What do you want to do this weekend?---Sunday

Sunday morning we decided at around noon that we wanted to go to the beach.  We packed up the normal beach gear and headed out.

We drove with very little traffic to Puntarenas. We arrived in Puntarenas and realized that we had stumbled upon their ten day Carnavales. so, we proceeded to look for the ferry that could transport us across the Gulf of Nicoya to the Nicoya Peninsula as quickly as possible. Most people would visit the Carnevales, but I am a different type of traveler. I prefer small groups of people not pressing throngs.

We located the ferry dock and learned that one must purchase the tickets from a store front down the street. Brian stayed with the car and I went to make the purchase. It was very exciting.
After I purchased the 2 adults and one car tickets, I returned to the car and learned that only one person may be in the car as it enters the ferry, and that would be the driver. So, I got out and walked onto the ferry while Brian drove up the shanty wooded ramp. The ferry was actually pretty nice, for a ferry. It seems like the people running it care that it is clean and in good condition. They had a soda (which is a small restaurant) in a large  air conditioned room in the bottom of the ship. They had a sun deck and bar where they blasted music for the passengers to enjoy for the hour long boat ride.

After the ferry landed and I walked off and Brian drove off, we decided to go explore. So we took of in a southern direction. We followed signs for a Playa Blanco and ended up here.

We then hopped back on the road and continued on smoothly in the same southern direction, until we lost asphalt.

We passed some very interesting (almost camping) homes and some very luxurious beautiful homes overlooking the ocean. We also had the good fortune of spotting a troop of howler monkeys by the side of the road.

We saw an eagle or something too, b ut it was too fast for me and I didn't get a shot of it.

Where we were driving was some of the prettiest countryside I have seen. People had orchards, and horse ranches, and gardens and it all backed right up to the ocean with mangrove trees and palms. Just gorgeous.

As we drove on it started to grow dark and we realized that we were not going to be going back to the ferry that night. With help from our friend Robert via a faint cell phone signal we were able to locate a resort up the road in Tambor.

The resort is called Barcelo. It is an all inclusive resort. We did not know this at first, and at one point we thought we walked our tab, but there was no tab. Yay!

The resort grounds were very nice, the room and sleeping accommodations were okay, and the food was gawd awful. I mean it was really really bad food. It looked like real food, but no it was not. However, the drinks were free as well as many other activities. Oh yeah, and the swimming pools close too early, at 7:00pm.

It was had a kind of Disney/Cruise feel to it. The best part for Brian and myself, besides having a place to stay and not sleeping in the car, was that we could walk from our room out onto the very moonlit beach. We spent a good deal of time out there just laying in beach chairs and looking up at stars.

The next morning we got up early had what they called breakfast, and hit the beach at like 8:45am. It was already hot! The water of the Pacific is so nice and warm here. You don't freeze like you do in Cali.

I took a few pictures when I walked down the beach. The resort is situated in a horse shoe shaped bay.

We were relaxing when a man named Carlos came up to us and gave us the run down of some of the activities available. They had kayaks we could take out for free, or we could rent a jet ski for an hour. So we rented the jet ski. It was a blast! we explored the entire horse shoe and we saw a sea turtle in the sea swimming. We jumped off the jet ski and swam a little, th water was amazing. Brian dove in with his glasses on and they are at the bottom of the bay now. Thank goodness. It was so time for him to get new ones. We had loads of fun on the jet ski and then we returned to the beach then to the pool. We had a "in-edible" lunch then headed out back on the road with me driving!

The drive was uneventful, except that we saw several iguanas and a coatimundi on the way back to the ferry.

We just missed the ferry back to Puntarenas. Thank goodness we found a watering hole nearby to wait 2 hours for the next one.

Here are some shots on the ferry ride home.

For the drive home they closed the 27 and we had an hell of a time trying to find a new way home.

It is always an adventure here.

What do you want to do this weekend?---Saturday

We slept in until after 9am then decided to get out and go do something. It was a clear pretty day, so we decided to explore our little mountain. We still had yet to figure out how to drive up to the top. We took narrow winding roads up the hill and discovered a bunch of small farms and of course a couple of churches.

After that quick trip we decided we still had a lot of day left and steered toward Cartago. Cartago is a city about and hour or so from Escazu and is famous for La Negrita which is the Black Madonna. We knew of the tale vaguely, but not thoroughly enough to be sure if it was related to Cartago or one of the many other cities that were listed in the guide book. I thought Cartago was famous for a red metal church, but Brian was pretty sure Grecia had the famous red church.

Once we arrived we indeed found a red church, and several other churches of various colors shapes and sizes.

They had their doors open and were ready for business. We walked through one church because it had a La Negrita  poster in front of it. Which reminded me of the myth, and hence why Cartago was a familiar name. I looked all over that cathedral, avoiding the kneeling, hand gestures, and in holy water-- signaling to the pious my profound wickedness. The church had many varieties of Jesus. They had dead Jesus, baby Jesus, mistreated Jesus, and others. Life sized.

But no, La Negrita. I found out later that she was in another church in town.
Here is an image I took off the web of La Negrita.

I have a lot of thoughts as I look at this image. The main one is gullibility. Here is a quick summary of the story of La Negrita taken from this site http://www.facesofcostarica.com/catholicism/legend.htm.  

"1635 was a special year for Costa Rica. It is the year that the country's Patron Saint, La Negrita, first made an appearance in the area of Cartago. La Negrita is the Tico nickname for the Virgin Mary.

A mestizo (mixed European and Indian heritage) woman was looking for firewood when she came across a small stone image standing on a large stone, according to the legend. Upon a closer look, she saw that the image was of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus in her arms. Excited by her find, the woman took the image home and put it in a basket.

The next day when she went out to collect firewood again, she found a carved image of a snake on the same stone in the same place. She brought this image home too. When she opened the basket, she found the the image of the Virgin Mary was missing. She locked the remaining image up so that no one could take it.

The next day she went out again, and found the image of the Virgin Mary on the same stone again. She took it home, and found the other image missing. This time she was scared, and took the image to the priest and told him the story. The priest took the image, and when he went to examine it the next day, it had disappeared. He went to the forest, and found it on the same stone. He took it back to the Church, and put it with the image of Jesus on the cross. The following day, when he went to give communion at Mass, the image had disappeared. He found her in the woods on the stone. Legend says she wanted a Church built in that spot, around her "throne", in order to unite the Costa Rican population.

The Basilica was built on the site where La Negrita was found. Inside the Basilica is a shrine to La Negrita, where the stands on an altar. The Costa Rican government declared La Negrita the Patron Saint of Costa Rica on September 23, 1824"  

 And that is all I will say about that.

Any who, we had a good time in town. Walked around and noticed that there were panaderias on every corner and they smelled amazing. So, naturally we went to one and I purchased a delicious donut filled with yellow pudding and covered in chocolate.

We found an open aired market and it was attached to a covered market that had a very "what life might be like if we all moved underground" feel to it.

I have been experimenting with different features in the camera. Some of these pictures will be examples of my playing around.

I found a neat old place and took some pictures of the door and window. I can just kick myself for not taking a single one in color.

We stumbled upon some ruins in town. They are of a church that was destroyed during an earthquake. each time they tried to rebuild it was destroyed again by an earthquake. So, they just left it this way.

 Costa Rican free range road perro in the ruins.

 A cute little girl that was getting a drink of water and turned just as I snapped the picture.

This was just parked out on the street. Notice the car seat in the back.


Then we headed home full of sugary goodness.

Side Trip to Arenal for Valentine's Day Weekend

Sorry folks no pictures to share from this trip. Well at least none we took ourselves. It rained and we did not risk breaking out  the cameras.

Brian and I discovered that we are only 2 1//2 hours from Arenal. Initially the thought was that we were 5 hours or more away. After we learned it is a short drive, we decided to go rest our weary muscles in the hot springs.

We drove from our home in Escazu through winding jungle roads to reach the volcano. We stayed at the Royal Corin resort. The hotel is beautiful and contemporary with stone floors, counter top sinks, flat screen tvs, multi faucet shower, king size bed, and a 2 person hot tub in the room. All rooms have decks that look at the volcano and at the hot spring pools below.

We spent the majority of our time in the hot pools. My favorite was a smaller pool that was fed by a waterfall and had a warm rock wall at water level that you could lay on and relax.

The hotel site is here. We stayed in one of the Master Suites.

Here are a couple of pictures I found on Google.

The peak in the background is the active volcano of Arenal.

The room behind the waterfall is a natural sauna.