Woven Routes

Un Cocodrillo en Playa Negra

2011-06-27T11:00:00.004-06:00

We left home around 7pm Friday,got into the airport in Aluajela before noon Sat. Rolfe had business in San Jose, so he picked us up and drove us the four hours to Puerto Viejo. We went for our first swim at Playa Negra yesterday morning. After about ten minutes in the water a Tica woman called to us from the beach, "'Scoose me but there eese a crocodile in the next pool. She pointed beyond the wrecked barge landmark on the east end of the beach. We got out and walked to the other side of the wreck, anxious to check it out. I really didn't believe her. I thought, here's a Tico family from San Jose here for the weekend, and they saw a log or some exposed reef between waves. Her husband met us. He showed me the photo he had taken, I made out a black object on his camera screen. It could have been anything. I asked how big it was he pointed a length between us, "Tres metros?" I asked. He nodded. We looked for a few minutes and seeing nothing, went back to our swimming spot and back in the water. After another five minutes another woman called to us,"There is a crocodile over there." I decided to become a believer. I walked with the woman to the other side of the wreck again. On a the way I found out she was from Turkey and owned the Mango Bar which is just east of the beach. We kept talking after reaching the other side of the wreck.She suddenly stopped and pointed, "There!" I looked and less than fifty meters out was a huge crocodile cruising along the surface before disappearing below again. He was at least 3 meters! His head alone looked to be at least 18inches. I said, "My god, he's a beautiful animal!"

We decided to ride our bikes along the beach a few K east to Playa Cocles for our afternoon swim. We went looking for the croc this morning, but did not see him. Shar wants to check again this afternoon and see if she can get a photo.

Barbecue Pig

2010-07-18T14:22:00.006-06:00

Friday we went out for the great pizza a couple Italian guys make here. One of them told us they were barbecuing a small pig the following day. Shar decided to have barbecued pig Saturday night with pizza blanco, while I had eggplant pizza. Today we saw another place barbecuing a pig on our way to swim at Playa Cocles. So Shar went back in the afternoon to photograph the finished product & a short movie before they finished it.

Also yesterday we went out to swim in town in the afternoon. We saw the same guy selling sea turtle eggs on the beach. He stopped at the Police Station before hitting the beach. The two policemen sitting out front each bought a bag.

"Everybody Eating Turtles"

2010-07-14T16:19:00.008-06:00

We took the 7:15 a.m. bus down to Manzanillo yesterday. We sat down at the place in the photo where the two of us had gallo pinto, huevos fritos, jamon y cafe (black beans & rice, fried eggs, ham & coffee) for 3400 colones (about $6.60). We walked into the Gandoca Reserve to our favorite little cove & sat until it started to sprinkle lightlly. We caught the 12:45 p.m. bus back to P.V. Later we took a swim off the point in PV. There was a guy on the beach selling huevos tortuga (turtle eggs) 5 for 2000 colones (less than 4 bucks) out of a cooler. Late in the afternoon I went to Lenny's to play music on his porch. He told me, "Now it turtle season, everybody eating turtle." I told him about the guy with the eggs on the beach. I asked if catching turtles was legal. He said, "No mon, dey catch you, you go to jail mon!" He said it was the same for selling eggs. (The guy selling turtle eggs on the beach was about 100 ft. from the police station.) He said turtle meat was very good, "It make you strong! You eat it an' you jus' feel de' power come on you! You never eat turtle?" I told him no. He said, "It de' best thing to eat. Dis' marning dey' bring in two turtles." He pointed to the place next to his neighbor's, about 25 ft. from where we sat. "Dey kill de turtles right dare."

I spoke with Rolfe today about the turtle season. He scoffed, "They don't put people in jail for killing people here--I doubt if anyone goes to jail for killing turtles!"

2 pics

2010-07-09T07:52:00.012-06:00

Shar shot this Green Poison Arrow Frog, Dendrobates auratus, the other morning. Rolf says a pair of them have taken up residence in the bromeliads at the base of the coconut palm standing a few feet from the base of the stairway to our room & balcony.

We took two Toyota pickups to Manzanillo with Rolf & Juana's & Juana's sister's families. After a couple of sunset Imperials on the beach, we went into Maxi's for an outstanding dinner of whole snapper & grilled veggies.

Tanagers & Bananas

2009-08-10T09:41:00.003-06:00

We bought a bunch of 16 lady finger bananas for 400 colones (69 cents) at the local farmer's market last Saturday. They're quite tasty. This pair of palm tanagers obviously agrees. When we got up this morning, they were sharing a banana on the balcony railing. I appreciate that they just concentrated on one banana rather than trying a little bit of each of the remaining bunch like critters usually do.

Heading Back Home

2009-08-09T13:47:00.007-06:00

We're winding down our stay here in Puerto Viejo. Yesterday was one of the few sunny days we've had. Today it is raining once again. Last night we went for another melt-your-mouth lomito barbecue at Rolf's place. We were joined by Juana's daughter, Caterin with her baby Angelina, & boyfriend David. They were talking of our return trip. I don't know when we'll be back. I doubt we will come for this long again.

Tomorrow we will sell the bicycles for 30,000 colones each. We paid 65,000 each for them a month ago. Caterin is buying Shar's, & Marie, the hotel maid, is buying the other.

The northern European (German, French etc.) have been replaced by southern European (Spanish, Italian) tourists. Locals tell us the Americans are missing this year. Actually yesterday two twenty-something American women booked the room next to us (it shares our balcony). They're the first Americans we've seen here at the hotel.

We spent a nice time visiting with Ingrid, the Austrian woman we met with her husband bicycling at Punta Uva, over the past week. Her husband is a physician & needed to go back to work, but she stayed on here another week. She left the other morning for Tortuguero before flying home. I hope she had a good trip.

I hope the folks here survive whatever the economy (and perhaps the climate) does.

I've been communicating with Paul & Scott of Supertrees via email over the past week or so. Paul has cooked up a date for us at Wine on the Waterfront on the pier in P.A. They are doing a 40th Anniversary commemoration of Woodstock on Sat. Aug. 15. I was at that event 40 years ago, so I decided not to pass this up. We have not rehearsed any of the hour's worth of songs were gonna' play together starting at about 9:30 p.m. (an entire set of songs performed at the original Woodstock festival), but I feel ready. The event is called WoWstock. It's also a benefit for the Food Bank. Bring a can of food. I was wondering if they were gonna' be pairing brown acid with the Chardonnay. Paul was quite taken aback about my gauche ignorance: "Everyone knows that brown acid goes with zinfandel!"

Our flight is not until 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, but Rolf advised us to take the 7:30 a.m. bus to San Jose. The bus is generally about a 4 hour or so trip, but with the way the weather is now, there may be landslides in the mountains, which could cause some big delays.

Oral Surgery

2009-08-03T09:36:00.021-06:00

I just had my first experience as an oral surgeon. Hopefully it will be my last. I stopped by Lenny's this morning. He said, "Can you do someting' for me? I 'ave tooth, it need come out. I get string, you pull it out for me?" I quite didn't know what to say but managed to answer, "I could try…"
"No–you don' try–you pull it out! You strong. You don' wan' do it?"
"Well I've never done it before, but if you really need me to, I could try to pull it out?"
"No mahn you don' try–you pull it OUT!
"Okay–I pull it out, it's just…I've never done this before, but I'll try…I mean–yeah, I'll pull it out!"

I was silently thinking to myself, what in hell are you doing? When I tell this to Shar she's gonna' say, "You did what!?" Lenny went inside his house and got a spool of black string. I said, "Can't you go to Home Creek (where the clinic is) to get the tooth fixed?"
" 'Dem charge. Me 'ave no money."
"What if the string breaks?"
"It strong. It nylon."

Lenny sat before me on his porch making a series of knots & loops in the string saying, "I do this with tooth six times 'fore now." I found a scrap of wood on the ground to tie the string around so it wouldn't slice into my hand. He placed a loop of string around a tooth. I held the other end around the stick. He said "I gwan' to make noise. When I make noise, 'den you pull. You pull very hard! You pull it out! You ready?" I didn't think I'd ever be ready, but nodded yes. He started to make a low growling noise. I lunged with my entire body away from him. The growl increased to a roar. I looked at the end of the string and saw a tooth–roots & all. Lenny was clenching his mouth moaning. He looked up at me and said, "Tank' you mahn, I been in so much pain many months now! Tank' you! That time number seven now." What could I say.

Chino (The Chinaman)

2009-08-01T10:06:00.014-06:00

This is a shot of Chino's, one of my favorite establishments here in Puerto Viejo. Everyone refers to the owner as "Chino"--a real character. He's in his seventies, but remarkably active. He runs the store (and in fact owns the entire block, in addition huge tracts of land surrounding Puerto Viejo) pictured in the photo. The store (the green-painted central portion of the edifice, a currently closed disco is on the left, and a dive shop on the right) sits out at the end of the Point in Puerto Viejo. He sells just about everything, and makes change by peeling from the huge wad of bills he pulls out of his back pocket and the pile of coins on the counter. His prices are very competitive. He has no overhead--he lives upstairs, employs hardly anyone and obviously does no maintenance on the building. He opens (or doesn't) & closes the store when he feels like it. He speaks fluent English and supposedly Cantonese. (The story goes that his father, who presumably arrived with the original railroad-building Chinese immigrants, sent him to China to learn the language as a teenager. He spent a few years there before he could get out during Maoist times.) I've been going into the store for about seven years now on a seasonal basis. The other day he asked me, "What's your name?" I told him. He put out his hand to me, "I'm Manuel--the Chinaman! Are you American?" As we shook hands I said, "Yes . . . the United States." He said, "Oh, I thought you were Swiss."

There's a roughly 200' x 200' area of water, defined by the beach on one side and the reef on the others, in front of the place (from where I shot the picture), which is one of our two favorite swimming spots in P.V. It's also popular with Tico families because the reef keeps it pretty calm. We swim there when it's too rough at Playa Negra, or if we just want a quick cool down without the extra 3 minutes bike ride to & from Playa Negra.

Punta Uva (Grape Point)

2009-08-01T09:38:00.010-06:00

Yesterday afforded another break in the heavy rains we've been experiencing, so we rode our bikes down to Punta Uva--about an 8 km trip. The sea was rough, so we didn't swim much but we drank a couple cans of Pilsen on this idyllically beautiful beach. I gotta' say this spot beats the White House lawn for a beer hands down any day! While there a couple came along on bicycles asking if they could continue on the little dirt track there on their bikes to Manzanillo. I told them no, it ends in about 100 meters and they'd have to go back out to the road to get to Manzanillo. The woman asked, "Are you American?"
I said, "Yes. Are you German?"
"No! Why does everyone think we are German? What is it about our accents?"
"You're Dutch?"
"No!"
"Scandinavian?"
"No--we are from Austria!"
"Oh--Österreich!
I didn't say to her, well Austrians speak German. When you speak English with a German accent, folks might guess you're German. We told them about where we are staying, & they showed up this morning to book a few days at Cabinas Tropical.

Reserva

2009-07-21T17:19:00.017-06:00

Today we rented a motor scooter to travel up into the Talamanca Indigenous Reserve. We were unsure about the condition of the loop road we were going to take because of the recent rains, but figured we could always turn back if it got impassable. We went through the town of Bribri and looped through Bratsi, Suretka, and Uatsi, but one really could not call those places towns—though they are actually marked on the map. After passing through Bribri, the road follows the Rio Yorkin valley. In the accompanying photo you can see the river in the distance. Bananas are among the trees in the foreground. These plantings on the reserve are not as dense and managed as those on industrial plantations.

At Suretka we took the right fork in the road away from the river, and climbed out of the valley. Rolf does this route on his mountain bike—that would kill me! We saw no wildlife. This may in part be because indigenous folks are allowed to hunt. Shar shot a lot of video with our little camera. I am linking the three clips in this entry to YouTube, because they will look better there than if I embed them here on this blog site. (John Gussman will tell me there are better sites for posting video, but these are definitely not high-def anyway.) There were a number of places where creeks were running across the road, & I was jokingly referring to them as "river crossings." It got to where Shar was wanting to get out before I attempted to slog through the gravel. As it turned out, I did not wreck the rental motorbike. Here's a clip of us approaching Uatsi. When we hit Uatsi we stopped at a little hut where a family sells indigenous crafts: jewelry, baskets, carved gourds. We'd been there in previous years--but never via that loop route--we'd always gone directly from Bribri before & turned around, a much shorter trip. The father made an effort to rig up a light bulb for us. I told him it was not necessary. They all spoke Bribri amongst themselves, but we did the buying in Spanish. After asking them if I was permitted to take photographs (very important), I shot a clip there.

Breakfast

2009-07-20T11:50:00.006-06:00

This female white-lined tanager was enjoying a moth in the coconut palm 10 ft. from our balcony when I shot this with our $100 Kodak this morning.

Negotiations

2009-07-20T11:02:00.004-06:00

I've entered into negotiations with an elderly gentleman we have seen here around town. Last spring he was constructing a hexagonal weave fence from cane using a machete. He agreed then to make me a basket, but I think my timing was off. He had just finished the fence job and was probably in no need of money. This morning he told me he has gathered the cane and will begin fixing it. Im sleep on de porch at de soda roun' de corner fron de chinee. We'll see if our stay here is long enough for me to purchase a basket from a basketmaker. This old man is the only person I've seen in the area here making this type of cane weaving. Like so many things, the traditional crafts have been replaced by plastic substitutes. When they start charging for each plastic bag in the market, there may not be any basketmakers left to step up to the plate.
-Sharle

Hace Lluvia

2009-07-18T07:39:00.009-06:00

I am acquiring a very deep appreciation of the hydrologic cycle. For the past few days it has been raining a bit on & off. Around midday yesterday it started to rain pretty hard. It stopped long enough for us to go out to Amimodo (run by Italians) for pizza in the evening, without having to use our umbrella. It started to rain again when we returned to our room and has not stopped. The volume alternates from drizzle to all-out deluge and everything in between, with occasional flashes of thunder & lightning. It amazes me to think where all this water comes from. I looked at the the satellite photo yesterday & it appears to be raining over the entire country. Of course said country is sitting astride two oceans which I now understand supply quite a bit of warm water to evaporate into the air.

We donned our ponchos this morning to ride to the Saturday market for local fruits, veggies and smoked cheese. We also stopped by Pan Pay for our daily crossaints to have with morning coffee back on our balcony, which we're enjoying as I type this. Shar suggested I shoot and post a video of the rain, so here it is!

Cahuita

2009-07-17T07:34:00.008-06:00

Since we'd gone a week without a plane, bus or taxi ride, we thought we could handle the half-hour bus trip to Cahuita. We went into the national park and walked the forest trail paralleling the beach for about 45 minutes before stopping for a swim and snack. We were surprised to not see wildlife, though we probably walked past one or more sloths, which can be very difficult to spot due to their remarkable camouflage. Even though it was late morning–not the best time for viewing wildlife–one can expect to see a few interesting birds, monkeys etc. along the trail through this park. We walked back and sat on the beach near the park entrance watching the surf to kill time before walking to the bus station to catch our return bus. I happened to look above into the beach almond trees shading us, and noticed two howler monkeys taking their midday nap. One of them is shown here. You can see his prehensile tail gripping the bed.

Puerto Viejo

2009-07-15T10:58:00.010-06:00

Last Saturday we went to Rolf & Juana's home for a visit & barbecued lomita. Before sunset I took a photo of the chestnut-headed oropendula nests in a laurel tree in their back yard. The larger Montezuma oropendula lives here as well. You can see bananas & other fruit trees growing on the hillside. We had great food and great a time.

We've been chilling here in P.V. Eventually we'll catch a bus up to Cahuita or down to Manzanillo for the day. A new feature for us here is accessing the web & Skype from our room & balcony. No more sitting at ATEC sweating in front of a beat up keyboard and barely functioning monitor. I still visit ATEC to fill our water bottle (17 cents a liter), or for other incidentals. I sat in with ex-pat keyboardist Jim MacDougall and his band Monday night with my formica Martin. Junior has also asked me to play with him at Parquecito. He has plans to perform at an upcoming festival in New Orleans.

Dos Bicycletas

2009-07-10T10:09:00.006-06:00

Yesterday morning we bought bicycles. We figured it would cost just as much as renting beat up cheap bikes for a month. The hardware store selling them was about a mile out of town. Rolf drove us there. We paid 130,000 colones (about $225) for the two bikes, including baskets and rear racks. It was raining buckets while we were at the store, so Rolf even drove us back to the hotel with the bikes in the back of his Toyota pickup. We didn’t test drive the bikes due to the downpour. When we took the bikes out for our first ride when the rain stopped after getting back to the hotel, we discovered Shar’s bike was missing a nut on one of the bolts holding the front fender. My basket was missing a nut/bolt fastener. Rather than ride out to the store where we’d bought the bikes we went to the smaller hardware store in town. I won’t relate the story of our 30 colones (about 5 cents) purchase, which took quite a lot of time involving six store employees as well as a return trip.

Yesterday afternoon Rolf told us that Tio (a guy who works for him) & Caterin (his stepdaughter) put the word out, and people are in line arguing over who’s going to buy the bikes from us when we leave.

Rolf has been bringing us fruits from his place daily–mangoes, limes, bananas. He said Tio likes bananas & plantains so he keeps planting them. Now he is loaded with bananas. "I need to get him to stop planting more bananas." Caterin just brought us up a couple of guanabana refrescos–muy delicioso!

Osa Peninsula

2009-07-08T14:28:00.037-06:00

We arrived at Rolf & Juana's yesterday after 6 pm. They have wireless! I'm posting some pix from the Osa Peninsula area. The first is of me next to one of the stone spheres in the area. Check out this link for info on these mysterious pre-Columbian objects. I had thought I had taken a shot of the 2 meter ones we saw, but must not have. (Two meters is about a half foot taller than me.) The shot was done in the park in Sierpe while waiting for our boat to take us downriver to Punta Marenco south of Drake Bay.

The next shot is our approach to the landing area for Punta Marenco Lodge. Boats pull into the opening to the beach between the rocks. Returning from our trip to Corcovado Nat'l Park the next day, we had an interesting landing there--we almost capsized when a huge wave nearly caught us broadside. Fortunately el capitan brought the bow and gunned the throttle into the wave at the last split second so it didn't get us totally broadside. It is a very tricky place to land. Actually every place we landed on those Pacific beaches afforded an adrenaline rush. I'm not going into to details re the time over there. I'm sure Shar will say more.

We hiked down along the beach to Rio Claro on the first afternoon. The right (south) side of the river in the photo is all primary forest, which BTW is owned by Mel Gibson. Oscar, our guide whom had met us at the airport upon arriving in San Jose (and did not speak English), told us it was safe to swim in the river. I asked if him if there were crocodiles there (Hay cocodrillos aqui?). He answered that there were only caimans. We swam a little. Shar swam farther up the river than I did. When we got back to the lodge that evening the hostess told us about the 4 meter (about 13 ft.) crocodile there in the river.

We went to Corcovado the next day with a different guide, Everesto (born and raised in Drake Bay), and a delightful young Dutch couple who were staying at the lodge with us. The new (for us) species we saw were: a species of rocket frog, 3 great curassows, an anteater, a scarlet macaw, two king vultures, and two (very dangerous!) fer de lance snakes. One is shown here.

The next day we went to Cano Island which was about a one hour, 13 mile (rough) ride in a 22 ft. fiber glass boat with a 175 horse four stroke Suzuki. We were accompanied by Everesto, the Dutch couple, a young Swedish couple who arrived the day before, el capitan (who looked all of 16 years old) el capitan's girlfriend (15?), a woman (girlfriend's mom?) and a crew person. We snorkeled off the island--a lot of wonderful fish but not good conditions. After a picnic lunch on the beach, Shar & I chose to hike up into the interior of the island to view archaeological artifacts, while the rest of our party went back out for snorkeling. We saw more snakes, iguanas etc. but there are no mammals on the island. The forest was much quieter than on the mainland. After 45 minutes of walking alone on a trail through the forest we came upon two piles of artifacts about 10 meters apart. Each had a stone sphere about 18 inches in diameter, along with various metates (grinding stones), stone tools, pottery shards and other broken objects. Everesto had told us that he used to see a lot more artifacts there, but people walk off with them. The island is believed to have been a ceremonial site, and a trading center for the Diquis indigenous people. Everesto said people from as far as the Inca empire and from Mexico used to come there to trade. Tombs have been found on the island, but they have been plundered by folks looking for gold.

We left the following morning in a sluicing downpour. The trip across the bar at the mouth of the Rio Sierpe was exciting. We had the same young capitan as the day before. Shar was not impressed. ("Teen-aged boys don't think their gonna' die!") After we got through the breakers and into the calmer waters of the river he called out, "No problem, everything good!" I said to the Dutch couple who were positioned on either side of me (they always made me sit forward to weigh down the bow, and made Shar sit aft), "Yeah he's sayin' that now because a minute ago he wasn't so sure!"

We caught a single-engined Cessna in Palmer Sur to San Jose, and a bus to Puerto Viejo. There've been some changes here at Cabinas Tropical. Last night we heard my friends Junior, Rani, & Lenny play. It was great! Junior was playing the banjo I left him 2 years ago. He's strung & tuned it differently. They were totally acoustic--sounded fine!

Palmar Norte

2009-07-03T07:57:00.003-06:00

We left home at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday–thanks for the ride to the Kitsap Airporter Linda! Got into San Jose at about 9:40 Thursday morning. We caught a 1 p.m. bus out of San Jose & arrived here at 7 p.m. We drove drove down hill through the fog on a very windy road for 6 hours. We have not seen any other foreigners yet. I'm getting by with my Spanish. We had a good breakfast of Gallo Pinto con huevos y natilla, & walked over to the high school to look at a couple of two meter pre-Columbian stone spheres. How (why) did they do it!?

We will catch a taxi to Sierpe in an hour. Then we will take an hour boat trip down the Rio Sierpe to Drake Bay. (Named for Sir Francis who stopped by.) Then it's another 20 minutes (whatever) to beach the boat where we are stayin at Punta Marenco. No pictures yet. I had no idea this place would have wireless!

2009-06-30T13:30:00.002-06:00

We're heading down south again. This time we will start our trip by going over to the southern Pacific coast to Peninsula de Osa. We'll be off the grid for about a week, then hope to have some interesting photos to post at that time, when we will be back once again on the Caribbean in Puerto Viejo.

Gandoca & Heading Back

2008-08-09T08:27:00.003-06:00

We caught the morning bus to the end of the coastal road at Manzanillo yesterday. From there we walked into the Gandoca Reserve. The reserve stretches to the Panama border. I think the beaches there are about the nicest places I've ever been. This shot (click for full view) does not convey the real beauty of the spot I stood in while taking it. A 360 degree pano would do a little better. There are incredible rock forms getting pounded by surf in the direction where Shar is looking in the photo.

We're leaving Puerto Viejo Monday. We expect to be back home Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Ciao!

2008-07-31T11:51:00.006-06:00

I sat in with (left to right) Rani, (me in the background) Carlos & Junior last Friday at Parquecito.

Rolf had us over to his place for a barbecue at his place last Saturday. Before dinner I noticed a couple of chestnut mandibled (the largest, but not the most colorful, of the 3 toucan species seen here) in tree in the front yard a couple hundred feet away. Rolf got his scope out. I put our camera to the scope eyepiece and shot this before the second of the two flew away. People in the U.S. have forgotten what meat tastes like. Animals that spend a few years wandering around eating whatever is in season, taste much different than factory produced meat raised on feed (corn, fish meat & meal) that they never were evolved to eat. The night ended with Juana getting us up to dance Salsa & Tumba.

Rolf & Juana are spoiling us by putting us up in a 500 square foot room with 200 square of balcony added. We protested at first but now we love it. It's much different than our digs in San Blas where our shower consisted of a pail ladling out from a barrel of rainwater from the roof. Sharle says she may choose Asian tapas & all-you-can-eat sushi tonight.

Music

2008-07-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

I played with ex-pat keyboard player/singer Jimmy & my rasta friend/conga player Lenny at Salza Brava the other night. Tonight I'm going to sit in at El Parquecito with Calypso master "Junior" Emilio Alvarez. It's a little intimidating, I've played with him several times before on previous trips, but I've also seen him tell people to sit down when he wasn't happy with what they were doing. It's an honor to play with him. I am not aware of any young people doing what he does. He's approaching 70 and tells me he has 24 children. (There's a picture of him with his youngest on a blog entry from last August.) I told him I try to steal some of his chops. He said to me "Keep trying, you'll get it!" When he gets going he seemingly throws in notes randomly in the middle of a solo playing rythm & melody at the same time. It's good & amazing, & he makes it work. He always plays with Rani--a quilongo player (sort of a wash tub bass, but with a wooden box instead of a wash tub). Rani's rythm & intonation are impeccable. I told him, I don't know how he does it. He said, "Mahn it jus' like de' trombone you see!" Tonight's percussionist will be bongo player, Carlos. The three of them are going to tour Spain this October. Last month they were in Mexico & reportedly made it on U.S. television.

Cahuita

2008-07-22T09:39:00.004-06:00

We took the bus up to Cahuita yesterday & walked into the park until we found a little spot where could have a snack & swim. I took this photo there. (Click it for a full view.) Along the way we saw a troupe of howler monkeys and a two-toed sloth that three of the monkeys climbed right over as though he/she were not there.

Panama Petroglyphs

2008-07-20T13:40:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago we visited El Valle in Panama. One of the attractions there are some petroglyphs on a rock overhang along a stream. I've found little info on the indigenous folks who made them. I stared at them for a while & decided I could discern no obvious meaning. I do have a hypothesis however: I suspect they may be a plan for a worm hole. The message may read something like "Okay the white people are here. If any one comes along and understands this, here's where we went."

Puerto Viejo

2008-07-19T12:05:00.006-06:00

I've done a little editing, & additions to my last post if you want to check.
What I like about Puerto Viejo is some things never change here. I seem the same people year after year: the guy calling "patty patty" (pahtee, pahtee) from his bike with his cooler full of warm freshly made pattys--a spicy Carribean sort of empanada type thing, the old man selling coconuts on the park/beach front, the girl doing trencitas (hair braids) on the street, the guy selling fruit on the corner, the same guys sitting around from time to time. I recognize them & now they recognize me with a "hello" or "buenas." This place is also a magnet it seems for tall lanky European twenty-something blondes, who stroll the beach alone or in pairs by day, & sit in threes or fours at Chili Rojo, or E-Z Times at night, or sit with a Rasta who they are obviously buying dinner & whatever for.

We swim at Playa Negro (Black Beach). The water is calm but good for body surfing. Most tourists prefer Playa Cocles a little east of town with it's wide white sand beach. The ocean is rough there though, & there are rip currents--not good for swimming IMHO. Playa Negro is usually pretty empty, and less than a five minute bike-ride from our hotel. There are pictures of it in earlier years psot on this blog.

San Blas Reflections

2008-07-17T11:10:00.007-06:00

Now that I have the time I'm gonna' do a little talk about San Blas.

The Booby (El Pato):
Within minutes of arriving on Uktuptupu we noticed this bird. When we had the chance we asked Alberto our Kuna guide/boat driver what the name of the bird was. He said he didn't know, but explained to us in Spanish (which I actually understood) about the story of the bird. the Kuna speak their own language to each other but many also speak Spanish. Alberto seemed intent on teaching me Kuna. Every time I spoke to him in my very limited Spanish he would tell me howto say it in Kuna. The next day I asked the 73 year old owner of the hotel, a Kuna named Juan Garcia, about the bird. He's one of the few Kuna who speak English. He didn't know the name of the bird either, but here's my recollection of what he told me in English:
"This bird every year he come and fly (making motions with his hands indicating a a flock of birds flying to the north) he no live here. He live somewhere. This bird (makes diving motion with his hand) in water. He eat fish. The fish big and (makes hand motion to throat) he choke. They find him in canoe and bring him here. My son-in-law take the fish out of bird and he stay. Every day he come to cocina (kitchen) and get three, four fish."

Around Ukuptupu the call the bird "el pato"--the duck.

BTW-Ukuptupu is an island of about 20 by 30 meters of sand ringed with stones. All the buildings are on piers surrounding the sand.

When we arrived at Rolf's in P.V. he looked at the picture on our camera and said it's a booby. He got his Birds of Costa Rica and decided it was a brown booby. Mystery solved.

Mariscos (Sea Food):
I believe the last itme I ate a lobster was over forty years ago on a vacation trip to Maine with my dad and it was somehow obligatory. On Uktuptupu meals were included with our stay. At our first day's lunch, which was conch, we were informed we'd be eating lobster for dinner. The lobster here are a different (clawless) species than those that live in the cold north, & they grow much faster. Richard, the young English gentleman who was one of our companions on the island, informed our hosts he didn't want lobster. Towards the end of that afternoon's excursion to Dog Island, Alberto said he was taking the canoe out to check other nearby Kuna canoes for fish. Shar & I asked if we could accompany him & he agreed. He went to three different boats around Dog Island calling out in Kuna, "Oohah Ooah" (Fish fish!). The canoes held catches of huge crabs & lobster but no fish. On the way back to Uktuptupu, he shouted to other canoes & islands we past, "Oohah Ooah." Folks just shook their heads. No fish. Richard was forced to eat lobster for dinner. During the meal Shar asked if he was allergic to shellfish. He replied no, he just understood that lobster was overfished & being depleted, and "I wanted to do the right thing--I didn't realize it was going to cause such a problem!" Shellfish appear to be plentiful here at present. I hope the fishery doesn't get overexploited. I'm currently reading Carl Safina's Voyage of the Turtle, which is an excellent overview of the current problems of ocean fisheries.

Home away from home

2008-07-15T09:48:00.002-06:00

Coming here to Puerto Viejo always feels welcoming. We have already run into about a dozen people we know, walking around or biking around the town. We are slowly slowing down to the local pace.
Steve told me he thought the picture he posted of me looking at Molas made me look big. Hard not to look big next to those tiny women. You really can see the workmanship if you click on the photo.
The day after this was taken, our community trip for the day was to go watch the visiting basketball team from the neighboring island get trounced by the 8-10 year olds from Wichub Huala. Looked like the whole town had come out to watch the game. We're thinking these kids have Olympic potential.
If you don't get a personal email from me, it is because I seem to have lost my list of addresses I sent, so can only respond.

San Blas Pix

2008-07-14T09:09:00.003-06:00

Click on these images to see larger views. I had a real hard time selecting which shots to use to upload from San Blas. I don't have access to image editing software at the moment, & these are ancient machines with slow

connections. There's a shot of the 400 San Blas islands (most of them uninhabited) taken from Dog Island where we snorkeled at the site of an old shipwreck. Then there's a snorkeling shot showing fish & corral on the deck of the wreck. I also shot a lot of underwater movies which I won't be uploading now. Finally there's Shar (feeling quite tall--the Kuna are second only to the Pygmies of Africa in being the most diminutively statured folks on the planet) shopping for molas. Ciao for now!

San Blas

2008-07-12T11:23:00.002-06:00

It is difficult to convey how beautiful our stay in San Blas was. Each day we went to a different small island where only one Kuna family lived, swam, snorkeled and relaxed. I think I may be spoiled for snorkeling anywhere else after the fish and coral and clear water we were in.
The Kuna women are constantly sewing on the molas they sell from their houses and even out on these tiny islands. I always appreciate purchasing crafts and artwork from the makers and artists so this was a real treat for me.
The place we stayed, Ukuptupu, included our meals. We had conch twice, octopus, crab and lobster twice. Oh darn, lobster again for dinner? These were all more plentiful than fish.
I'm sure I`ll never be anywhere like this in the world. We enjoyed it thoroughly and are so glad we made the trip out there. It made our whole Panama leg of the trip worth it. Pictures will follow later.

San Blas to Bocas

2008-07-12T11:21:00.003-06:00

We just got back from the San Blas Islands this morning. I thought the pilot reading the newspaper during most of the flight was a nice touch. The San Blas experience was truly amazing! As long as the Kuna maintain their independence, there's a chance the place won`t be trashed. My card reader is packed away in my backpack so I can't post any pictures now--hopefully I can soon.

We met interesting folks from England, Denmark, Israel, France etc. too. It seems most of the folks we run into are travel writers of one sort or another--working for guidebooks, magazines or whatever. They must all be writing about each other. I certainly hope I don't make it into any of their pages.
While waiting for our next plane we went to see Miraflores locks. We had had no intention of doing so, but several Panamanians told us that if we saw NOTHING else in Panama, we MUST see the locks. (Seems they're quite proud of it.) So since we had 5 hours to kill we caught a cab, & checked it out. It is an amazing feat of engineering. We're waitng to catch another plane to Bocas del Toro. (Another archipelago just east of the Costa Rican border on the Caribbean.) We'll spend a day or two there--then we'll take a water taxi up the Rio Changuinola to where we can walk across an old railroad bridge over Rio Sixaola into Costa Rica, & catch a bus to Puerto Viejo on the Carribean. Ciao!

2008-07-08T16:15:00.002-06:00

BTW, please forgive any wierd spellings etc. in my posts for the next few weeks--even though this about my 8th trip to Central America, I´ve yet to get the hang of Spanish keyboards. We´re getting up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow to catch a small plance to the San Blas Islands in the Comarca de Kuna Yala. Shar is now wishing she had written out our will, since it´s been thundering & lightning-ing today & she says she´s keeping my leatherman handy for when she gets fed up with me laughing about just how close the lightning got to our little plane. Little does she know my plan is to be pouring rum for the pilot. I´ll tell him to do a roll, or nose dive when she comes after me with the knife.
We spent a day in Santa Clara. I am sorry to say that place seemed to combine some of the worst of Latino & American culture. The beach had weekend ATV types using people on foot as markers for an obstacle course. There were also jetskis which I´ve never seen in C.A. The funky hotel we stayed at blared music till late hours, the people in the next room to us (which was open to us above the sheet of 1/16 in. plywood separating the two rooms) blared cartoons on the TV all night. On the neighboring beach, guys with those rigs with 150,000 watt sound systems and 36 in. bass speakers in the trunks had a competition of booming reggae-tone. Some sort of cultural experience. We left and found digs a few miles to the east at Playa Palmar Surf Camp. Cheaper and infinitely nicer. Beautiful place, nice folks. The locals (or whoever they were--I never figured it out) sat around with us last night singing and passing guitars around. They wanted blues & 70s American & English rock & roll! I come here to do latin music! One more casualty of US imperialism. The oldest of the guys there explained to me that he learned all this music from "Zonians," US guys he used to surf with when the canal was the US.

Panama July ´08

2008-07-05T16:52:00.006-06:00

Click on these pix for larger views. Here´s Shar talkin´baskets with Wounaan women in San Antonio on Rio Chagres. We also picked up quite a bit of their work there. There´s also the shot of the blue crowned mot mot in the back yard of where we stayed in Gamboa. The place is a mecca for birders. (If I get access to a machine with image editing software I may do something about these pix.) We left Gamboa today & are in El Valle. We´ll hit the Sunday public market here tomorrow, & then head over to the Pacific for a couple days. Ciao!

2008-06-24T17:07:00.002-06:00

Time to fire up the blog, see if I remember my passwords and how to post. We leave for Panama and Costa Rica soon and will post as the technology allows. -Sharle

2007-08-04T09:51:00.000-06:00

Well this visit is winding down. We've spent the past 3 days with Jonathan & Carolyn from New Jersey. With Jonathan here I could actually know the names of the birds I was seeing. Here is a partial list of the critters (excluding the sea creatures) we've identified on this visit:
Mammals- howler monkey, white-faced monkey, two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, crab-eating raccoon, armadillo
Birds- spectacled owl, great-tailed grackle, bay wren, Montezuma oropendula, chestnut-headed oropendula, chestnut-backed antbird, white-collared manakin, red-capped manakin, slaty-tailed trogon, laughing falcon, red-rumped tanager, mealy parrot, chestnut-colored woodpecker, black-cheeked woodpecker, chestnut-billed toucan, keel-billed toucan, black vulture, common black hawk, bananaquit, long-tailed hermit hummingbird, rufous-tailed hummingbird, spotted sandpiper, variable seedeater.
Reptiles- caiman, eyelash viper, green vine snake, gecko (2 species), striped baselisk, hooded baselisk, slider turtle.
Amphibians- strawberry poison dart frog, green poison dart frog, cane toad
Arthropods- too numerous to list--including many strange & wonderful butterflies (& caterpillars), katydids, cicadas, ants, crabs, beetles, spiders; & not so wonderful mosquitoes.

I'm going to wait until we get home before I post more pictures. Ciao!

2007-07-26T18:08:00.000-06:00

Here's Shar buying bags (made with cordage from the same plants used to make Panama hats)& maracacas from an indigenous fellow on the Kekoldi reserve yesterday. They raise Iguanas for eventual release there too. The shot is of Junior (who I'm gonna'play with again tonight at El Loco Natural) & his son--the youngest of his 24 children on the road into Puerto Viejo.

2007-07-25T10:14:00.000-06:00

A shot of Punta Vargas in the distance at Cahuita National Prk which we walked through yesterday. Then there's a shot from snorkeling here in Puerto Viejo. We are expecting Jonathan (a boyhood friend of mine) & Carolyn to meet up with us here next week.

restaurant reviews

2007-07-22T11:45:00.000-06:00

I'm working my way through restaurants, menu items and daily specials in an effort to give good recomendations to Arlee and Shawn while they are here. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. We Got some interesting fruit at the market, both we had already eaten from Puerto Rico. Mangosteens are from Asia and the other smaller perhaps distant relative is from the Amazon. Then also a couple snake fruit, which do look like they are covered with snakeskin and are from a palm. I did write Arlee and recommend she get trensitas, braids, while here. She has the perfect hair and wouldn't need the extentions. I donot have the hair for it!

2007-07-22T11:43:00.000-06:00

You can click this for a larger view. These two frogs hang out in the bromeliads growing on one of the palms in the yard at our hotel. The one in the upper left is the female which we don't see often. The one to the lower right is the male which can be seen & heard daily. We only had that one day of rain except for the occasional shower here or there. We've been being lazy: reading, swimming, a little snorkeling, riding our bikes, or walking around. I may play music tomorrow night with Nango and the band (I found out how to spell his name) at the In & In Bar. I'm enjoying eating pejibaye, which are a traditional indigenous food. It's a fruit from a species of palm whcih needs to be boiled for 45 minutes. They are starchy, filling (I hear nutritious)& quite tasty. A guy boils ém up & sells ém on the side of the street here.

Rain

2007-07-17T10:21:00.000-06:00

It's generally rained while we've slept every night we've been in P.V. This morning the rain did not let up. It's about 10:30 a.m. now & it's still pouring really hard. It is the rainy season after all, & fortunately Cabinas Tropical is a nice place to just relax at.

2007-07-15T14:10:00.000-06:00

(Click these images for larger views.) During this morning's coffee we were visited by this green poison dart frog. It's at least four times the size of the strawberry poison dart frog who's picture is among last year's posts to this blog. (We still see & hear the strawberry dude daily, the green is not as common in the garden here, though we've seen them before.)
Then there's the night action shot of me playing with Junior at El Loco Natural with Ronnie on rythm box (a sort of single string bass) and Carter (hard to see) on congas. Today we road our bikes down to Grape Point (Punta Uva) where there happend to be some sort of triathlon thing going on among the Ticos. Cool.

Steve Lospalluto replied to mylast post about the hummingbird and I informed him: Yeah after I left the Internet place, I realized I should have mentioned the bird chilled out for a few minutes, chirped, and eventually flew away. He/she was hanging out again by the evening among the palms in the yard. I think it was a rufous tailed.

2007-07-14T11:08:00.001-06:00

While drinking coffee in front of our room this morning I looked down and saw this individual laying on the tiles a meter away from me, shaking and apparently stunned. I figured he had flown into the wall or screened window. I called over to the young woman from Venezuela who was laying in the hammock in front of her room. She started snapping pictures. So Shar told me to get our camera. (I should have done it at a much higher resolution, but it gives you an idea. It's either a rufous tailed or steely something or other hummingbird (Rolf has lent us one of his two copies of the huge Birds of Costa Rica) We also checked out an immature common black hawk who has been making a lot of noise while hanging out around us, and a couple of palm tanagers. The usual visitors in the neighborhood, include Passerini's tanagers, black vultures, some unknown doves and many other unidentified species.

Th night before last I got to play with Junior, the old Calypsonian, again. Afterwards he invited Shar & I to visit him at his house up in Home Creek. We may take him up on that. I may go play with The Survivors tonight even though Lenny is no longer with them. I got the banjo back from him to give to Django. I hope things are okay with it all. I saw the rythm box player, Elario, on the street the other day, and asked about the situation with Lenny. He told me the story and said, "Im no speak we no more."

Chile Rojo

2007-07-14T10:56:00.000-06:00

The night we arrived in Costa Rica we were disappointed to see a vacant lot and construction at the site of one of our favorite restaurants. However, as we walked back into town to find some dinner, there was Chile Rojo, at a new location. We've eaten there twice since, the owner is British but born in Africa and his partner is Japanese. They put out Japanese, Thai, and middle eastern dishes that are always terrific. Last night we sat across the street from the restaurnt where they have some tables on the beach. The gentle Caribean surf was breaking less than 20 feet from where we sat, a beeze moving along the beach. I think Steve would have no problem eating there every night.
We had a nice trip to Cauhuita yesterday to the National Park there and though it rained during the night and early hours of the morning, it looks beautiful again today. I have appreciated the clouds, they keep the sun from being too intense.
Tomorrow we will hit he farmers market early in the morning. I like to look for interesting fruit, though there is never anything to compare to the selection we had at Dad's in Puerto Rico!

2007-07-12T15:16:00.000-06:00

We had a fantastic time in Puerto Rico. The weather was great up in the hills above Mayaquez, somewhat cooler than down along the coast, with refreshing tropical downpours and some stunning lightning and thunder. We visited several beaches and Forest and Ciandi took a tour of the inner island with Felipe, Forest's grandfather. We especially enjoyed the fiesta with music food and a chance to see some of the folks we had met last year. A real highlight of the party was the baccalao prepared by Elba. This is a traditional dish of salt cod, olives, capers and rice cooked in coconut milk, not the kind that comes out of a can, but the real thing. I'll be looking for coconuts and salt cod back home. I'll also keep an eye out for yucca root, which I now know how to prepare into a tasty patty like hash browns.
We stopped at Dad's neighbor and very good friend's house on our way to San Juan on Sunday. Ferdy roasted some of his coffee beans for us and gave us a tour of his processing plant, very interesting. We then spent the following day in Old San Juan visiting El Morro, a fort begun back in 1521. The small place we stayed in San Juan was right on a very nice swimming beach.
Steve and I got on a plane for Costa Rica a couple hours before Forest and Ciandi boarded theirs. We went from San Juan PR to Puerto Viejo CR in one day and arrived in time to go to dinner. Our plane touched down at 11:15am and we were through immigration and customs and had our bags by 11:30. This has got to be some kind of record.
We are relaxing, reading, swimming and still eating too much. Steve has already run into several different guys he has played with in the past and we will go hear one of them tonight.
Hasta proximo!

2007-07-11T14:01:00.000-06:00

Here's a shot of Felipe (Shar's dad), Forest, Shandy, & Shar gathering fruit shortly after arriving at Machabucha. It was a great visit for us all. Shar's dad is doing really well. We left P.R. on Tuesday. We're in Puerto Viejo now. I hooked up with my musician friend Lenny last night. It seems the banjo guitar I left for the band has caused a problem & Lenny's no longer playing with the group. He said that after I left last time Django asked him for "de bahnjo de white mahn leave," and Lenny wouldn't give it to him. He offered the banjo back to me. I told him I didn't want it. I had left it for them. I wanted it to be a good ting and no problem. I hope I can talk to the other guys & patch things up before I leave.

2007-06-27T15:03:00.000-06:00

I think I remember how to post to this. I am being very cautious as I ride my bike around prior to our trip.

Leaving Again

2007-06-22T18:37:00.000-06:00

We're heading down to visit Shar's dad, Felipe, on 6/30. Forest & his friend Shandi are going along. We'll all be there until 7/9, then Forest & Shandi are heading home, while Shar & are continue on to Costa Rica. I am clueless as to what or how often I will post this year.

Home & Things

2006-08-04T17:30:00.000-06:00

My last post from Puerto Viejo about 4 days ago didn't make it. When I tried to upload a photo it apparently caused my connection to crash & the whole post was gone. I decided to give up & tell that story in person.

We got home around 1 this morning. Back to the land of mail, phone messages & NPR.

This morning we went to town & got Shar a new bike helmet, & the new replacement glasses she had ordered before we left for the Caribbean. She started the trip on crutches, and has been walking without a cane for the past 3 weeks. Her leg still bothers her when she walks a lot. I'm hoping eventually she'll be running again.

I'm really grateful to Shar for a nice nice (as they say in "Patois") vacation.

I decided to post the last shot I tried to post of the harbor in Puerto Viejo.

Hiding from the Sun

2006-07-29T14:10:00.000-06:00

We have our second day in a row of unrelenting sun with no overcast or rain shower. It is intense for a western Wahingtonian. (no complaints) We just do the midday siesta thing, laying low during the hottest part of the day which is right now. I've posted a shot of some of what we bought at the farmer's market this morning: a pepper, a sapote, an onion & 2 biribas, which eat like a rich custard desert with pits in it. The fruits are set in a locally crafted basket & carved casaba.

When we dropped off Shar's laundry this morning the guy pointed out a sloth in the palm tree overhead. So when we picked up the laundry this afternoon I had my camera with me figuring that being very sloth-like in disposition he'd still be there. I got a shot of him napping on his back.

Cahuita Nat'l Park

2006-07-28T18:11:00.000-06:00

We caught a morning bus to Cahuita to spend most of the day in the National Park. It was one of the 2 totally sunny days we've had. We saw 2 sloths, a white-faced monkey & a howler monkey. None of them were willing to pose for postable pictures. I did however get a shot of a Sharle on vacation. We relaxed on the beach and swam. I'm beginning to learn to write like a 4th grader.

Back In Puerto Viejo Costa Rica

2006-07-27T09:19:00.000-06:00

I finally was able to upload pictures from last Sunday. It took me over an hour. You can see them if you scroll down to the post below that says Yesterday's Pix. I have not been able to get good connections lately--when there was a connection at all.

Yesterday we caught an early water taxi from Isla Bastimentos to Isla Colon, where Shar had time to buy more muchillos before catching another water taxi back to the mainland. There were 17 passengers on the aproximately 25 ft. boat that maxes out at around 20 passengers I'd say. The taxi crosses the channel between Isla Colon and the mainland and follows rivers & canals to a point where you can catch a collectivo (toyota crew cab pickup) taxi to the border. When we reached the river mouth the captain head for a very narrow channel right up against the mangroves. He tried twice to inch his away across the bar and bottomed out each time. The other tourists were puzzled. I explained to them we had been across this river mouth about 5 times now, and had never had this problem. Perhaps it was due to tides, or the previous day’s heavy rain. The locals in the boat sat silent. The captain reversed out and turned back to open water. For a moment I wondered if he was taking us back to Bocas when he then swung a U turn, and jammed the throttle full ahead. As the distance between us and the bar shortened I thought to myself, this will be interesting: Either he’ll get us across the bar or. . . or, I don’t know—what does happen when you hit the bar at full speed and don’t make it across? We did shoot across. A few tourists behind me cheered in approval.

The bus from the border overheated and the driver wouldn’t go beyond Bri-bri. Rather than wait another hour for a bus that would then be twice as crowded, we asked a couple other Americans we saw at the bus station there if they would share a taxi with us. A taxi driver agreed to take the 4 of us the remaining way (half hour ride) to Puerto Viejo for 5000 colones—about 10$.

We’re back at Rolf’s where we think we’ll stay until the day before our flight next Thursday. We’ll do day trips from here or just “chill out” (cheeloat) as they say in Bastimentos.

Rain

2006-07-25T14:13:00.000-06:00

We're holed up at the hostal. A rainy day. Shar bought bags of marbles the other day which we've been handing to very grateful kids. The kids here actually play marbles. The games involve huge shouting matches on hands and knees. It is nice to see children outside actually playing something other than video games.

We'll head back to P.V. Costa Rica tomorrow.

Tired of hearing about dinners?

2006-07-24T19:48:00.000-06:00

We have been eating dinner at Roots. They don't bring you a bill. They have one of those composition books and just tell you how much it came to, and like last year, it seems a little different formula every night. Tonight we both had the criole chicken dinner with coconut rice or fried plantains. I had a beer, Steve had two and bought one for someone else. It came to $9. I will not be cooking!
I had the octopus the other night, it cost more than chicken but was excellent.
Tomorrow we may attempt to walk over to Wizzard, or First Beach. It is the only beach that does not involve a water taxi. The very fit looking young Dutch couple we talked to this evening turned back because the trail was so slippery and muddy. Hmmm. We shall see. I think the swimming has been excellent for my leg, and I do not want to risk a hurt knee. I left the crutches in PR and the cane in CR. After tomorrow we may head back north again.
It has not been very hot, and a lot less buggy than any of our previous trips. Nice. We also haven't had inconvenient rains. Very nice. Hope I haven't spoken too soon.
We'll be home in just over a week.

Yesterday's Pix & Todays' Tour

2006-07-24T19:28:00.000-06:00

Blogspot's server is having problems with images again.

I think I forgot to mention that Polo Beach is tricky to get a boat to. The reason Cody's bruddah wouldn't come get us is that he thought the sea was too rough. There are only 2 narrow openings through the reef to get a boat through--one if the conditions are not ideal. Cody is good.

The snorkeling at Polo was nice. Eventually I got to place where I with schools of impressively large fish. I looked down and saw huge black hole canyons in the reef below me. I also realized I was in the narrow outlet from the beach through the reef and the current was like a swift river going out. I tried to swim towards shore but only got farther out between mouthfuls of water. I remembered I was not suppose to panic. Eventually I tried swimming parrallel to shore and made it to the reef where I could get hand holds, and slowly crept across the reef eventually to shore. I did not cut myself up too much on the reef.

Today we shared a tour with 8 twenty-something women: 5 young ladies from Chile, and 3 first-year teachers from California. We went along primarily because Shar wanted to get to Crawl Cay where she thought she could get more muchillos (string bags). The tour included Bahia Dolphino and snorkeling at Crawl Cay ("Crawl Cay" is Creole for "Coral Cay"). The snorkeling at Crawl Cay was great. We saw a couple of rays and countless fish of countless colors. Shar did get 7 more muchillos.

I won't go into the dynamics of the decision making process of deciding where the boat was going next and when involving 9 women. I stayed out of it completely. When we got back to Bastimentos village Shar complimented our captain, Ernesto (we remembered him from last year also) on doing a great job of keeping 9 women happy.

2006-07-23T16:32:00.000-06:00

Shar's talking to a 3rd grade gal teacher from the Bay area as I type. We shared a boat today with a teacher from France. Is there a reason we have the gig we do?

We arranged a boat to Polo Beach today on the Carribean side of the Island. There are two French families at the hostal, so we worked it out to get a decent rate with them for a boat there. We were told the captain would have to stay all day with us--that's why it would cost 10$ each. When we got there the captain told us he was leaving but his brudder would come back. The captain by the way turned out to be Cody who I met running a bar here last year & who burnt me a copy of his band's, "The Bastimentos Beach Boys," CD. The 2 French couples were very nice. One had a 9 yr.-old girl, & twin 7 year-old girls. They were adorable. I don't think they could swim & when we were in the ocean swells on the little water taxi, I would have been over the side in less than a heartbeat if one of them went in. I noticed only one life jacket on the boat. The other couple had a 16 year-old daughter who didn't seem to be bothered at all by the fact that her role was default child care person for the 3 younger girls. We told Cody we'd like to stay till 4. He said he had to leave but his brudder would come back. Cody showed up shortly after 2. After a while he told me he wanted to get back by 4, because his uncle had died and they were bringing the body. I rounded up the 8 French people. When we got back to town it appeared everyone in the village was in a procession down main street (which is actually a very beat-up sidewalk since there are no vehicles on the island). It was the funeral for Cody's uncle. The guy had 51 grandchildren when he died.

I uploaded 2 pictures from Polo Beach. On the way out there Shar & I noticed construction in an area that involved about 15 houses. One of the other captains told us that it was a development for 500 houses eventually. This is all foreign money doing this. Bocas is a paradise now. I am not sure if I will want to be coming down here in another 5 years.

Bastimentos Panama

2006-07-22T15:58:00.000-06:00

We caught the 6>30 a.m. bus to Sixaola & walked across the bridge to Panama. After some brief bag shopping (Shar only bought about 10 string bags made from bromeliads by the indigenous people in these parts.) on Isla Colon, we made it to Bastimentos by 1--even losing an hour with the time chnge. We had something to eat. Two full meals with five drinks came to $13.35! I gave a nice tip.

We are staying at the hostal again. The cheap rooms are full so we had to take a room with a porivate bath for $15 a night. This year Enrique has Internet here. It's the only conncetion on the isalnd I think. I asked about it and was told "1 dollar for an hour or un hourhalf. If you get on for two, tree hours dan 2 dollars." I added one more photo from the reserve trip yesterday. The kids really seemed to want their pictures taken. The other photo is approaching Isla Bastimentos by water taxi.

Yesterdays Shopping

2006-07-21T16:52:00.000-06:00

Here're shots from yesterday: the first was taken on the Bri-bri Reserve at th litle artesanio place where Shar bought casabas; second is a lady who sells chocolate, spices and baskets on the way to the reserve, & finally there's Shar at her favorite place: El Loco Natural last night.

Pictures for last post

2006-07-21T08:05:00.000-06:00

For some reason I was unable to post pictures for 2 days and a couple hours Internet time. Blogger.com showed that the files were being successfully uploaded, but they were not appearing along with my most recent post.

Yesterday we rented a motor scooter, went to the Bri-bri Indigenous Reserve, & Shar bought a bunch of carved casabas and such.

To Manzanillo

2006-07-19T16:26:00.002-06:00

We caught the noon bus to Manzanillo on Mon. Got a place--$30/night with screens, fridge, fan & a even a 12" TV that will let you watch whatever channel they happen to be watching on the owner's TV.

On my first night, or should I say first morning, I got a reminder of what roosters are like in these little villages. Let me first say that I'm not a city guy--I've lived around chickens. Though I've never had them myself, my neighbors have. The difference is in these villages it seems everyone has chickens, along with the requisite rooster. Sometime after midnight Tuesday morning I was awoken by what seemed like a plane crash, but was actually a rooster crowing. I immediately thought, "Why is there a rooster making all this noise right next to my bed?" Waking a bit more I realized said rooster was not actually in the room. My next thought was: Why in hell is this goddamned rooster crowing into the window 2 ft. from my pillow? I lay there in the pitch black, the only sound between crowings being the gentle swoosh of the ceiling fan and the frog and wild bug/bird noise somewhere outside. Each crowing was answered by other roosters of various distances. I eventually realized he was not at the window, but merely in the yard outside. The whole bit about cocks crowing at dawn is bull. There was not a lumen of sun anywhere within 1000 miles. These guys seem to have a competition to see who can crow loudest and earliest. Hey even the Gospel writers couldn't get the bit right about how many times the cock was gonna' crow before Peter was gonna' deny Jesus . Ya' can't really blame them. Anyway I went for my 6 a.m. beach run which took me on to the Manzanillo-Gandoca Forest Reserve. There was a small strip of sand between the reef and jungle I could run barefoot on. (Shar had admonished me not to run in the jungle because of fer de lances.) I posted pictures. This may be the most idyllic running course I've ever had!) In the afternoon I saw the rooster that had woken me. He was the size of your average beagle. I told Shar that maybe she should go talk to him in that wonderful way she has of explaining the unfathomable, obtuse and esoteric that perhaps he does not have to get the last word in. If another rooster thinks it's dawn at about 1:05 a.m., maybe he doesn't always have to be right, he should just let it go.

I also posted a picture of a bird I shot the other morning at Rolf's. I don't have a bird book. There are some 800 bird species that live or migrate to Costa Rica, and I think I might be able to name about 6.

We caught Rolf's truck back to his place again--back in Puerto Viejo. Tomorrow we'll rent a motor scooter & go into the Bri-bri Indigenous Reserve so Shar can do some shopping for whatever they make.

2006-07-16T17:38:00.000-06:00

Okay perhaps this is more of a comment/addendum to Shar's last post, so it would probably have more appropriately placed as a comment to her post under the comment link. However people have rarely commented to any of the posts, so I suspect comments would not be read or perhaps none of this is being read. In any case my typing and photo uploading does provide something of a contribution to the non-profit running this Internet access.

I hooked up with the guys I played with last year. They were playing at a bar in town. The guitar player has switched to 4-string banjo. Last year he was playing a guitar built for nylon strings, strung with steel strings with the result that the top of his instrument resembled a model of a small hill.
They play totally unplugged and unmiked. Besides the string player there is a conga player, a rythm box (a carribean version of a washtub bass--a strung stick resting on a large rectangular wooden box) player and they've now added a maraca player. It was my first night out with the guys since I can remember. I bought them each a beer. The rythm box player informed he was not drinking beer, he was drinking ron & could not mix the two. I told himn to order a rum. He got a substantially impressive glass of the stuff. Fortunately it only cost me 2000 colones.

The photo is of the old harbor that gives Puerto Viejo it's name.

rough life

2006-07-16T17:18:00.000-06:00

It's been rough here in PV. It rained this morning so we only went to the beach to swim twice. We had lunch of several cheeses with sweet red pepper, tomato, red onion, avacado, tuna several fruits and bakery multi grain bread. This was at the cabina where we have a small frig. We returned the bikes and are faced again with deciding which of the half dozen truly excellent restaurants do we want to go to if we rule out the half dozen just acceptable ones.
Tomorrow we will dine at Maxi's no doubt, on real Caribean fare. This is the place right on the beach in Manzanillo where we will head on the bus tomorrow for a few nights. We are taking only one pack for this. That's as far ahead as we are planning. Steve has a tentative offer to join a local music group. He would need a day job, like diving for langosta like the other guitar player and singer. He is not sure how lucrative that would be.

More Puerto Viejo

2006-07-15T16:39:00.000-06:00

This morning I went for my 6 a.m. run on Playa Negro followed by a quick swim. As I was getting out of the water, I realized I had not zipped the pocket that was holding the key to my bike lock. I walked over to Peter's, the Austrian guy we've rented from. He gave me a huge bag of keys, (he said there are about 80 that fit the locks) and a hack saw. After trying about 50 keys, one actually worked. Peter will charge me 1000 colones (less than $2) for the new key when I return the bikes.

We are exchanging a dollar for 512 colones. Last year I think it was about 490, but prices seem all the same. We may catch a bus down to Manzanillo (the end of the coastal road about 7 miles south) in a couple days to stay a night or 2. There is a nice snorkeling beach there, and a national reserve jungle of sorts extending pretty much to the border. We may also catch the bus to the border and head down to Bocas del Toro in Panama. I feel no pressure to go anywhere or do anything.

BTW--the photo is of Shar buying a small (travel-sized) pina (pineapple)at the Puerto Viejo Farmer's Market this a.m. We also got oranges, peppers, tomato, and some organic chocolate from a guy who made it.

Shar--back on a bike in Puerto Viejo!

2006-07-14T18:29:00.000-06:00

We arrived in P.V. yesterday afternoon, got a place at Rolf's, and rented 2 bikes @ about $4/day each. Shar says she's not ready to take the 13K ride to Manzanillo, but she's getting around here just fine. Shar got to eat at El Loco Natural, our favorite restaurant, last night. We swam at Playa Negro today--there's a picture of Playa Negro with the town in the background.

We had some very sad news this afternoon: When we inquired about Toukie, our favorite bird (a rainbow-billed toucan who has resided at Rolf's our past 3 summer visits, we were told he died last Nov. It seems he choked on a bone he got out of the garbage. I'm sure the whole family must have been heartbroken because he was really quite a guy.

Shar snapped the close-up of the strawberry poison arrow frog a couple hours ago late this afternoon. I'd say it's actual size is about 3/4 of an inch long with it's legs stretched. Bye for now!

To Puerto Viejo de Tallamanca

2006-07-13T08:24:00.000-06:00

We spent a night in San Jose. I was up before 5 to insure getting a couple a seats on the 10-o'clock bus to P.V. (I probably didn't need to do that.) It's a 4 hour ride with one bathroom stop, and another passenger stop in Cahuita before getting to P.V. It costs about $15 for the 2 of us on a comfortable bus--more comfortable than the planes anyway. Yesterday before leaving San Juan, P.R. I reserved a place via email at Rolf's, the German botanist who runs Cabinas Tropical, where we've become regulars over the past 3 years.

Shar's on a different computer upstairs in this hotel. She's said the same stuff I bet! Later...

From P.R. to C.R.

2006-07-12T22:18:00.000-06:00

Our flights from P.R. to C.R. (via Miami) were quite painless, & both even got in to their respective destinations early. We got to our hotel in downtown San Jose by 9:00 pm. I'll post some more Puerto Rico pictures now. The first one is Shar with a couple of fruits at Machabuca. They are called Jack fruit in English. The second is a shot I took at a museum in Old San Juan. It's relates some idea of what happens when Catholicism is forced on to the Afro/Indio peoples of the Carribean.

Things already feel different now. I can tell we're in Costa Rica.

Leaving P.R.

2006-07-12T06:59:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful time at la fiesta at Machabuca (Dad's place). Great food prepared by Elba with Arlee assisting, interesting dishes brought by the guests and much singing and guitar playing. The rum bar had 10 rums from five countries. The old bottle of Havana Club was the first one to be emptied after which several of the guests explained that Puerto Rico makes the best rum.
We took Arlee and Shawn back to the airport in San Juan then walked around old San Juan. It is a $0.75 bus ride or a $19 taxi ride from our hotel. The old city is beautiful. We toured San Cristobal, a fort from the 16th century. The photo was taken from the fort looking toward a second fort, El Morro. The entire old city was walled, most of which is still standing.
Today we fly to Costa Rica. We have already been to the beach where Steve ran while I swam. I left my crutches behind and walked the last couple days without my cane. Every day my leg is better.

From Sharle, logged in as Steve

Winding up our DR visit

2006-07-06T09:02:00.000-06:00

We just stopped in here at the shopping mall on our way back from a small produce market. We are going to try a few new fruits later today before heading to the ferry. Dad has his weight in Dominican candies and sweets as well as some flatbread made from yuca, manioc root. I´m expecting them to ask him for his business license since it looks like he has inventory for a store. One impresive item is a 40lb block of a treat made from cashew fruit and a honey like sugar product. A big candy bar, he calls it. I´m sure we will manage to take a dip or two in the pool before then, it is such a quick way to cool off. We will be quite a few degrees cooler up at Dad´s at Machabuca. He seems to have a fairly constant breeze and by being over a thousand feet above sea level it is cooler. Though still using a cane, I am getting around much better. My leg is still sore and my foot and ankle baloon out after a day of walking, but it goes down during the night. At the pharmacy you can purchase pills cut from one of those sealed packs and each time I have gotten a stronger Ibuprophen, the 800mg are really big.
We are looking forward to our last lunch with the family today. Both daughters and their families as well as the son all join our hosts for lunch and we may even see the grandmother again today. It is a very big, fun, friendly, family affair. You can see Jose and Argentina light up to have their children and grandchildren around them.
What an incredible experience this has been! To be imersed in the local life. Just this morning we talked about how different from being stuck in a hotel room inbetween our sojourns out and about.
Arlee and Shaun will never forget their stay out in Romana at Casa del Campo. I think they have had a wonderful experience that will long outlast the mosquito bites they take back as memories, of which they have quite a few!
If you click on comments, you can add to this blog, it can be read by anyone viewing it, or you can email either one of us.
Catch you later,
Sharle

Last Night In Santo Domingo

2006-07-06T08:52:00.000-06:00

Last night I wanted to go check out some son or merengue music. Our book told of a Cuban son place down in Zona Colonial. When we got there it was now a different club & not open. We tried the Merengue Bar--great music, but so loud you couldn´t hear it. I was ready to move on to La Guacara, a club that is located entirely within what was formerly a Taino cave. We had been told it was quite the place, but Arlee & Shawn thought none of us would be able to handle the "electronica" (rave-type) music, so we called it a night.

The photo is a 500 year-old Spanish fort. The Zona Colonial is quite magical at night!

I read Shar´s email post & it was better than what I´ve been doing here. I told her she should be posting to the blog, so she just logged on. We´re catching the all-night boat back to Mayaguez, P.R. this evening. Ciao!

2006-07-05T16:13:00.000-06:00

Arlee & Shawn rejoined us last night. Felipe took 15 of us to dinner at what Jose stated was the best restaurant in Santo Domingo. Quite amazing. Today Jose took us on a tour of 2 of his water bottling plants, then Arlee, Shawn, Sharle & I went to the market section of town then on to to Zona Colonial where Shar & I were yesterday. I uploaded a picture of Shar & Arlee at the market stalls. Tomorrow evening we´ll be taking the ferry back to Puerto Rico. Saturday we are helping Felipe host a fiesta where he said he´s invited 75 friends. So there will be another hiatus from these posts as I may not have Internet access until I maybe get to an Internet cafe again enroute to Costa Rica. Do good, do well--hasta luego!

Where it all began or one of the beginnings of the end(s)

2006-07-04T16:41:00.000-06:00

Shar took this shot of me smoking a Dominican cigar outside the oldest church in the ¨New World.¨ About one minute after said picture was taken I attempted to enter the edifice and was addressed by the guard apparently indicating to me that I could not enter while smoking a cigar. I thought about explaining to him that I just wanted to smoke my first cigar in some twenty-odd years, and how was that anything compared to 500 hundred years of pillage and oppression, you know rape, genocide, Wal*Mart, Walt Shubert etc. but decided my Spanish was not that good.

I´ve got to say it can be frustrating to use these machines. The folks at this Internet cafe make a very nice coffee, and will apparently serve you a beer or a shot of the liquor of your choice but they appear to know as much about the computers in here as I know about dark matter. I know--cry me a river!

Gone!

2006-07-04T07:42:00.000-06:00

Well let's see: we've been gone from home a week. We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico @ about midnight last Wed. I slept 4 hours & went for a run/swim on the beach. We grabbed a rental car, drove to Machabuca with one lunch & one swim stop. Arlee & Shawn were duly impressed with Machabuca--Felipe's (Shar's dad) place. The picture is of Shar at Machabuca. We we had a fabulous dinner there. The next day we boarded the ship to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We arrive arrived in Santo Domingo after 8:00 a.m. & taxied to our hosts place & were then transported in our host's new Mercedes (to me it was a starship)to the private community of La Romana some hour & 45 min. east. The villa there was absolutely unimaginable. I think you could have fit our entire house within one of the living/dining room spaces. Our hosts were/are incredibly kind and gracious. They are long time friends of Felipe who thought nothing of us crashing our hostesses' father's 82nd birthday party. All 3 brothers, wives, and children were there as well as one daughter with kids and husband plus a number of people who I never found out what their connection was. They made us feel like family. We swam in the pool & the ocean, Shawn beat me 3 times on one of the 2 regulation sized pool tables at the house. I played music with Jose Enrique Santos, our host.

After one day we went backto to Santo Doming for shopping & little strolling around Zona Colonial which is 500 years old. Arlee & Shawn stayed out at the villa which they've had to themselves now (along with the servants). They are really roughing it. Our hostess, Argentina, is going to pick them up & bring them back to us today.

Shar is now getting around with just a cane. We did get a little special treatment at the airport & at the ferry terminal since she was on crutches. Yesterday she overdid it, & her leg swelled up again last night. She's getting around, but it's very slow going. We take a taxi if we have to go more than a few blocks.

Ciao for now!

Sequim's Finest: Ignore a STOP and cream a cyclist? . . . Hey--no problem!

2006-06-26T18:28:00.000-06:00

Well I hope this little chapter of our lives is over. Shar's been on crutches for the past 4 days, babying her leg in preparation for the trip. I'll summarize the Kafka-esque experience we've had in dealing with the events. (The details are actually even more bizarre, but who has time to type or read them?) The guy who ran Shar down was not given a citation for doing so. After a couple of days, several phone calls & a visit to the Sequim Police Department we finally got a chance to talk on the phone to the perky young officer who filed the accident report. We asked a few simple obvious questions. Her only response was "I was just doing what I was told to do." We were told to call back 2 days later when the Sergeant came back to work. We talked to him this morning. He said the decision to cite the driver was at the investigating officer's discretion. I told him that the "investigating officer" (who by the way had never bothered to speak to either Shar or myself during the "investigation") had told us on the phone that she was just doing what he had told her to do. We never got anywhere with him. The upshot: It's open season on bicylists. You can hit them and--hey why even bother to stop? I mean if they ride a bike, they probably don't believe in invading other countries for oil and other stuff like that, so just run 'em down.

Since the accident I've been running alone in the mornings, we're not biking to town. Kari (Shar's long-time personal physician) told us that Shar may have permanent damage to her knee. This past spring Shar ran in 4 races after completing cancer treatment. 3 weeks ago she ran the entire Olympic Discovery Half-Marathon (13.1 miles). I really hope I have not lost my running/biking/hiking buddy.

We'll have a good trip. I'm going to try to get Shar to see if she can switch from crutches to a cane this evening. We'll see.

2006-06-22T17:46:00.000-06:00

Okay folks,
I was not going to post anything until we had embarked on said journey, but I feel today’s events warranted a note. We rode bikes into town to do some errands in preparation for our trip. We were heading east on Washington, (main drag of Sequim). After I crossed 2nd I heard Shar yell and a split second afterwards I heard an impact. I knew immediately someone had hit Shar at the intersection before I even turned around. I know a lot of you who may read this are bike riders, and I admonish you to drive incredibly defensively when you are on your bikes. Newton’s laws tell us it is all quite academic who has right of way when an object weighing 30 times more than you strikes your leg. You lose. The short story is that as of now, Shar doesn’t seem to have broken bones, but may have contusions, torn ligaments etc. In any case she is not walking.

The 30-yr.-old male who ran her down--cracking her helmet, (yes there's a reason we wear them) ruining the new high tech prescription glasses she just treated herself to, and doing as yet unknown damage to her bike--did not have insurance or a valid driver's license. I could go into my experience with the two police, one sheriff, and two EMT vehicles, and the countless number of personnel associated with these vehicles whose reason for being there seemed to be to stand around & talk amongst themselves, (Perhaps if I owned a TV I could have joined in their conversations.) but there really is nothing to say. After I got Shar home she complimented me on my politeness to everyone on the scene, including the gentleman who T-boned her. (Please do not spread this around—I have a reputation to maintain--thanks.)

It’s okay. It could have been much worse. I feel guilt for not having somehow prevented it. Our plans are still on track. Anyway it doesn’t look like Shar will be wearing a cast with her bikini.

Introduction

2006-06-19T17:19:00.000-06:00

I chose the name "woven routes" because "cry me a river" was already taken. The latter was the phrase used last year as I described to a friend how difficult the trip from the SEATAC airport to Sequim was. After hearing we had spent 32 days in the tropics. she said, "Cry me a river!."
This year we will be gone for five weeks.
I will be sending posts from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and perhaps Panama. Hopefully this will include some wildlife photos as well as pictures of beaches, dinners and favorite spots.