Surfin' costa rican style.

March 16th, we woke a little later today and had our breakfast of fruit, eggs and toast.  Then it was to the beach for a few hours.  The beach by our hotel -playa Chiquita is very nice, white sand and blue ocean.  It is swimable at low tide, but the waves were pretty rough today.  So we took a walk and then lazed about reading for a while, nice and relaxing.  After a few hours of sun, we headed out for lunch.  Being a Sunday not much is open and even the places that are open don't much serve lunch.  We found a little cafe that served vegan lunch, so the settled for this.  Frank and the girls had a lentil burger and I had a bruschetta plate, it was all quite yummy. Then we headed to the hotel to get ready for our surf lessons.  
Bento the surf school owner picked us up and took us to the black sand beach just south of Puerto Viejo.  Delaney and I were presented with the paddle boards, a quick lesson on where to stand on the broad and then we were sent off in to the ocean, yikes, my balance sucks!   Delaney was pretty steady but she was nervous when the waves hit. But we went out into the bay and water was pretty calm, we spent a while getting used to it and trying to balance, I think I only fell off twice.  Frank and Danica were doing surf lessons, Dani was quickly a pro and frank was holding his own.  We got tired after a bit and then headed back to shore to watch the 2 of them.  Bento called us to bring the paddle boards out to him and then we could surf those, so we paddled out and he set about pushing me and telling me to get up and surf I did.  The first 2 or so waves weren't too bad, then I fell and wouldn't you know it a face plant into the sand.  Oh my I had sand in places that sand should not go, including between my teeth!  Okay I think I will stick to the paddle board.  After a couple of hours we were spent. So back to the lodge.  Dinner, we weren't sure where to eat, we walked back down to jungle love but they were full and so ended up at the same place as we ate last night, tonight was not that good, as they were having a problem getting water and the menu was whittled down to not much to offer.  The girls had pasta and chicken, I had Portuguese style pork that was not very good and Frank had a fish plate.  The food is not that great here considering it costs us about $70 on average per meal!  After dinner we had to pack as tomorrow we leave.

Cauhita snorkel!

March 15th-We were up at 6:30am as we had a snorkel and hike planned.   A 7am breakfast and 7:30 pick up.  Our cab driver drove us the 20 mins to Cauhita for Roberto's snorkel adventure.  We arrived and were quickly outfitted with flippers, mask and snorkel and then we trekked downtown to the shore to the boat.  
A rustic boat unlike the catamarans we have experienced in Hawaii! We sat down and were off to the reef.  Thank goodness for ginger root! After about 15 minutes we were at the reef and our guide was in the water in a flash.  It took Delaney a little courage but she jumped in like a pro, as did Danica. 
We were snorkelling for a while before we started to see the good coral, the brain coral and the coloured fish. But once we had our sea legs we saw quite a bit.  After about 40 minutes Delaney was done and so we headed back to the boat, just in time as he was gathering everyone.  We climbed in and headed over to a new spot and jumped back in.  There was a lot of coral here and tons of colourful fish, we saw 2 lion fish, some eels, a small stingray and lots of colourful little guys.  After another 30 or so minutes we all piled back in to the boat and headed to the little peak we could see at the head of what we found out to be Cauhita national park.  
We climbed off and enjoyed a snack of some red fruit we had no idea what it was, as well as pineapple and papaya!  2 raccoons and a white faced monkey joined us for our snack.  The Anthony showed up- he was to be our guide for the hike back.  We started on the trail, following the shoreline and before we knew it we were seeing all kinds of things we would have walked by, right off there were multiple sloths in the trees above; we must have spotted at least a dozen before the end of the hike.  Anthony pointed out a bright yellow viper hiding waiting for its prey, he said if we were bitten that we had 2 hours to get anti venom,  good to know!  We saw some more monkeys, the white faced ones though and not the howlers.  We also learnt a ton about all the plants and trees along the way. There were long lashed vipers, purple land crabs, gold fitted spiders, gorgeous blue butterflies and at the end of our 2 hour hike back to town we even saw some large iguanas!  A pretty amazing day. 
We headed back to the place we had started and were treated to a "typical" lunch, which is a meat/fish of your choice and rice and beans.  Then our ride was there and took us back to our hotel.  We spent the afternoon chilling at the pool.  Dinner was tough as we don't have too many places to choose from, but we settled on huge place that had live calypso music.  The girls had pasta and Frank and I both had lobster tacos, the were not too bad.  Then we headed to bed as we were pooped.  No rain tonight, but the monkeys still woke us at 5 am.

A bike ride in to town

March 14th-Despite our 5am wake up we fell back asleep and woke at 8 for breakfast.  This was a treat of a fruit plate with mangoes, pineapple, banana, passion fruit, papaya and watermelon. Followed by eggs and toast.  Coffee and chocolate milk.  After this delicious breakie we walked down the road to the bike rental place- whoops no bikes.  We thought we would walk down a while and we were sure we would find someone renting them.  

Sure enough a house on the road had a sign for bike rentals.  After the lady extracted them from the pile we were off on a bike trip into town.  It took us about 35 minutes to cycle into town along the busy road into Puerto Viejo. We arrived at lunch time, parked our bikes and took an amble around the small town.  Some quaint stores and kiosks to explore. 

We were hungry by this time and found a restaurant that looked good! Outback Jacks!  Frank and I has fish tacos while the girls has chicken quesadillas.  Then we explored a little more and headed back to the lodge.  Stopping along the way to enjoy the blue ocean.  

We arrived back at the lodge and changed and headed to the pool.  We got to see the sloth on the way, he is the resort " pet" and wanders from tree to tree,  there is so much wild life around here we have not yet figured out what the animals are all named.  There are these tiny white birds that sound like rocks smashing together; the little guinea pig like animals; the howler monkeys all over, birds, birds everywhere, geckos and spiders that are huge!  

After a few hours at the pool we showered and headed over to Jungle Love for dinner.  Our hosts were from San Francisco and served a delicious dinner of pizza for the girls; swordfish for me and tuna steak for Frank.  What a great place, so far all the restaurants have been el fresco, so the bugs eat with you too.  

After our dinner we headed back and once again as we turned the lights out the rain came down.  Pouring like there was no end.  Once again too the monkeys woke us up at 5 howling like mad!

Costa Rica- Spring Break 2014

March 13th, we arrived in a pretty cool San Jose - after a 5.5 hour flight from LA! We had started our journey at dinner time in YVR, the night before.

We had to go through a long customs line and then retrieve our baggage.  We also realized it might be a good idea to exchange some of our US dollars to colones. While we were doing this a girl at the counter heard us asking directions to to the Denny's - she said there was a shuttle that would take us to the Best Western at the Denny's and if was free! So we followed them to the shuttle spot and the shuttle showed up and off we went. 

We realized we were not going to the same place when we drove past the Denny's on the other side of the highway!  We had to try and stop the driver (who spoke no English it seemed!) and he turned around and dropped us at the right spot- thank goodness they are are nice here.  

We were by this time starving and at Denny's but with only 10 minutes until our Interbus was due, we sat in a booth and mowed down some grand slam breakies- very unCosta Rican.  Our bus driver arrived as we were eating, but he waited for us while we finished.  Then we were on the road, our 5 hour ride to the coast.  We were all pretty tired and drifted in and out of sleep, watching the lush countryside pass us by.  We had picked up 2 other passengers on the way and when we reached the coast we dropped them off one by one.  

We eventually arrived at Puerto Viejo and the Shawandha Lodge.  Set in a gorgeous garden of green and just amazing.  We'd had to wait about 30 mins for our room so we took a walk on the beach- which was pretty wild and uninhabited- and then our room was ready,  Number 14 at the back.  Set in the forest all the bungalows are incredible.  We quickly settled in to the sounds of the jungle around us, including the very loud howler monkeys!  

We suited up and down to the pool for a few hours of relaxing and snoozing.  Later we came back and got ready for dinner, we walked down the street a little to see what there was to eat and decided to come back and have dinner at our lodge.  We had a dinner of steaks, pasta and osso bucco (so far the food has not over whelmed us.)  

We were pretty exhausted after all that travel so headed up for bed!  The girls watched a little of a movie and we read.  We turned the lights out at about 9 and as we did the rain started pouring down!  It was incredibly loud and so close.  We fell asleep to the sounds of jungle and rain. Only to be awoken at 5ish by the unbelievably loud cries of the howler monkeys!  I cannot believe a monkey can make the much noise! They were right above us and if we had not known what they were we might have died of fright.  

Our Trip to Europe

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Zagreb

Friday was our last full day in Europe and Zagreb. Our apartment being so close to it all was great and we headed out for the market- Dolac. This is a huge what we would call farmers market, but with tons of very cool stands. We spent a good few hours wandering and absorbing the sites- a great place and to think they have this market every day- what a great place if you are a local to buy all your produce, meat, dairy etc. We wandered to the edges of the market for a coffee- my last in Croatia (sniff) and then we were off for some more shopping. The main street- Ilica was tons of great stores and so we shopped and shopped- I needed to buy another suite case to bring all my extras home. We stopped at the Krac candy store and had the best ice creams ever (also our last Croatian ice cream- sniff!) and then went back and dropped it all off at the apartment.


Later we headed out to explore the lower town- we had done the upper town the night before. We walked and passed by so many amazing museums- really wish we had more time to see them all there were so many. We will have to come back to this city that is all there is to it!

We ended up back at the Strossmartre in the upper town. We walked around a bit and then ended up on the café-lined Tkalčićeva Street in the heart of Zagreb’s Upper Town. We found a great place to eat and had a huge meal that filled all the gaps. Strolling down this street after dinner was amazing- so many bars and restaurants, as well as great stores to shop in. Then it was back to the apartment and start packing- boo hoo.

Dolac entrance

Ilica Street

Delaney in her soccer attire 

Great looking buildings house the museums around town.

Art work

Traditional getup

the last supper

the last palačinka

Dolac market

Zagreb Bound

Thursday we had to leave this beautiful island of Hvar.  The ferry to Split only runs a few times a day so we had to be sure that we made the 11 am ferry.  We left at 9:15 to make the 17km trip to Stari Grad and the ferry.  We arrived and were in the second line up- should be no problem to get on this one- turns out the ferry was at 11:30 now (the schedules change like the wind here!)  Of course there was a coffee shop- so we sat back and relaxed for a bit and had a coffee.  At about 10:30 we saw a ferry arrive and went to the car- as I have mentioned the ferry loading is pretty lawless here so if you are not in your car you will lose your spot.  Lucky us we were in our car and the guys in front of us weren't - we had to drive around them, but not before the impatient people behind us thought they would go around both of us!  We made it on to the ferry with no problem- it was big one.  Went up and found a seat for our 2 hour ferry ride.  It felt like a short ride and soon Split was in view- we unloaded pretty quickly and were on the road to Zagreb. We made our way to the A1 and the main highway (thank goodness no more twisting, narrow roads!)  Making the 4 hour journey to Zagreb was pretty painless and fast.  We stopped once at one of the rest stops for lunch and then we were north bound.
Zagreb appeared and the directions we had actually took us to the right spot for check in at the apartment.  (There was certain amount of guessing as to what street we were on as a big city like Zagreb is no different to the small towns in that there are no street names- really??!)
Parking the car we carted our luggage the 2 blocks to the apartment and settled in- what a great place!  Camera on and we went to explore.  The location is great- we are 1 block away from the start of Zagreb's main square - Trg Bana Jelacica and from there the old town up on the hill.  We walked the little streets and saw some amazing sites- the St Mark's church- with it's incredible roof, the old gate to the city and the view from the top of Strossmayer - which appears to be the Monmatre of Zagreb, at the top of the funicular.
We stopped for a dinner at Pod Griokim Topom- a great traditional cuisine restaurant. Now Croatian service- firstly no matter if you are at a high end resaurant or not the service is awful- granted they don't get tips but the service is always the same; get seated give you a menu, come back take your order- drink and food at the same time; if you only order your drinks you may wait forever to get your food order in; when you get your drinks they disappear until the food arrives; once the food is served you are on your own- too bad if you need something else- the waiter is nowhere to be seen; then when you are done the plates will sit for a while and then they are cleared and you could sit up to an hour then- not with a dessert menu or anything just sit until you catch their eye and maybe get your bill!  It is strange and we heard that Croatia was at the bottom of all the European countries for service- not far off, which is so strange for a country where everyone is so friendly and willing to help and stop to chat!
Anyway- we then we strolled down to the square and home.  I like this city a lot!

Zagreb Cathedral

This clock stopped in an earthquake sometime in the 1700's

The tie was invented in Croatia- who knew!

Stone Gate

St Mark's Church

View from the top!

Main square

The apartment.

Pokojni Dol

Pokojni Dol Beach

We rented a paddle boat/slide for an hour-fun!

Waking up to a gorgeous Hvar morning we thought we would head into town for breakfast.  That was not a good idea- most restaurants have great food- breakfast was not so good.  But we ate up had a coffee, walked up the 110 steps and got ready for the beach.  We drove 10 minutes to the beach- getting to a road that we though lead to the beach we were not sure if it was a road or a pathway- we proceeded with extreme caution as there was a sheer drop off the side and only one car could get by at a time, with no pullouts.  Phew okay it was a road as it ended in a parking lot- once again scary roads!
The drive was worth it- the beach was gorgeous!  We scored a couple of lounge chairs at the waters edge and a beach umbrella- thank goodness I got an umbrella as I would have been burnt to a crisp otherwise.  The temp was in the mid 30's! The girls hit the water and Frank hit the rays- I hit my book.  The only thing that sucked was that an hour into our beach time my book ran out- that is what sucks about e-readers.  Oh well- it was great people watching. The girls came out for a breather- and an ice cream; the beach at the end of the road with a nothing else around, had a coffee shop and ice cream stand of course.  Back in the water I headed in with the girls and we played ball for about an hour- the water was unbelievably clear- at times it was like we were in a pool- and pretty warm too. 5 hours at the beach we figured it was time to head home.  We drove to our street only to be stopped by a policeman telling us we couldn't go down the street!!  Apparently some lady had died and there was a HUGE line up on the street waiting to pay their respects.  We had to park and try and make our way via the many steps to our apartment- made it.  We had no idea the apartment was across from the graveyard!  About an hour later we were able to get our car and we headed out for the night- we had decided to head up to fort before dinner.  This majestic fort looks out over the city from high up on the hill.  We drove up (previously we had thought we would walk up, but that would have taken about 90 minutes and we thought it might not be open.  What an incredible view- we explored this 14 century fort for about an hour - prison cells, museum and view - all pretty amazing.
Then we headed back in to town for dinner- we went to a restaurant called Park Hotel and had a wonderfully, delicious dinner.  What a great end to a lovely visit in Hvar.

View from the fort