Joe Adams | jadz

Arenal Hanging Bridges

As part of our 3 day trip to Arenal, six of us (two couples and two 4 month old babies) travelled to see the Arenal volcano. The volcano has not been active since 2010, but it is still a sight to see and there are lots of other local attractions. One such attraction is the Arenal Hanging Bridges walking tour. Located up one of the longest modern roads paved with individual bricks I’ve ever seen, which starts just under the Arenal dam. The dam caused the Arenal Lake to triple in size when it was built and provides water to a hydro-electric station which provides somewhere between 40 to 70% of the countries electricity.

Arenal Sky Tram and Sky Trek

Brittany Oliver and I (Joe) went on a three day trip to Arenal with another couple that was also staying here at the Hermosa Bungalows. They have a daughter that is just one day older than Oliver so going on a three day trip made for the same baby-mindset and also gave us an opportunity to have a few minutes of alone time when we one couple would take care of both babies.

Tortuga Island Costa Rica

On Tuesday & Wednesday of this past week, we took turns venturing to Tortuga Island on a Calypso Cruise. The day started off with a 6:50a.m. pick-up at out bungalow and a drive to Puntarenas a port town an hour and half north of Jaco. Puntarenas (Pointsands, from “punta arenas”, or “sand point” in Spanish) is the capital and largest city in the province Puntarenas, Costa Rica, at the Pacific coast. Once we arrived at the dock, we enjoyed a typical Tico breakfast of gallo pinto, ranchero eggs, corn tortillas, sour cream, fruit and coffee at El Shrimp.

We embarked upon Manta Raya, our catamaran and began our almost two hour long voyage down through of Gulf of Nicoya to our destination of Tortuga Island. Isla Tortuga is Costa Rica’s most visited island. It consists of 2 islands, one of which is a Wildlife Refuge. The island used to not be privately owned and as a result, was near ruin until it was bought and made private. Tourists are now only able to remain on the beach, no overnight stays are allowed and nothing is allowed to be taken off the island. Now an uninhabited island, the clear turquoise waters afford excellent snorkelling and diving, and the white sand beaches lined with swaying palm trees provide the most sought-after setting in the world: a tropical island paradise.

Red Bull Blast from the Past 70′s Style Surf Competition – Hermosa Beach Costa Rica

Today I headed down to a Red Bull 70s Style Surf Competition here in Hermosa Beach Costa Rica. I was there for 6 AM and the event was setup, but the heats didn’t start until about 7AM. There were a number of photographers, pro and amateur all shooting the event including two in water photographers. I used google translate on the Spanish event page and have pasted it in the quote below. The surfers would go out initially on longboards, then on fish boards and then on guns. At each 10 minute mark of the 30 minutes the Red Bull girls would run the different board down to the water and the surfers in the heat would exchange boards.

The rest of the family came down at around 7:30AM at which point I was happy to join them for a Tico breakfast (a traditional Costa Rican breakfast).

Another Morning on the Beach

Yesterday Ward and Hetty went on a day long excursion to Tortuga Island travelling across the Gulf of Nicoya by catamaran. Brittany and I did the same excursion today. There are lots of photos from the island, and probably enough footage to do a video. So I’m going to take a few days to put that together. In the meantime, here are some photos from the yesterday when Hetty and Ward were away.

Surf Lessons

Today I (Joe) and another couple from Canada took an intro surfing lesson here on Playa Hermosa from Brian, who runs Hermosa Surf Vacations. The surf was unusually small today for Playa Hermosa, so there were no ‘real’ surfers in the water but it was perfect for someone with almost no surf experience like myself.

We started out in the white water close to shore, feeling how the wave surges the board forward ahead of the wave, and then catches up with it and steadily pushes for the remainder of the wave. Then we moved on to try to find some of the smaller waves to ride, which gave better speed and stability than the white water, but also meant that you had to wait out the larger waves (large waves for an unusually small day).

Backyard Bar Surf Competition

We all headed down to the closest bar, the Backyard Bar which holds a local surf competition every Saturday. Below are some photos from the afternoon and the competition.

When The Power Goes Out…

We have only been subjected to two power outages while here in Costa Rica. According to our neighbours, who are from Orange County, CA and have lived here for several years, power outages are quite common and occur frequently. The first one lasted only an hour; however yesterday, we were without power for about 6 hours. Because of this, we were ‘forced’ to spend the late afternoon at the pool as the house was far too hot to spend any length of time in. We then had to eat our dinner out on our deck while watching the sunset. Seeing as we had no means of cooking dinner, we ordered in. Pizza and empanadas; both of which were delicious! The sun sets at precisely 5:30 every night and all is dark by 6. We were all willing to retire for the night except Gabriel kept yelling “party” and insisted that we light the candles.

Only half of our village’s power was out so we headed to the pool’s cabana. The cabana provided us with hammocks, light and fans. Unfortunately, it also provided us with mosquitoes so after a quick stay (5 minutes) we returned home. Soon after our return to our HOT bungalow, the power company arrived with a new transformer and a cherry-picker truck. Ward applauded and Gabriel watched excitedly as the men, whom he all called “Bob” did their work. He enjoyed himself so much that after about half an hour of viewing, he fell asleep in his Zaida’s arms.

Being forced to play at the pool, have a sunset dinner and lounge under the stars. Just another day in paradise.

Another Lovely Day

Having returned the vehicle on Saturday, we’ve spent the last couple of days at home relaxing. This has been a pleasant change from the three days that we had the vehicle and felt we needed to make the most of it, which made for long, busy days.

Attached are a few random photos from today. The sunset is amazing here every night, so you get a bit used to it.

Vista Los Suenos Canopy Tour

Yesterday we headed out to the Vista Los Suenos Canopy Tour, a zip line down a mountain near Jaco Costa Rica. Because of the two little ones who couldn’t go on the tour, Brittany and Joe went in the morning, and then Ward and Hetty went in the afternoon. Brittany and Joe were the only ones on the tour during their session where as when Hetty and Ward went there were 28 other people in sequence before and after them, making things a little more exciting.

The adventure starts on a 15 minute ride aboard our specially designed 40 passenger tractor. Once we arrive to the top of the mountain we then descend to the bottom via a series of zip lines, including 15 platforms and 14 cables with a total cable distance of 3.5 kilometers…..including the longest cable in the area of 2400 ft!

Crocodile Man Tour

Today we went to visit the Crocodile Man Tour, which involves a boat tour along the Tarcoles River and along some of the mangroves near the ocean. We met several of the ‘local’ crocs; all given silly names that best describe their temperament. Barack Obama was a large black croc, Shakira was feisty, George Bush wouldn’t come for the chicken, Angelina Jolie wouldn’t come out from under the water. Strangely enough we couldn’t find Osama BinLaden, the supposedly largest croc of them all. We learned a lot of neat information. Here are a few tidbits of information our tour guide told us:

Manual Antonio National Park

We drove to the Manual Antonio National Park (Google Maps Link / Wikipedia Article). According to wikipedia, established in 1972 with an area enumerating 4,014 acres (16.24 km2) (the smallest of any Costa Rican national park), it is the destination of as many as 150,000 visitors annually and well-known for its beautiful beaches and hiking trails. In 2011, Manuel Antonio was listed by Forbes among the world’s 12 most beautiful national parks.

Before we even got to the park, a group of men, with outfits that were made to look like they worked for the park guided us to our parking spot, way before the actual park entrance. Eventually we figured this out (or rather, eventually we acted on what our gut was telling us) and we got back in the car and drove to the entrance, where there is absolutely no official parking for the park, just a very narrow street with locals selling spots in empty building lots and along the street. Happy with our spot we loaded up the Chariot with all our gear and headed down the path.

We stayed on the main trail, which looks like it was once paved but mother nature has had it’s way with the road. During the hike we didn’t see that much wildlife until we arrived near the end of the main trail at the beach where we saw some fearless raccoons, a lovely sloth and several types of monkeys. We were all very hot during the late morning walk so when we arrived at the lovely beach we were all very happy to go for a dip. Even Oliver who went in the Ocean for the first time.

More Random Costa Rica Photos

Check out this post of photos and our other Blog postings with some background at our Costa Rica Trip Summary Page.

Beach Walks

Today and Yesterday were lovely lazy days. We spent time walking on the beach and also swimming in the pool. We visited the Backyard Bar, where we had $1.75 USD local beers and a huge plate of chips and vegs (sort of nacho’s with more vegetables) which was $8.00.

Our Nanny has a Nanny

Today was the first full day here in Hermosa Beach Costa Rica and everything went really well.

We cooked our own light breakfast, consisting of coffee, eggs, toast, papaya, watermelon and bananas. Gabriel had a great appetite, likely from all the energy he used on the previous day travelling and playing in the afternoon sun.

Today was also our first day with our Nanny, Johanna. She bicycled to our bungalow this morning and spent the full day with us. She, Brittany and Hetty all went to the grocery store and Johanna was a great help in picking out local foods, good beers and the ingredients for our first home cooked meal, gallo pinto. We used google translate for many of the questions that even Brittany couldn’t figure out how to ask.

We learned that Johanna has a little girl at home, also two years old, and she has a Nanny taking care of her. We’re not sure if our Nanny’s nanny has a nanny, as google translate had issues with the logic.

Entries by Joe Adams