From the city to the country

No news, good news… since we arrived in Paris a month ago, we’ve been quite busy taking photos, visiting family, and getting back to the countryside ways… We stayed about a week at my sister’s in Paris and spent our days trekking through the city in search of stock photography, which is easy to find… We walked four to five hours each day and covered the big tourist attractions: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Place des Vosges, and a few more… but there are still plenty of shots left for our next visits!

do we look cold???

Even though I lived there for 5 years before, it was nice to be like a tourist in Paris: I hadn’t been back at the Eiffel Tower since I was six, and I had never been to the Sacre Coeur!



Anyway, Paris doesn’t change much: busy, impressive, cool stores everywhere, fairly dirty, and expensive… in fact, with the exception of the architecture, it is much like New York! Well, and I think Parisians smoke a lot more too… hehe, old habits die hard! ☺

Dark but impressive, Notre Dame interior

My sister's daughter

Anyway after a week, we moved on again towards the countryside this time. We stopped for a quick hello at my brother’s place between Paris and the south, and then down we went, to the middle of nowhere in southwestern France, somewhere between Bordeaux and Toulouse, close to wine country, in the heart of foie gras country, and definitely also in the heart of medieval castle country. The region was at the border between the British and French kingdoms during the Middle Ages, hot spot of wars between the countries, and so, almost every village is built on a hill, and every village has its own castle!

Gargoyle @ the Sacre Coeur

My house is in a tiny village of about 200 inhabitants (with its own castle ☺; well, the remains of it anyway: there wasn’t much left already, and the main building burned down over the past summer, leaving only the walls!). It is nice to be back where I grew up; many good memories for me there and plenty of gardening and artwork for us to work on.

photo from an old sanctuary not far from my house

There’s also plenty of photo opportunities as well so I think Paul’s handling the lack of ocean fairly well…

The Longest Day

Traveling from San Jose, Costa Rica to Paris was a long and rough trip... probably the worst trip I've ever had...
It began well enough on Monday in Costa Rica; the plane was in time and the board bag was taken care of quickly and efficiently... a first!
Things got really ugly in Miami though... the plane taxied for over a half an hour waiting for a gate... so we only had 45 minutes to get to our connecting flight. (no problem...)
eeek... Miami being the worst international airport out there, we had to go through immigration (a big no-no for me since I really did not want a new US stamp in my passport...), get our bags, re-check the bags, and go through the gates all over again... in 45 minutes... well, that wasn't going to happen.
We got our bags and then went to wait in line for another hour to get another flight. In the meantime, there was no help from anyone either from the airport or from American Airlines to try and actually get us on our actual flight or get where we were supposed to be... so I was fairly angry...
Anyway, we finally got to a rather efficient lady who got us on the very next flight to London, connecting to Paris... So we were back on and running to our next flight, which we caught....
During the flight from Miami to London, I ate something that didn't agree with me... at first i thought it was just the nasty airplane coffee, but it stayed.... I was nocious the rest of the flight to London, while waiting in line for more security checks in London, then threw up in London, and again during the flight from London to Paris, and again and again in Paris.... lovely!
Oh yeah, of course, as expected with all these connections and changes, one of our bags didn't follow; but that seemed minor after the rest! (It arrived a few hours later at my sister's apartment.)
It is the kind of trip that makes you dread taking the plane again but at least, we got to Paris in one piece and with all our luggage!

The Costa Rican portion of our trip is coming to an end quicker than we originally expected… We originally had plane tickets on Air Madrid to return to France on the 20^th of February, which we had to purchase before returning into Costa Rica from Panama, to show that we were indeed leaving the country at some point. Unfortunately, out of the thousands of airlines out there, this is the one that had to file for bankruptcy and cancel all flights two weeks later…

Luckily enough, a headline on a Costa Rican newspaper caught my eye soon after that, which related the bad luck of the thousands of passengers stranded in airports right before Christmas… But we basically didn’t have a return ticket anymore…

Of course, the airline was unavailable to answer calls and it was not taking responsibility for anything… so after many unsuccessful attempts, we resorted to getting brand new tickets… that worked out OK, but now, instead of leaving around the 20^th of February, we’re leaving the 12^th, which was definitely cheaper… but… that’s less than a week away!

So we’re now getting psychologically ready for cold weather and enjoying our last few days of warmth and beach. For me, it’s a mixture of excitement at going home again and at the same time a bit of dread at the thought of the lovely Paris February weather (wet and cold), for which we’re definitely not prepared!

In the meantime though, let’s not waste time and take advantage of the last Costa Rican days for a little lesson in surfing technique, with Mr. Topp…

And here, the proper technique in doing a cut back…

And this is what the same technique should result in if applied to bigger waves (Playa Cocles).

And here, a great demonstration of the Nose-Ride.

And finally, last but not least, the tricky Walk-on-Water technique.

Tada! and if you can master these, you're on your way to good surfing...

OK, so this is what we will be doing (well, really, what Paul will be doing, and I will just do what I can… surfing well is definitely harder than it seems!) during our last few days in Puerto Viejo. We are due back in San Jose on Saturday for the last minute Mercado Central shopping and then on the plane on Monday.

Cahuita National Park

The weather having improved quite a bit in the last few days, we went to visit the Cahuita National Park, a half an hour away by bus. The Park is along the coast and protects both near shore habitats and the coral reef that is just offshore. It is always great to expect little and get more! The Lonely Planet wasn’t very talkative about the park other than about the coral it was protecting and it did not seem very popular.

The trail followed the coastline in the rainforest and wildlife was not very shy… 2 minutes in and we already had spotted a yellow viper on the side of the trail. It was very still and had ants around its mouth, so it might have been dead, but then again, its eyes were very open and looking really mean…

Five minutes later, we were in the middle of a group of howler monkeys. They were up in the trees and kept their distance (sort of) but apparently did not care at all about our presence.

As we walked along, there was plenty more wildlife to see, including blue morpho butterflies, nasty-looking spiders, sloths, and more monkeys.

In addition to the howlers, there were also a lot of white-face monkeys (“Marcel” for the Friends buffs); now these were definitely not shy, they were actually interested in people! Well, actually they were not so much interested in people as in their potential as food source…

They had figured out that cameras and camera bags had no food so they didn’t pay too much attention to us, but a lady that walked by with a small pack of crackers in her hand got it stolen quickly! (There were signs telling people not to feed the monkeys, but obviously that did not do much good because the monkeys knew very well what looked like food and how to open plastic wraps.) That made for an entertaining hike though!

Along the way we met a French couple; the guy must have been some sort of field biologist because he’s ability to find wildlife was phenomenal… Every other step he found something: from the sloths perfectly camouflaged in the trees to the pink viper hidden under a bush… very helpful!

Find the sloths (2)...

After four hours of hiking, we were worn out, but the day was far from over… after a good typical Costa Rican casado lunch, we set out to wait for the bus…. Two and a half hours later, it finally came! Apparently, there was a broken bridge somewhere, which delayed three buses… So we finally got home that night around 9:30 pm!

Playa Negra

Little news is good news… things are a bit slow here these days… surfing, reading, drawing, watching the rain falling… mmmh, somehow, the weather is only somewhat cooperative with us and it rains about two out of three days.



We still get out surfing a lot though, although the waves are not so good at Playa Negra; yes, they’re definitely smaller than Playa Cocles when the swell comes in, but hardly rideable.


And then we also get to go venture when the weather is cooperating. The black sand beach here is at least as long as the white sand beach at Cocles, it just keeps on going for miles it seems, most of it deserted and backed with palm trees and lush jungle. It’s very scenic.

Black sand beach, looking at Pto Viejo

same spot, looking in the other direction

It's also funny to see the usual criters around here: no pigeons, but vultures take their place on the beach and on rubbish heaps; hardly any stray dogs (they are all looking well fed and owned...) but stray horses instead, wandering the streets and rummaging through the rubbish too! Apparently, rubbish may be better than grass... :)
We went to Limon a few days ago, the only city in the area, the headquarters for banana export. It’s very much unlike the rest of the Carribean coast: it’s busy with people going places (as opposed to just hanging out), bustling with stores selling everything but souvenirs, and very untouristy. So we wandered around the streets and the Mercado Central for a few hours, and then returned to Puerto Viejo with a mystery ailment that had both Paul and I feeling a bit odd for a couple of days… We both had aching joints and a slight headache… but Paul also had sweating bouts at night, completely drenched, yet no fever… and then that’s it, the second day, it was over.

sunset on Playa Negra, courtesy of PT

In the latest news also, I managed to sprain my knee and my ankle at the same time in knee-deep water on the smallest surf day we’ve had… I’m not too proud of that! (Well, at least it was nothing serious, just a minor sprain)

From Playa Cocles to Playa Negra

Night-time beach fun...

The third eye...

After two weeks of relative inactivity because of poor weather and impossible surf (we would have gone in the water in the rain had the waves been cooperating), the lack of things to do emphasizing the shortcomings of the place we stayed at (very poor internet, leaky roof in our room, dark (hard to read, and we did a lot of that!), mosquitoes all over our room, no useable kitchen, really crappy restaurant, far from town especially in the rain… anyway…), we decided that we’d try and find a better place to stay and an easier break to surf.

We had to part from our Playa Cocles pet, ¨Minou¨

After some search in Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, we settled on a place on the other side of Puerto Viejo (north of it instead of south), in a hotel across the road from rightfully-named Playa Negra – sand as black as I’ve ever seen it, like sparkly powdered charcoal. Our new room is a comfy little studio, with all the furniture made of driftwood for a very “organic” feel :)…

Playa Cocles sloth

During our last week at Playa Cocles, the weather drastically improved, so we took advantage of it and went cycling around to a butterfly farm a few miles away (there seems to be a butterfly farm in every town in this country, but then again, their butterflies are very cool). The farm was on the top of a hill, a grinding ride up on a bad gravel road (actually, not a ride, impossible to stay on the bike on either the way up or down!), and was not on the main tourist path. We spent a couple of hours alone in the butterfly garden, photographing away.

Grecian Shoemaker butterfly

... what a professional! so in tune with his surroundings he attracts the butterflies! hehehe...

Longwing butterfly

Owl butterfly

We also took advantage of the nice weather to get back into the water, well, Paul mostly… the waves were still not looking real friendly to me and I preferred taking photos from a distance or reading on the beach!... After all, surfing the beach breaks in this country has proven to be very fickle and challenging, especially on bigger days, when the waves all crash on the shore at the same time. On those days, it is virtually impossible to actually ride the face of a wave, and getting through the waves with a long board is even harder.
As for the world famous waves, such as the Salsa Brava, in Puerto Viejo, well, we’re definitely just watching that one from the sidelines… it’s beautiful in a fierce sort of way, crashing like thunder over shallow reef… for experts and real crazies only :).

Salsa Brava... yep, staying on the beach.

New Year

Pre-christmas fun!

The holiday season was very calm here in Costa Rica. After an impressive turkey dinner on Christmas day at a restaurant in Puerto Viejo – the turkey was cooked to perfection, tender and moist! – we had a week of clouds and rain and very big waves. Consequently, no surfing for either Paul or I; the waves were really impressive but virtually unridable even for experienced surfers and the surf break was deserted the whole week. Every once in a while though, some people, who undoubtedly came here specifically to go surfing, thought they should try it anyway and so we got to witness some impressive wipeouts!

During Christmas week, the entire coast all of a sudden became crowded with tourists though. Our hotel, which, a week earlier, had only four occupants including us, all of a sudden was booked up (30 new occupants in the span of two days!). And the same seemed to have happened everywhere else. On cloudy days, the beach, which was once more or less deserted, was crowded with hopeful sunbathers, and on rainy days, the restaurants and bars in Puerto Viejo were full all afternoon. We took advantage of those not so sunny days to go on long walks on the beach, hikes, and bike rides.

One of our excursions was to Finca La Isla’s Botanical Garden, near Puerto Viejo, which is both a botanical garden and an organic farm. If one’s interested in seeing red poison-dart frogs, they should go there instead of attempting that at Red Frog Beach!…

The botanical garden is brimming with them! They apparently are attracted to the bromeliads that are grown in several parts of the garden, because their foliage creates natural water pools that provide habitat and protection for the newborns. The bromeliads actually seem to attract quite a few other criters, including big fury spiders… ugh!

Bromeliad criters

The botanical garden also has a sizeable black pepper plantation and a cacao farm, and we got to try some natural, organic, non-preserved, non-processed, but sweetened chocolate… good stuff! J Anyway, it was all really instructive, great fun, very photogenic, and, as expected, very uncrowded!

Rootbeer flower

On New Year’s day, the rain let up and the sun came out: happy new year! And then the rain came back with a vengeance in the following days! The waves also continued to pound on the shore with heights in the range of 15 to 18 feet, washing all the way up the beach and taking the sand away with them. So it seems that bad weather and big (storm generated) waves come hand in hand here. The swell is forecasted to decrease in the next couple of days so hopefully that will mean better weather as well.