travel70

We had a smooth flight and arrived in Miami. I thought I had booked a hotel in South Beach. Turned out to be a nicer hotel on Miami Beach.

Here we are at the airport – executive lounge breakfast.

After a drink at the Tiki bar and an early night we boarded the ship the next day. Two days at sea to enjoy this beautiful ship.

Gary & Rena at the Tiki bar.

Once on board, lunch, a ship tour, unpack & dinner at Jacques ( the French restaurant)

We had a lovely view from our deck.

We took a couple of days trip to San Diego. The drive took us through the mountains and into the hoards of people and cars that populate the area from Los Angles to San Diego.

Leaving Palm Springs area is a drive through a huge wind farm. Wind turbine clusters in a variety of shapes and sizes lined both sides of the road for about 20 miles.   

    
  
In San Diego our first stop was Del Corando Hotel for lunch. A beautiful day to sit outside sipping champagne and enjoying shrimp and scallops.

   
   
 I was last at the Coranado about 45 years ago – the hotel looks the same but the grounds and the area around it has changed and not for the better. Very busy, but still a lovely place to eat and stay. The hotel was built in the late 1800s, was the backdrop for the movie “Some Like it Hot” with Maryln Monroe and is still a popular resort.

Of particular interest is the dragon tree  
   

That night we dined in our hotel room for a different kind of experience.

 
 
The next day we spent at Sea World. It was a great day to be there, small crowds so no lines, clear blue sky and comfortable temperatures.

The first stop was at the touch pools – a fish that will nibble the dead skin off, used in spas and no they wouldn’t let me put my feet in! It tickles.

And horseshoe crabs (it is mating season)

Next came the Dolphins and a dolphin show

Then the Orca whales

Stingrays, turtles, beluga whales, polar bears, penguins, octopi, and other critters.

      
We stayed n Old Town San Diego. There was a historic area and a shopping dining area.  If going to San Diego a nice area to stay in and wander around.     

  
Our last stop in San Diego was Juan Cabrillo park on top a peak overlooking San Diego

On the way up to the peak we passed through a naval base complete with a very extensive cemetery with markers from both world wars and the Korean War. It is still in use today.

  
Tonight the men are the chefs and lasagne is on the menu  
  

My last blog e were on our way to Palm Desert. We have been here for a few days now and enjoying some great times with Ross and Nancie. They have a lovely place in Sun City Palm Desert. Here is the view from the kitchen table as we sit eating breakfast overlooking one of the 2 golf courses in this development.

   
 
Here are some pictures from a walk through the neighbourhood. Except for the golf course there is very little green in the landscaping. Some beautiful yards with a variety of cacti, red blossoms and stones.

  
    
    
    
   
Gary and I went to old town Palm Springs for a stroll and lunch one day. Nancie and I have hit a couple of quilting shops, a mall and have big plans for a sale tomorrow at one. Of the quilt shops while Gary and Ross go to a local bar to watch the Super Bowl game on the big screens. Today we all went to a golf show and sale and then in the afternoon we were in La Quinta. Gary and I went to an art show under the umbrellas, in the Old Town, while Nancie and Ross were at a car show nearby.

Here are some pictures from the art show

Gary & Ross went on a hike to the Painted Canyon, which is a narrow long canyon along the famous San Andreus fault line. 

   
    
   
It was a spectacular hike along the floor of the fault line with the possibility climbing up to a half dozen ladders  which which led to the top of the canyon walls. Gary estimates the canyon walls to be 400 to 500 feet high straight up. Gary and Ross thought wiser of trying to climb to the top of the canyon walls but at least Ross got climb two of the ladders.

   
    
   
 The canyon is composed of relatively soft mostly sandstone rock with lots of cracks. It led them to use that it wouldn’t be the place to be in the case of an earthquake. Minor shocks do occur in this area several times a day. After this hike they carried on southwards to the Salton Sea which is a large body of water formed  over 100 years ago by an accidental breach in the diversionary channel of the Colorado river. Today this is an agricultural area grapes, citrus, market garden, date palms. And interesting and physically challenging day.

Easy flight here and now we are in the Houston airport for 6 hours! I had researched options ahead and bought a “priority pass”. Costs $90 a year and gives 2 people access to various VIP lounges for a per visit charge of $25. So instead of the uncomfortable airport seating we have easy chairs with access to outlets and free wi-fi, free drinks (we are enjoying some Mumms champagne as I write this), free food, clean washrooms, some even have showers and beds. This trip we have used a loung at 3 different airports so far.

  
Back to the rain forest – one of the oddities we saw were the walking palms. They don’t walk far, only about a meter. When the baby Palm starts to grow it will put out long roots to move if the spot it is in is not conducive to its survival. For example, if not enough sunlight. It takes about a week for one of the legs to grow out to the ground to start the migration.

  
Legs of the walking Palm.

We saw a few frogs and butterflys

   
    
    
 
The last picture is an example of how to make more frogs

From the tram on the tree top run we saw several trees called broccoli trees

  
Some pictures from the drive to the rain forest from San Jose

Here is an example of the high tech environment at the hotel – could this be why the Internet wasn’t working too well?

  
Next stop is Palm Desert for a couple of weeks with Nancie and Ross.

So time for another glass of champagne! 

While our hotel in San Jose was the best  yet, the Internet didn’t work too well so this is covering our last few days in Costa Rica.

We spent Saturday enjoying the grounds and food at the Arenal Kioro hotel in the morning and then a 3 hour drive to San Jose. We arrived at the best hotel yet – the Marriot. It is really more of a resort and spa with 3 pools, a driving range, spa, 2 restaurants and a couple of bars. We enjoyed a lovely meal at the Peruvian restaurant. Here are a couple of picture around the hotel. 

    
    
   
The next day we went on a 10 hour tour of the rainforest, complete with a tree top tram ride. Like the rain forest in Monteverde it was green. We had an excellent tour guide who took us on a walk through the forest. You cannot go alone due to the danger from snakes (if I had known that ahead I might not have gone at all). Luckily we did not see any snakes. 

   
This is a huge vine

   
A big Palm seed pod

We also saw a few critters like this tapir

   
 
The tapir is related to the anteater but looks like an overgrown pig. It eats bugs (which there are a lot of) and plants. It is a noisy eater!

A turtle

  
There are lots of ants like this bullet ant, the biggest ant in Central America. Called the bullet ant because the bite feels like you have been shot.

  
Then there were the leaf cutter ants. Each ant carries a leaf and another ant. The second ant is a lookout for predators. The leaves are taken to a nest where they are stored underground. The fungus that grows on the leaves is food for the young in the nest. It is like a bee hive with a queen (who lives about 25 years), worker ants who collect the leaves (females), a few males kept around to entertain the queen, and guard ants. A new nest is created when the queen selects 3 eggs to make new queens. They then move to another area to create a new nest. Along the walkway, up and down the trees are leaves walking in a line! They have been doing this for so long along the same pathways that there are very distinct paths that you can easily see. We saw the same thing in Arenal.

   
 
We took a tram ride through the forest which went one way close to the middle and the other way though the tree tops, a different perspective.

   
    
A monkey ladder

   
The tram was basically a platform with benches on it.

  
   
   
I am sending this from the San Jose airport and will finish this blog when we get to Houston. Time to board the plane.

We spent today at the hotel – walking, swimming, hot tub, reading. The grounds re beautiful with lots of nice plantings, places to relax etc. Here are some pics.

  The view from our table at breakfast
  
Bamboo orchid

  
Red palm

  
Yesterday, today & tomorrow 

Torch ginger

   
 
Other views

Colleen was asking how the food is – excellent. A picture is worth a thousand words

   
   
And of course there is happy hour

  
When we got back to the room we found a stranger watching TV with the remote and my glasses along with a monkey hanging nearby.

   
   
From yesterday – there was one invasive species that we saw on the river. Despite them the area is surviving.

   
   
Tomorrow we have a 4 hour drive to San Jose.

Today we did a boat ride on the Frio river which is just south of the Nicaraguan border. On the drive to the river we passed fields of sugar cane, pineapples, citrus groves, yucca fields, plantain groves and passed through a number of small towns. Our guide gave us a description of the countryside and more information on CR. 

 
A pineapple field. Pineapple is the largest export. The yield is one fruit per plant about every 11 months. They are planted at different months to provide a continuous supply. We had some fresh pineapple at hotel for breakfast and at our lunch. Much taster fresh like that. The first fruit off the plant is the biggest after that one the fruits are used for juice. Harvested by hand.

In the plantain groves there were blue plastic bags covering the fruit, that is to protect the fruit from the bees which will infest it.

  
A sugar processing plant. Trucks filled with sugar cane were lined up at the gate to deliver the cane. 

    
    
 
We passed through a number of small settlements – every little town has a school, church, bar and soccer field.

Because there is no army the taxes are used to fund the school and medical system. School is mandatory ages 7-18 and is free. Kids wear uniforms. After 18 college is optional and there are fees to attend. 65% of school graduates go on to college. Our guide said it is the best school system in Latin America and CR has a 96% literacy rate! 

We passed some yucca groves. The yucca is used to make chips – like a potatoe chips but better. It is also used to make a syrup. Not sure if that is the syrup we get with our breakfast.

Costa Rica is 51,000 sq km (compared to Canada 10,000,000 sq km). The population is just under 4 million, half the people live in San Jose and 10% are international. A lot of people retire here from North America and Europe and settle mainly in the Pacific area, which is drier but can get very hot in the summer (March & April temperatures reach 120F). The prevailing winds come in from the Caribbean, hit the mountains and drop the moisture (creating the rain forests) before moving on to the Pacific. There are 3 mountain ranges. In this one Arenal volcano, which we are looking at right now. Is the highest at 5400 feet.

  
My view of the volcano as I am writing this.

The highest mountain is in the south west area of CR and is over 12,000 feet, but there is no snow on the top and hasn’t been for over 100 years. The last major eruption  of Arenal was in 1968 and it remained active until 2010. You used to be able to see the red lava flows at night from here! Seems a little close for an active volcano! Our guide lives in the nearby town of La Fortuna and says they experience thousands of small earthquakes every year. He is happy for that as it reduces the chance of a”big one”.

Along the way we come across a 3 toed sloth in a tree. He is moving but very slowly. 

 
The sloths live in the trees, eating leaves and sleeping 16 hours a day. They have a very slow metabolism and digestive system. They come to ground only once per week to defecate. Like a cat they scratch a hole in the ground and then cover it up. Right back up the tree having left one-third of their body weight behind in the ground!! They can turn their heads almost 360 degrees, much like an owl but have very poor eyesight. They are their own ecological system with a wide variety of parisites, mites etc living on them.

We passed by a tree filled with Iquana (no picture). Looked much like the iguana we saw in the Galapagos. They are rare here now as they were hunted almost to extinction but are making a come back. They were considered a delicacy, known as chicken of the tree!

Costa Rica was established as a republic in 1848, adopted a constitution and abolished the army that same year. There is a President, 2 Vice-Presidents and an a elected assembly. Elections are held every 4 years and elected officials can only hold office for 2 four year terms. One of the reasons this is a popular retirement area is the income tax situation. You are only taxed on the income you earn in CR so income from any other country is tax exempt. Everyone has health care and a pension.

About 40% of the land is protected as a national park, a nature reserve etc. The main sources of income for the country are the high tech. industry, tourism, pineapple exports and coffee/banana exports – in that order. There are more species of birds here than in Canada and USA combined. 85% of the country is mountainous. The biggest natural issue is the earthquakes. Most of the population rely on buses and taxis for transportation.

After the educational drive we arrived at the river. We were fortunate with the weather and saw a number of different birds and animals (no snakes, thank heavens). We did see several caimans but no crocs.

   
 
A snake bird – related to but different species from the cormorant.

   
A cattle egret

 
A falcon

   
    
A sun grieve – the smallest duck I have ever seen
 
Nickname the JC bird because it appears to walk on water

   
    
Blue heron

 
Night heron

   
A snake bird with lunch he has  speared on his beak. With some manovoring he managed to get it off his beak and swallowed it. Sushi lunch

 
A young heron before the colour changes to blue.

We saw some monkeys and another sloth with her baby

   
 
White faced monkeys

  
Howler monkey

   
    
 
A mother 3 toed sloth and her baby

We came across a colony of 16 long nose bats hanging upside down on a tree. Bats make up 45% of all CR mammals.

   
 
Then of course some reptiles

   
   
Caimans related to the NA alligator.

   
 
Female JC lizard

   
 
Male JC lizard
This area is part of the huge rainforest in CR. In La Fotuna the average annual rainfall is 12  to 15 feet per year. This is slightly less than the average rainfall of 16 feet in the Panama lake. 

When we got back to our room we were surprised by a caiman lazing on one of the beds – to calm it down Gary shared his beer.

We made arrangements with the hotel for someone to be at our room at 6:45 am to pick our bags and transport them to the lobby. No way we could manage that! So after about 7:30 and at least 4 requests to the front desk they called a taxi which came from the town, drove up the hill to our room, picked up the bags, drove them down the hill and transported them to the lobby. The taxi then left and I assume went back into town.

     
 
Views from the lobby area, our room is the one at the very top left.

  
View from half way up the hill. Because of the climb, my aches and complaints Gary went into town and brought back a feast that we enjoyed in the room along with some wine we had purchased in Panama.

  
The trip to Arenal this morning was by car, Van, boat, van.

  
We shared the van/boat with a group from Sarnia, Ontario and another group from Australia. The drive was along the usual CR road, just over an hour from Monteverde to Lake Arenal where we caught the boat. Here is some of what we saw along the way

Lots of wind so a wind farm makes sense!
 

   
 
A school

  
   
   
Then our first views of Arenal volcano. Because of the low clouds at that point you can’t see it in the pictures.

When we arrive at the lake the van is swarmed by young boys who all gathered round to carry our luggage down the muddy, slippery slope to the “dock” and our boat. The dock consisted of a log that the driver held still with his foot so we could step onto the front of the boat without going in the water!

   
 
There were about half a dozen boats coming and going using this landing area. As we arrived there people were getting off the boats and the boys were carrying their bags to the vans which then return to Monteverde. There are 2 trips a day each way. The boat ride across the lake was smooth and we could see the volcano approaching as we crossed. The lake was expanded by the construction of a hydro electric dam a number of years ago. This provides over 10% of CR electricity.

   
   
On the Arenal side we have a slightly better landing area – a paved steep boat ramp, again some assistance required to disembark. On this side there is no gang of boys to take our bags to the top of the ramp – so all the passengers, the boat driver and the van driver take on the task. 

On the way we came to a car that had stopped to feed one of the local residents

  
A Coati. We saw a few of them in Montverde area as well.

Then the most wonderful hotel! A greeter waits for us as the van arrives, we are escorted to the lobby and given a drink (there was a choice and we both opted for what tasted like a whiskey sour). All the hotel amenities are explained and then we are driven to our room and our bags delivered. There are 2 lovely restaurants and a bar. Our room is lovely and overlooks the volcano. We had lunch and a stroll around the property to see the spa, gym, hot springs etc. Lovely grounds.

  
Our room has a view of the volcano which is just over 5400 feet elevation and the highest point in CR. The view changes rapidly as the clouds fly across the sky.

Tomorrow we are going on a river trip on the Rio Negro, hopefully we will see more wildlife than we have seen so far. A nine hour tour so I may miss a day of the blog.

  
  
I think Maureen and Sharon left on their cruise around South America today – hope your trip is wonderful.