No entiendo ingles [noh ab-la eeng-gless]

Alajuela Thursday 28th Sep; we're just out of San Jose its 10:30 pm our bags are just dropped in the room as we hie back to
the open-air foyer to sup a Costa Rican beer and salute the start of 2 1/2 weeks.

Dawn, awake @ 5:30, like heck rollover and slowly surface @ 7:30 before our quick tour of Sarchi and Coffee Plantation plus
whatever we can fit in on the way to La Paz. Sarchi is the home of the 'painted wagon wheel' and the Coffee Plantation is where
coffee is grown! Ah to experience a really true flavoursome 'espresso' [my acceptance of coffee wherever I am has now been
ruined - Costa Rican coffee is something to experience] Just had to buy 1.5 kilo's for home. Our 'tourismo' taxi via Grecia
'Steel' Cathedral - I kid you not this is made of steel sheets. Then we are off upwards to La Paz [Peace Valley Waterfall
Gardens] via 'S' bends, greenery and Volcanoes in the distance - just awesome.

We're about 1300 m above sea level, humidity is high and the temperature is mild, our attitude is casual and the language
barrier is about 80% against. I had the time to learn some Espanola... the arrogance of a Gringo!

La Paz [Peace Valley]: Reception hangs off the valley wall - looking from the balcony its about 2 storeys down the roof line of
the Accommodation units. The Valley is mist filled with the wafting sounds of birds and cascading water drifting up to me. So off
down the walkway to the 'terracotta roofed cabaña's with a 67 lb kayak back pack. At this point in time I'm just a whisker from
completing the a truly disappearing 'Cheshire Grin' [Alice in Wonderland - I am] The door opens into the cabaña... if this is a
standard suite I'd need to be royalty to do justice to the Luxury suite. A king-size 4 poster bed is set off by a daybed that
looks thru the window past the hammock and the dropping view down into the valley. Then there's the Jacuzzi tub on the balcony
plus the waterfall featured 3/4 bathroom with an open plan shower... all in tile and timber... none of that rank commercial stuff
here - it appears to all be local material.

Do we run the Jacuzzi? Fill the bath tub with the accompanying waterfall and wash our cares away? Or have a Chardi?

I fall to my knees and offer a 'salaam' to D the greatest holiday planner I know. then we have a Chardi!

Buenos Dias [bwennass dee-yass]

What an opening to a holiday. There's a Trout farm; Ranarium [frog house];  Serpentarium [snake house]; Mariposa Garden
[butterfly house]; Calibres [Hummingbirds - just magic] and then there's the easy hike down trail past cascades, waterfalls and
rainforest vegetation... birds chirping, frogs a'croaking and my legs aching from the up & down 'the steps cut into the valley wall'.
At the end of the Waterfall hike there's the inevitable 'tourist Shop but this one has a free coffee plus free bus transport
back up the steep hill to the resort however I just turned around a walked/jogged all the way back - I still hurt from the body
getting old versus the mind foolishly is still juvenile. After 3 days it was with a degree of regret that we left. But what the
heck; the next adventure is to live in a 'tree-house' on the Caribbean coast.

San Jose overnight: Hotel D'Ora for dinner before the limitations of a rustic setting - our 'travel Guide books' gave the
restaurant here a very high rating for quality, service and pricing what wasn't mentioned is that, aside from all of the above
which was excellent, the profits from the restaurant goes to a Women's' Refuge Charity. So having said that, again we had a
wonderful evening which was buffered by the generosity of the Hotels' policy.

Punta Uva (8km Sth of Peurto Veijo) Again a magical experience - under a the canopy of the rain forest, abutting the coast, is
home for a week. The main living area is at ground level and completely open plan - there are no walls or flyscreens here, just a
fence surrounding the house to keep the dog out. Though the three-toed Sloth that fell to the earth one night kept us amused as
he tried every tree under the roof to return to the wild. At times we were within 25cm of him and he just didn't care, his only
concern appeared to be "show me the way to go home, Bill Bailey..." Then it's up along the swing walkway to the Bedroom which is
about 6m above ground. Barely a 150m away is the ocean - the kayaking zone. There's an Iguana sanctuary here as well, my
ignorance never fails to astound me - I spent probably half an hour looking, looking but nary a 'lizard' did I see - then Dinah lets
me know that they are 'tree-top dwellers', so it is best to look upwards! Traffic drives on the right-hand side here though with
the increasing pot-holes it is more a case of negotiating a 'mine-field' as we pedalled down the road to one of the many local
restaurants (or the massage retreat - no holiday is complete without a weekly massage! so spake the holiday organiser) So aside
from the food, relaxed lifestyle we actually managed to get the kayaks out for a paddle. One quick run along the coast and a half
day trip to Manzanillo Laguna (in the rain , the rain did clear but we were determined to kayak) Our CR transport dropped us at
the top of one arm of the Laguna but not before he had dropped the front axle into a ditch, after 40 minutes we left him to it -
he had no shovel, a pathetic jack and unfortunately little "Australian Idea" of how to extricate himself - me having no Spanish did
not help at all; my sign language only raised a smile or a torrent of words; he ended up hiking back about 1km to get help from the
nearby settlement. Anyway, we assembled the folder Kayaks in the drizzling rain, launched and after about 30 minutes of
paddling with a poncho the rain cleared and the beauty of the Laguna reappeared - meaning that even in the rain we were able to
appreciate our surrounds.

Bahia Drake (Pacific Coast - Osa Peninsula) After a night back in San Jose we hopped on  Sansa Air [excess baggage being the
kayaks!] to fly into Palmar Sur, drive to Sierpe and boat to Corcovado Eco Lodge for a few days in more rain forest. Its about 90
mins by boat from Sierpe to the Resort and we probably spent 87 of them driving rain. Our skipper 'Norberto' appeared to
literally freeze as he stood aft steering the craft. This place, though we were here at the end of their season had it all. The
cabaña was unique, though we didn't really like the bugs etc falling from the thatched roof each night onto the bed - lights out
seemed to resolve that problem. The flora and fauna just seemed to know what we wanted to see - Scarlet Macaws, Cappuccino
Monkeys and Yellow-billed Toucans were all visible in the trees below us. Dinah managed to see a snake, as well as a diverse
range of other birds, leaf ants etc. The nature walk through the coastal forest was a wonder, we even saw an Aquita. The Park
was about another 2km further down the coast than we'd paddled the day before, in drizzling rain. Though the run north into
Bahia Drake was a dry run, with a secondary leg up a river [I took the long way back via a 45' catamaran that was out in the
middle of the bay]. Our last afternoon, Norbert, our boat skipper, went for a paddle in my kayak - he just took off at about 40
knots and never slackened for the hour he was gone - his grin on return was worth it, his 1st kayak run and our pleasure!!!

All too soon it was time to pack up and leave - the return boat trip was dry and as we ran back up the river, the skipper
wandered through the mangrove tributaries' showing us more flora & fauna - including a two-toed sloth high in a tree with the sun
behind him, so all I actually saw was a grey blob up there somewhere...

Back in San Jose we shopped, we dined at the Hotel Presidente (which I thought was Esmeralda's cafe - Esmeralda is actually a
coffee brand!) where there were at least 8 security guards patrolling the boundary of the outdoor restaurant. Amazing place is
CR. We had planned to do the sight-see walk of the main features of the city on our last day but as we went to the 'Jazz Cafe'
the night before, a top time as well as indulged in a few bottles of Chardonnay, the sight-see tour was a tad limited by
debilitated bodies... Up at 5am and flew back into Bermuda - Top Holiday and Top Place!!

"fireflies spinning - sloth smiling - Chardi sipping - minds buzzing"
The Costa Rican Adventure...