FRI. 11-16 SAN JOSE
Click to stop music
Lynda’s flights were delayed so much that Joe and Gina caught up with her in Miami. That morning, I went to my internet account. I found
THIS EMAIL
there. As I feared, Windjammer had indeed CANCELLED the cruise and most of both groups had bailed. What we didn't know at the time was that this was the actual demise of the wonderful 50 years of Windjammer Barefoot Cruises. We also didn't expect to lose all of our money ether.
Naturally as the head Cabanaboy, I had prepared Rum Swizzles for us diehards to get the party RE-STARTED. We went back to the
El Rodeo
to get settled in and have dinner. Later that night we went to Luis's office for itinerary planning. He laid out many tours and options for accommodations for us to choose.
For about a Grand each,
Tropical Expeditions
provided:
2 NTS. hotel W/ breakfast at Arenal Volcano
Tabacon Hot Springs W/ Dinner
Baldi Hot Springs W/ Dinner
Horseback riding
Skytram/Zipline
2 NTS. All Incl Resort on Tamarindo beach
2 NTS. hotel W/ breakfast at Manuel Antonio
White water rafting
PLUS.... Transportation at our beck and call as well as Luis with us for the week. I never gave much thought to having the ability to just say "Can we go to the store" whenever we wanted until later in the week. He even made "special" arrangements for some of us.
HEY! I NEVER SAID I WAS A MORNING PERSON.
While at the office we met Luis's family. Since we were going to have him away from his pregnant wife for a week, the girls felt they needed to MARK Luis as "spoken for".
Although we did pay for some meals, I figure this was less than what we would have paid for the Windjammer as this included our excursions. Another big savings was buying our drinks at grocery stores instead of using those expensive "NEW"
Plus we saw WAY more from the van than we ever would have from the ship.
In one week we put nearly 1,500 Kilometers on the Magic bus
SAT. 11-17 TRAVEL DAY TO LA FORTUNA
LUIS LIED! We started bright and early most mornings trying to get in as much as possible. OK, The "Left Coastie" wasn't so bright.
We rode about 2 hours before we stopped at a roadhouse for breakfast.
Food was just OK. I ordered poorly, and got some very dry cheese w/tortillas. I accidentally sampled Penny’s sweet plantains, and reordered what SHE had. Luis ate twice too, but for other reasons.
Later, Luis insisted that we stop a roadside open smoker to get pork jerky. DEFINITELY a "locals only" spot! A little salty for some, but I thought it was spicy and VERY tasty. Had I not been still full from eating 1 hr. earlier, I might have STUFFED myself on just that and the potatoes.
Here we saw our first toucans. There were quite a few going in and out of the trees, but they were hard to catch a clear shot of.
As you can see, it was raining pretty good for most of the drive. Luis remarked about how brown the water was, so he could tell it would be too swift to go rafting.
We finally arrived at the rafting company headquarters. As Luis predicted, they were afraid to take us out.
Glad to be out of the van, we took the opportunity for a stretch and check surrounding out the area. We had fun playing with their Chihuahua, and 5-week-old puppy too.
I was out getting some photos, and the ladies there were concerned about me getting wet.
They must have thought I needed a make-over too 'cause the poncho they had gave me that "
FABULOUS
CAROLE ANN LOOK" She introduced in Golfitos last May.
While I was getting ready for some dancin' in the rain, Luis found some Poison Dart frogs by just poking around in the bushes near the river. They must be plentiful there as they had a sign pointing the general area to look for them, but no barriers or warnings. OBVIOUSLY we were in a country with few lawyers, considering just touching their skin while they are secreting can be fatal. The frogs, not the lawyers. Wait a minute?? Hmm... I was very surprised that they were only about ˝ an inch long though. The frogs, not the lawyers.
We drove more 3 hours in the pouring rain to La Fortuna where although cloudy was not raining. The roads here go from excellent to terrible. Kinda like my hometown, Vallejo.
The welcoming committee was a little creepy though.
