Memorial Day 2007 - Santa Cruz Island

Time for an island trip!
We hadn't been out since sometime last year (Jim was gone so much doing deliveries...)
So grabbed Stan-the-man and headed out early Saturday morning.
Had a line at the fuel dock, then had to slow down to let this giant by.








We motored to Prisoners and anchored in "our spot".
And it really is "our spot" too, just ask Island Packers...
Stan & Jim went fishing in the dinghy and I read in the cockpit.
They came back with this! It was pretty cold out, so Jim fileted it in the cockpit instead of the bottom step of the transom.








Stan had fun playing with the fish roe...










Then they shared an "Arrogant Bastard"!

The sun finally came out late in the day. Stan noticed a bald eagle flying around the anchorage! I couldn't get a picture of it though...




Made halibut tacos for dinner (YUM!) and hung out in the cockpit watching listening to music.

Sunday morning we all slept in late (especially Jim who ended up reading til 3 am or some weird time - read an entire book!). I made a big "cruiser breakfast" of orange rolls, bacon, eggs & potatoes. Then we loaded the dinghy for a beach-combing excursion. Went to all the beaches East of Prisoners. We found a few dried up starfish,








lots of bones, and some interesting trash. Found a jar with some creepy slimy parts inside... and an old outboard engine that Jim & I had seen on this beach a dozen years ago!









Had a nice view back towards the anchorage too.
We climbed some rocks and explored a bunch of tide pools.
We spent most of the day doing this!






Stan played with some wild pig tusks...
Had a wet dinghy ride back to the boat, as the wind was picking up. It picked up enough to have Mark's boat drag anchor. I noticed it right when we got back to the boat, as it was dragging right down onto our boat, so Jim & Stan zipped over in the dinghy and I put a call out on vhf. Mark and his friends arrived at his boat the same time Jim & Stan arrived and the anchor re-set at the same time!! Yikes, I needed a glass of wine after that... Mark re-anchored, then his dinghy floated away. He wasn't having a very good day.

Time for a hike, so loaded up our ice chest with supplies and grabbed the camera. Took the dinghy to the dinghy dock and walked down the pier. Then did a short hike up the hill to the East of the anchorage. The fennel smelled amazing!






If they tell me I can't do something, it just makes me want to do it even more. Including being on the wrong side of the gate! I also think I'm the only one who goes hiking in crocs with a glass (not plastic)! Crashed the yacht club happy hour party back at the picnic tables (actually we were invited) and gave Mark a hard time for giving me a heart attack earlier when his boat got too close to ours. Met a lot of nice people and Jim ran into a client. We were the last to leave the party... go figure. Then one couple came for a tour of our boat, as they had never been on a catamaran before.

Jim made 3/4 pound burgers for dinner (they were huge!)!! Loaded Stan up with some Tylenol PM for his back and we all went to sleep.

Cold, cold, cold on Monday Memorial Day morning. Washed last night's dishes and made coffee. We were cold sitting in the anchorage, so figured if we were going to be cold, we may as well be cold while we were fishing! So we pulled anchor, said adios to Mark & his friends, then went to some rock fishing spots. Jim pulled up (and threw back) this giant sheephead.
And Stan pulled up this tiny halibut...

They caught enough rockfish for dinner!

We pulled out the headsail and motor-sailed back to the harbor. Heard on the vhf that Scott & Lee had lost their dinghy, so we all looked for it on the way home with no luck.

The neighbors were all out on the dock to grab our lines and invited us over for happy hour on the dock. Put the boat away, visited for awhile, then had our fish dinner! Another great trip.

Sunday, May 20th, 2007 - 12 Year Anniversary

Do you know where you were 12 years ago today?
We were getting married!

Saturday, May 12th, 2007 - Flying Home

Our flight was at 8 am and we were 45 minutes away from the airport and had to turn the car in, so headed out before the sun came up. All went well at the airport and I even got to spend the last few thousand colons I had ($4 US)...
We had three seats together, but were lucky enough to be on a half empty flight so we could spread out.
Our last view of the open air airport of Liberia!








The customs man in the USA asked me, "Well, would you do it again?", to which I answered, "In a heartbeat".

Playa Hermosa - Our Last Afternoon & Evening...

Drove to the next beach North of Cocos, "Playa Hermosa" to try something new.








I read about a few hotels in the guidebooks, and three sounded fine. We ended up at the first one, El Velero Hotel because it was easy and we could get out of the car!






The rooms were fine and had some beautiful woodwork on the ceilings. The rooms were HOT though as they were on the second floor and the air conditioning had been off all day. Quick cold showers solved that problem...




Then the crowbar corkscrew trick of Jim's...













And the last of the mystery bags! Jim got to open several (again, these were not going back home with me, except for the one for our anniversary - a week later)!








His last card...








We had our snacks, including these peanuts.
I liked the guy on the bag.








Alan had his "bar-to-go" that made it down to the beach and back up to our room.

The last of our money...







The view of the courtyard on the first floor from where we were on the second floor.






These fabric wall hangings were all along the open air hallway. They included Volcan Arenal and several with frogs!







We walked down to the beach for our last view of the ocean, then back into the restaurant for dinner. This is looking into the restaurant area from the beach.
Once again, a great meal! I had mahi mahi.



Can't remember what Jim had...



And Alan had surf and turf.





We had wireless internet connection, so we checked our emails and made a few skype calls. This is how ridiculous we look talking through the internet in a restaurant... Jim talked and I played with this big dog who actually lives next door to the hotel. He was pretty smart to hang out where food gets dropped!





Then off to bed, as we had an early flight the next day...

Friday - The rest of the drive back to the beach!

Enjoyed the rest of the drive along the lake and back down the hill. Saw a girl hitchhiking (which is acceptable in Costa Rica) and stopped to give her a ride. She was very interesting and has lived and traveled all over the world. She is currently working near Arenal at a "holistic theraputic healing type of place" that her father started recently. It was her day off, so she was heading to Liberia to catch a movie and buy some baker's chocolate. We asked if she would mind if we stopped in the town of Canas to look at the mosaic church. So she directed us there and even helped Alan find a head to use in the hardware store! This church was amazing! A local well-known painter and artist, Otto Apuy designed and directed the decorating of this church.
It includes some religious and some abstract designs.
He used whole and broken tiles.





The benches and parts of the town square were also covered in tiles!







On the highway back to Liberia, Alan decided he wanted to find the "perfect guanacaste tree". I picked this one...






Alan wanted to go back to the Hotel Coco Palms for a few t-shirts and all decided we could buy a few more gifts, so back into Playa del Coco. This is the main street heading down into town.





Then on to Playa Hermosa for our last afternoon and evening in Costa Rica!

Drive around the Lake with a stop at the Pukka Waiku Discoteque (hmmmmm...)

We had seen this place on our way up to the Volcano and thought, "What the heck is this place?" (well, it was more like, what the hell, but you get the idea)... So we had to stop! It was before 11:00 am (the time they start serving beer), but the guy made an exception and sold us three beers. This place was cool! The front area is something out of an old western movie, complete with saddles and oxen yokes!





We couldn't make the disco / western movie connection and must have looked stumped. So the owner told us to "go check out the disco" and walk up the stairs and up the path. Whoa - this place is a trip! There must have been a million rocks used. There were dance floors, bars, seats, overlooks and little rooms all over. Even a disco ball! We were told that on Saturday afternoons / evenings it is a disco - they have entertainment and all the locals come for the party (another reason to come back). We weren't hungry, but the food smelled great, so we ordered a plate to go to split later. There was a stone oven with a fire going down below and the owner cooked the food up above. He insisted I take a picture of him putting our meat on the grill!







Having an Imperial beer while waiting for our food to cook. Said our goodbyes and headed the rest of the way around the lake. The area is known for a lot of wind. There must have been 50 or 60 of these giant wind generators on the West end of the lake.