Monteverde is a beautiful small town with old world charm
1 horse power or 100 horse power…
and a modern life style with lots of shops and tourist adventures like zip lining, rock climbing, and hiking the nine hanging bridges. We opted to take the morning off and just walk around town.
Remember these Kodak signs…
We went in and out of the many souvenir shops and looked at the unique items.
Souvenirs abound…Butterflies of Costa Rica…
There is a lot of beautiful hand crafted wood furniture available in this area and they will make to order if you know what you want.
Wood table tops…Mango wood vases…
Suzi loved these hand carved mango wood vases.
In the afternoon we joined our other tour mates for a tour of the Don Juan Coffee plantation.
Don Juan Coffee, Monteverde, Costa Rica…
We saw the coffee plants
In the coffee fields…
and Cacao trees growing and learned about harvest techniques,
Coffee & chocolate drying…
drying, grading,
The coffee roaster…
roasting and finally
Which roast do you like…
drinking and eating.
Fresh ground chocolate…Suzi meets Don Juan…
We also got to see the process used to turn sugar cane
Hand grinding sugar cane…More grinding…
into brown and white sugar,
The syrup of their labor…
molasses and Costa Rican moonshine known as “Guaro”.
Our “chariot’ arrives…
One final treat was a ride in a true Ox cart.
Twin ox boost…The view from behind the tails…Seating for as many as you can pack in…
Who knew ox carts have no suspension?
Our hotel in Monteverde…
Our last day on the tour was a travel day back to San Jose, Costa Rica. We checked out of our hotel in Monteverde and boarded our bus back to the big city.
On the bus again…
Along the way, we saw beautiful vistas,
Costa Rica countryside…
and even some wild life just hanging out in the trees.
which first headed to Arenal, the home of Arenal Volcano. As we traveled through the countryside, one stop we made was in Sarchi, home to the Guinness Book of Records’ world’s largest ox cart
The World’s Largest Ox Cart…
and also an ox cart factory where ox carts are built and meticulously hand painted.
Artist hard at work…
Ox carts started out as a way to transport goods and people from town to town and from inland towns to the sea ports.
History, by the wheels…
In the early 20th century, families began painting the carts and the style of painting could be used to tell what area and what family the ox cart came from.
History on wheels…
As more modern ways of transporting goods and people came about, ox carts were used less and less but the painting got more elaborate.
A wheel being renovated…Work in progress. All done by hand….
Currently, ox carts are used mostly in parades and celebrations but are even still used for transportation for some local farmers.
Another stop on the way to Arenal was at a local school that Gate1 Tours has “adopted” and provides with some support. As we drove up,
Anxiously waiting for the bus to arrive…
all the kids were waiting for our bus. As we got off the bus,
Being escorted to class…
a child took each of us by the hand and escorted us into their school. We sat down and watched as the children performed local dances for us.
Tiny dancer…Even coaxed some of the Gate1 folks to dance…
They sang the Costa Rican National Anthem and
Singing for us…
God Bless America for us. Then, they showed us around the school,
The computer lab…
the computer lab, lunch room, and playground. It was obvious to us that they took great pride in their school. Our visit came to an end and we loaded back up in our bus and headed to our first overnight stay at the foot of the Arenal Volcano.
Arenal Volcano…
It’s much cooler in Arenal than San Jose and the cool air was a welcomed pleasure. We stayed in La Fortuna at a lovely hotel
Our “Hotel”…
with a great view of the volcano.
The volcano from our casita…
Our first full day by the Arenal Volcano, we hopped aboard our trusty bus and headed toward the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica to the town of Cano Negro for a boat ride down the Cano Negro river. As we headed across the green country side, our tour guide, Ricardo, said we were going to stop and see some of his “family”. We stopped and he went to the fruit stand and bought some bananas. As he came back,
Did you say bananas???…
several LARGE iguanas
We LIKE bananas…
appeared from the bushes and began clambering for the bananas.
Bananas good…
A real feeding frenzy.
Just hanging out…
Back on our bus again, we made our way to the Cano Negro river. Once there, we got on the boat, said good bye to our fans on the dock,
Our fans…
and headed down the river. Our guide, Ricardo, was excellent at pointing out all of the various wildlife along and in the river…including a crocodile with babies, bats on a tree, lizards, turtles, monkeys and even a water cow!
Momma and the “kids”…Crocodile…Great American Egret…Can you spot the bats?Here they are…Long Nose Bats…I’m flying…NOT…High up in the trees…Montezuma Oropendola…The border…
Time to turn around…
Sitting in the shade… Cormorant…Hanging around…Howler Monkey…Watching for food…Boat Billed Heron…Laying in the sun…River Slider Turtle…Drying the wings…Colorful lizard…Basalisk LizardMore wing drying…Anhinga…
Once we arrived back at the dock, we boarded our bus and headed back to our hotel, looking forward to the next adventures on this tour. Oh, here’s the picture of the water cow…
As our time in Boquete came to an end, we grabbed a school bus to David
Our “decked out” school bus…
and then, with a little help, found the Tracopa ticket office
Walked right by it…
and purchased two tickets to San Jose, Costa Rica. One note here, Tracopa buses are not air conditioned but they DO have internet,
Our big bus…
but since we were heading to Costa Rica, we didn’t think it would be a big problem and it wasn’t. We hit the crowded border check point and got stamped out of Panama and then walked, with our suitcase and backpacks, to the entry check point of Costa Rica. We got our entry stamps and then were herded into a cage with our luggage and told to wait.
Yes, really a cage…Cage entertainment…
About 45 minutes later, 2 guys from immigration came into the cage and did a search of our bags. Then, we were back on the bus and headed to San Jose.
Just because the timing was right and the price was good, we signed up for an 8 day tour by Gate 1 around part of Costa Rica. We got to San Jose a few days before the start of the tour to give us a chance to look around. San Jose has many museums and we were able to visit two of them, The Gold Museum which contains a lot of pre Columbian era gold and was a fascinating place.
Exhibits at the Gold Museum…Yes there was gold too…Lots of it…Very pretty…
We also went to The National Museum
The National Museum…
and had a wonderful time visiting the exhibits
Ancient Artifacts…The Spheres…Lots of Spheres…
and learning more about the fascinating history of Costa Rica.
We visited the market in downtown San Jose one day
The Central Market…
where one can buy anything from chicken feet
mmmm Chicken feet…
to hand crafted items
Wooden ox and carts…
in rows and rows of vendors
Tight aisles…
selling food,
Fish for sale…
clothing and miscellaneous.
There is one avenue that is opened to
Lots of foot traffic…
pedestrian traffic only
Someone dropping of products…
and is lined with stores of every kind and many restaurants.
We know there are many folks who think Panama is all thatched roofs and small concrete homes. Well, we are here to tell you it’s not true. One of the things we enjoy about being senior nomads is that every so often we have new surroundings, new furniture and new neighbors and friends. We are currently living in Valle Escondido which is a gated community in the valley of Boquete, Panama.
Valle Escondido…
We are in a three bedroom home with all the amenities found in any home in the US. We have an LG front-loading washer and dryer, a two door refrigerator with freezer drawer on the bottom, vaulted ceilings and a large screen TV.
Living room, dining room and laundry room…
The master suite has a double sink and both guest bedrooms have queen size beds and lots of space.
Bedrooms & bathroom…
The kitchen counter is beautiful granite and the back patio has a propane grill. Yes, we are roughing it!!!
Kitchen & Patio…
The gated community of Valle Escondido has single family homes, duplexes, four plexes, condos, a hotel, a chapel, an amphitheater, two restaurants, an indoor pool, an organic garden, a labyrinth, a miniature golf course, a stocked trout pond, waterfalls, streams, a driving range, a golf course and an exercise room.
Valle Escondidto…
We reside in a duplex and our living space is all on one level with covered parking outside for two cars.
Our house…
The grounds here are meticulously manicured and very beautiful. One of our neighbors has a pet coatimundi named Holly who stops by sometimes when out walking with her mom doggie pal, Riko.
Holly & Riko…
Coatimundis are not usually pets but Holly was orphaned as a baby and bottle nursed by our friends here who decided she would be better in their home than being put back into the wild. She is spayed, her canine teeth are filed for (human) safety and she is a very friendly little girl. We have another coatimundi that comes to the back door looking for food. This is a wild coatimundi, so we have only interacted with this one through the screen door.
Back porch coatimundi…
The city of Boquete has a mix of US expats, Canadians, Panamanians, Venezuelans, and a mixing bowl of other people just enjoying the cool temps and eternal spring weather here. Neither air conditioning nor heat are needed in Boquete though many homes (as well as this one) have gas fireplaces for ambiance and to take the occasional chill out of the air.
City Views…
There are many restaurants in Boquete with choices of Italian, French, seafood, burgers, pizza or whatever your heart desires. We even played Trivia at Mike’s Global Grill last week.
Just a few of the selections to be found…
There is a large grocery store in town called Romero’s and in the city of David (Dah-VEED) which is approximately 30 minutes away, there are two very large modern grocery stores and a PriceSmart membership store (Panama’s equivalent to Costco) which even carries the Kirkland brand and many items just as one would find in Costco together with lots of other shopping opportunities.
Romero’s…
We are here during what is called the green or rainy season and we get a lot of afternoon showers, ok downpours. They last for a while, stop, then sometimes start again.
Yes, it rains here once in a while…
This time of year, the best time for touring or sightseeing in this area is early morning until about mid-afternoon when the skies open and provide nourishment for all the greenery and the wide variety of flowers that flourish here. There are several day trips and there will be blogs about them coming up.
We have been enjoying ourselves so much that we have not made a blog entry in a while. Life is good.
A lot has transpired since our last post. In July we flew back to the US for a visit with family and friends and, as always, had a wonderful time catching up with everyone there. In New Mexico we got have some good time with Carter, our precious grandson and, of course his mom and dad. Since we were not around for Christmas, we took Carter to Toy-R-Us to do some shopping (after going to see the new Minion movie) and he and PopPop Bob had fun looking at toys.
Such boys!!
Who DOESN’T love toy shopping…
We were able to empty our storage unit and cancel it (yeah!!)
MORE stuff gone…
and gather all the paperwork needed for our residency visas in Panama to return with everything IN HAND. Definitely an accomplishment.
We then flew to Florida to see our other son and family and enjoy those three grandbabies before returning to Panama.
Gannon, Trinity and Nolan…
In mid August, we flew to Panama with our residency paperwork in our carry on luggage and one of the first things we did was submit the paperwork
Which expat doesn’t know this building…
and (drumroll please) we were approved for pensionado residency. We have our temporary residency cards. Major accomplishment!!!!
I know our logo has always been one suitcase and two backpacks but it has been more difficult to find a short-term rental in the beach condo in Gorgona that we so enjoy so we decided to sign a one year lease starting November 1 and do our traveling with that as a home base. So this trip we had three suitcases and two backpacks so we could bring a few personal things to nest for a year. We find life is best when we are fluid with our plans and just figure the future out as we go along.
So we stayed with friends in Gorgona for a few days, stored some of our stuff with them and left Gorgona late in August with one suitcase and two backpacks on a long bus ride headed to David, Panama. In David some friends picked us up for the ride from there to Boquete, Panama where we will call home until the end of September. Look for pictures of this amazing part of Panama in our next blog.
Until then, safe travels and be happy. Life is good.
I’m very excited to be posting this. My beautiful wife and I got the opportunity to walk where nobody will ever set foot again. About 8am on a Saturday morning, we got a call from our friends Chris and Dick. They invited us to attend the Family and Friends Tour of the Panama Canal Expansion Project. An hour later we were seated in the back seat of their SUV with 3 other couples in two other vehicles following us toward Panama City and the canal expansion project. As we drove, Chris explained how they had a name of a person who was a worker on the project and that we were “on the list”. In my mind, a VERY important fact. When we got closer to Cocoli, the traffic started to get heavier. We made the turn onto the exit and came to a complete stop. We were still a couple miles away from the expansion. Behind us, a motorcycle officer pulled in front of the second car behind us and started hollering in Spanish and pointing back to the highway. As I watched, people behind us started to turn their cars around and drive back down to the highway, including one of the couples who were with us.
Walking toward the expansion…
As we sat and waited, we saw people parking on the shoulder of the highway and walking toward the expansion. Finally, we started to move again toward Cocoli.
Moving again…
Cars were parked in ever tiny hole that they would fit into.
Park ANYWHERE…
We found a side road and Dick drove up the road, turned around and parked behind the last car in line. We walked down to the main street and flagged down a coaster bust that was headed toward the project.
Coasters to the expansion…Suzi and Chris on the coaster…
If you’ve ever been to Disneyland, you know how they make you snake your way around the stanchions to get to the ride.
Waiting in line…
The Panama Canal Expansion project was no different, except we were snaking around bus stops built into the staging area.
Hundreds of people…
This is the area where the workers are picked up by buses to be taken to the job site. Due to the size of the project and the workforce needed, this helps reduce the amount of vehicles at the actual expansion.
A festive atmosphere…”100 Years Later! Our History…”
As we slowly moved toward the front of the line, the heat started to take its toll, my wife being one of the people succumbing to the heat.
Suzi’s tour…
I left my wife in the care of the paramedics and continued toward the front of the line.
Through the security gates…
Once there, I boarded a bus that would take me to the Expansion.
We drove past the buildings that will house the controls for the new gates
Gate control buildings…
and down to the south end of the Pacific side locks. We got out of the bus here and saw
Displays, facts and figures…
displays about the expansion project, stats, facts and figures. Since we were at the end of the locks, we could see down into the canal expansion itself.
Looking into the canal…3 of the 4 step-downs…This piece of ground will go away…
After snapping a few pictures,
Waiting for the buses…
I boarded a bus and we headed back along the locks and this time, it turned right and we headed down into the canal itself.
Down into the project…
As we drove, the walls got higher and higher and when the bus stopped, we were in the 3rd level of the canal expansion project!!!
Wall with water ports…
We walked along the 98 foot high concrete wall past the water ports that are large enough to drive a car into.
One of the water ports…
These ports will be used to let water in and out of the canal. We walked over the trenches where the new gates will roll to open and close
Gate rail…
and then around and up close to the new gates themselves.
These are huge…
Just to give you a sense of how big this job is, the new expansion is 60% larger than the current Panama Canal. The channel itself has 98 foot high concrete walls and is 180 feet wide. There are a total of 16 gates, 188 feet long and 30 feet wide. They range in height from 73 feet to 109 feet tall. A lock in the current canal is 998 feet long. A lock in the expansion is 2,057 feet long.
I made my way back toward where the buses were picking people up
Looking back at our first stop…
and stopped to look back to the tents at our first stop of the day. People were taking pictures every where they could for this historic event.
Smile for mom ninö…Awaiting our bus…
Those are full size buses parked against the wall of the canal. I boarded a bus and it took me out of the project and back to the parking lot to my waiting wife.
Suzi waiting to leave…
I believe on this day, there were some 30,000 people who came to see the new expansion project. The weekend after the expansion would host the general public and even larger crowds.
Below I have added a link to the first water going into the Atlantic side of the Expansion Project.
After 4 months of living on the beach in a condo, and waiting on the FBI, we wanted to head to the other side of Panama and see what Bocas Town is all about. So we packed up our belongings…
Our worldly possessions…
and got a friend to drive us into Panama City to the bus terminal. Once there, we went to the Bocas del Toro ticket window and said “dos por favor” and the lady said “no,no,no,no.” The bus was full for tonight. So, we purchased a ticket for the next night’s bus and got a room at the Tryp Hotel at Albrook Mall. Spending the night at the mall is not so bad. Stuff to do, food to eat, people to watch. Plus it was good to get a good night’s sleep before our bus ride to Bocas. The next night, we checked out and about 6pm went down to the waiting room at the bus depot. Another great place to people watch.
A busy place…
We watched people come and go until at last, our bus pulled up.
Our “ride” awaits…Larger than what we normally ride…
This is the larger of the buses that we see. More comfortable and it has a bathroom on board. We took our assigned seats and got ready for our trip. This is an overnight bus ride, which is probably a good thing. There is less traffic on the roads at night and the driver can go faster. We made 3 stops, the second one was in Santiago where I did get off the bus and have pasta at a outdoor buffet. Kind of like a truck stop with no walls 🙂 I love Panama. We also changed drivers here. After a half hour, we were back on the bus, hurtling down the highway at breakneck speed. Once again, good thing it’s dark so we can’t really tell how fast we are going or how treacherous the hilly winding roads really are. As the sun came up, we were on a 2 lane, winding road, still driving fast and being buffeted by high winds. At 6am, we pulled into the quiet coastal town of Almirante. Here, we get off the bus and take a short taxi ride to the water taxi that will take us to Bocas Town.
Ready to set sail…Calm waters…Another water taxi heading out…
We boarded our water taxi and headed out for the half hour ride to Bocas Town on Isla Colón.
Our “Capitan”…Bocas Town…
We pulled into a taxi dock and got off the water taxi and into a regular taxi and rode out to our new home for a month at Cabana Beach.
Our view from the front porch…
And yes, that is the Caribbean Sea just across the way…
