Today, most locals in the tourist areas have their hands out. And not all in a good way. Today, go into any restaurant and you will see a tip jar. Now for us Americans this may seem normal, but here in Costa Rica a tip is already included in the bill. But, since many tourist are unaware of this, they still put the jar out. But the strangest place I have found a tip jar is in the grocery store. From each and every bakery, tourist activity center, shopping center and yes, the grocery store, everyone here is now looking for a tip.

And then there are the ones with their hands out for your money, but plan on doing nothing for it, except scare you. Fortunately, we have not had any problems with these people, but we have met many who have.  These people will take what you have. Some are tricky and will do it without you noticing. Others will use scare tactics to get all they can from you. We have met people who have had their wallets stolen, earings taken right off their head and people being robbed of passports, money and cameras. And the sad truth has been found that even the local police will take your money right out of your wallet and there is nothing you can do to stop them.

A few common sense precautions should be used. First, when ever possible, don’t carry much on you. Leave the passports in your hotel. I know you are suppose to have it on you at all times here, but if you are in one town for a few days, please leave it behind in your hotel. Next, don’t carry extra cash on you. And the cash you do have, spread it between a few different pockets. That way, if someone tries to rob you, you give them money from one pocket and say that is all you have. And please, leave all the expensive jewelry at home. Don’t have it on. It is to easy of a target.

Now, there does come a time when you must leave your town, either to go to another town or head back to the capital for your departure. On these days, you will have everything with you. Keep your eyes open, continue to look around. Pack your money in a money belt with only your travel expenses for the day in your pocket or wallet. And most important, do not leave any bag unattended!

Another major change that I have noticed in this country is the relationship to the U.S. dollar. Years ago, everything was priced in colones. Now, in most tourist shops and tour activity shops, everything is priced in the U.S. dollar. And I have learned that the exchange rate to the dollar in these places is terrible. So, who is making all this extra cash? The tour shop? The tour guide? The locals?  The Costa Rican colone is dropping drastically. Years ago, it was about 500 colones to one U.S. Dollar. When we arrived this time, our exchange rate was 551 colone to one $. And today it is 571 colones to one $. Yet most tour companies use 580 exchange rate. So, I guess the lesson is to pay in dollars.

That brings me to my biggest pet peave of our travels. These tour prices!  To take a ATV tour for two hours, they want to charge $5o per person. That is $150 for the three of us traveling.  Now I understand the cost and all, but really, a day at Disney Land is about $65 per person and you get 12 hours or so of entertainment.  Then to ride a sunset sale boat cost about $75 here. I don’t mind paying for some entertainment, but should I really be paying more in Central America then I would pay in the USA?

I have heard that the economy has already impacted Costa Rica. Tourism is down between 30 – 4o% this year. I hope these changes help Costa Rica return to its none greedy roots. Next year should be a real drastic change down here as the colone continues to change and fewer tourist are able to come. Perhaps they will return to their thankful roots for our dollar and reestablish some affordable prices.

But, I know this is not a reality. My son would about have my head if he had to stay a day longer than already torchered  into. I understand that this is hard for him. I know he doesn’t think I do, but I can see his hardship. I was hoping this experience would bring us together, but again, I may be naive as a parent. Is it just the age? Weget glimpses of smiles and

exploring the beach

play-fullness together, but he can be so moody. Any suggestions out there? Teenagers! grr. Well, I will take every smile I can get and talk with him as much as possible. May he be blessed.

Today has been a great lounging day. This morning I lounged in the hammock, then we went to the beach and I watched the pelicans dive for their lunch as the clouds floated by. Hanah and I played in the waves for hours. Later we played in the pool. I felt something like a prune by the end of the day.

Hanah and Joe both did their school work well, so that made the day go well. We had a nice dinner and I didn’t even mind cleaning up the dishes. lol

Hanah was so excited. She loves horseback riding. Her hope was to go fast and she sure did:) Dave was a bit nervous but he turned into a real cowboy by the end of the ride. My horse was wonderful and we followed a path through a few fields, crossed a stream and gallopped up a bit of the mountain. The rain held off for the most part so the views were wonderful. We saw a tocan feeding in the tree and saw a few other huge birds that we don’t know the name of.

When we reached the top, we released the horses into a small corral to rest and we got harnessed in for our canopy tour. Hanah was feeling very nervous. She almost tried to back out. We had a series of 10 zip lines to go through. Some of them being 170 feet from the canopy top. I must admit that the one we were on last year in Monteverde was a lot bigger, faster and better, but this was a good day still.

Because zip lines work on gravity, and Hanah is so small, she had to ride with one of the guides at first. But after her first zip, she was begging to go by herself. On zip line number two, I took my camera out of the bag to grab some nice photos along the way. But, as my camera came out, so did two 2G memeory cards and they fell into the deep jungle never to be found again. So much for me being prepared with an extra card for this adventure. Yet, I am in Costa Rica and I wasn’t going to let it get me down. What are we out, a few hundred pictures? I bet we will live.

The rest of the zip lines were fun. On one, I came in so fast and couldn’t stop, I took out the guide and thought I was going to break my legs on the tree. Boy, that was fast. We reached almost 65 miles an hour on that zip.

When I can figure out my video and why they are clitching, I will post some on the site. It was alot of fun.

After the 10 zip lines we headed back to the horses and rode back down the mountain.

Dave grilled out for dinner. It was the best dinner we had since we have been in Costa Rica. We hung out with people from all over the world. Gringo Pete, the owner of the hostel we were at has a 10 pm quiet time. At about 11 pm we were still hanging out and some of the girls were getting a bit loud. He came out and said he was not going to argue about the rules, he was just simply going to call the police to escort us out and he would give them our deposits for their dealing with us.

So for us, it was time to pack for the next day travel to San Jose. There were a few bus options. We could take a direct bus at 12:45 that would take about 5 hours, but we had to get out of the hostel by 10 am. Another bus leaves for San Ramon at 9 with a connecting bus to San Jose every 1/2 hour. This trip was estimated at 4 hours.

While waiting at the bus station for the bus to San Ramon, we were offered the shuttle van for the same price. What a great deal. I felt bad for the two other people on the shuttle who each paid $45 for a direct shuttle van, but I was happy we got to San Jose within 3 hours and only paid $26 dollars for all four of us. That was 28,000 colones.

So today should be a day for shopping and hanging out. Then the kids and I will try to decide were to go next. I am erady for more sun and heat again. The tempurature here is about 70, and that is still way better then home, but I am looking to get back to the 90′s soon.

Until next time,

pura vida

pure life

This week we got to hold a puffer fish, swim with humpback whales, explored deep cavern, saw tons of the beautiful contryside, watched the sunnset together and met some great people from all over the world.

Today, we went spelunking in the caverns near La Fortuna. The space is very small and we had to crawl through tunnels before it opened up into larger rooms. We saw a few scorpian spiders and tons of bats. Before entering the caverns we saw a sloth sleeping in the tree and two poison dart frogs.

But, the most amazing thing I have seen the entire week is that my 15 year old son is doing his own dishes as soon as he is done eating without even being asked!! What kinda miricale is this. Is it something in the water, the air??? How can we bring this behavior home? lol

Since we are staying in youth hostels, we have the use of a kitchen and yes, my boy cleans up after himself. It is GReat! He is also making friends with more locals then the rest of us. He is enjoying his time and a bit of freedom. I know he is not thrilled about being here, but I think it will be allright. Actually, my daughter is a bit homesick as well this time around. I didn´t see that one coming. But with only three 1/2 more weeks to go, we will be fine.

I am seriously considering renting a car next time I travel down here, but perhaps that rant is for tomorrow. Sorry our videoes are not up yet. I seem to be having issues with getting them onto my computer. I must be missing software or something. Hopefully we can get that going when we reach san jose on Wed. or Thursday.

Until then,

pura Vida

so, last we left off we were all in San Jose. We asked for the correct bus station and time for a direct bus to transport us to Tamarindo. But what would an adventure like this be if things followed a plan. We arrived at the bus station at 7:30 am for our 8:30 bus, hoping to ensure a seat. But come to find out, they changed the sceduale and the only direct bus would leave at 11:30. With all of our bags in hand, I was not comfortable walking around San Jose for a few hours, so we got tickets to Santa Cruz. It was a hot 4 hour bus ride with no bathroom or food. When we got to Santa Cruz, it was going to be 2 hours until the bus arrived for Tamarindo and another 11/2 bus ride. So, we spurged the extra $20 and got a taxi to tack us there. We found a hostel and walked the beach for a few hours. It really was a long hot travel day, but one will have those when you are traveling by public transportation through central america.

The next day we just lounged around the beach, rented boogy boards and played in the waves. Joe and Hanah had a good time in the pool at the hotel. Hanah played with all the clams and snails she could find in the Ocean and we all watched the sunset together. Each of us did get a bit of a sun burn. And get this…sunscrean lotion is aroun $22 for a small bottle. I guess they reolize no local will be needing it:) So, if you travel here, bring your own!!!We used 50 proof and still got a burn. The sun is brutal on our light skin. Now we are almost out of sunscrean so we will move up into the mountains for a few days.

Yesterday we took a snorkaling adventure out into the ocean. The kids both loved snorkaling last time we were here so I figured it would be a great activity. Well, just to let you know, I have issues with deep water and swimming with monsters bigger then myself:) BI also have this thing about not being able to breath through the tube. I don’t know why but I get panik attacks, so I kinda just float around and watch the kids snorkle, usually. Well this time, neather one of the children were real thrilled. The water was much warmer in june when we were here last and the place we were snorkaling was a bit deeper, so we were not in the water for to long at first. We did play with a puffer fish and then the most amazing thing in my life happened. We found a small family of humpback whales swimming about 100 feetr away from us. We all for our gear on and jumped in to go see. After I was about 30 feet from the boat, I turned to the captain of the boat and yelled”is this safe?”He said sure and we continued on.

So, there we were swimming within 100 feet of one of the largest mammals on earth and her calf. They surfased and then we lost them for a moment. When they resurfased, their position showed that they must have swam almost dirrectly under us in water that was only 25 feet deep.  I wish I had a water proof video, but my memory of that moment was amazing.  I also really enjoyed the rays that were jumping and flipping out of the water, it was something I had never seen before as well. What a great day. People pay hundreds of dollars to swim with dolphins I we swam with humpback whales!!!

Check back soon to see what we are up to next. For now

pura vida

pure life

pura vida

Our first stop of course is San Jose. Look for you there!

Thanks for listening. I hope to share more soon.