Sunday, June 3, 2018
Sunday, August 1, 2010
May 10th - Rafiki Safari Lodge
While walking around the park at Manuel Antonio we stopped to rest and got to talking to a women who was an obvious non-local. During the course of conversation she told us about a place further south that I had a vague rembrance of reading about. Tourists stayed in tents built on stilts or something like that., She couldn't quite remember the name but after a review of her guide book she found it. It was Rafiki. She explained her being in Costa Rica was of a two fold purpose. She and her husband were teachers living with local families were students was trying to improve their command of English. So they taught and travelled on a budget.
She had tried to convince her husband to make a sidetrip to Rafiki but he said they couldn't afford the rates these folks charged. All meals were included as the place was out in nomans land where only nature prevailed. My kind of place. So we were off to find www.rafikisafari.com
As usual the ride starts out nicely but sooner or later one has to get off the main highway and get on the dirt roads. It was only 30 kilometers from Quepos but 20 of these were over sticks and stones without street signs or many signs of life. Mostly we travelled through oil palm plantations were sacks of palm nuts were placed along the road for pickup at some point. We felt sorry for the people who picked these seeds and then carried them from deep within the palm forest to the road. It was hot and muggy out.
Rafiki was built by a couple from South Africa in the middle of the rain forest within the pristine Savegre River Valley. Whenever we thought we are surely lost, we found a sign that claimed we were still on track. Still, when we finally found a little village with a store (about 6 houses and called Santo Domingo), we stopped and
if they had ever heard of Rafiki. Hands and arms pointed us in the direction we were going and then we saw a sign 3KM to Rafiki. They always put the signs were you have no choice but to keep going, never on the intersection of roads. Anyway, we arrive and seemingly are the only guests. The hosts are the son and wife of the founding couple. They live there and employ most of the village up the road. For them a trip to the store for supplies is just about an all day affair. Being that we showed up out of the blue they had to go to town the next day. They did wonder though, how we found them and what made us come there. Most guests are group tourists who show up in taxis from the last hotel. All the hotels seem to have transfer packages and readily available vans for this purpose. So we are assigned our 'cabin'.
As the evening approaches we are told that dinner will be at 7PM. A bit late for us but we use the time to look around the place. Noises, all kinds of noises reach us from the surrounding mountains. Howler monkeys make a racket and never seem to stop calling to each other. I guess it's some kind of langauge they understand. The sky takes on different colors every minute or so. I snap picture after picture knowing full well in the end they will all look alike.
She had tried to convince her husband to make a sidetrip to Rafiki but he said they couldn't afford the rates these folks charged. All meals were included as the place was out in nomans land where only nature prevailed. My kind of place. So we were off to find www.rafikisafari.com
As usual the ride starts out nicely but sooner or later one has to get off the main highway and get on the dirt roads. It was only 30 kilometers from Quepos but 20 of these were over sticks and stones without street signs or many signs of life. Mostly we travelled through oil palm plantations were sacks of palm nuts were placed along the road for pickup at some point. We felt sorry for the people who picked these seeds and then carried them from deep within the palm forest to the road. It was hot and muggy out.
Rafiki was built by a couple from South Africa in the middle of the rain forest within the pristine Savegre River Valley. Whenever we thought we are surely lost, we found a sign that claimed we were still on track. Still, when we finally found a little village with a store (about 6 houses and called Santo Domingo), we stopped and
if they had ever heard of Rafiki. Hands and arms pointed us in the direction we were going and then we saw a sign 3KM to Rafiki. They always put the signs were you have no choice but to keep going, never on the intersection of roads. Anyway, we arrive and seemingly are the only guests. The hosts are the son and wife of the founding couple. They live there and employ most of the village up the road. For them a trip to the store for supplies is just about an all day affair. Being that we showed up out of the blue they had to go to town the next day. They did wonder though, how we found them and what made us come there. Most guests are group tourists who show up in taxis from the last hotel. All the hotels seem to have transfer packages and readily available vans for this purpose. So we are assigned our 'cabin'. 
Friday, May 21, 2010
May 9th - a walk through Manuel Antonio National Park
OK, it's probably time to learn a little bit of blogging as I'm home now with good computer and Internet access. How do I insert a picture here? I don't know. Ah, I have to go from edit html to compose. OK, here's a try. Let me see if the description wraps around the picture. What we see here is the walkway
around the park. They limit the number of visitors in the park at any one time to about 70 people so as not to disturb the existing wildlife too much. We negotiated a guide just for the two of us so we could walk at our speed and not rush with a group. The many pebbles and stones on the ground are always a problem for Marlies as she's afraid of either stumbling or stepping on something.The park itself showed much wildlife oblivious to our presence. Monkeys were up in the trees either playing, eating or sleeping. Pretty much what we do during the day. 
We had a deer accompany as on the walk as if he were a dog. The poor thing simply had no instinct of fear as humans simply never harmed or threatened him.
Our friend madam deer.
Our friend madam deer.The walk in the park was interesting but I wonder if the guide fee was worth it. He showed us many animals using a telescope he was carrying but if you've seen one monkey or sloth, you've seen them all. Here are two tired senior citizens ready for a rest and we took it after the guide left us alone.
for more pictures of this walk see: http://rumpfamily1.phanfare.com/4657280_5161289#imageID=99373071
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Manuel Antonio - May 8th
We arrive aat our destination and Marlies is cranky after a day long ride. The first reasonable hotel is the Hotel Coco Beach and we grab a room for the night at $45 and go see what the town has to offer. Our plan is to take a tour of the most visited park in CR in the morning. See the pics for the afternoon walk.
it´s finding access and time
I´m finally in a hotel where they have a computer but the problems with the keyboards and the overall lack of light remains. Electricity is at a premium in CR. All bulbs are kept at bare light and often fairly useless. With the funny keyboard I need to see the keys in order to type.
My own netbook computer has been a complete washout as the keys don´t react to their being pressed. At least not with some semblance of regularity.
I will mainly report on today´s travel from the OSA peninsula to Cartago near to San Jose. THe drive was awful as far as the road condition goes. I had assumed that once we reach the main highway in CR, the Inter-American highway, I´d be in San Jose in a flash. Aftre all CR is the size of WV and I can drive through that state in no time flat. NOt the case here. WE were under constant attack by mountains, clouds (fog) and switchbacks. Typically Marlies started screaming when I went over 35 mph. THe worst part of the trip are the abominable shocks in our car. We feel pebble on the road.
My own netbook computer has been a complete washout as the keys don´t react to their being pressed. At least not with some semblance of regularity.
I will mainly report on today´s travel from the OSA peninsula to Cartago near to San Jose. THe drive was awful as far as the road condition goes. I had assumed that once we reach the main highway in CR, the Inter-American highway, I´d be in San Jose in a flash. Aftre all CR is the size of WV and I can drive through that state in no time flat. NOt the case here. WE were under constant attack by mountains, clouds (fog) and switchbacks. Typically Marlies started screaming when I went over 35 mph. THe worst part of the trip are the abominable shocks in our car. We feel pebble on the road.
May 6th - Monteverde
After a short stop at the Austrian and German restaurants near the Swiss hotel we are off to the so-called real cloud forest of Monteverde. It's a scenic drive on good roads but soon we run into the ral Costa Rica road system. These seem to be old ox cart roads. They are made of boulders and rubble and when your car has no shocks it gives you the shivers after a while. My stomach actually started to hurt and Marlies took one Tamerol after another as her back was killing her. The thing is there is no real alternative except not to go there in the first place. Once you're ready to give up, you still have to get out of there.
The other problem was the lack of roadsigns. You just have no idea where you are in the mountains of a strange country. The GPS get lost and tells you to make U turns or gives other strange directions. Once we were in San Elenas I told the GPS to take us to a particular hotel. Well, it took us down the other side of the mountain on the type of road I just described. How do I know?
Down there we hit a beautiful highway and were ready to give up on our Monteverde idea. We stopped for lunch and debated the issue. I asked a tourist bus driver how they manage the roads. No problemo. For 60 bucks he'd have a taxi from Monteverde pick us up and take us there. I seriously considered that option but what was I to do with our car?
So, with some trepidation we entered Hotel Finca Valverde into our GPS once again aand drove back up the mountain to finally find the place right in the town of San Elena. One way streets are everywhere and we make circles to get anywhere but we now leave the car and walk around town for food and to see the place. The GPS had one gas station but it was closed ffor repairs. Great. I ask around and am told of a guy who sells gas by the bottle. He gets it from down the mountain and makes a profit in the deal. I buy 20 liters for 30 bucks just to keep Marlies happy with enough gas in the tank. He made $10 on the deal. All of this without speaking Spanish.
In town the stores are set up for tourists and we hit an orchid garden at $10 a head. Most of the orchids are locally collected in the wild and very tiny. Many are in bloom but I never did an orchid show with a magnifying glass before. Anyway, we have a nice room and good service in our hotel restaurant. The main thing was to be able to rest up from the trip but no matter where you went or what you did, everything was always up hill. I wanted to have a cup of java or lunch in a tree house restaurant and hotel but Marlies refused to climb yet another set of steps. She simply stood her ground down below.
We stay two nights in Monteverde. On May 7th we go to see what else we can do but no matter where we turn we run into the same damn rubble roads and we are sick of them. The prices are a bit outrageous too. Young people might enjoy zip lines, rock climbing or white water rafting but for us a 20 minute ride over the tree tops with yet another set of hanging bridges to cross was not worth $100. So we left the major tourist attraction and looked for the two nature parks in the area. No signs. We did run into the Monteverde Trainforest quite by accident and pulled in. A load of 50 tourists from a ship in Puntegeras had just taken the train ahead of us but they started another for us for a 2 hours ride through the rain forest. Again, at $50 they were desparate ffor business. Everything was new and they were still under construction but the ride with guide was actually well worth it. You simply can't see the forest unless you are a mountain climber and a lot younger then we are unless something takes you there. The slow train did this wonderfully. The trouble was that the clouds had come in and there were no views beyond 150 feet or so but we had seen the distance so it was OK but for the tourists it was a 3 hour ride each way to see clouds at $120 a person plus lunch. Such is the nature of guided tours from afar.
The highlight of this trip was seeing a rare and endangered Quetzal in the trees. These are the birds that provided feathers for the nobles of pre-Columbian culture across Central America and beyond. They were highly valued and almost driven to extinction.
But we had enough cloud forest and wanted back to civilization and better roads. I want to see the Southern Pacific and the next day we leave bright and early on a long trip to Manuel Antonio near the Osa Peninsula.
The wildlife was abundant and monkeys came out of the trees to look us over at the restaurant.
They seem to watch us us much as we watch them.
The other problem was the lack of roadsigns. You just have no idea where you are in the mountains of a strange country. The GPS get lost and tells you to make U turns or gives other strange directions. Once we were in San Elenas I told the GPS to take us to a particular hotel. Well, it took us down the other side of the mountain on the type of road I just described. How do I know?
Down there we hit a beautiful highway and were ready to give up on our Monteverde idea. We stopped for lunch and debated the issue. I asked a tourist bus driver how they manage the roads. No problemo. For 60 bucks he'd have a taxi from Monteverde pick us up and take us there. I seriously considered that option but what was I to do with our car?
So, with some trepidation we entered Hotel Finca Valverde into our GPS once again aand drove back up the mountain to finally find the place right in the town of San Elena. One way streets are everywhere and we make circles to get anywhere but we now leave the car and walk around town for food and to see the place. The GPS had one gas station but it was closed ffor repairs. Great. I ask around and am told of a guy who sells gas by the bottle. He gets it from down the mountain and makes a profit in the deal. I buy 20 liters for 30 bucks just to keep Marlies happy with enough gas in the tank. He made $10 on the deal. All of this without speaking Spanish.
In town the stores are set up for tourists and we hit an orchid garden at $10 a head. Most of the orchids are locally collected in the wild and very tiny. Many are in bloom but I never did an orchid show with a magnifying glass before. Anyway, we have a nice room and good service in our hotel restaurant. The main thing was to be able to rest up from the trip but no matter where you went or what you did, everything was always up hill. I wanted to have a cup of java or lunch in a tree house restaurant and hotel but Marlies refused to climb yet another set of steps. She simply stood her ground down below.
We stay two nights in Monteverde. On May 7th we go to see what else we can do but no matter where we turn we run into the same damn rubble roads and we are sick of them. The prices are a bit outrageous too. Young people might enjoy zip lines, rock climbing or white water rafting but for us a 20 minute ride over the tree tops with yet another set of hanging bridges to cross was not worth $100. So we left the major tourist attraction and looked for the two nature parks in the area. No signs. We did run into the Monteverde Trainforest quite by accident and pulled in. A load of 50 tourists from a ship in Puntegeras had just taken the train ahead of us but they started another for us for a 2 hours ride through the rain forest. Again, at $50 they were desparate ffor business. Everything was new and they were still under construction but the ride with guide was actually well worth it. You simply can't see the forest unless you are a mountain climber and a lot younger then we are unless something takes you there. The slow train did this wonderfully. The trouble was that the clouds had come in and there were no views beyond 150 feet or so but we had seen the distance so it was OK but for the tourists it was a 3 hour ride each way to see clouds at $120 a person plus lunch. Such is the nature of guided tours from afar.
The highlight of this trip was seeing a rare and endangered Quetzal in the trees. These are the birds that provided feathers for the nobles of pre-Columbian culture across Central America and beyond. They were highly valued and almost driven to extinction.
But we had enough cloud forest and wanted back to civilization and better roads. I want to see the Southern Pacific and the next day we leave bright and early on a long trip to Manuel Antonio near the Osa Peninsula.
The wildlife was abundant and monkeys came out of the trees to look us over at the restaurant.
They seem to watch us us much as we watch them.
catch-up, May 5, 2010
a lot has happened since I last wrote on May 4th. Today is Saturday, May 15th.
Where do I start? Probably best by taking a look at my pictures on my laptop aand explaining why I haven't posted for all this time. The main reason is the insufferable keyboard on my little netbook. Random things happen and it would take me forever to get an intelligible post out the door. Second is the lack of time on the road and the fickleness of getting on line. Anyway, let me try to catch up today here in the hotel lobby of Hotel San Tomas in San Jose.
On May 5th we took off for the cloud forest of Monteverde. On the way we stopped at the Hanging Bridges of Arenal. The bridges were a self guided tour which took us most of the morning as there were many bridges to cross. Basically, it was a walk through the jungle of tree tops and ground growth of all types. Epiphytes grew everywhere. Lichens and moss was covering every available surface. Monkeys were in the trees and birds of all kinds flew about. It was a precursor of things to come in our journey. For Marlies it was a tough and long walk up and down the mountain sides. For me it was scary to walk across the high hanging bridges. I don't know where my fear of heights comes from but there it is. The views from the bridges across the landscape were extraordinary.
For lunch we stopped at a roadside lodge which gave us some more views of Vulcan Arsenal and the nature that abounds the area.
As we drove on we started our search for a hotel for the night when we saw this Swiss chalet on the roadside. I pulled in immediately to check it out. They showed me our room with balcony and I was sold for the night. It is probably best to view the pictures of this little Switzerland but suffice it to say that the owner invested his life in the endeavor and with some marketing and finishing touches could really have something there. He seems to have started things aand then never finished or neglected them. Still, we had an enjoyable stay there.
Where do I start? Probably best by taking a look at my pictures on my laptop aand explaining why I haven't posted for all this time. The main reason is the insufferable keyboard on my little netbook. Random things happen and it would take me forever to get an intelligible post out the door. Second is the lack of time on the road and the fickleness of getting on line. Anyway, let me try to catch up today here in the hotel lobby of Hotel San Tomas in San Jose.
On May 5th we took off for the cloud forest of Monteverde. On the way we stopped at the Hanging Bridges of Arenal. The bridges were a self guided tour which took us most of the morning as there were many bridges to cross. Basically, it was a walk through the jungle of tree tops and ground growth of all types. Epiphytes grew everywhere. Lichens and moss was covering every available surface. Monkeys were in the trees and birds of all kinds flew about. It was a precursor of things to come in our journey. For Marlies it was a tough and long walk up and down the mountain sides. For me it was scary to walk across the high hanging bridges. I don't know where my fear of heights comes from but there it is. The views from the bridges across the landscape were extraordinary.
For lunch we stopped at a roadside lodge which gave us some more views of Vulcan Arsenal and the nature that abounds the area.
As we drove on we started our search for a hotel for the night when we saw this Swiss chalet on the roadside. I pulled in immediately to check it out. They showed me our room with balcony and I was sold for the night. It is probably best to view the pictures of this little Switzerland but suffice it to say that the owner invested his life in the endeavor and with some marketing and finishing touches could really have something there. He seems to have started things aand then never finished or neglected them. Still, we had an enjoyable stay there.
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