I’m going to load some pictures first then post after.

Our last day in Costa Rica. 😢
It’s been a very good vacation. There were some things that didn’t go exactly as planned but, I think things turned out well. I probably had the most fun on the jet ski, I was most excited to see the sharks and rays in the water and the best part was traveling with Emily. We had a lot of fun and even found time to relax. I really don’t have anything that sticks out as being bad, that said there are things that you will always find could be better or different. Sometimes they are a cultural thing that you should come to expect when traveling, they don’t always do things like people from the United States and they definitely don’t have to follow the same standards.

Today we were up early and went down to the beach to do some snorkeling, none of the travel books or articles ever said that snorkeling off the beach in Brasalito was any good, we found it to be some of the better snorkeling here.
Today I was able to see the rays in the water, they didn’t want to swim with me. They did again with Emily though. They should be more afraid of her, she’d be more likely to try and touch them, I just wanted their picture.
I also seen another eel and some sea snakes. Puffer fish here are all over the place and barracuda this morning were lurking just at the edge of visibility. I’m sure there was a lot more out there but I couldn’t see it. I do have some pictures, quality varies depending upon the visibility. It was a nice activity to end our trip on.

After we got cleaned up, relaxed some and then had lunch. We had just enough time to get our billed paid up and everything ready before the taxi arrived.
The taxi ride is long and boring, the driver takes the long way, he probably doesn’t like taking his taxi van though the river crossings. Costa Rica is needing a few stop lights or roundabouts and some two lane bridges. That would speed things up. The taxi has WiFi so you at least have that.
One of the things I forget to mention is all the open bed vans and trucks with ladders sticking up over the top, occasionally they are tall trucks with tall extension ladders. They would definitely hit stuff with them back home!

There’s not a lot of draw backs to visiting Costa Rica. Traffic isn’t always bad, heat and humidity (depending upon who you ask) always about 12 hours of sunlight, Tico time, you should know the metric system and some Spanish. There’s a lot to do, the weather (see previous note), people are friendly, it’s not hard to find someone who speaks English, they will take dollars and you can pretend that you are also Tico (a local) and not be worried about the time.

We’ve been in Costa Rica for almost two weeks and if we still had a couple of days I think we could still find stuff to do and enjoy. We think that we’d like to get a rental instead of hotels in the future, especially for the 10-14 day trips. Hotels are okay since we don’t spend a huge amount of time in them, we do spend enough though that some chairs and a couch would be nice along with a kitchen. Now thanksgiving we are committed to going home I am ready for being back. I think after our covid tests yesterday it started to sink in that the trip was at an end and mentally I started thinking about being home. I know after ten days in Jamaica I was ready to be home, Peru wore us out with their schedule so we were ready to slow down by the time that was over. I will have to look at posts from the end of Columbia and see how we felt.
Seems like every trip that I have done though the common thing is once the end comes I start wanting to be home. My stateside travels included.

We left our boogie boards at the hotel. They can either use them for guests, staff can take them or they can be responsible for causing anyone to become wave chasers and give them to a child. There was just too much at risk.

Random fact, there’s a lot of top knots here. Some Tico and some travelers. One of the French guys had a hair tie that was on his starter top knot, his hair wasn’t much longer than mine! I sort of get the surfers with the long hair tying theirs back in the water but they probably could get a haircut and accomplish the same thing and not have a top knot. It’s a good thing we didn’t cause someone to become a wave chaser and have it being our fault they have a top knot on top of everything else.

Another random fact, sugar cane has a white flower/ tassel that pops out the top when it is ready for harvest. If I heard correctly they burn the cane fields because it’s sharp and it’s cheaper to harvest by hand than machine.

We made it to Miami! The first flight was okay, came in a little early then had to wait for a gate. I don’t think getting to Miami early is a good deal. It was that way from St. Louis as well. We made it through Global Entry and are now waiting in line to have our carry ons rescanned. They should have a direct line for those who are connecting that doesn’t involve going through TSA again. Especially for trusted travelers.

It’s going to be late getting into St. Louis so I’m going to post this now. Hopefully we will get food here otherwise we’ll be eating snacks out of my bag.

We are officially Covid negative and cleared to come home. My mom is so relieved. She’s had my two dogs for the last two weeks and one of them had diarrhea for the first two days. Lucy is also a super picky eater so mom is ready for me to take them back. We are happy that the test went smoothly and it will be nice to be back in our own spaces rather than living in a hotel, but it was 1 degree in IA this morning. I’m really going to miss warm weather and swimming. I have a better tan than I’ve had in years and I have to go home and cover it all up!

After our Covid test today, we did a 4-wheeler ride to ziplining/animal sanctuary place. Our 4-wheeler ran out of gas part way there. We coasted part of the way back into town and our guide siphoned off some of the gas in his 4-wheeler for ours so we could make it the rest of the way. It actually worked out okay because it gave us a chance to eat lunch at a tiny Soda (small local restaurant) that had surprisingly good food while we waited for a guy to bring more gas. People ride 4-wheelers on the road here all the time but we were on some narrow, winding roads with big tour busses so unclear how safe that is.

Ziplining was pretty fun. I had been once before but this was Bill’s first time. It’s something that’s fun to do once but not something that I really seek out as an activity. Bill felt the same way, but it’s nice that he got to try. The Ziplining place had a small animal sanctuary attached. They take in monkeys, coatis, turtles and a variety of other animals that people tried to keep as pets. Its practically the only wildlife that we have seen. It’s good that there is a place to take in animals that are victims of the illegal pet trade, but it’s better to see them in the wild. They had fine enclosures, but animals shouldn’t be in cages.

By the time we got back, we were hot, sweaty and covered in dust so we swam in the pool for a while. Normally the pool is cold but it was perfect today and was a very nice conclusion to our 4-wheeler trip. We got Indian food for supper at one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. This was our second time there. It’s pricy, but the food is delicious. I got garlic prawns in a spicy chili sauce and Bill had a beef Tikka sizzler. Pictures are below. I wore my Mini Mouse dress to supper tonight. I bought it a month or so ago when it was cold. I tried it on wearing some black leggings and I looked just like Mini Mouse. I showed it to Bill and he said all I needed were white gloves and ears. Fortunately, it looks like a normal summer dress without the black leggings.

We have a late flight tomorrow and our taxi doesn’t pick us up at the airport until 12:50pm. We are planning to get up early and do one more snorkel trip to the island we can swim to. I’m really hoping to see more rays and maybe Bill can get better video than me.

I’m exhausted and headed to bed soon. Tomorrow will be a long travel day but I’m looking forward to the snorkeling.

I also took a pictures of my running belts. If you are a runner or are considering travel, I highly recommend that you get one. I got two and use one as a swimming belt. They are thin, they don’t look super tacky and they are awesome for carrying small things – money, room key, Happy Snorkel cleaning liquid, mace, masks, tissue. The swimming one has been especially useful since my swim shorts don’t have any pockets. The belts have been one of my best purchases.

Our covid tests were negative so we will be allowed back to the United States and should be in St. Louis tomorrow night if everything goes as planned.

After we were done with our tests we went down to the ATV Adventures Cochal and took the four hour trip. It was mostly riding the ATV on roads that are basically groomed trails, some dirt some black top. Someone failed to check fuel levels and we ran out on the very steep section a little ways out of town. We coasted it a fair way back down and our guide siphoned some of his with a little hose he had on his ATV and an empty two liter bottle. We made it back to the last town we’d been through and had lunch while we waited for a fill up. I’m not sure why they don’t keep the ATVs gassed up. They run them hard, that’s their business and they need gas to do it. I would have to say the company should have a better policy about that. I get the occasional break down but they should never run out of gas. In the end it was to our favor as our guide didn’t remember that we asked about lunch yesterday but he may have not because I asked today about stopping at the dive shop where I got a hat. They didn’t have much else except for some button up shirts that were small. They said they just put in their order yesterday. I’m guessing they missed out on a lot of sales. It’s high season, get your orders in and stocked before all the customers arrive.

The ride took us to a zip line park and small animal sanctuary. Zip lining was fun but not something that I have to do again. I expected more adrenaline. It’s a lot of climbing for some short rides.

The sanctuary was not in very good shape and was kind of sad. It sounded like most if not all the animals had been pets and were rescued, so that was nice. They get good food and taken care of, but they could use better accommodations.

After we got back we took a dip in the pool, it was very nice after being out in the heat for so long. It seemed like the water was warmer than it’s been the whole time we’ve been here.

Emily wanted to eat again at the Indian restaurant so we did that tonight. Food again was excellent!

I’m going to work on a post after I get back about the the overall experience and what I think about Costa Rica. I hope everyone is now getting access to the blog.

I don’t have a lot of pictures today since most of the the filming was of trees. Hopefully tomorrow we will have some from our early morning snorkeling we’re going to squeeze in!

I had some issues adding pictures to my post. I’m not sure if people want a mostly pictures post or if they like them at the end.

I did get to see some rays jumping out of the water while I was on the boat today, not as cool as Emily getting to swim with them. there was also one turtle that was swimming by the boat on the way out to the dive site.

Some of you have had trouble with getting the blog so Emily has upgraded and that means videos. This edit was done by the GoPro app, I will have to step up my game with the media for the website.

Today I did a second day of diving, two tanks, two different locations in the Catalina Islands Costa Rica, not to be confused with the ones off the shore of California. I heard many times today that those are also nice for diving. I was under the impression yesterday we would be going back to the same sites today, I was glad we didn’t. The water today was much clearer and a little warmer than yesterday. It still doesn’t compare to the Caribbean though. I was feeling a little better today about the dive but somehow I lost about five minutes off each dive time today compared to yesterday. I need to take the buoyancy class, that’s supposed to help. More time under also helps. I will get there soon or later.

I dove with a young couple and the gals sister. The guy was born in California and lives in San Jose. He has dual citizenship. The girlfriend didn’t dive on the second dive, she was cold even with the wetsuit. Her lips were blue even after our forty five minute surface time between dives. I was told in Jamaica that if you ever feel uncomfortable before a dive and don’t want to then don’t. I am sending them some photos and a link to the blog.

I got to see a few white tipped reef sharks today! I only got one on video due to operator error, I turned it off when I wanted it on. That is a drawback of the view screen going black to save battery. One battery will do two dives but barely. If I recorded the whole time it probably wouldn’t. I do have three so I could do a swap if I ever go that route. There just is a lot of the same stuff that I don’t always record. I also seen octopus times two, see video! Several stingrays, I also missed the group that were swimming when I was not recording but just pointing my camera at stuff. Plenty of starfish and other fish. The terrain is very interesting to look at even if it’s mostly rock.

We went down after I got back from diving and set up one more adventure for tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to stop off on the way and get a t-shirt at the dive center. You will have to wait and read about that tomorrow. After we were set, we went and floated on our boogie boards for a while, there weren’t many waves so it was relaxing. Our time for beach going is getting short.

We have enabled comments with just a name and email address so that we can moderate the comments and keep the crazies out. There shouldn’t be any more ads for our readers with the upgrade. There will be a learning curve for us so bare with us. I was able to fix the date issue. I don’t know if anyone had noticed it was a day off with when we were posting. Hopefully I fixed it anyway. If you see some changes and they are not for the better please let us know.

This is not my picture but this is the kind of ray that I saw. iPhones don’t take this quality of picture under water.

This morning Bill went diving so I was on my own. I decided to go snorkeling to the small island that is swimmable from the beach I’m on. My trip was free since I had no guide and I walked there. I didn’t have to follow any stupid snorkeling rules set by other people, and I had one of the best snorkel days I’ve ever had! The water was really clear for Costa Rica. It was also warmer than usual.

Almost as soon as I got into the water, a big eagle ray swam by. I’m still getting used to my new phone case so I almost missed seeing it while I tried to turn my phone on. I was really disappointed, but a few minutes later, three more big rays floated past me. It was so exciting! They were close enough to touch and seemed sort of curious about me. On my way back to the beach after I finished snorkeling, another one swam by. This one also seemed interested in me too and let me swim with it for several minutes. It kept going in wide circles around me rather than swimming away so I could swim with it. It was one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever done. It was super exciting to be able to swim with them. They seem really friendly. I kind of want an eagle ray tattoo now. You can get really neat ones.

I also saw a small reef shark. They nap on the ocean floor in the daytime and hunt at night. They are non-aggressive sharks and are harmless for humans unless you grab one by the tail or something stupid. My little shark was napping peacefully in a a little cave in the rocks. It didn’t seem super excited that I kept coming over to take pictures, but it didn’t leave either. These were my first sharks and eagle rays. I was hoping to see a turtle, but no luck on that. We did see one a couple of days ago jet skiing.

There were also a whole variety of multi-colored fish, starfish and invertebrates. It was like being in a huge aquarium. I had some problems with jellyfish again, but I was mostly able to avoid them. The rocks that I was snorkeling around had waves crashing around them and the jellies seem to like calmer water. I didn’t smell as bad when I finished snorkeling today, probably because I stayed away from the jellies.

There were a lot of fishermen out today and they are super nice and helpful. I found some dead water snakes on the beach while I was walking to the snorkel site. I stopped to try to toss one of them back into the water and one of the fishermen came over the tell me that it was venomous. When I finished snorkeling, I was looking around for my stuff and another fisherman pointed it out to me and was super friendly. I met a guy with his granddaughter while I was snorkeling around the island and he stopped to give me some tips too. I think that if I got into any trouble while I was out alone, people would try to come help me. This is really one of the friendliest places I’ve been.

Some of you may remember us talking about the skunk that sprayed something outside our hotel a few nights ago. I just saw it run across the playground behind my room. I’m in the upstairs restaurant at a table overlooking the playground. The black and white strips were unmistakable. I hope that whatever it sprayed learned its lesson!

This afternoon, we took our boards out and floated in the water. Surfing was out of the question since the water was very calm with no waves. It was nice to just float. We both had a pretty active morning.

Tomorrow morning, we have to go get Covid tested. That will determine whether we get to come home. I’m not overwhelmingly excited about going back to cold weather in Iowa, but it will be some trouble to deal with a positive Covid test. I got good travel insurance. Maybe we can find a vacation rental?

I have video of the eagle rays. I don’t think I can post videos unless my new upgraded blog lets me. If anyone wants my ray video, let me know and I can text it to you. Pictures are below. Underwater iphone pictures don’t really convey what it’s like to snorkel and see things and my screen shot ray photos are dreadful, but that’s all I had.

There are some repeats and not all were edited completely. There were some technical difficulties.

Hello readers!! 

Everyone recovered from Christmas? 

Today I finally got to do some scuba diving and Emily did some snorkeling. 
The visibility was not real good and most of the reef is rock so it wasn’t great scuba, it was scuba though. When we went to the boat after signing waivers and paying the balance they took us to the marina to get on the boat. Rocket Frog was there, same place, I’m not sure why they couldn’t have brought out a waiver last week and had me do it there. 
Pacific Coast Diving had a pontoon boat that was maybe five and a half feet wide that was used to shuttle us out to the dive boat. The marina just has moorings on the bottom for the boats to park off shore, no docks. It was a little rough, well used. The green astroturf on the deck gave it a old jon boat vibe. I thought it was a cool way to shuttle people, it had some benches and the front end had to ladders for boarding from shore. They tied up to the dive boat sideways across the back to get on the boat. It definitely was purpose built. I don’t have a picture of it, I think Emily has some of me on it though, hopefully she will post one. 
The dive boat took us out a ways so we had a good boat ride there and back. 
I was worried about how I would do diving. When I was in Jamaica by the last day I was feeling pretty good about it. The discover scuba that Emily and I did in Columbia and Bonaire was just us so if the dive gets cut short it’s just us. On a dive with other divers it’s possible someone else may get their dive cut short. Here they took to guides per group so that if someone had to surface early the rest could stay. It does take a little getting used to and that will cause you to breathe faster, using your arms to swim makes you breathe faster and kicking with your knees instead of from the hips also makes you use more air and then it’s time to go back to the top. A tank is normally about thirty to forty five minutes worth of air. Breathe in for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds. Slower is better. 
I didn’t know anyone and we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know our guides who hopefully you can trust. The guide did come find me on the boat and gave the safety chat and what to expect. 
Once at the dive site I geared up and washed my goggles. I was in the first group, diver two. There were four to a group, diver one was part of a large group of people on the dive, he must’ve drawn the short straw. Divers three and four were a mother/ son from Texas. The son was doing his first ocean dive, he learned scuba in a dirty lake back home. 
Once I was in the water I knew it was low visibility, I take the big step off the back platform and it’s dark blue and I can’t see diver one and the guide until I surface. I look down and it’s just dark, I can’t see the bottom, it’s nothing like any of the other dives that I’ve done. In the Caribbean you can see the bottom even if it’s just shadows, at least so far I’ve been able to except on the night dive. 
We’re all in the water and it’s time to go down. There was a period that I thought I wasn’t going to see anything. But once we were down a ways I could see a little better. At the bottom the visibility was okay, maybe 25 feet. I could see the bottom and I knew the light was coming from the top so things were okay. 
Seen some fish, a lot of rocks, another sea snake like the one yesterday (I couldn’t find it in the video, I can’t find the next one either), a lobster and some rays (I found those). On the second dive I seen the head of an eel but it was too well camouflaged to film well. 
The dive lasted for thirty nine minutes for me and the son, diver one and the mom went for forty four. They must’ve let the son go a ways or he didn’t say he was at the dive limit, for this dive it was seventy bars or one thousand pounds per square inch. The son said by the time he surfaced he was at forty, I had fifty and I had told the guide when I hit seventy. 
After we were back on the surface, after a safety stop, there was a couple other groups up already so we swam to one that was close and waited for the boat. 
The dive boat had to go around and pick up dive groups scattered around the ocean, not very far apart but far enough that they can’t park the boat and have everyone swim to it. They drop everyone off in slightly different spots along a reef so some end up close to other groups but some are not. 
After all the divers were on, we went to get the snorkelers. There we did a surface interval. Depending on depth and time under divers have to spend time on the surface before the next dive. 
Dive two was more of the same as dive one, slightly deeper and we went along a small island. Dive one was sixty feet and dive two was sixty eight. 
The second dive I was a little more comfortable again, I was getting used to the equipment and being under the water. 
For some reason the second dive was shorter though, thirty five minutes and mom and son both went up same time as I did. 
I’m going again tomorrow. I debated it since it will be the same places as today. The Pacific is really different from the Caribbean. It’s interesting and still cool, not as pretty though. I’m hoping for better water clarity and more things to see! They talked up sharks on the boat but I didn’t hear that anyone seen any today. 
We didn’t get back from diving until after one so it was time for lunch. After that we just relaxed, Emily had tea, read and had a conversation. I took a nap and then went through videos to get some pictures from. It takes a surprising amount of time to get just a handful of pictures out of all the video. 
The camera still seems like it gets warm. I didn’t have any problems with it today on the dive, the battery lasted for both but was at three percent. When I am back home I am going to check the temperature of the camera and the batteries. The super suit seems to work as it should. The filter does improve the colors on today’s pictures. Things were not as bright. I may have needed the darker one, for bringing the least amount of stuff I went with the midrange filter. 
The handle works well but you do have to remember to check it before getting in the water, yesterday I had put some money in it and didn’t tighten it, it will fill with water and then it doesn’t float. The money dried, it dries fast. 

I don’t have much else for you today, join us tomorrow for another exciting post!

Thanks to none of you, I found a new book to listen to. It’s called After and was written by a physician who has spent his career studying near death experiences. It’s pretty interesting. I saw a reference to it a while back in Discover Magazine and I have a friend who read it and liked it so I finally got it as an audible book. I spent part of the afternoon camped out in a comfortable sitting area in the hotel restaurant listening to it and drinking tea. The restaurant is open air and it was pretty hot so a mango smoothy might have been a better option, but I am a big fan of tea.

I listened to my book for a while then a guy who has been here for a few days with his girlfriend came over to talk to me. He’s young and has started his own advertising business. He works remotely so he’s spent the last two months in Costa Rica and traveled around the US for 2 months before that. They were headed back to their home in New Orleans tomorrow. We had a very interesting conversation about books, CrossFit, and a variety of other things I’m interested in. One of my favorite parts of vacation is meeting interesting people who I would never meet otherwise.

This morning we went on a scuba/snorkeling trip. The boat ride was fun – I like being out on boats – the snorkeling was terrible. The water was cloudy and at the second snorkel site, we got dropped into a huge mass of baby jellyfish. There were billions of them floating in the water, in my hair, all over the place. The water was cloudy to begin with and the jellies made it impossible to see anything. Plus, they sting. They are tiny so it doesn’t hurt much but the constant stinging of tiny jellies isn’t comfortable. I didn’t stay in the water long because the guides wouldn’t let me swim off on my own to a non-jellyfish infested location. I think the jellies also make my swimsuit smell particularly bad. We swam into some yesterday too and both yesterday and today my swimsuit had an intense fishy smell that wouldn’t wash out. It’s pretty bad.

Tomorrow morning, Bill’s going diving again so I’m on my own. I think I’m going to go snorkeling from the beach. I’ll miss the boat ride but the snorkeling will be better since nobody will be there to make me follow rules. I have a new ProShot case for my phone so I can take it snorkeling with me and take pictures. I used it for the first time today and it works pretty well although I didn’t have much to take pictures of. At least my phone stayed dry and still works. I’m hoping I can get better pictures tomorrow. I got the case mostly for safety reasons. This way, I can take my phone with me when I go on excursions alone. If I had any problems, I’d be able to call for help. My snorkel spot tomorrow will be safe and easy, but it’s still good to have a phone with me. If I have time after I snorkel, I might go get a chocolate brownie or some banana bread from the bakery. It’s sounding like a promising day.

The picture below is me with Francie. Bill took a couple of pictures with the flash, but it made me look super weird so I chose the one where I’m less visible.