Last week I had some business to do in Jaco so we headed out of San Jose via Puriscal on a beautiful winding road that usually has great views. Somewhere along the way we took a left instead of a right, and decided to follow our noses (and the very-vague GPS) to figure out a back roads route instead of back tracking to the way we knew was correct. One of the advantages of living in country with a crazy road network is that you can take seemingly random roads with some degree of confidence that they will eventually hook up to something that eventually hooks up to a road that eventually gets you back to where you were headed originally. Though it can take a few "stop and ask" sessions.

We cruised through the city of Puriscal (approx 30,000 people) and snapped a few pictures of the old church. Really neat building, in total disrepair, and ugly power lines not withstanding. It would be fun to go inside and poke around, but the fencing and our interest in arriving in Jaco prevented us from exploring more. If we had known that we were about to take a two-hour detour through all-over, we may have gone ahead and taken some time to poke around.

Fortuitously, we did stop to fill up the tank with fuel. It wouldn't have been much of an issue as we had about 400 Km worth of diesel in the tank already, but as we got further and further from "I know where we are", it was reassuring to have a full tank.

Shortly after leaving Puriscal, we came upon a bit of a problem. The road was gone. Fortunately, it did have signs (not always the case) so we didn't plummet to our deaths in the chasm below.* Also fortunate was the nearby (unmarked) detour, from which we got a great view of the bucolic valley below while mist rose from the surrounding mountains. This is a part of Costa Rica that we just don't see very often and it was a refreshing reminder of how amazingly diverse the country is, both in terms of geography and also flora and fauna.
*Ok, it wasn't such a deep chasm, and it was daylight, and pretty easy to see. No real danger there at all. Regardless, it isn't uncommon to mark something like this with a broken twig and a grocery bag. Seriously. Drive carefully in this country.

We managed to take a wrong turn, perhaps several wrong turns, and ended up on a good-quality but very muddy narrow mountain road that winds from the mountains through more mountains, with views of mountains before winding along towards more mountains, then finally dropping down along a river (you just have to turn right on the unmarked lane by Super Gloria) to some unmarked turns by various bridges along more muddy lanes and eventually you'll hit Jaco. In a nutshell, that is how it was described to us. After we accepted our fate, the drive was beautiful! There were flowers galore nested into little farms in various valleys, sweeping views of the misty mountains, the always exciting "two huge dumptrucks passing each other on a washout". Who could ask for more? The dumptrucks were there trying to repair the fairly small but serious looking landslides that were alarmingly frequent along this route. No less than eight times we drove through what was probably less than two days-old road re-construction. Had we tried to do the same route a few days before, it wouldn't have been possible, I think.

Pretty fence and flowers in the middle of nowhere	Great views	Dumptrucks, they always seem to pass each other at the narrow, washed out part of the road.	More impressive, misty, beautiful, mountain views

In addition to the impressive vistas to which we were treated, the generally gray and rainy weather was pleasantly cool. One of the downsides to exploring around here can be that you are either stewing in your own juices, or suffering through an interminable-seeming day of air conditioning blasting in your face. If you grant it nothing else, you've got to hand it to the Central Valley on weather. Most of the day was in the low 70s, with high humidity, but occasional sunshine. Pretty darn pleasant.

Also very pleasant were the delicious chorizo sandwiches that we made, almost as if we had planned to be out in the middle of naught all day. I can't post the picture of Jocelyn snarging down on the handful of pork and bread (she vetoed it) but take my word, yummy sandwiches were the order of the day and in the interest of helping myself remember yet another happy aspect of the day, I felt obliged to mention it.

Along the way we drove through the edge of (or at least very very close to the edge of) a little town called Salitral. I was excited because I was pretty sure that I remember reading about a Woman's Association of Salitral that is using methane-producing digesters to convert pig manure into cooking gas. We didn't stop because A) we were starting to worry about just how far out of the way we had diverged, B) We were already over an hour late for a business meeting in Jaco, and had no cell phone coverage, C) It was raining pretty hard at that point, and D) checking out a biogas production facility isn't the type of thing that takes 15 minutes.

Turned out that not stopping was a good call as I was totally mistaken in my recollection of the location. The place that I was thinking of is Santa Fe which isn't even close to where we were. Go figure. Of course, that isn't to say that Salitral isn't a worthwhile place to stop. It may have something wonderful to offer. In fact, if I end up on this random road again some day, I'm stopping in Salitral just to find out what is there.

After asking directions a few more times, and taking some wild guesses that proved to work out in our favor, we hit a big river that we basically followed towards the ocean, where we knew that there would be a highway that would take us to Jaco. The roads got less winding, though they had less gravel, more mud, and deeper potholes. Now, like several other times on the day's journey, we were feeling pretty glad to be in a Land Cruiser, and even more glad that we had put it in 4wd prior to getting stuck in some of the unexpectedly deep wallows. I should take a second to point out that, of course, the gnarliest sections of the drive were the ones that we didn't take pictures on because Jocelyn (and I) weren't willing to wade through knee-deep soupy mud just to snap a photo of our truck slogging through knee-deep soupy mud. Maybe next time.

The rest of the drive was fairly run-of-the-mill Costa Rica: great views of everything from soaring hardwood trees to horses in lime-green fields to swollen creeks and smiling children perched impossibly on bundles in the back of rickety pickup trucks. Since we were so horribly late, we gave up on the time table completely and just enjoyed the drive. Something we used to do all the time but have gotten too busy to enjoy in recent months.

At the risk of sounding too hokey- it was almost as if the events of the day were arranged by someone else, call it divine intervention, call it our subconscience, call it the Universe, call it happenstance... but whatever it was, a bunch of little things all lined up nicely for us to have a really pleasant, unexpected, four-hour backroads adventure.

Our very late arrival even turned out to be no problem at all as Jaco was without electricity and my business contact had moved out to a nearby town seeking internet, where he didn't realize that he didn't have cellphone coverage, so we would not have been able to find him anyway had we arrived in Jaco on time. Go figure.

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, day trip, fuel, landcruiser, mud, photo

I haven't downloaded the other pictures from our Atlanta vacation, but clearly the most important part of our journey was enjoying the marriage of Katie and Brad. You couldn't have asked for a better day w/regards to weather. It was a perfect day to hang out by the lake. Both Katie and Brad looked great and were full of smiles, which is always a pleasure to see. I wasn't feeling very much the photographer, but took some shots. If you want good pictures, it is probably worth talking to Katie or Michael Pisarri (the photog) as he got some wonderful images of the day.

Jocelyn actually likes to iron clothes, who am I to argue?	View from the wedding party house, where we were lucky enough to snag a bed.	Retreivers at the lake. Happy retrievers.
Hugs for the bride ("Careful with the hair!")	then off to the dock to stay out of the way	Pisarri did the photography
Beautiful girls, beautiful setting, beautiful weather...	Kissing the Bride	Great setting
Steve and Vanessa	Sweetest wedding cake- very non-traditional (and delicious)	Jocelyn being beautiful
The dock was an idyllic place to sip wine and watch the sunset	First Dance	What fun!
Brad played some music	Coming home	Carrying Katie across the threshold

Labels: atlanta, photo, weather, wedding

Day four of the Moab trip (better posted late than never!). We started out the day with a pow-wow to decide what trails to run and chose Elephant Hill, which is south of Moab, down in Canyonlands National Park. I was a little bit bummed that we were leaving the slickrock playground area that is the off-road Mecca for which Moab is so notable, but excited that we were going to do some more exploration instead of sitting in line on trails full of other vehicles.

Another amazing sunrise, red rocks, Kane Creek wash	more rocks	Not climbing here is a pity, there seem to be fantastic routes all over the place. Next time... next time...	We decided to hit the road and drive back "to California" the long way. Whatever way that turned out, we were just going to head Southwest-ish and see what happened.
Our first stop was Canyonlands, where we decided to tackle "Elephant Hill" Some day it would be fun to plan something out, and get permits to really explore.	hard to look at all this and not think "roadrunner and Wile E Coyote"	Rock Mushrooms	Near Elephant hill. Somehow the terrain looks less rugged when there is an economy car driving behind the Cruiser.
The signs make it clear where the economy car's and Cruiser's paths will diverge. There were only a few tough obstacles on an otherwise easy 4wd trail.	More fabulous blooming desert plants	A view down to the starting point of the trail (with cars parked) gives some scale	Soop is very comfortable offroad. No worries!
Slow and steady....	Seth follows, also no problems	Even a relatively "easy" switchback can be a challenge, especially in larger Landcruisers	Beautiful terrain
A little steep	Very steep. Enough that they've textured it. Another perspective on the steep part. At some point they poured concrete to make it more all-weather, I suppose. Pity.... it is still a challenge but now it is much uglier.	Awesome rocks! These evoke thoughts of monkey heads (for me at least)	No, that's not the trail, but shows how tight the switchbacks are. There is even one switchback where you *can't* turn around, you have to reverse for 50 yards.
Guess what? Cool rock!	Our first glimpse of something like Hoo-doos	This was our view for quite some time, it reminded me of some sort of alien village from Star Trek.	Another reason why bigger isn't always better offroad. One of the most infamous obstacles on the trail, this is a really tight squeeze. Notice where roof racks have left their mark.
Maybe better to fold in that mirror....	Another perspective of the Squeeze	Like something out of a sci-fi movie More Star Trek village	Endless variations on red, yellow, beige, and rocky
You actually do go left here! Thanks, rock.	We did several miles through this valley. Nice, soft floor, beautiful canyon walls	Towards the end of the valley there is some rock art. No walls. No fence. Just a little plaque that says "hey, this is a few thousand years old, please don't break it. So far it seems to have worked.	More of the rock art, and the valley. The overhang is probably what kept the art visible for the last few thousand years.
Lunch break. Nice view seats.	More wildflowers	I'm not very impressed by the Anazasi ruins that were mentioned in our book as a "good place to stop"	But at least there were more flowers
Now this is some quality ruins!	Impressive that without mortar of any sort, these walls have been standing, buffeted by rain and wind and snow, for centuries. Amazing that the wood is still mostly intact.	Great views, too! We wanted to camp here (excellent location) but the incoming weather urged us to keep moving, looking for something less exposed (it was starting to get cold)	Little did we know that all the roads out of there went up. A lot. We left the prarie grass behind and started to see pines.
Then left them behind for Aspens and Birch (and snow)	This was starting to look like worse and worse camping	Darn pretty, but Brrrr! Notice the excellent quality of the fire roads. Great area to just drive around.	Deer. Idyllic sparse forest that is probably superb camping in the summer, but not so great when the ambient temps are dropping like a rock (about 25 F* at this point)
This Alpine lake is listed as a preferred campsite. We can see why. But too cold for us this time around.	Climbing higher still, excellent views of the sun setting into canyons	More canyons to the west. We saw a camp with some turkey hunters along way and they gave us very very vague directions to the main road. Between that and the books we had, we managed to find the highway.	By the time we did find the highway, it was getting dark (and late) Now our problem was: Which way is which? Notice the complete lack of signage on the highway.

We did eventually find a town, which was a relief as we were all pretty tired and the weather had turned really cold- below freezing throughout the area with some areas well below freezing. We settled on a little motel, tried to find some food for dinner, but eventually just cooked in our rooms then headed off to sleep.

Labels: 4wd, landcruiser, photo, travel, utah, vacation

For Orchid enthusiasts out there, this may not be impressive. Apparently these are very easy to grow, so I take no particular credit for having gotten them to bloom, but hey are darn pretty and I'm happy to see that they are happy, so I figured I may as well share. Also interesting: there are some ants that have been hanging out on the closed buds for the last few days. At first I worried that they might attack/eat/maim the blossom, but it seems that they aren't doing anything of the sort. They might be stealing nectar, which is fine with me, I suppose. Another theory is that perhaps they are "milking" aphids for a sugary substance that aphids produce. The thing is, I don't see any aphids, and aphids usually don't hang out on flowers, but rather on the sepals or stems of plants. So I'm at a loss. If you know more than I do about ants and orchids, please do enlighten us.

As a side note: if you like gardening, Costa Rica is your kind of place. A little bit of work, a little bit of attention, and POW! stuff grows gangbusters. It is even easier as you work your way up in elevation a little bit as the dry season is less dry, the wet is less wet, and the temperatures are more constantly in the high 70s. IF you are lucky (I consider us lucky) you might even have a little iguana decide to take up residence in your compost pile. I imagine that if (s)he is capable of complex thoughts, (s)he thinks of it more like "If you are lucky, you'll have a human come dump snacks on your sun-mound every day or two". Either way, so far we both seem to be enjoying the relationship.

Of course, there is no surf up in them thar hills, which has been a deal-killer for me, so far.
Speaking of surf, the minimal rain the last two days has allowed the bays to clean out some and I had a great session this morning. Only four of us in the water, nice sets of just slightly overhead.

A little sunshine in the swimming pool makes any day a little bit better.

Labels: garden, photo, surf, weather

I posted some more BVI photos.

One of the very few bummers on our BVI trip was that my Olympus "waterproof" camera died. Again. This is the third time. They've covered it under warranty twice, which is almost fine. But to get warranty coverage is about $20 in postage to send the darn thing back to Olympus (UPS only) and then a 3 to 5 week wait to get it returned. Then of course we have to wait until Bb goes north or someone else comes south in order to get the camera back to us (which isn't Olympus's fault, but annoying just the same).

It appears that this particular camera has some problem with the little door on the bottom where you change out the card & battery. Which is important because sooner or later, you're going to *have* to change the battery! The design on said door doesn't look much like a waterproof seal other than that it has a flimsy gasket. Hopefully they've improved that design on future cameras.

So it leaked and stopped working on day two of a week long "Boy, a waterproof camera sure would be fun on this trip!" trip.

So I had forgotten that we did get a few fun photos.

Hopefully, the extended warranty that I purchased will finally cover the camera- they have a "no-lemon clause" and I hope this qualifies. Which should result in us having a new underwater camera sometime soon.

Labels: photo, sailing, vacation

More yard photography. Gardening in Costa Rica is more of a fight against invasion by your own plants than it is a struggle to keep things alive. The end result is that we feel like we don't have many resources online nor in print for tips and tricks for the tropical gardener. On the plus side, half of the time (or more) if we want a given plant, we can find it growing wild and just dig it up and stick it in the ground. If it doesn't grow wild nearby, often we can just cut some off of someone elses ornamental, stick it in the ground, and stand back. So it is a mixed bag. We are having fun with it, and it is labor that keeps on giving back as the yard gets prettier and prettier with each effort on our part.

Ok, sometimes we screw up, or prune too much, or let stuff go too long, then prune and it looks haggard- we aren't particularly *good* at this yet, just enthusiastic.

Locally called Avecilla. This is the prettiest coloration we've seen. We've got a stand of it by the front stairs now.	The Ylang ylang tree is sorta hiding behind the palm cluster. Small now, but only a month after transplanting it is looking healthy, we have big hopes for it.	We planted these Plumeria branches with the hopes that they'll bloom for us on the porch outside our bedroom. Eventually the porch will be covered (time and money permitting) by a roof, at which point we'll have to find somewhere else to put the plumeria. Assuming it takes. Local wisdom says to plant plumeria cuttings in the dry season as they don't like wet feet when they are freshly planted.
more pretty avecilla filling up empty space by the guest room door	This little iguana spends most of his time sitting on/around the compost pile. Not sure if he is dining on kitchen scraps, soldier fly larva, or both. He (she?) has gotten fairly tame and doesn't run away when I go out to add scraps.	Our baby banana trees. These are purported to be "manzana" banana trees. Which means "apple" in Spanish. I'm not sure what that is going to mean for the fruit that comes off of them, but I was told it would be delicious, which is fine with me.
Our vetiver champion. This was a plug about the diameter of a soup can and only knee-high tall just a few months ago	Lemongrass. It was even more pitiful looking last month, but seems to be coming back, we hope.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, photo, weather

Lots of interesting things going on down here in beautiful Tamarindo.

For starters, we've finally posted a bunch of our photos from the British Virgin Islands trip we did earlier this month. We have more (obviously) and might put a few more up online, but these are a good cross-section of the journey.

Our friend Jen Gebbie is visiting right now. We've been having a great time hanging out with her. Last Saturday we all threw a little party to belatedly celebrate Jocelyn's birthday. The weather cooperated and we had a nice bbq with plenty of delicious food, friendly faces, and libations. Steve ignored the early signs of a head cold, had a great time, and has been paying double for it all day Sunday :(.

Regardless of the head cold (and hangover) we did a little road trip to Junquillal to look at some property and see a different beach. Caly was apparently delighted to visit the beach three times in one day (three different beaches, no less). The rest of us enjoyed ourselves too!

Speaking of property- we've finally decided to sell our vacant lot in Tamarindo. We really like it and would enjoy building something on it, but now that we've got a lovely house of our own, the idea of building another one just seems excessive. If you know anyone who would like to get a great deal on a beautiful home lot in Tamarindo, send them our way! The lot is 1/8 acre and has a little bit of an ocean view from the 2nd floor (ok, it has a tiny ocean view from the 1st floor, but to enjoy the view you would want to build a 2nd or even 3rd story patio). We're asking $135,000 but will consider offers. The lot is surrounded by single family homes and is an easy walk to the beach (about 3/4 mile).

Labels: photo, sailing, vacation

Paddled out over the holiday weekend and had some fun waves. Pretty strong offshore breeze that isn't the sort of winds we expect in March, but no complaints here! It wasn't a particularly notable session, except for the pleasant surprise on my way back to the car... I bumped into my office manager who is also a photography enthusiast and she told me that she caught a few shots of me surfing! Fun. To her credit- the wave was breaking pretty far out and to avoid shooting directly into the sun she had to get a strange angle. I think she did a great job. Now I've just got to surf better so that the pics are more fun to look at!

The following is one wave:






All photo credits to Pia Morera Castro (cropped by Steve)

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, surf

Ok, before you click on the link, you've gotta promise to keep in mind that we didn't clean up before inviting you in. Steve took a bunch of photos of various parts of the house and yard, mostly to have a record of "before" pictures so that when we (hopefully) get a bunch of projects completed around here, we'll be able to look back and say "Wow! Look at all of this progress!" Part of that progress will be making the bed and coiling the hose in the yard.

We also altered a sketch of the basic floorplan of the downstairs so that it illustrates (more or less) the way the house is laid out. I realize that some of our readers don't care about this stuff.... but if your parents bugged you for two or three months to show them some photos of your new house, you might post it too.

Labels: photo

People are always envious that we live in Paradise, and while we find this viewpoint is often an oversimplification of the ins and outs of living in an underdeveloped, dirt-road town in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Central America, we also need these same people to remind us that middle-of-nowhere or not, if we so choose, we can partake daily in things that prove to a certain extent that we live, if not in Paradise, at least in one of the more beautiful places in the world.

Lately, these reminders came in the form of a lovely and travel-ready friend of ours, who on the spur of the moment, decided that if I would stay in Atlanta for an extra five days, she would in turn, fly back to CR with me. I said okay, she got on her computer, and about half an hour later, we had her ticket, matched to mine and with a seat next to me on the plane.

Her real name is Katie, but I tend to call her Matty Jane, after a favorite grandmother of hers I would like to someday meet. Matty Jane spent her days here in dresses or a bathing suit, lounging by the pool, imploring us to go to the beach, go on the boat, go snorkeling, GET OUT of the house and away from our offices and computers. Her enthusiasm for the heat and the sun, for the beach and the forests around us was infectious and we came to see again, through her eyes, just how gorgeous the place is that we call home.

Much to our surprise though, the thing that has stuck with us from that visit was not foremost the gorgeous boat ride, replete with cocktails, sparkling water, frigate birds, body surfing and beach walking; or the rocky, deserted beach where we snorkeled; or the runs we took in Langosta; but our humble little outdoor shower.

Matty Jane pointed out to us that no sane person would ever shower inside, when one's other choice consists of a private, outdoor, poolside, ocean-view shower. She declared upon leaving that she believed she had only showered indoors once during her entire visit and she assured us that it was only because we had not fully explained her showering options.

So, thank you Matty Jane, for we have seen the error of our ways, and have begun to remodel our outdoor shower, because even though we are not necessarily the most sane of people, we do know a bit of Paradise when we see it, even if it has to be pointed out to us first.

Labels: garden, photo

Yeah!
After two weeks of working her tail off at a trade show in Miami, as well as some work in ATL, Jocelyn is back and happy to be here.

Needless to say, Steve is also very happy for her return.

We enjoyed a beautiful evening, with an unusually large-looking sliver of moon, then had some food and relaxed around the house. Happy to be a family of three again (if you count the dog, which we do, sorta). Speaking of the dog, the little princess that she is has decided that she really prefers to sit on a towel by the pool instead of the concrete. Probably more comfy for her, but her muddy paws play havoc with our pool towels.

Welcome Home! (note the 70's era Bell phone, our little retro touch to the otherwise very contemporary house)

Labels: photo, tamarindo, travel

So we bought a house!
That's why we haven't been writing much. We've been busy moving and trying to get things looking the way we want them. So far we are really excited about the new place, not just because it is really great to have a place of one's own, but because the house itself has a great feel to it and we are really happy there.

We'll get some pictures of the real thing up, soon, but for now I'll just post up some of the pictures that were published in Costa Rica's architectural magazine "Su Casa". We didn't move far, by the way, just next door to where we were living before, but it still feels like a pretty big step for us.

Labels: photo, tamarindo

We finally had a sunset last night! It was wonderful to see something other than gray sky for a change! Caly got some quality stick chasing time, then she found her very favorite thing ever: a soccer ball. While we enjoyed a cold one and the beautiful evening, she demolished the ball. Everyone was happy.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo

Another traveler is getting ready to set off to tour the Americas in a nicely built Landcruiser. He's keeping an online journal. Looks fun.

Labels: expedition, landcruiser, photo, travel

Ooops. I haven't even mentioned that we have a new 'Cruiser!

She's a 1991 fj80 into which someone transplanted the motor and dash from a 1993 hdj80.

In English: it looks like a regular old 80 series, but has one of the best turbo-diesel motors that Toyota makes.

One of the first things that I had/got to do with it was a round trip to San Jose. Wow! Instead of lumbering up hills in 3rd (or even 2nd), I was zooming up them in 5th (sometimes 4th, just to pass). Passing is now a convenience instead of something that requires advanced planning, good luck and more than a little chutzpah.
The noise level inside is much, much lower than in Louie and the handling, overall, is more car-like. I'm sure that once we lift it and throw some larger tires on it'll reduce the handling a tad and slow the uphill a tad, but I'm sure it will still be faster/smoother than old Louie. The ride quality is so much better that after driving five hours to San Jose, instead of spending the night, I drove five hours back. I don't think I would have even considered that in the 60.

The only bad news about the whole affair is that Louie is probably going to be put up for sale. Which tugs at my heart a little as we've grown very accustomed to driving around in a 60 series, it really forms a larger part of my self-image than I realized.

Having said that, the simple fact is that the 60, while capable, durable and good looking (in a rough and tumble way) is an inferior vehicle for on-road travel and less comfy for clients. We've done all we can with the suspension- but leaf springs just aren't as cushy as coil springs. The 80 has a better braking system, that can be upgraded relatively easily to an even better system. The 80 has a cushier interior with more modern lines and a much, much better A/C system. Last but certainly not least, the turbo diesel motor, in stock configuration, puts out 165 HP and 268 ft-Lb instead of the 103 HP and 177 ft-Lb of Louie's motor. That's a lot more oomph. For those of you familiar with the gasoline-powered 80 series sold in the late 90s in the USA, that motor (1FZ-FE) puts out about the same torque, but about 40 more HP than the 1hd-t. Of course I get between 26 and 28mpg while the gasoline motor expects about 14mpg.

Again, for those not interested in the motor details: The new motor is more than 50% faster/stronger than the old motor, but gets about the same mileage (maybe better, time will tell).

So this is an exciting new development in our 'Cruiser history. You can see some more photos, but they are mostly of parts that I'm trying to identify/understand, so it isn't a very interesting page. Hope to get some attractive photos up soon.

Endnote: Speaking of diesel motors.... Why? Why? WHY? Isn't this car sold in the USA? Small, 4wd, gets nearly 40mpg, runs on commonly available diesel fuel. C'mon Toyota USA! Get with the program!!

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, landcruiser, photo

Here's another great surf photo by our pal Michael Pisarri.


He took it on our Ollies trip back in December '06. Fun times.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, surf, weather

We found out that there would be no power on Thursday, so we decided to go to Avellanas for the day. Just to make life interesting, we decided to take the "back road", which is an easy (albeit bumpy) ride in the dry season. It took us a little over three hours to travel to Playa Avellanas. That's only about 3 miles away along the beach, and about a 20 minute drive on the main road. Totally worth it.

Note: one of the many benefits of getting muddy with good friends who just so happen to be professional photographers is that you end up with better-than-average pictures for the site. For more of Michael's work, check out MichaelPisarri.com.

When Costa Rican maps define roads as "seasonal", that probably means that there isn't a road there in the wet season. We've taken this road hundreds of times in the dry months, and thought we would see just how bad it is this time of year. It's pretty bad.

The day's first casualty was Steve's flip flop.	Having fun in the muck. Note the front tire: completely encased in clay	We spent a lot of time facing in a direction other than the one we were moving- back tires stuck in a rut, spinning, front tires pulling us along the trail	"Sure... we can make it through this!"
Notice the size of the ruts in relation to the dog (she's about 50lbs, by the way, not tall, but not tiny)	Winching through the first soft patch		The girls ran ahead to scout out routes.
The ultimate offroad vehicles. They would have made it through the road without incident, but no A/C nor stereo either	Not just muddy, but the occasional fallen tree added some variety	Knowing that the water and muddy riverbank would be a challenge, we decided to set up the winch before we got into trouble this time. Caly was very helpful	Neither of the large trees in the foreground was any help to getting up the bank. Michael did the walking while Steve pays out more line
The river was easy, but we only made it a few feet up the bank, which appears to be made entirely of slimy, grimy, claylike muck	This may not look very deep, but it is	Winching uphill through sloppy mud. The ruts were about 30 inches deep when we were done	Made it to the top of the bank, spinning wheels and pushing piles of mud. Finally got a little bit of traction and drove out from here
Michael the winch monster	Mike and Bb scouting out a "difficult" section ahead, this little puddle in front didn't look like much (note where the stick is located on the right).	Oops. I guess the puddle was deeper than it looked! (again, note the stick on the left this time)
"C'mon Guys! Let's get that winch line hooked up and running!" This water eventually pooched my EDIC relay, which is an expensive part. Fortunately there was no permanent damage.	Here's another angle. This stuck had what I like to call a high pucker-factor. Not exactly a relaxing position.	After that last puddle, we took the scouting a little more seriously	Sitting under a swaying coconut palm, relaxing with good friends after the run
Good food. Good friends (who thought we were a little crazy to take the back road in August).	Nothing like a dip in the ocean to get the mud off	beach. stick. Happy Dog.

Photo Credits: Michael Pisarri and Steve Broyles

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, day trip, landcruiser, mud, photo, weather

Had a great time driving an almost-impassable road this weekend. More pictures coming soon, I promise. Unfortunately, a very important part on the cruiser (the EDIC system) spent a lot of time underwater so I had to take it apart and fix it. Fortunately, the cruiser was perfectly driveable without this very important system... it just wouldn't turn off, which is rather important. Got it fixed, all is well. If you have any interest in some pictures... follow this link.

Labels: landcruiser, mud, photo, weather

Technically, Tamarindo is a suburb of the city of Santa Cruz. Which means that not-infrequently, we have to go to Santa Cruz to take care of things. That's where the seat of government is located, where the power company's office is, where property taxes get paid, etc. Since we had a planned power outage on Tuesday (they are upgrading the lines to the beach areas) I decided to take care of some minor errands in Santa Cruz (since they had power). As I was driving around I started to pay attention to the large number of older homes that were built in a more traditional (read: no air conditioners) way. Decided to snap a few photos and share them. I hope you enjoy the brief tour.

Please note, not all the homes in Santa Cruz look like this- I photographed the ones that caught my eye, not in any way the "most typical". Also note, I took several of the photos while driving, so they aren't particularly excellent quality.

Nothing like a few coats of teal with lavender accents	Bright paint, wooden plank siding, "petatillos"- the ventilation above windows and along the eaves to let hot air out without letting hot sun (nor animals/thieves) in
the modern courthouse, across the street from the houses pictured on the left	More subdued colors, but nice scrollwork over the doors and windows	This color combo is as close to "classic" as any
A much newer home, still has the bright colors. I think this is a prefab.	Not as well maintained as some, but combining pink with teal and green... that's a statement	Another bright combo- light blue and light green. Note the scrollwork and the details on the eaves
the old church belltower. No bells now, but a recorded hourly chime. Very modern, I prefer real bells	Church that sits beside the clock tower. Must have been 70's, right?	overexposed to show the stained glass at the church

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, travel

On account of having found a sub-$500 flight from San Jose, California, Mom and Dad Broyles decided to make a last-minute visit. Turned out to be great timing for Steve and Jocelyn as we both had work that could be shoe-horned into a few hours here and there instead of spending all day at the offices. So the 'rents got some qt to relax by the pool and do some reading, we got to work and play with people we love, and the four of us visited the beaches, did some offshore fishing with Captain Ali and his friendly crew, ate well at home and in some local restaurants (most notable was Laguna del Cocodrillo, where owner Ben and Dylan hosted us with excellent food, wine and friendly style), and generally enjoyed each others' company. The following photos are a small sampling of the many that we all took.

fresh snapper for lunch, great start to the vacation	shopping for veggies at the local market	sunset cocktails in Langosta	Waiting for the fish to bite
Huge pod of porpoises! There must have been over 100 of them.	Dad's Tuna	Steve's Tuna	Mom got one too!
More porpoises jumping along in our path	Jocelyn's Tuna. Such beautiful fish. *Almost* makes you not want to eat 'em. Almost.	Non-sequiter flower. Think of it as a palate cleanser.	Out for a morning walk in Langosta estuary
Lots of water in the estuary, not very deep	parked at Playa Conchal	one of the area's prettiest, most swim-friendly beaches	more pretty Conchal beach
A local fisherman fought for what seemed a long time, pretty to watch in the setting sun. The fish got away.