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

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

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

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

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

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

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.