Montezuma and the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

Our third stop on our travels through Panama and Costa Rica brought us to the Nicoya Peninsula. We got on the road early leaving from Matapalo on the Osa Peninsula and began our long drive north along the western coast of Costa Rica. We passed many beautiful beaches and much amazing scenery, unfortunately, we could not stay, we were trying to make it to Puntarenas, where we were hoping to catch the ferry over to the Nicoya Peninsula. We were making good time and had made it up to where the road splits off for San Jose in about 6 hours. A few miles after passing this turnoff, we were going along our merry way, when we sped past a radar trap. The police pulled us over and a long conversation ensued between my cousin and the cop, mainly in Spanish. After about 20 minutes of back and forth talking/yelling and a lot of hand gestures and sighs, my cousin pulled out a $20 bill, gave it to the cop, and we were on our way again. I guess they do things differently here in CR! About an hour later, we arrived in Puntarenas and took the ferry over to Paquera. From there, we drove to Tambor and checked in at our hotel; the Tambor Tropical. The Tambor Tropical is a really interesting hotel. The rooms are huge and are octagon in shape. They are all made (inside and out) with various varnished hardwoods. The grounds are stunning and the food here was incredible! Our room literally opened up onto a beautiful pool.

We were pretty tired from our long drive, so after putting our bags in the room, we headed out for a walk around the grounds of Tambor Tropical. The hotel was situated on the Gulf of Nicoya. There were horses grazing in a pasture right on the gulf, and they had several kayaks there that you could take out for a cruise. It was a beautiful place to watch a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. After that, we headed to the pool and ordered our free welcome drinks, had dinner outside under the stars and relaxed and called it a night.

Tambor Tropical. Our room was the ground floor room that has the door open.

Restaurant at the Tambor Tropical. They served delicious fresh food!

Horses grazing across from our room on the Gulf of Nicoya.

Kayaks for the hotel guests.

The next day, we were up early and had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. We were headed out today to hike to the waterfalls south of Montezuma (as far I as I know, they did not have names, but we found several of them with beautiful warm deep pools of water, but it wasn't easy to get there!). The hike was pretty intense, with some trails going almost straight down, so you had to hang on to tree roots and scuttle down on your butt. We did make it though, and it was worth it. There were quite a few other people enjoying these pools and falls as well. After the hike, we walked back into Montezuma (where we had left our car) and checked out the town. Montezuma is a very cool artsy European hippie type town. We shopped a bit, went down to the beach, and even ran into a couple who we had taken the plane back from Bocas del Toro with on the first part of our trip. They were interesting too. They were both from somewhere in the midwest, had met online just a month before and decided to do a month long road trip together in Costa Rica. Kind of cool. Oh, and the road to get down to Montezuma is quite treacherous...it was a very good thing that we had a 4-wheel drive!

Oxen drive!

Hiking to the Montezuma Waterfall.

Time for a swim. That is me in the water...I am the one nearer the waterfall.

Hiking to a higher falls now. The trail was getting steeper. That's my cousin.

Here I am hanging onto a tree.

Okay...things got pretty hairy now. Below is a pic looking up from the trail we had to scrabble down on our butts.

Hmmm....not sure it was worth it for this one..lol. Well, we took another swim and jumped off a few rocks, then started the walk back to town.

The beach near Montezuma.

Montezuma Playa Grande Beach.

The hippie town of Montezuma. I loved this place.

Look! We ran into this couple who were on that death-defying plane ride back from Bocas del Toro with us. Quite a coincidence considering there were only about 16 of us on that flight!

Typical Costa Rican home.

When it started to get dark, we headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up and had another wonderful meal at our hotel. We went for a swim, stared at the stars and went to bed. The following day, we were headed for our final stop this trip, Arenal Volcano and Monteverde Cloud Forest, where we would spend our last 5 days before heading back to San Jose and then home.

I hope to someday come back to Costa Rica for at least a month or two and travel all over this amazing country.

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Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

The Osa Peninsula was our second stop on a 2-1/2 week road trip through Costa Rica and part of Panama. Our first stop had been Bocas del Toro, Panama, and now we were off to the Osa. Since the Osa is on the very southern tip of Costa Rica, is was definitely a bit out of our way, but I felt that I could not go to Costa Rica without visiting this wild and remote corner of the country. I was so glad that I did!

We got back to San Jose in the mid-afternoon and planned to get a ride to our car rental place and then head toward Golfito in southern Costa Rica. Long story ensued here with customs and finding a ride, but we finally ended up in a van with several other people who all needed to be dropped off at different locations in San Jose...ours was the last stop, of course. As we headed into San Jose proper the traffic became a complete nightmare. It was so bad, that it made Los Angeles freeways look mild. We finally made it to the car rental place 4 hours....4 hours!..after getting into that van. We grabbed something to eat and hit the Pan-American Highway to the Osa at about 9 PM, thinking we could find a hotel/motel along the road to sleep when we got tired. After we got out of the traffic in San Jose, we pretty much had the road to ourselves and we headed up into the mountains and started driving some really steep windy narrow roads. When we reached the pass at Cerro de la Muerte (Death Peak), the stars were unreal! I had never seen anything like it before. They covered the sky and they seemed so close, like I could literally reach out and touch them. We stopped and got out to stare for awhile, even though it was very cold and windy. This brought us to about 1 AM, so we decided that we needed to focus on finding a place to stay the night. There was no way we were going to make it out of these mountains, let alone to Golfito. On the other side of the pass, a heavy fog rolled in. I must admit it was a little nerve-wracking driving in heavy fog along steep mountain roads not knowing when (or if) we would find somewhere to sleep for the night. About an hour later, we saw a little sign saying "Cabins for Rent." We followed a crazy little dirt road to a motel-looking building that had no lights on, but since there was a car out front, we rang the bell. A very nice, but sleepy, Costa Rican man came out and showed us to one of the tiny cabins, which, by the way, had no hot water (the morning shower was a serious wake-up call) and no heat (they gave us a tiny little floor heater, but it was still very cold). The first thing I noticed when walking into the cabin was an enormous black spider on the wall...ecks. Ah well, I guess I couldn't really afford to be picky under the circumstances. The first picture below is the motel office and restaurant where we ate an amazing home-cooked breakfast the next morning, and I was mercilessly teased about my spider reaction the previous night.

After a long and beautiful drive through the valley to Golfito, we boarded a ferry to Puerto Jimenez and drove south to the end of the peninsula. I remember falling in love with this place the minute we pulled into the parking area. The Iguana Lodge. Everything about the place was lush and colorful.

Here is the Iguana Lodge from the ocean side.

This hammock was calling my name.

Not 10 minutes after our arrival, there was a loud commotion outside the lodge reception area. To my amazement, at least a dozen white-faced monkeys were swinging and jumping all over those trees. They put on quite the show for about 30 minutes. What a great greeting Osa! We saw this group of monkeys every day we were here.

These two Scarlett Macaws lived in a tree outside the lodge and had lived here for many years. They were so fun to watch....very playful with each other and, of course, very chatty.

The resident cat. This was taken in the breakfast area. By the way, the Iguana Lodge serves up a wonderful breakfast! Everything is so fresh and delicious. The fresh fruit was out of this world...mangoes, papayas, star fruit, melons....and the chef would whip up eggs and specialty crepes or pancakes daily.

Dusk on the Osa. I could definitely live here a few months out of every year.

One of my afternoons was spent right here in one of these hammocks with my book and a fruity drink or two (my cousin went to town to watch a soccer game, so I was on my own). This little shelter is right on the beach at the Iguana Hotel. On this particular afternoon, a guy with a guitar came and sat in one of the chairs, asked me if I minded if he sat and played (which of course I didn't), and he played and sang the most beautiful music for a good hour. I was literally in heaven. It was one of those moments in life where I had to pinch myself to make sure that I was really there....and I was!

The next morning we set out on a wildlife walking tour with a guide. He took us to one of the most amazing beaches in Matapalo. We walked several miles to the beach spotting wildlife here and there. We saw lots of monkeys, both white-faced and howler, we saw sloths, coatimundi, falcons, iguanas, lots of beautifully colored butterflies and hummingbirds. This tree pictured below was simply amazing. It was HUGE...I wish I had stood next to it...I would probably have been as tall as one of it's roots. It was crazy big.

Here is one of the sloths we saw. This was taken through our guide's telescope.

I loved all the cool signs while walking down this road to Matapalo beach. It was very Costa Rica.

Matapalo Beach. There was one lone surfer out there.

This was a soccer game in town. It was apparently a big match-up, but it was hot and I opted to go back to the hotel to lounge around and take some photos around the grounds.

Here is some of the flora around the Iguana Lodge.

The next day, it was time to leave. As you can imagine, I really didn't want to, but we had to be moving on. We wanted to get as far as we could up towards the Nicoya Peninsula today. This picture below is of a bridge that we had to cross to travel between our lodge and town. This picture doesn't quite do it justice. It was extremely narrow and falling away at the edges. When it rained one day, we couldn't even tell where the edges were.

Bye Osa! It was a pleasure. I really hope to see you again someday. This was our blue 4-wheel drive car that took us all over this country. Now we were headed up along the western coast of Costa Rica.

This was one of the shrines that we saw while driving. That's it for the Osa. This story will be continued in another post of the Nicoya Peninsula.

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Bocas del Toro, Panama

I went to a family reunion (and my great aunt's 90th birthday celebration) in 2007 in Omaha, Nebraska (this is where both my parents grew up) with my mom and sister. While at the reunion, I ran into a cousin of mine that I used to hang out with every summer as a kid and teenager when we went back to my grandparents home. I think we always got along because in our own ways, we were both sort of rebels. He now owned a home in Costa Rica and kept trying to talk me into coming down. After the reunion we spoke on the phone a few times and he convinced me (not that I needed that much convincing) that I must experience Costa Rica. We decided on the end of February through mid-March of 2008. I started researching places I wanted to see. He pretty much gave me free rein in planning the trip since he had already been to most places in the country...however, he did mention that he had always wanted to go visit some little islands off the coast of Panama called Bocas del Toro. That sounded great to me!

Bocas was our first stop on a 2-1/2 week road trip that would take us from the little islands of Bocas del Toro, to the wild and beautiful Osa Peninsula, to the Bohemian town of Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula, and finally to Arenal Volcano and Monteverde cloud forest. I flew down on a red-eye and arrived at 7 AM in San Jose. My cousin met me and whisked me off to a different airport across town to catch a Nature Air flight to Bocas. By the way, my biggest challenge for this trip was packing! At the time, Nature Air allowed one checked bag that could weigh only 35 pounds, and you personally had to be weighed with your carry on before getting on the flight. If you were over a certain weight (I think it was 200 lbs.) you had to buy a second seat and if the flight was full, you risked not being allowed on!

Here is the little Nature Air plane that took us to Bocas. We did run into a storm on our way over and we were pitching and rolling all over that sky, to the point where I was closing my eyes, grasping my cousin's arm and praying. Everyone was pretty nervous there for awhile. Luckily, we made it, much to my disbelief and relief.

Needless to say, by the time we arrived in Bocas and got through customs (where they put you in a tiny room with a bunch of other people and made you wait while they called you in one person at a time and questioned you), I was exhausted. I had not slept in about 48 hours and was ready to take a shower and fall into bed. We walked (with our suitcases and backpacks) to our hotel....Hotel Bocas del Toro. It is owned by an interesting American woman. The room was pretty cool with a balcony overlooking Bocas Town where we drank a beer and watched some of the locals. After that, I jumped in the shower and my cousin went out to make a questionable "business" deal...ha! This is our hotel from the street side.

Hotel Bocas del Toro from the water side.

The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and set out on an all day adventure to explore Zapatillas Cay and to do some snorkeling. Lunch was included. The picture below was taken from our boat leaving Bocas Town. Loved the stillness of the water.

Our arrival on Zapatillas Cay No. 2

Wow. This place was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't wait to get into that water.

Here we are posing for the camera. After this, we walked all the way around this little island stopping to swim in the incredibly warm water and take photos. The other side of the island was a bit more windswept, but still beautiful.

Here are a couple of other photos of that beautiful place. I remember I kept thinking, "am I really here right now?" Just the day before I had been busy teaching classes; quite the contrast. We started off walking along the beach...

turned a corner...and then there was more beautiful beach...with the perfect angled palm tree even....

turned the corner again, and there was a little mangrove island with a Blue Heron on it.

This shell photo was taken on the windward side of the island. I think someone must have set it up just like this to take a photo...so I took advantage of it. It is still one of my favorite photos from this trip.

Returning to the dock area. Unfortunately, it is almost time to go.

This was our lunch spot. A pretty place to have a good home-cooked Panamanian meal and a cerveza!

These fish must have been waiting for scraps?

I remember we ate with some guy from the midwest that thought it was so odd that we were cousins and traveling together...not sure what that was about.

I had to go use the facilities before leaving for our snorkeling adventure, and here is what I found.

Here I am with the bucket.

One more photo for the road.

I remember we went out to some place for dinner this night that our hotel recommended. It was at the end of a dirt road overlooking the water (of course). It turned out to be just an okay meal...the server acted like he understood everything my cousin said (he speaks pretty good Spanish), but our meals didn't come out at all like we requested...and the place was pretty expensive. We learned a good lesson this day...sometimes the restaurants have deals with the hotels in the area...and if the hotel recommends people, they get kick backs...or maybe the owners are friends. Anyway, we learned to read our books for recommendations and to ask locals (who have nothing to gain) for the best food places.

The next day was our last full day here in Bocas. We spent the first half the day on another boating adventure, this time to Red Frog Beach (pictured below) and the other half wandering around Bocas Town and getting lots of rest because we knew we were going to have a very full day the next day (flying back to San Jose, renting a car and driving at least part way to the Osa Peninsula). Oh, and we didn't see any red frogs this day, but there were scattered local kids along the trail that offered to go find one if you paid them...haha!

Once again, we walked all the way around this island. It was a gorgeous jungle-filled island. This was a pretty bird of paradise that I saw.

Thatched hut on the island interior.

We ate our last meal in Bocas at this spot. I remember the fish tacos were amazing! Bye for now Bocas!

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