Resplendent

Saturday

For our morning resplendent quetzal tour, we drove 8 km back up the highway to Parque Nacional Tapantí. Our guide walked along carrying his large scope and calling to the quetzals. He shortly spotted a female and let us see, then walked us around and we got a really good view of her.



Then we walked further up the hill and spotted a young male. He was flighty, never staying in a single location for more than a minute, so I never got any really good pictures of him.



As we continued walking looking for a quetzal, we spotted an emerald toucanet.



To get really good, close-up pictures of the birds, he took our camera and put the lens against his scope. It actually worked pretty well. I tried the method myself, but I wasn’t as good at it. I was very thankful my sensor was dust-free for this opportunity.

This is an old quetzal nest (no eggs or anything) of which I took a photo using the lens to scope technique.

Our guide with his large scope trying to locate a male quetzal who shortly alighted in the tree ahead.

It was a short hike in a gorgeous countryside and a rather enjoyable morning.

There was a trout farm there.

After we got back, Jonathan changed Chuck’s oil. The collapsible tub that I bought worked great. He also checked the fuel filter. When we left San José, Chuck started having power issues again. In fact, when we stopped for a toll the day before, Jonathan almost couldn’t get him to roll on through it. We had to pull over and turn off the engine for a few seconds. After that, it was fine for a while--at least until we started climbing Costa Rica’s highlands at night. We had finally gotten a chance to pass the slow farm truck and when we did, Chuck gave out on us and barely chugged to a stop on the shoulder. So Jonathan inspected this as well. He thought it might have been fuel filter issues. In fact, we had a lot of sediment in our fuel and the fuel was red. The redness we think is a Costa Rican practice, not indicative of some issue. He also swapped our fuel pumps in case it was fuel pump issue. As a plus, our campground host wanted the oil for his lawn mower. We were happy to give it to him.

 

After this and lunch, we decided to take the 4km hike around the property. Despite it being “Paraíso del Quetzal,” we didn’t see any quetzals there. There were lots of hummingbirds, tall white oaks, and pretty scenery.






After that, it was time to move on to our next destination Parque Nacional Marino Ballena. We found the place easy enough and enjoyed free camping at the entrance to the park. The plan was to see the turtles and dolphins and perhaps kayak, but the ranger told us it wasn’t quite the season for either of those yet, so we moved on the next morning.

Sunday

Our next spot was La Purruja Lodge in Golfito; it would be our last night in Costa Rica before moving on to Panamá. I was immediately charmed by its monkey inhabitants, the red-backed squirrel monkeys. And they also had gorgeous flowers.

Too cute! They are small – about the size of a small cat.

That wrapped up our time in Costa Rica for the southbound portion for on Monday we made our way to Panamá.

Back in ‘Rica

Thursday

Our flights back were uneventful. No delays, no lines, we even got to sit together in both airplanes. Even customs was smooth, minus the long lines. We had emailed ahead for Country Inn & Suites to pick us up at the airport and they were waiting for us (with my name on sign—yay!).

I wasn’t quick enough to get it while it was displayed, but at least I have a bit of a picture this time.

At the hotel, we negotiated a cheaper price for a room. This time, we had a king-sized bed, which meant no issues with Jonathan hogging the bed.



The van was in good order as well, we just needed to air up our front right tire, which has had a slow leak. And my plants were alive with 3 of them developing pups!

This is the biggest of the pups.

Friday

The plan was to get up and take our time to get out of the hotel. Check-out time was at noon, so we had plenty of time. We had breakfast at their restaurant. I can tell that school is out. This time around the place was rampant with school-age kids (from high school through college). As such, the restaurant had a hard time keeping the buffet line stocked. I definitely miss my between-seasons traveling.

Deciding to get on the road, we checked out and left the van half-packed. The goal was to head down the road and hit up Walmart before arriving at Montaña Linda where we could camp and do laundry. Everything went as planned, except that when we arrived at Montaña Linda, it was pouring. So, we decided to eat lunch and let the rain calm down before we went in to figure out pricing and location and such. Probably not the best idea ever as when we went in, they said don’t allow camping anymore. That meant we needed to find someplace else. I pulled out my camping list and found another option not too far away. However, JED (our GPS) led us down this back way. It started out paved, and then asphalt had been laid down and then there was a shallow river crossing.



It was at this river crossing that we really started to doubt JED. There was only about 5 km left on this road, however, so we decided to go for it. After that, the road was just packed dirt with rocks, but doable. There was narrow bridge.

Note: Sign says “Bridge is in bad state, only light vehicles.”

And then, JED told us to go right… We did (well after we missed the turn the first time), but as we turned the corner, we saw the road ahead. It was a dirt road (now slick with mud) and crazy steep and winding. Probably only doable with a 4x4. That nixed the way for us and we only had about 1-2km left to go to a paved road, but it just wasn’t doable. We turned back, already weary and prepared to take the long bypass. Traffic in town was horrendous. We finally made it to the Pan-American highway, though. It was really starting to get dark by then at 6:00pm. By 6:30pm, it was dark, rainy, and foggy combined with a dark, twisty road. Not the most fun thing ever. To top it off, we were stuck behind a couple of slow farm trucks.



We finally pulled off the road to our destination, Paraíso del Quetzal, at about 7:00pm. It was dark and the signs weren’t illuminated, so we were sure where exactly we were supposed to park. There wasn’t even any buildings with lights on inside, so we didn’t know who to ask. We decided to go back to a parking area a little up the road. We settled in and shortly afterward, a man named Oscar came up and asked us if we wanted to camp here. We negotiated a price and set up a tour for the morning. Then I got to make dinner and put away all the stuff I had left out earlier.

So much for an uneventful day.

Stateside Antics with Family

Coming to the States without a vehicle pretty much meant we were stuck with family. Which was just as well, we missed them a bit. For the first part of our two-week stay, we were with my parents and my sister. While we mostly stayed at home working on things on our stateside to-do list, we did some things with my family. For the first weekend there, one set of my aunts and uncles on my mom’s side were in town. So we spent several meals on the water with them.

As his first meal back in the States, Jonathan got his requisite American cheeseburger.

On one such endeavor, we were almost to our destination when we met my aunt and uncle. They had apparently heard that bad weather was on the way and wanted to pull the boat out of the water. We decided to meet them at Pizza Hut instead. About halfway back, the jet ski that I was riding started beeping and a red warning light came on. Not at all sure what it was and afraid that it was oil or something critical like that, I immediately shut off the ski and waved Jonathan over (my parents were too far ahead already). After some discussion and troubleshooting, we determined it was low fuel. I hadn’t expected this, as when we started off, my dad had said that the amount that I had was sufficient for the trip. The good news is that despite the warning, I made it back safely to the dock. The bad news is that they didn’t tell me until I had arrived in the cove that you can turn off the beeping. I had to listen to its harsh chirps all the way back.

I am apparently really bad about taking pictures with my family, probably because we never really did that growing up except for special occasions. I am sure that it didn’t help that I sent out my camera to get repaired. If you recall, right before we ventured into México, I discovered that there specks of dust on my camera sensor. The only way to get it fixed under warranty was to send it into their Laredo Repair Center. So one of the first things that I did when we got back was ship off my camera to be repaired. They had quoted me a turn-around time of 7-10 days to repair it and then add another few days for mailing. If I was lucky, it would arrive right before we left. If not, I would have to steal my mother’s camera (same model as mine) when I went back. So you can imagine my surprise when I shipped it on Friday, it arrived at the repair center on Monday, and by Friday (only one week from when I had mailed it) it was back in my hands. I was very excited to have my camera back and speck-free.

I don’t normally like to fattening and unhealthy things when I am staying with my family, but when I have been traveling with limits on what I can cook, I find it hard to resist. So, while my sister and Mitchell made healthy meals and my mom made decent meals, I made fattening foods. I did my Olive Garden Chicken & Gnocchi soup knock-off. I tried some delicious oatmeal-raisin waffles (substitute your own add-ins for the raisins) for which even Jonathan didn’t have suggested improvements. And to finish it off, I made an (eggless) two-layer strawberry cream cake per semi-request of my sister’s boyfriend. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. It could have been moister, but it could have been a result of the lack of silken tofu. And to finish things off, mom and I tag-teamed to make melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls the last day I was in town.

Per different requirements, one half has sugar-free Cool Whip, one quarter has regular Cool Whip, and the last quarter has whipped cream. This is exactly why we never cooked growing up.

While I was working on the blog and other list of to-dos and cooking up unhealthy deliciousness, Jonathan was either working on his own list of to-dos (mostly generated by me) or fixing my family’s gadgets. There is always something computer or technology-related to fix for my family. But this time, he got to fix the pontoon. It didn’t want to start up when we tried to move it, so he spent an afternoon or two fixing that with my dad. This fixing of watercraft carried on to his family’s and ours when to Mountain Home, AR starting a week after we arrived in the States. When we left Costa Rica, he had planned on fixing his own boat and ski and seeing what he could do for one of his family skis, but as it got closer to going to Mountain Home, the list grew to encompass the new, large family boat and more problems on the skis than originally broadcast. While Jonathan slaved away outside, he soon realized he wouldn’t get it all done in the time we allotted. So, he finished up both skis, and was at least able to point his dad on what he needed done at the mechanics. Our boat will have to wait for another trip, but I think Jonathan is looking forward to another trip back.



While in Mountain Home, we got to spend time not only with Jonathan’s grandparents, but with his parents who came down as well. One especially enjoyable day was going out on the lake. We took the new boat out and tried skiing with a longer rope (memorial day weekend had proven that it wasn’t pleasant to ski behind it with the original rope). The length helped and both Cyndi and I got two decent skis in. The water was cold and resulted in quite a few comedic incidents.

Howling like a howler monkey.

Before long, the time we were willing to spend away from Chuck was up. We drove back to Shell Knob on Wednesday and were escorted to the airport on Thursday to do the return flights.