Go Toucans er CARDINALS!!

“Two things have happened in the last several months that I thought I would never see-- a black man became President and the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. You believed, and now I think I do too.”
-Jonathan Silverberg- January 18th 2009.

Even in Costa Rica we got the word-- “Cardinals Win!! I “listened” to the game via text on ESPN.com surrounded by a tropical jungle and the sounds of all sorts of strange and beautiful birds..did I say BIRDS??!!! So the Cardinal took out the mighty Eagle. I believe this is an ancient Costa Rican myth, or maybe it was the Toucan conquering the Monkey? Anyway onto the Super Bowl! Can the Cards do it one more time and defy the critics and the odds? Quoting our almost VP....”You Betcha!!

To the Volcano

I have given up trying to upload photos, it takes too long at 54bps so the writing will have to do.

In a couple of hours we are off to the Rincon National Park and the Rincon Volcano hike. The volcano is dormant (for now at least) so we should be safe. Ride there should be quite exciting. We have a guide,--sort of, Elizabeth from Maryland who is working here as the person who answers with all the internet inquiries and handles bookings for the resort and then joins Pablo and Ana in the meet and greet 24/7 hosting. We learned later she is called Director of Fun! We are driving our 4WD through several streams to get there but as they say here.. "no problem".The others guests includes two much younger couples from Seattle and Portland who we have "bonded" with over the past two days. Really nice people. One couple is about to adopt a baby from Ethopia.

Last night we were all talking about Barack and W and how much we were all hoping for positive change. I asked Elizabeth if she knew of anyone who ever stayed here who was not a supporter of Barack and she said "four people", then corrected herself and said "maybe three".

This is that kind of a place!!

Finca la Anita

This is not your typical “resort” but for those willing to take their time and enjoy a spetacular drive on a bumpy road for about 30-45 minutes, you will arrive at Finca la Anita Rainforest Ranch http://www.laanitarainforestranch.com/

The drive takes you over multiple bridges of various sizes and composition --just do it in the daytime! F la A is a very special place with very special people. It is like camp-- just in the rain forest.
The owners, our hosts, Ana and Pablo,could not be nicer people and truly part of this Costa Rican experience. Their marketing agent/travel hostess/ woman I drove crazy with all my emails / DIRECTOR OF FUN--Liz-- is a 24 year old American from the DC area. She fits perfectly here.

Ana and Pablo are “Ticos” (native born CRs) in their late thirties- early forties with two of the cutest little kids you would want to meet. They are both college-educated agrarians who speak perfect English. (Paula thinks Pablo looks like a young Antonio Bandaras--I say no more.) The farm was Ana's father's and is named for her. Besides operating the resort they run the farm. Their resort business is a year old--with 10 very comfortable cabins built in the Caribbean style. The farm harvests macadamia nuts but their cash crops are tropical flowers and greens, most of which are sold to Dutch flower wholesalers. They also plan to raise cacao for chocolate and go organic with the nuts. We learned everything on a very comprehensive tour given by Pablo. He also includes a little cooking class where he cuts the actual heart of palm from the plant and makes a terrific cerviche (which we eat after the tour as part of a delicious lunch. Now I know what the real heart of plam tastes like I know why I never liked the jarred and canned variety.) There was an instant connect when Paula was introduced to their daughter-age 6--Ana Paula! In these foreign places Paula is pronounced quite exotically. Paola. Don't be surprised if she requests this new pronunciation once she learns Spanish!

Like the cabins, the food here is simple but quite good, with all the ingredients grown locally or from the nearby sea. Think--papaya cut from their kitchen garden! I will leave it up to Paula to give more detail about the food since she seems to be enjoying the simplicity of it all…especially the local chicken soup which is a gourmet experience all in one bowl. (and this discovery was a happy accident as she got a cold upon arrival and just wanted a bowl of chicken soup when we stopped for lunch on the way to the farm!).

We are planning to have Liz guiding us on our adventures today and tomorrow but yesterday we were on our own. It was raining hard on and off for most of the day yesterday (it is a rainforest-- DUH!) but managed our way back to the main highway for lunch at a nice local place- Santa Maria Volcano Lodge. We had planned to go on from there to a park and a hike but lost our way --there are no road signs to speak of and Pablo’s map was not exactly precise. We found our way to these huge high-tech windmills on the top of a small mountain (CR is real big on clean energy and conservation) but decided that with dark clouds coming in and the wind howling (good for the windmills) it would be wise to head back.The returning trip was quite pleasant as the rain stopped and we got brief views of the sun. We took our time and Paula got lots of pics.

A new couple arrived at the farm from Seattle and we had a very pleasant evening eating family style together with Ana, Pablo and Elizabeth (their marketing "director of fun" from Bethesda who has quite the gift with the language). Small world--the Seattle folks are actually from Redmond--and they have enjoyed eating many times at Jonathan's former place-Pomegranate. Life here is very sympatico...so different from the world in which we live.

What time should I set the Earthquake alarm for you? Day 1 in CR

It’s about 6AM and my bed starts shaking. My first thought was that one of Berni’s German shepherds has gotten into our casita and is having some fun. Nope... put that idea out of your mind. “Earthquake" comes next to mind. Yup-- it’s an aftershock-- not a real eathquake--so not to worry, friends and family. We are in Costa Rica with lots of active volcanoes and they had a big one last week 6.0 and this was merely one of the “aftershocks” that our innkeeper tells me last night have been going on for days. "But don’t expect another one" ,he says. I try to believe him. Oh well, this is the price we pay to visit paradise.

Breakfast was befitting CR..lots of fresh fruits (ah-so that's what a papaya should taste like!) and a sweet bread pudding . Paula saw an amazing tropical flower hanging from a very innocent looking vine. Like plastic-layered color.

Off we went after breakfast to rent our generic, small 4WD at Thrifty. Uneventful except for the fact that it seemed to take about three hours to finally get out of their door. We hit the Pan American Highway at around 11AM for a five hour ride to the rainforest and Finca la Anita. This is the best road in CR and if you average about 30-40mph you are speeding. But if you set your expectations low and give yourself lots of time to reach your destination you can really enjoy the ride..which we did. The last 10 miles or so was an adventure, an unpaved slippery, pot-holed jungle road (it had just poured), crossing bridges that were about as wide as my car and looked like they would fall into the stream any minute. But if was really fun to drive. Paula was calm and a good navigator (I started calling her Magellen after she found our hotel in Bologna by some miracle!) , and we arrived at this amazing , lush, gorgeous place safe and sound. We were greeted warmly by our hostess/owner Ana.

Off to Costa Rica “First Class” LOL Jan 15

First let me say that our trip to Costa Rica was effortless. If the purpose of air travel is to get you from place to place safely and on time, then US Airways gets an “A”. Off on time, landing only a few minutes late some 5 hours after we took off. By comparison, it Cortez more than a few weeks to get here from nearby Cuba in the fifteen hundreds. how far we have come. And we are not here to torture the native population but to enjoy their hospitality and put lots of colons ($$) in their pockets.

Getting back to “first class”. It does not exist on US Airways. I used 120,000 miles to get our two first class tix for the trip and what did we get for our five hour flight…wide, but very tight seating, no movie (Nada on US Air anymore as we are told as of November 2008), a meal that was a sandwich and a oily pasta salad, bad wine in a plastic cup. But the flight attendant was very nice.
In a small first class cabin for five hours you get to notice everything that is going around you and, if you have friendly people, even a chance to chat with someone other than your seatmate (the lovely Miss Paula famous nature photographer). We talked quite a bit with two couples from Eureka California who were embarking on a 14 day cruise through the Panama canal and Central America…sounded like a fabulous trip but they were likely to be among the youngest people on the voyage and they were in their late forties or early fifties

One Day to Go

Right now you are looking at Rancho Shel dones y Paola in sunny Scottsdale. Tomorrow we are off for Costa Rica and La Anita Rainforest Lodge.

Service!!

I am in shock! Just got a call from my car rental company in San Jose (Thrifty) asking me if I wanted to be picked up at my hotel in the morning instead of when I arrive the night before. What service..now I dont have to deal with a car rental at 10PM. Imagine Hertz or Avis doing this in NYC..LOL. So far everyone I have spoken to regarding my trip accommodations has gone out of their way for me...con mucho gusto!! (with great pleasure for you Gringos) Sure hope this continues after we land and begin our adventure.