I had a pretty fun day, but I’m wiped out tired tonight! My favorite author has a new book out, so I read for a while this morning after breakfast. This restaurant has really good gallo pinto and pancakes!

At 11am, I got a massage on the yoga deck near the thermal pools. The massage therapist did a great job! She used hot stones on my back, which I had not had done before, but I really like it. I’m pretty sore from walking up all the hills around here and my gym experience, so the massage helped.

The hotel raises its own tilapia. There are tilapia ponds in several places. Costa Rica actually raises a lot of tilapia. This was the best tilapia I’ve ever had. The restaurant breaded it really nicely.

After lunch, I went hiking on the trail around the hotel. It’s not long but it is steep! It’s very pretty. There is a small river behind the hotel so the trail goes along that, then up a steep hill. They have added some concrete barriers in the stream to make small pools that you can swim in. They advertise it as crystal clear water, and it probably is at certain times of the year. Right now, all the rain is washing mud into it, so it was a little murky. I swam in the pool after my hike/river swim, then went to the hot springs.

Last night, I woke up to something flashing in my room. I was only partially awake, so at first, I thought it was a flashing smoke alarm or sprinkler system that malfunctioned. Then I noticed it moving. It was a lightening bug that had gotten in. I don’t know where it went. There is a gecko in the bathroom. There were a few ants in there when I got here, but now I have a gecko but no ants.

Tonight there was a gecko on the TV in the restaurant. The light from the TV draws in bugs so the gecko sits on the screen and catches them. There are lots of them here.

Overall, good day, but I’m not going to last long tonight. I leave tomorrow at noon for TEC. I teach a class on Thursday, but I’m coming back to Heliconias on Thursday evening and staying until Sunday. Next week, I’ll mostly be at TEC. It’s been a weird trip, good but much different than the trip I planned for.

The clouds finally cleared yesterday and I got a good shot of the Arenal Volcano. The clouds had been so heavy that I didn’t realize how close I was. I sent this picture to my brother and told him this was my work trip. He’s in Ohio. He gets to do quite a few fun work trips though, so he can’t complain too much.

I have had an eventful couple of days! I messaged my contact at TEC to tell him that I left to go to La Fortuna. He apologized for the smoke detector, told me he was glad I found somewhere else to stay and told me he would see me on Thursday. Since TEC has not been prepared for me at all and doesn’t seem to care if I’m there, I decided to go back on Wednesday afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon, once it stopped raining, I walked down to La Fortuna. It’s a 30 minute walk but there was what passes for a sidewalk almost the whole way. That’s rare here. I found this awesome little shop that sells clothing made from bamboo, banana and hemp. The bamboo and banana fibers are super soft! I bought a t-shirt made of bamboo in San Jose so I was already interested. I bought a pair of bamboo pants that are the most comfortable pants I’ve ever had. They fit perfectly! Even the right length. The clothes are made in Costa Rica and they seem to be really good quality. Costa Rican women are not very tall, which is probably why the pants fit. I bought another pair this morning when I went to lift weights. The owner of the store is an immigrant from Ukraine who moved here in 2014 because of political instability. He came with $300, no Spanish and no English. Now he speaks both. He said it was hard. It’s nice to contribute to the local economy. 

There is an Indian restaurants right down the road from the hotel where I was staying, so I ate there last night. It was really good! The Indians who own restaurants in Costa Rica make their food spicy. I ordered medium paneer butter masala, and I felt it!

I went to the gym this morning in La Fortuna. It’s very small, has really old, rusted equipment and no AC! But there were a lot of people there, both men and women and most of them were super fit! There were some people moving heavy weights. The Costa Rican women were young, beautiful and barely sweating. Within 5 minutes, I looked like I was melting into a puddle on the floor. Almost everyone there seemed super nice and helpful. It had a really good vibe overall. But, there was one older guy, probably 60s but in extremely good shape, who came over to talk to me. He was training someone else, so I assumed he was going to give me tips. Not so! He asked where I was headed next, then asked for my phone number so he could come visit me in San Carlos, which is 1.5 hours away from La Fortuna. He never asked for my name and didn’t give me his, but wanted to hook up in San Carlos at the university where I’ll be staying. What kind of women say yes to something like that? That sort of thing is a very rare occurrence here in Costa Rica. Costa Rica historically has had a strong women’s rights movement, and they are much more progressive in terms of gender than many other parts of Latin America. But, there are creepy people everywhere. Anyway, I said no and he left me alone so I could finish working out. Everyone else seemed very pleasant.

The walk back to my hotel was rough! I was already tired, it was hot, and it’s a steady slope up to the base of the Arenal Volcano where I was staying.

I’m currently at one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stayed! The hotel in La Fortuna was fine, but I found one with excellent reviews for $95 a night in the middle of the rain forest. It’s spectacular! My room is beautiful! It’s like someone dropped this place in the middle of the rain forest without damaging much of the surroundings. There is a nice pool, but the hot springs are amazing! There are a series of small pools, surrounded by plants where thermal water is pumped in. It’s raining and cool, so really good weather for hot springs. A little less rain would be nice. There is also a river with pools where you can swim. I’ll walk down to that tomorrow if there is a break in the weather. It’s a 90 degree slop down to the river and it will be a rough walk back up too.

I have no idea how they run this place for $95 a night. There are similar places here that cost $400+ a night. It is in the middle of nowhere. There is a restaurant on site, but without a car, that’s your only option. The food is good though and not that expensive. I had pasta for $12 tonight. I highly recommend this hotel and I’m hoping to come back next weekend. If any of you want more information, the website has some good videos.  https://heliconiasnatureinn.com/

They keep goats and chickens here. Apparently, the restaurant uses the eggs. 

This post is getting really long and I’m running out of energy. I booked a massage for 11am tomorrow. I think I’ll need it after the weights and hiking that I did!

Hello All: I’m back in Costa Rica for a couple of weeks to visit the Universidad Technologico de Costa Rica. So far, my trip has been a bit challenging. The university made a lot of last minute changes to the work they want me to do, so things have been very unorganized for months, and that has continued to be the trend now that I’m here.

I got to Costa Rica on Friday evening after a long day of travel and spent the night in San Jose. My driver from TEC picked me up on Saturday morning to take me to the University. We had a nice conversation for the 2.5 hour drive and it was a good opportunity to practice Spanish.

TEC has put me in the same house where I stayed last time. Since I am here for 2 weeks, I was hoping that they would put me in a house with a kitchen, but not a big deal, I can manage. The house I’m currently staying in is not really set up for a longer stay. It smells really musty, like a cabin that hasn’t been aired out in years. It has a fridge, but that’s it. No coffee pot, water boiler, silverware, plates or paper towels. My contact at TEC let me borrow his wife’s bike so I was able to find a grocery store with a water boiler for tea, I got some groceries and I found a bakery and some restaurants down the road. TEC doesn’t start its semester until Monday, so there is no one on campus, and the cafeteria isn’t open so there is no food close by. That’s not a super big problem except that this is the rainy season and it’s at least a quarter mile to any food. The sky regularly opens up and it pours at various times through the day.

All of these things are problems that I can manage. I have a lot of experience here and I can make things work. However, the smoke alarm in my house needs a new battery and it beeps every 2 minutes. I’m sure you’ve all had this happen and you know how much the beeping drives you crazy while you are trying to determine which smoke alarm needs a new battery. This smoke alarm is on a high ceiling that will require a ladder to reach. I heard the beeping as soon as I walked in. I told Marlon, my contact, about it, and he said he would try to get it fixed on Monday and drove away. I would need to spend 2 nights in a house with a beeping smoke alarm.

I can manage a lot, but there is a limit to what I can take before I go crazy, and the smoke alarm was it. I decided to get a hotel for the weekend. As it turns out, San Carlos is really in the middle of nowhere and the closest hotels are at 1.5 hours away in La Fortuna. Yesterday was also a big national religious holiday. Taxi drivers were all booked, and so were most of the hotels. After an hour or so of searching, I found a driver who helped me find a hotel. The hotel is not fancy, but it’s clean and the restaurant has good food. There also nothing beeping in my room, it has hot water and it’s only $97 a night, which includes breakfast. They have a long list of activities that I can choose from so it’s fine.

The drive here last night was an adventure. My taxi driver showed up at TEC in a beat up van that had definitely seen better days. Driving at night in Costa Rica, especially this part which has mountains and all the roads are like narrow snakes, is iffy and it was raining. The wipers on the van needed some serious work. The driver almost hit an elderly guy out walking in the rain. In the driver’s defense, the elderly guy was in dark clothes with a black umbrella and was almost invisible in the rain. The driver kept sending messages on his phone while driving, and we hit a pretty serious pothole on the way here. There are a lot of one lane bridges to get here which slows things down. By the time we got to the hotel, the van was really smelling like gasoline. The driver was super nice though!

I don’t have anything scheduled at TEC until later in the week, so I’m hoping to stay in La Fortuna tomorrow too. That will give maintenance time to fix the smoke alarm. It would have made more sense if TEC had asked me to come for 1 week instead of 2. Because they made changes, I don’t have enough work for 2 weeks. I told them I would shorten my trip since they canceled one of the classes I was going to teach but they told me to come for both weeks anyway.

I’m glad I decided to do this trip before I sent one of my colleagues here. I have a lot of experience and I can fix most problems with money. For anyone with not much travel experience, this would be a disaster. Fortunately, I love Costa Rica so I will find a way to make this a good trip. It’s beautiful here in La Fortuna and San Carlos. I think I’m going into town this morning to find a gym and a rain coat. It will give me a chance to see when most of the rain takes place, probably early morning and evening. Tomorrow, if I don’t need to go back to the university, I may do some hiking around the Arenal Volcano. I’d like to do that at a time when it’s not going to pour!

It may be a long 2 weeks but it should be an interesting trip!

Well it’s time to wrap up this vacation! Probably just the right amount of time for being here. Emily got to do a lot of snorkeling and I did a lot of diving. I did 5 dives for my class, 8 regular and a night dive. I don’t know if I will do that many in a single vacation or not, it feels like it was a lot. But I’m up to 43 dives. I will have to look at some specialty classes, maybe rescue diver in the future.

Today we did a half day snorkel with Kevin, he actually went out with us. If you’re looking to do something that takes time, it’s not too bad. It does involve a lot of time on the boat. Today I think they ran out of time when it was tome to snorkel with the star fish because when we were trying to tie off for the wreck the boat ran out of gas in one of the tanks and the guy tried switching fast but the wind was strong and blew us in the rocks, Kevin and the boat captain hat to get in and move the boat to deeper water. Kevin wasn’t to impressed with his guy, he captained for a bit after that, until we were back on the regular traffic lane.

Not too bad of a day. We went to Spooky Channel which is Kevin’s favorite. It was pretty cool.

Hopefully everyone has enjoyed the blog, I may try and blog some this summer if we can get some good days on the boat.

Be good everyone and stay safe!

The internet here dies every evening, so I’m getting my post done earlier today. We just finished a half day snorkeling trip, that was so so. We really wanted to swim in a location with starfish where we have been before, but our boat captain didn’t let us get out there. Not sure why. I have two new brightly colored rash guards so I don’t get burned or hit by a boat.

Last night, Bill did a night dive and I went along as a snorkeler. It was fantastic! They dropped me off in the water and told me to be back by the time the divers got back. It was a little creepy being completely alone in the water in the dark. The boat didn’t have a light so it was hard to find, but I could have swam back to shore if things had really gone badly.

Anyway, it was a spectacular experience. Sometimes a guide is nice because they can find sea creatures that are hard to see, but alone, I can do whatever I want without worrying about following someone else. Initially, I wasn’t seeing much, so I turned my light off and floated in the dark. There are little bioluminescent creatures called sea pearls here that glow in the dark all around you once you turn off your light. It’s magical! When I turned my light back on, a Pacific Reef Octopus was right under me. I startled it with my light and it flared out luminescent sea foam blue-green, then shifted between brown and white and bright blue. I reached my hand down and it sucked onto my finger with one of its arms. Picture below:

I also saw a snake sea cucumber and a serpent star.

It was one of the best snorkeling experiences I’ve had!

I bought a couple of super cute necklace charms from a street vender. The history department secretary and her partner make jewelry, so they are going to make necklaces for me. We also bought a bag of really good, roasted cashews. There is a guy who sells bags of them that he must roast himself. They are the sweetest cashews I’ve ever eaten! I finally found some good mangos too. The fruit selection here hasn’t been great and the first mangos I bought tasted really weird. The pineapples have been good.

A couple of days ago, I found a beautiful sand dollar and with my new freediving skills, I was able to dive down to get it. It’s illegal to take things off the beach, so I won’t be able to bring it home.

We come home tomorrow, but it’s been a really good trip!

Today was my last dive day, I had a morning dive that wasn’t too bad. We did some time around 80 feet but there wasn’t much going on. The DM keeps the dives 50+ minutes, the afternoon dive should have probably been just under 50. I think we may have turned a little late. We did a swimming safety stop, most of them are here, so that helped stretch the time.

At the end of the first dive Emily came down and took the camera so there’s some shots of me doing my safety stop.

I did another swim though today, I skipped the long one with a curve, Fred said we could go around so that was my choice. I did do the second one he offered since I could see the other side where it opened out.

They got enough people signed up so they did a night dive, I ran into some of my nemesis out and about. This time I was not attacked and stabbed. They do seem to move quickly for just being little spike covered balls.

Closer to the end of the dive we all turned our lights off and watched the bioluminescent lights. They have a thing they call the string of pearls that are lights in a straight line, they’re kind of cool to see. The water sparkles when you wave your hands around.

Tomorrow we are doing a half day snorkeling trip with Kevin, he said that he would take us personally as it is his favorite tour. We did it last year and we enjoyed it.

Be safe!

I did three more dives today, Emily joined the boat to go snorkeling for the first two then took some free time on dry land in the afternoon.

The water was a little cloudy, there’s a lot of wind here but Emily thinks it’s windier this year. The wind churns some stuff up and may influence the currents. Sounds like the Sahara dust we had along with the fires last year is on it’s way.

I play follow the leader while diving and today we did a swim through. It was pretty narrow, there’s was a wider one on the left but I went through. It’s hard to know what my actual space is as I don’t usually have all the equipment on.

They aren’t sending us out in separate boats from the group divers this year. It’s a little disappointing. We end up diving relatively close together and we cross paths at times with other groups as well. Today there was a guy that started following us and then he was passed off to the other group from Splash Inn and the DM there got him reoriented to his group.

Even though we dive close we all don’t see the same things. I don’t worry about what I see on any given dive, if I don’t see something maybe I’ll see it on the next dive.

While we were at dinner tonight Nelson was walking by and he said that he is starting his own tour business down by the Roundabout. He was hoping to get us to tour with him, he is a good sales guy and has a big personality. Hopefully he does well, I’m sure he will give it a good effort! We already committed to going with Kevin’s tour company on Thursday so we weren’t able to do anything with him but maybe next year. It just depends on where we go and if we have time for extra excursions. We’ll probably have to split them up since they’ve both been good to us.

Be safe!

Hello!! Vacation is going well. We are keeping busy in the water like normal. I have 8 dives done, 5 more scheduled and I am waiting on enough people to do a night dive in the next couple of days. I’m done diving Wednesday, we will probably snorkel on Thursday. I need an off day before flying.

We went down to the dive shop this morning and discussed my private dive master option. Fred was available and he should be with me for the rest of my dives. He seems pretty laidback. I don’t think he understood why I selected the private dive master option, he seemed to question if I still wanted him to go with me. We talked to him after we had dinner, I just explained last year it was mostly about my time I went through a tank but this year it was more about not being crowded with other divers. There is a gal that probably should have chosen the private dive master option for her skill level. I think I heard her mention it had been 10 years since she dived. I don’t know if she took a refresher or if the guy who is with her is just trying to teach her. She has had some issues, she didn’t dive yesterday and this morning she was having trouble staying down during the safety stop and he was trying to pull her down from what I seen. Listening to her ask about how much air she had and saying 2000 or 4000 and him tell her 2800 is worrisome.

With my own dive master I have a better DM to diver ratio. 1:1 they had 1:6-7, I think they can go to 1:9. If we keep coming here I will always choose that option and anytime it’s available.

Sounds like the sales guy at our favorite tour company has moved on to another company, he was entertaining to interact with, but Kevin is still there, he sort of has to be, he owns the place! They do like to make deals on the excursions this time of year if anyone is interested in coming to Roatan for a vacation. It’s the slow season before it picks up again in July. The West End is very walkable, plenty of restaurants and shops. It’s interesting that a lot of the places operate like it’s a normal day even when there’s not a huge crowd of tourists. Good time of year if you like water, dining out, drinking and buying souvenirs. There are some land tours, there’s a sloth sanctuary for those into that.

At dinner we watched a dog having a good time swimming back and forth between the Splash inn dock and West End diver’s dock where his friend was doing body weight squats.

We had a super fun day of snorkeling! My free diving skills are really helping, so I’m very excited that I decided to take that class. I’m still on the fence about getting some fins and a weight belt. I’ll probably see if Splash Inn will loan me a pair of fins tomorrow.

Bill’s dive master is from Washington state but he and his wife retired early and now they spent part of the year in Washington, part of the year at their house in Baja Mexico and part of the year at their house here in Roatan. I need to ask what kind of jobs they had to have this kind of life.

We have three dive/snorkeling trips tomorrow so our blog will probably be pretty repetitive.

Last night I ordered king crab for supper. It was huge and super rich. It was also expensive, but we are cooking a lot of our food so I don’t feel so bad about splurging once in a while. King crabs shells are much harder than the crab legs you get at HyVee. It came with a hammer that we had to use!

It took me an extra day, but I passed my free diving class today. Yesterday was a little rough. It was windy and the water was choppy when we went out to do the free diving class. I did several pretty successful dives, but toward the end of class, I started to feel sea sick. My instructor also waited until the end of class to have me do the rescue portion of the class. To pass Level 1, you have to be able to rescue another free diver who has blacked out under water. You have to dive below them, put your hands under their chin and on the back of their head, and push them up through the water. At the surface, you have to hold their head in a certain way, take off their mask, blow on their face, tap their cheek and tell them to breath. It takes an enormous amount of energy to push someone else to the surface. By the time I got to the surface, I was gasping for air, my technique was bad and I kept forgetting steps. We should have done that at the beginning of class before I was exhausted and sea sick. We finally gave up, and I agreed to come back today to finish that part of the class and one other part.

Today went much better. My dives were really good. I had some time to consider techniques for the rescue part of the class, and I just passed on the third try. I’m not sure how many more times I could have tried. It takes a ton of energy and is stressful. No one should depend on me to save them under water, it’s probably unrealistic to expect a level 1 free diver to perform rescue operations anyway.

I dove 20 meters (65 ft) without too much trouble. My equalization technique is really good. One of the guys who took the class with me couldn’t equalize at all and had to give up and the other one struggled but managed to do it if he went feet first. Apparently, it’s harder for some people to equalize if they swim facing down. My breath-holding isn’t great but not terrible either. To finish the class, I had to do a static breath-hold for 1.5 minutes and swim 30 meters without surfacing. Neither were too difficult, but I can’t hold my breath for much more than 1 min 30 sec. I’m surprised they don’t start the class with that. There is a sport where you put your head in the water and see how long you can hold your breath. That does not seem like a worthwhile activity to me.

I’m happy to have the free diving class finished so now I can use what I learned to snorkel more effectively. I should get to try tomorrow. I bought a new bright pink rash guard that works great at prevent my arms and shoulders from burning. It fits nicely and will be easily visible to any boats where I might be snorkeling. Bill rented a jet ski today while I was free diving and he managed to find me in the water from quite a distance because of the rash guard. I’m considering buying some fins at the Cressi shop, but I’m on the fence about that.

This is a good place for both doing activities but also having plenty of down time to read or nap. For the last 2 days, after spending 2 taxing hours in the water, I’ve come home exhausted and needed to sleep for a while. I’ve spent enough time in the water, that I constantly feel like I’m moving. It’s a weird feeling. I’m laying in bed but I feel like I’m floating on a raft.

That’s it for tonight.