the emo bassist and all the screaming. it was not my kind of music.

saturday was the glorious glorious sleep in. sweet sweet sleep. it had been too long. we did a lot of running around on saturday and bought things for the house like blinds and a central vac. do you know how excited i am for central vac? we have a vacuum cleaner but it's so heavy and clunky. i've only used it once because i dread using it. but central vac is my friend. it is partially installed.

saturday night we went to matt and julie's place for games night. no st. patty's day nothing for me. not my thing anymore. but games night was fun. we played my game, the big hit, cranium pop 5. it's always good for laughs.

i slept in again today and spent a lot of my day in front of the computer. facebook - blarg! i did organize the "office / craft room" though and spent time with my cats and j's parents. it was a nice day and a nice weekend.

say what?

i need some ideas for a saying. my dad is retiring next friday and i want to make him a teeshirt with a saying on it.

the internet hasn't been helpful at all and the best i could find was "i'm retired not expired" and "i'm retired, ask someone else".

does anyone have anything good? i'll take all the suggestions i can get!

new dryer hook up

when we moved we got all new appliances (j: the ones we have now work fine. k: let's get new ones! - we got new ones) but we haven't been able to use our dryer. not until today that is. it's natural gas and so needs a contractor guy to be hooked up. let me tell you how NICE it is to have a dryer. we don't HAVE to hang our clothes to dry. we can do a load and then do another. right away! wow, the things you miss when they're gone. you really start to appreciate a little warm air and a little tumble tumble. tumble away, my little dryer, tumble away!

ooh, new dryer. j is the first one to use it:



and this is us being excited about our new dryer, except j wasn't playing nice and was trying to look disgusted. i snapped the picture before he got his disgusted look finalized and this is the result:



did you honestly think i was mature? how wrong you were. now he's playing:



the post from monteverde / santa elena is coming soon, i promise! we did so much there so writing it is a little overwhelming.

strange things

usually i'm super hungry. all day. i get to work and starve all the way to lunch. monday, i was remarkably not hungry. it was weird. i felt weird about not being hungry. it was kinda nice to not be thinking about my stomach all day.

it lasted one day. just monday. i'm back to normal but i can't help but wonder what it was about monday that made me not hungry.

and then there's the temperature. all last week, i was boiling. and it was cold out, but i was hot. i wore sandals and a teeshirt at work all week. normally i wear at least two layers and am still cold. well that was last week. i'm back to freezing at work. i'm currently sitting with layers and layers on and am still cold. i even have my winter coat over my legs.

the only conclusion i can draw is that i'm weird. conclusion enough for you?

where did the weekend go?

the weekend is gone and i'm back at work and i'm tired! i was thinking of staying home today just so i could sleep more. but then i remembered the pile of work i still have to do and got out of bed. like i've said before, two weeks is a long time for work to pile up.

i ended up going to the woman's show sunday morning instead of saturday morning. my mom came and picked me up so j could have the car (he installed the oxygen sensor or something). she also paid for my ticket and a donation so i could get a magazine. the show was huge, much bigger than the two wedding shows jessp and i went to in january, and there was tons and tons of food. apparently women are interested in food. i was surprised though by how many of the vendors were female. on one hand, female consumers can relate to female vendors, but on the other hand, female consumers flirt with male vendors. i would assume that make vendors at such a show would do well. i'm guessing that at the man's show coming up (i kid you not) a lot of the vendors will be scantilly-clad females. anyone want to go check it out and report back?

we also spent a good chunk of the weekend doing house-y stuff.

here is a picture of the elusive light fixture from two posts ago:



we bought a garbage can for the downstairs bathroom (powder room) that we can finally use now that we have frosted film on the window:



and we went to ikea and bought a poang chair for the living room, which we rearranged:



we helped clean out our old place so renovations can start and came home with all the stuff we left behind including my two bamboo plants. rolo approves:



and finally, we took the computer desk and computer out of the basement in preparation for our new couches and put it upstairs in the "craft" room:



costa rica post soon.

costa rica 2007 - tamarindo

day 2 - san jose to tamarindo, the tamarindo part of the day



i mentioned that we thought we were going to die on the flight from san jose to tamarindo. we were white as ghosts when we landed. but, to our credit, the plane was wee and the wind was brutal and the runway was gravel. we ended up sitting in the "airport" for a couple of minutes, letting the nausea pass. i put the word 'airport' in quotation marks because it was small and more of a roof with three walls.



we got a cab to take us to villa macondo, a mid-range hotel recommended in the lonely planet guide. we got the last $35/night room, the old manager's room that was off to the side but had a fan and aircon and a fridge.



right away we went down to the ocean, which was about a hundred meters from our hotel. j was scouting out the size of the waves, i was scouting out all the shells and rocks. the beach was beautiful - white/grey sand, clean, clear water.



after a nap, we decided to ask the hotel about surfing. turns out the woman working the hotel is dating pedro, a member of costa rica's national surf team and he does lessons. an hour later, we're in the ocean each with our own surf board and pedro yelling at us when to stand up. j was up and away his first time and i was up my third or fourth time. it was scary and hard on the body but incredible all at the same time. at first the salt water burned my eyes and nose and tasted awful (i did a lot of falling) but i got used to it and was able to surf. a bunch of locals on the beach were watching us and clapped and whistled every time i caught a wave.

we were in the water for about 2 hours and completely exhausted by the end of it. it was an incredible experience and left us both on an adrenaline high for hours. while we were surfing though, there was the most incredible sunset i've ever seen. of course the camera was not with us (pedro's mom was taking care of it - i kid you not) but we managed to get this shot when we were done:



tamarindo is known for its sunsets. apparently, the sharks come out about the time the sun goes down. pedro called it "animal planet" time. and we were in the water!

after all of our excitement, we showered, had dinner and went to bed early.


day 3

our first actual day of vacation and sleep in... until 9:30. at least we were rested. we compared bruises - i had tons and j had none - and ate zucaritas before heading out to the main street.

my knees:



i also had bruises on both hips and my ribs from throwing myself on the board.

zucaritas:



j was so happy with surfing that we decided to rent him a board for two hours. he surfed while i tanned on the beach. he had a great time surfing.



but i didn't have a good time on the beach. it was really windy and sand was blowing from my right. sand was everywhere. it really wasn't pleasant. and then a bunch of ticos were all of a sudden right beside me. i wasn't feeling all that safe so i went and sat beside a girl i didn't know. turns out she was tanning while her friend was out surfing. the two hour board rental seemed to last forever, but j finally came in. he was super happy. i was super happy to be off the beach and get showered. we had sand everywhere. for days.

we went out for dinner and tried to get sunset pictures, but the sunset was not half as stunning as the night before.




day 4

just as we lucked into a sweet surf instructor, we lucked in on our next adventure. we were looking to snorkel. we walked along the main street in town and checked out a bunch of places. we found one we liked and would fit with our schedule so we booked it. the shuttle picked us up and took us to the beach, just down from pedro's. turns out it was us and another couple on a 66' catamaran with 4 crew members.



we set sail and cruised along using the wind (they usually have to use the diesel engines but it was windy enough to use the sails). it was choppy but not so much that we were sick. after about an hour, one of the crew came and told us that we wouldn't be able to snorkel because it was too rough. we were disappointed but okay with it because we're on vacation and we're going with the flow. we asked if we could go to a little beach somewhere. because there were only 4 of us it was totally fine and they found us a beautiful little beach.



this beach happened to be sheltered enough that they decided snorkeling would be possible. so we put on the masks and jumped in the rhib and went in the water. i was NOT okay with snorkeling at first. i maybe haven't mentioned this before, but i am not fine with lake water or being in the ocean. i surprised myself the day before by being able to surf. but snorkeling proved much harder for me. when i was finally able to breathe and be under water, i was still a little panicky. i held j's arm really tight and we went along. our guide, a guy from belgium who went to costa rica and never left, took us along and showed us things. it was probably about 15 feet deep with lots of fish. we saw the cloud of sand from a stingray darting away. we saw a trigger fish that our guide pulled out from between two rocks. we saw tons of fish.

we got to shore on the little beach and i was happy to be on dry land. we walked along the beach, totally deserted, and looked at all the crabbies. when we got back to our guide, he pointed out some turtle tracks and the mounds where the eggs were. we didn't get to see turtles (turtle season closed the friday before we arrived) but this was good enough for us. we swam back out and got picked up by the rhib and made it back to the boat. waiting for us was a pile of food. we ate and drank tons and settled in for the trip back.

we sat right out front of the boat.



and got to see the sunset over the pacific ocean. it was beautiful.





we booked our bus ride to monteverde / santa elena through the hotel, set to leave the next afternoon.


day 5 - tamarindo to monteverde / santa elena, the tamarindo part of the day

we had to pack everything and check out. the hotel was super nice and let us keep our packs behind the front desk and let us use the pool. we did for a while, but we had one last thing we wanted to do in tamarindo: an estuary tour. so we walked all the way down the beach and found a boat guy to take us on the tour. as our luck would have it (our luck could have simply been our lack of planning, but it was working for us) it was just the two of us with two guides. the estuary was near the end of the beach and led away from the ocean. we were hoping to see monkeys.

we saw a cayman, lots of birds and crabbies, and some sleepy monkeys.









the tour lasted about two hours and by the end of it we could spot birds much better than when we started. we walked back along the beach and went back to our hotel to wait for the bus.

we really enjoyed tamarindo. we found the climate pleasant except the really strong wind and therefore blowing sand everywhere. the people were nice and we had no problems doing everything we wanted to do. we never felt threatened or scared. it's a really beautiful place and we would definitely go back again. and next time, we would try more of the costa rican food (we were a little scared of everything and ate mostly subway, pizza and zucaritas).

next post: monteverde / santa elena

permanent daylight rocks

the show last night was a good one. the live lounge was not a bad little place but it was little. we didn't stay for the other two bands and i feel kinda bad about that but it was a weeknight and we were tired. i was tired despite my huge nap. thanks s&l for coming. it was really nice to see you and tell you all about our trip (= bore you to death).

permanent daylight made the first round of live 88.5's big money shot and are playing next friday night at the live lounge again. they're a good band and could use your support so if you have $5 and no plans for next friday night, come out with us.

tomorrow afternoon i'm going to the women's show with my mom. i've never been before and i'm not quite sure why my mom wants to go. could be that she's a woman or that she's in the tradeshow business. anyone want to come?

i got tagged to organize the next hockey night for work. i helped organize and paid for the last (and first) one but wasn't able to play. this one i'm making the date work for me so i'm sure to make it out. gotta reap the fruits of my labour, or something like that.

and on a completely different note, the light fixture we bought for the dining room came in and we picked it up and j installed it earlier this week. it wasn't an easy install and took him a long time but it looks good and will look even better when we have a third light bulb and a dining room table.



and that's all i got.

(trip update: i am working on the tamarindo post and will have it up sometime this weekend or early next week. sorry for the delay.)

no computer for me

you'll have to wait another day (or two) for the next installment of costa rica 2007. i'm sorry, but also relieved that i can post a regular post in the meantime.

so far, the first week back at work has been okay. i've been doing a lot of talking and a lot of working. a lot more talking than usual though. it's funny, some people have all sorts of questions about the trip and then some people didn't even realize i was gone. i obviously don't talk to those people enough!

it's been tiring though and strange to sit in one place for hours at a time. i've been busy. i played volleyball monday night (without a jersey - thanks, k2!), hockey tuesday night, went for coffee last night and am seeing a band play tonight. i'm looking forward to sleeping in. i'm always looking forward to sleeping in.

last night j went to the gym and i went for coffee with tania. i never go for coffee and i'm not used to smelling like coffee so it was a little out of my element. but we went out for pho afterwards and i managed to drag j to walmart so we could pick out some white towels (housewarming gift from GM&GP). they will be washed and then i will have pictures.

speaking of pictures, i've finally uploaded all the costa rica pictures and am slowly getting descriptions writen. i've already received a lot of comments, mostly from people in my groups (i'm part of two project365 groups and these people, seeing as how they post a picture at least every day, are very active and comment lots. i love it) and it's so nice.

this morning i have training and then this afternoon i'll have to workaworka because i'm still catching up. if you're coming out to the live lounge tonight, the show starts at 8pm not 9pm like i told you. 8pm!!

costa rica 2007 - san jose

day one: ottawa to san jose

day one was our travel day. we slept in (for a friday) and ran around getting everything ready. as far as i can remember, this involved most, if not all, of our packing. we were excited and buzzing around. such a great feeling. we called a cab and were off to the airport.

airports were exciting when i was younger, but now they're just airports.



to pass the time, we took pictures of ourselves and our passports and boarding passes.





our plane was late leaving but we finally got on and got settled and were off.



we stopped in atlanta and made it through customs and security no problem. we exchanged some of the american dollars we had purchased the night before into colones, the currency of costa rica. we got about 130 000 colones according to my notes, but i might be missing a zero. 500 colones is about one us dollar. we had lots of us dollars.

so other than having both our flights being late, the actual trip to costa rica wasn't bad. even the fact that someone, and i won't name names here, but i can tell you that it wasn't me, didn't put deoderant on before we left and was super smelly didn't bother us.

anyways, we arrived in costa rica about an hour later than scheduled.



we cleared customs and security again, grabbed our packs, and made our way out of the airport to the feeding frenzy. two flights from the us landed about the same time and apparently everybody and his dog owns a taxi and was outside the airport mauling all the tourists. thankfully we had (j actually) arranged a shuttle to our hostel and were all set.

the shuttle was an oversized minivan, as most of the buses were, and we were crammed in with a bunch of germans. the drive to the hostel took a while. we were trying desperately not to look at the cars our driver was whizzing by while talking on his cell phone. it wouldn't have surprised me if he had his eyes closed as well his driving was so crazy. welcome to san jose!

you notice right away that the cars are different and there are palm trees everywhere. but also, all the businesses we passed in downtown san jose were all boarded up and had bars over every window. we thought we were in a run down part of town but later found out that every place locks up like that at night.

we made it to our hostel alive and checked in. we got a private room but the bathrooms and showers were shared and down the hall or upstairs.

the costa rica backpackers hostel was recommended by the lonely planet but we would not recommend it. it was dingy with paper-thin walls and the bathrooms were gross. we didn't stay long enough to try the pool or the kitchen/restaurant area, but we weren't all that enthralled by san jose in general and spent the rest of our waking hours trying to figure out where to go the next day. j spent a lot of our sleeping time listening to the germans talk excitedly about.. well, he isn't sure about what.



the place did have free internet though so hat's off to you, costa rica backpackers.



day two: san jose to tamarindo, the san jose portion of the day

we woke up super early, packed up all of our stuff, and got a taxi to the airport. not the international airport we flew into on day one, but another, smaller airport that deals with domestic flights. let me not forget to point out that on the crazy drive to the airport we saw a guy pooping on the side of the road. you read about these things but you never expect to see it or that it really happens for that matter. i can assure you that it does happen and that you only must go to san jose and you too will see a man pooping on the road.

we had to wait around the airport for a while to talk to the guy about getting a flight to tamarindo but after some sandwiches (we were scared to try anything that didn't look like north american food) and water, we bought two tickets, got our packs weighed and checked, and sat around waiting for our flight to leave.

the airport was a tiny little thing, but it had four walls and a roof. the bathrooms were actually pretty nice.

so we're excited because we're in costa rica and will soon be saying good bye to san jose and then we see our plane:



it seats 17, 19 with the pilot and co pilot. it was a tiny plane. i think there were 6 of us on it.



we had a good laugh about the gas truck that service the nature air planes. check out the name on the truck:



the take off was fine and the views were neat.



but we were a little scared and maybe vomity. j didn't think we were going to make it and was doing that cold-sweat-about-to-vomit thing. i was just a little nauseous and thought the book in my lap was levitating with all the up and down we were doing.

and that concludes our first stay in san jose. if we go back to costa rica again, we will be flying in and out of liberia to avoid san jose altogether. like the guide book says, it's a necessary evil.

next post: tamarindo.

i've got it! costa rica 2007

i've thought long and hard about my too-much-information situation and have decided on a plan: i am going to write about every city we visited in its own post. we visited 7 cities so that will be 7 posts instead of 15 (one for each day of our trip).

now you have these posts to look forward to:

- san josé
- tamarindo
- monteverde / santa elena
- la fortuna / arenal
- manuel antonio
- jaco (ha-ko)
- san josé again

and i know i've already posted about some of the things we did so i will try not to repeat myself too much, but no promises.

let me welcome you to costa rica 2007.



there are lots of websites that have maps of the country but i haven't found one i really like, though world atlas has some that are better than most. costa rica maps is a good website for maps of some of the cities we went, but we found these maps to be very confusing. colourful but confusing. true to form, check out lonely planet and click on view map for the map that was in the book. it's nice to have a travel guide that actually got used and looks it.

tonight: san josé, the first time round.

home on the range, where the buffalo roam

well, we're home. and i've been ignoring my blog. i'm afraid of starting because i don't know where to start. so i'm going to avoid getting into details of the trip until i figure out how to tackle it. two weeks is a long time.

i will tell you that from la fortuna we went down the coast to manuel antonio and then up a bit to jaco (pronounced ha-ko) and finally back to san jose and then home again. home on the range you see. because we live on a range. which i'm guessing is a farm, or a lot of land at any rate. we don't live on any kind of range. we live on an over-sized postage stamp of land. in suburbia. not so range-y at all.

can you tell that being back at work after having two weeks off is completely frying my brain? i've become stupid. but it's nice to be back. back home, not back at work. work is the exact same, it chugged along while we were gone and basically piled itself up on my desk and on my chair and on my floor, anxiously awaiting my return. you know it's bad when your boss is so happy to see you, not because she missed you but because now she doesn't have to deal with your clients. ug.

but i'm being optimistic because apparently it's optimism month (the radio might be making this up though) and generally i'm an optimistic person. i truly believe i will dig myself out of this two-week big hole. eventually.

so, while avoiding actual work (and hence adding to the pile/hole) i will award you all with some things i noticed while traveling. in no particular order:

- j and i are NOT budget travelers. we don't mind paying $10-15 more a night for a room that does not require the lights to be left on while sleeping.

- home is where the... j&k are together. we were wondering how we were so totally fine with traveling and being away from home for so long, but really, it was because we were both there together and we knew the cats we fine. paying someone professional to look after your (high-maintenance) cats is worth the money.

- canadians (and north amaericans in general) have a lot of stuff and put so much worth in material things. our little house is huge when compared to the concrete cubes that whole costa rican families live in.

- cold showers are fine when it's bloody hot out. when it's not, like in canada, cold showers are not fine. bring on the heat!

- i really am allergic to fabric softener. thankfully the rash is not red, but skin-coloured.

- canadians really do like to talk about the weather. americans really are, for the most part, loud, obnoxious jerks, even when they think they aren't.

- i have two language capacities: english and "not-english". when flustered by spanish-speaking people, french pours out of my mouth. i do not have a great natural ability for learning languages. no hablo espanol. pointing and french will help you get by in spanish-speaking countries.

there you have it. my thoughts. soon i will figure out how to deal with recounting the past two weeks of my life. and maybe get some pictures up.

finally, some time

in monteverde, our internet time was by the minute, though we had 30 minute vouchers every day we were there. still, not a lot of time to email the family and blog. today, we have free reign on the computers at the hotel.. for now at least.

so right now we´re in la fortuna, which is the city right by the arenal volcano. we arrived yesterday morning after a van-boat-van trip from monteverde. the roads in monteverde aren´t paved and are essentially huge rocks and gravel so the first leg of the trip was bumpy and jolty and no fun because i had one of the fold-down seats in the van. there was a really nice guy from calgary so we were able to talk about the weather - typical, i know. he has been here before and was able to recommend our next stop. more on that soon.

on the first leg of the van-boat-van trip still, there were two girls of the bigger tour group that we were travelling with randomly at the side of the road. so we stopped and apparently had to climb through barb wire fence and then hike through a farmer´s field to get to the boat. this was a little sketchy and we were waiting for the farmer to start picking us off sniper-style. that didn´t happen, obviously. we get to the boat without incident and get on. it was a quick (45 minutes) trip across part of lake arenal and then onto a big big van.

thankfully, the roads are paved in this part of the country. the ride was so smooth! i got a crappy seat again on the bus but the ride wasn´t long. our hotel is the nicest we stayed in this whole trip. i was able to have a hot shower and shave my legs. it was getting a little ridiculous! possibly that´s too much information. moving on.

la fortuna is much hotter and dryer than monteverde so i´m working on my tan. our hotelroom has a perfect view of the arenal volcano (not the active side though. it has 4 craters, but only one is active) and the hotel has a pool. we´ve been up to the lookout point of the volcano twice now and have some really amazing long-exposure pictures (i sound like i know what i´m talking about but really it was j doing all the camera work. he´s calling himself a volcano papparazzi now!)

we met a really nice couple from new york and will hopefully exchange volcano pictures once we´re back home and can upload the pictures.

earlier today we rented a scooter. talk about a weird feeling! i felt enormous compared to this little tiny motorized vehicle, but teeny tiny compared to all the huge four-wheel drive suvs and trucks on the roads. we zoomed up to the catarata park and hiked down into a canyon and spent some time at the base of the catarata waterfall. (oops, catarata actually means waterfall. still with me? good.) the water was super cold but j went in the pool right near the base of the waterfall. i got some crazy pictures of that. (mmm, pictures. soon, my pretties, soon!)

la fortuna is a must-see for anyone who is in costa rica. tomorrow afternoon we leave for the manuel antonio national park. (as i type this there is a lizard making its way down the wall of the reception area of the hotel. on the inside!) anyways, this national park is south of here on the west coast. we´ve heard only good things about it and are really glad we ran into all the people who recommended it.

that´s about it for now. today is day 10 of 15 so we´re gearing up for our last leg of the trip. we´re looking forward to being back home, but aren´t finding being away as hard as we thought it would be. i can say that now that i´ve had 4 hot showers. four! in the day and a half we´ve been in la fortuna! weeeee!

still in santa elena

went on a canopy tour which included a hanging bridge tour and a zipline tour. the zipline tour was so cool. i was so scared at one point that my whole body was shaking and i´m not kidding!

we are planning on heading out tomorrow morning to go visit lake arenal. hopefully j will be able to windsurf there.

more later, as usual.

santa elena

we spent our first full day in santa elena and visited the santa elena cloud forest reserve this morning. it was a very wet and drippy rain forest (though i assume all rain forests are kinda wet and drippy). we were looking for sloths and monkeys but saw neither. though our crazy bus driver somehow spotted a sloth way up in a tree on our drive back into town. all we could see was the sloth´s fur blowing in the wind.

we also went to a butterfly farm and j got to hold some pretty gross things (tarantulas, scorpions, cockroaches). we saw some really pretty butterflies and some really annoying tourists. we also stopped by the serpentarium and saw lots of snakes, turtles and other reptiles.

we´re staying here tonight and again tomorrow night and then we´ll see what´s going on. we´re hoping to head north to la fortuna and arenal for some windsurfing and volcano action.

gotta run!

tamarindo to monteverde

j and i took a crazy bus ride to monteverde this afternoon. the last 38 km of the bus ride took 3.5 hours. they were crazy rough roads through mountains and we both were feeling a little shaken.

we went from dry and windy and hot to wet, rainy and cold-ish (20C). we just stuffed our faces with food and will be heading off into the cloud forest tomorrow. we´re looking to spend a few days here.

this morning we went on a tour of the estuary and saw a cayman (little crocodile guy), tons of birds and bright crabbies, and sleeping monkeys. it was neat but the crabbies kinda gave me the creeps.

now we´re here and there are more bugs than in guanacaste, but it´s okay. i have big bad j to protect me!

still in Tamarindo

just a quick post to let you know that we are officially snorklers now! we had an amazing time on a 66' catamaran snorkling tour. it was great.

tomorrow afternoon we're off to monteverde. no idea where we're staying yet but we'll figure it out.

San Jose to Tamarindo

san jose, turns out, is not the place we wanted to be. it is a very big and unfriendly city that we didn't feel safe in. so we had to figure out where to go and do it quick.
so we figured out that we wanted to go to a coast. turns out that the flights to tortugero were sold out so we headed west and hit up tamarindo. it couldn't have come fast enough as we saw a man pooping on the side of the road on our way to the airport! gross!

the flight to tamarindo was not long but was hard on the stomachs and j almost almost threw up. we both were ghostly white when we got off the plane, but it was nice and tropical and humid and we were finally happy.

we found a little mid-range hotel to stay at and have been to the beach yesterday and today and even went surfing! i am so proud of myself and j was doing so well, even able to cut one way.. still working on cutting back though. i was too sore to try it again, but i'm hoping to go out sometime while we're here.

so the plan for now is to stay in tamarindo another night or two and then make our way east, though not by airplane. we're thinking of stopping in canas to see some volcanoes and then onto monteverde and santa elena. but it's all very by-the-seat-of-our-shorts-cause-we're-not-wearing-pants. you know.

and there you have it. unfortunately no pictures. we might cave and stay somewhere super nice one of these nights that has free internet but until then the pictures have to stay on the cameras.

hope you're all happy in canada!

we made it!

we made it all the way to costa rica in one piece! we were delayed at the ottawa airport and the atlanta airport, but we're here, and we gained an hour - costa rica is just over the time zone line thingy. it's all very technical.

we're exhasuted and need to figure out what we're doing tomorrow.

crappy crappy firewalls

you know when you post something and you lose your post? normally something happens with blogger. this morning, it was the firewalls at work all of a sudden wouldn't allow any website to be open. anything. we use the internet to view work files and even those weren't allowed. frustrating.

so i'm posting this again, or i'm trying to remember what i wrote and tell you all the same things. we'll see how it goes.

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all yesterday i thought it was thursday. today is thursday and so yesterday was only wednesday. this week has been painfully slow but it's not because i'm so anxiously waiting to leave for the trip. it's because i'm tired. i've had sports every night this week so far and so much to do at work that the days are going by so slowly. being awake when you're this tired is painful.

but that doesn't stop me. besides, i get to sleep in tomorrow, if i'm not too excited to sleep. last night i played with my good hockey team. we were playing another local team that apparently has some of the girls i grew up playing with so that was fun. we won something like 6 or 7 - 0 and i scored the first goal (= the game-winning goal) and am pretty pleased with myself.

the weather made driving torturous. our new neighbourhood is far from everywhere when you drive between 20 and 40 km/h. but i made it to the game and home again without incident.

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trip info

we're leaving tomorrow afternoon for san jose, costa rica. we'll be coming back friday, march 2 and have nothing booked for those two weeks yet. we have a vague idea of the places we want to visit so we'll put something together soon.

we will be communicating with family mostly by email but you can look for updates here too. we're hoping to take lots of pictures but aren't sure whether we'll be able to get them off the cameras and onto flickr while we're down there. we will try.

under pressure

maybe this is typical... i wouldn't know - i'm not a seasoned traveller. i'm feeling the pressure of the upcoming trip. the pressure to get everything done before we leave. but i'm also feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done. i think a lot of these feelings stem from the fact that we just moved, i have to keep reminding myself of this, and the house and my life are in disarray. and then to just pick up and leave for two weeks seems somehow irresponsible.

but it's only me. i get to come home to the mess i've made. well, me and j. i think he handles it better than i do though.

so i finally logged into expedia.ca where we booked our tickets and took a minute to look at our itinerary and wrap my head around what we're doing. i think i know everything i have to do before we leave with regards to tickets and itineraries and flights and so on. i wrote it all down. now i'm going to take a look at what we can and can't bring on the plane. you know they have all sorts of crazy restrictions, or at least they did following 9/11.

it's a weird thought that in three weeks i'll be able to call myself a "traveller". i could say it now but i would be flat-out lying. but i really think this trip is out or the ordinary for me and j. we're stretching ourselves and that makes me very excited. anybody can go down south and lie on a beach at a resort for a week. who can tell me they've put everything they'll need on their backs and taken off to a foreign, non-english-speaking country for two weeks with nothing set in stone? three weeks from now my answer will be "me".

the way to my guy's heart: technology

i went shopping today all by myself because, well, i don't like shopping for clothes with other people. i have this thing about making people wait for me, even if it's j, i still can't do it. at least not well.

so when j said i could take the car and go shopping alone i ran out of the house. i bought my first pair of sunglasses (i've been wearing a hand-me-down pair of j's) and some new jeans as well as a bunch of house stuff.

when i got home i immediately put on my new jeans, obviously, and then i brought down the things i bought one by one and put them on the desk where j was playing computer games. i waited over an hour and then finally gave him this:



and here he is opening his nintendo ds:



doesn't he look happy? food is NOT the way to this guy's heart, technology is.

realization hits me upside the head

i realized something last night. more like i finally worked out in my head what i had known for a long time. something about myself. here it is: i am a generalist.

i was driving home from hockey. it was a game with my city team and i played every position (except goalie). they have me playing wing generally, which is fine since i joined the team more than half-way through the season. but last night, i started on wing, played center the second period, wing again in the third, but defence any time we had a penalty (approximately half the game). i guess i'm what is known as a utility player.

and then i realized that this applies not only to hockey but to most aspects of my life. baseball is the same thing - i can play every position. the downfall though of being a generalist is that you're often not too good at any one position. at least in sports. and i say that because i don't think there's anything wrong with being a generalist, in general.

take knitting. there are people who knit up amazing sweaters and shawls and socks and other fancy things that involve more than just knitting and purling (the two basic knitting stitches) and then there's me. i'm quite content to knit a scarf or a blanket (= a very wide scarf) because i enjoy knitting. i enjoy that it's mindless and something i can do while watching tv. my life hasn't included hardly any tv watching lately, and practically no knitting. what i'm trying to say is that i couldn't be bothered to learn the trickier parts of knitting. i'm quite content to plug along in stockinette and crank out the scarves.

and then there's my complete lack of need to argue/discuss/debate. often in the lunchroom at work there will be lively debates about whatever (insert topic here) and i'll sit there, actively listening, but not wanting to share an opinion, if i even have one that is. and then i realized that it's my nature to please people, to not ruffle feathers and just go with the flow. it could have something to do with my complete lack of the ability to voice my opinions eloquently.

but that doesn't mean that i don't have opinions. i do. and i have a strong set of morals and values and a solid understanding of what's important to me. i just follow my rules my way. and as i get older (and possibly more mature) i realize more and more how important it is to be happy and to have people in your life that you actually like and who acutally like you. it's important to be doing the things you want to do. but most importantly, it's important to like yourself and to like yourself you have to know yourself. even a simple realization like the one i made last night helps me to better understand myself and why i do the things i do.

i'm sure there are many more things i have to say on the topic, but i can't think of them now and i really have to get to work. i just wanted it out there: i am a generalist and i'm happy about it!

ps. coke man is too:

nothing

i want to tell you all sorts of stories and make you laugh but i've got nothing. i'm completely worn out from everything that i'm just barely making my way through the work day, only to come home and barely make it through the night, to get up and do it all again. i'm exhausted.

the house is great. it's really nice to have our own place and to come home to it everyday. it will feel even better when everything has been unpacked and we have things like a dryer. the perma-chaos is a little tiring.

work is crazy. i've never been this busy. my fingers are crossed that me being this busy though will look super good and i'll get a promotion. it could happen, you know.

sports are good. i took last week off to pack so when i got to my volleyball game monday night right at 8:30 (game started at 8:30) i was a little flustered and not mentally prepared to play. i did not play well. but then last night at hockey it was a little better. the intramural league is pretty crappy this season so i can use it as a little ego stroking after the beating i took at volleyball.

tonight i have hockey with my city team. last time i played with them i was sicksicksick but did okay, so i'm hoping i do okay this time too. and then the week will be mostly over and i can look forward to sleeping in on saturday.

wait, i already am.

so much to say

i have so much to say, really, too much. so i'll just start. friday night we packed until not-too-late. saturday we woke up early and went and picked up the truck.



we still had lots of packing to do but people started showing up around 9:30. so we packed and packed. it was incredible how many people were helping. we had the truck packed in no time at all.

we convoyed over to the new place. j was in the lead with the truck and i was at the back. this worked out particularly well when the group got split at a set of lights. i just zoomed to the front and led the second half of the pack. perfect.



i managed to hardly lift anything, heavy or light, because i had to direct. honestly, not what i prefer doing but it was the only way. anyways, we got everything in, somewhat organized, ate pizza and enjoyed the new house.

but we still had to get the cats from the old place. after dinner, we went by and grabbed them. they were mucho happy to see us.



we hung out with them while they explored the house for a little bit and then headed out to permanent daylight's cd release party. it was a great show, but man were we ever tired.



and now we've slept in our very own house two nights and are gearing up for the third. we're so happy.

the cats like it too:



and there you have it - the nine-month long new house wait is finally over. we're in and we're happy.

thanks again to these people: jg, ka, ya, tm, dl, lp, sp, ah, sw, jj, jr, mg, jg, and rk. we couldn't have done it without you. well, that's not true. we could have done it but it would have taken us 6 years if we hadn't killed each other or ourselves before then. so thank you for saving us. i hope you liked the pizza.

the BIG move

the big move is happening in less than 12 hours. are we packed? hell no! are we starting to panic? not so much. odd. we're getting there though. honestly.

but i won't be blogging for a bit (watch me get on here tomorrow) but expect pictures and such later on.

woooowooooo!

isn't this a cute picture of j:



i was playing around with the camera and a paper towel roll. i got a good one of rolo eating but it's much darker and only i can tell it's rolo eating.

the house is starting to look more lived in:



and will only get more and more full of (and cluttered with) our stuff. we packed up a bunch of stuff after work yesterday, packed more glass and breakables in the car and headed out. we picked up our new recycling boxes and a new phone after getting free dinner (thanks gm&gp!) and getting j a hair cut. we dropped everything off at home and stopped by m&j's place to pick up some bins.

so my plans to go to bed earlier were dashed by all this running around and the fact that i get hungry at night. so i decided to stay up and watch grey's anatomy and eat toast. grey's anatomy was one of the best episodes yet so i'm really glad i stayed up.

and now we're in the home stretch. we have a lot of packing to do tonight and then a lot of moving to do tomorrow. and sunday we sleep in. i can't wait.

on a break

i'm thinking we'll take a little break from posting pictures. i can't even imagine how long it would take this blog to load with a slow internet connection. i never think about that anymore. though, i just did. i'm a walking contradiction.

i haven't been sleeping enough the past couple of nights. i would like to say that it's because i'm too excited to sleep (like that disneyworld commercial on tv last year) but it's not. i'm just not going to bed early enough. and i really have no excuse. i haven't played sports all week so no games keeping me out late, and consequently up late. just me, sitting around, not going to bed.

and have you noticed how dry it is these days? and i don't think it's only the office environment (complete with recirculated air!) that's dry, i think it's everywhere. i know i've zapped the cats about a kazillion times in the past week. the poor animals must think i'm out to get them.

oh, and speaking of animals, our little sandy has taken to chewing on my toothbrush. like the end i put in my mouth and use to brush my teeth. now that's going to far! i know she likes water, but my toothbrush? really, cat? zap!zap!

okay, in new house news, we brought some more stuff over yesterday and we went around and wrote down everything that needs fixing. we have some water issues, like water-leaking issues, and some cracks here and there but nothing super significant. well, other than the basement windows, but they already know about those.

we got our appliances yesterday so the kitchen is looking more like a kitchen. and the washer and dryer are in the basement, but not hooked up and not on their pedestals. that will be for later. now comes the packing. it finally hit me last night that we're running out of time for packing. this is the kind of pressure i need.

i'll be packing tonight if anyone needs me. zap!

ps. i sent out an email about the big move this saturday. email me if you would like to help but didn't receive my email. or call. you could always call.