Archives for 2012

Apollo and his bug-eating bird

Finished off the floor today, it looks FABULOUS! It didn’t take long to finish it off, so then we went out to get all the trim, corner molding, stain, etc. in order to finish the job. Too late to do any more by the time we got back, so we settled down for the evening to recharge our batteries.

Time to get busy getting ready to move out, now that spring is here. Spent the day doing spring cleaning while Hubby started to prep the kitchen floor, to finish the job we started back in January, i.e. actually laying a new floor down on top of the repairs he made. It’s already been bought, we have just been storing it until we had time (and deadline) to tackle it. I spend the day feverishly trying to get the rest of my big spring cleaning done, a slow but necessary process. Didn’t stop til well after 7:00, exhausting ourselves, but we know it’s the only way to get the job done!

While I continued spring cleaning, Hubby (with my intermittent help) started to lay the floor. We had bought an Armstrong Click-Lock laminate that actually looks like a beautiful Italian stone, what’s known as a floating floor, so it was just a matter of cutting it to shape, locking it together, and nudging up to the corners. The only challenge was where it fit into the slide, that took us quite a while to get right. Worked late again, got about half the floor finished. As always, everything takes precisely twice as long to do as you think it will!

Finally finished up the laundry, made it a relaxing movie day.

Hubby had a doctor’s appointment, just a follow-up to his back shots, one last adjustment today, and we’re done!

More of the same, laundry, rest, repeat.

Woke up at 6:00 Costa Rican Time (about 8:00 Eastern : -), went out once to do necessary shopping, then spent the rest of the day unpacking, doing laundry, and doing our best to relax and get caught up.

Last view of garden statue

Hotel Restaurant

Breakfast buffet again, final packing, then once again our friend Paulo met us and drove us to the airport. Final goodbyes, much security at the airport (they even had another go on the jetway from the gate to the plane! Made me drink two whole bottles of water just to keep from losing them! Nuts!), then settled in for the relatively short flight home. Landed in Miami a little behind schedule, about 6:00, no problems, had the shuttle from the car park place come and get us, and off we went! Arrived back at my brother’s in the evening, barely had enough energy to say hello and good-night to him, reunited with the kids (little Billy was beside himself with whimpering and squeaking, Marina just wiggled and wiggled her fat bum!) Settled down for a short evening, then crashed, thrilled with our vacation, glad to be back with the kids, kind of sorry we have to get back to the grind, but definitely with our batteries recharged and rejuvenated!


Last view of mountains of San Jose



 Slept late, went down to the usual breakfast buffet in this fabulous hotel (though I have to admit, I finally had to pass on the Gallo Pinto, CR’s national breakfast food. I’ve had just about as much frijoles and arroz, i.e. rice and beans, as I can take right now!) The day was blustery and cool, a refreshing change from the heat we’ve been experiencing everywhere else in CR, but not a good day for the pool, so we ended up staying in our room, reading and sleeping, not ONCE tempted to turn on the TV. At home it ALWAYS on, but we haven’t had access, and now we don’t really have interest. I’m sure nothing has changed much since we left! Went back to the bar around 3:00 for ice cream and coffee (and a little something extra just to celebrate our vacation), then went back up for more rest. Finished off the day with a lovely dinner before packing and retiring early, preparing for our early wakeup tomorrow.

Slept late this morning!! Didn’t wake up (other than for a few minutes each time the rooster crowed and the dogs barked and the monkeys howled) until 8:00! That’s the latest since we’ve been here, must be the lazy atmosphere of the Caribbean coast, feels just like one of the islands! Managed to get breakfast and still be ready to go riding by just after nine, with me back on Santana and Hubby on Alaska. Raul isn’t here today, he’s off to a school to learn English better, so we have Natasha, a Dutch émigré with a goth-like mane of black hair, very tall and thin with striking blue eyes. We mounted up and headed out, with her on an old stallion who was sluggish and apparently half-blind, so we didn’t get out to trot at all like we did with Raul. In fact, we didn’t trot at all on this trip, we just walked on the road and in the jungle, and cantered (and momentarily galloped) on the beach. I have to say I preferred Raul. I asked Natasha several times to stop so that I could take some pictures and she ignored me, leaving me with the choice of punishing my horse by making him stay while the lead horse moved on, or forgetting about my pix. Obviously, I let it go, but it was a disappointment, though the ride itself was just right. We were out just under three hours, and had a great time solidifying some of the things we’d learned over the last two weeks. Our own horses are going to be in for a surprise when we get back! Got back around noon, cooled down a bit, than rec’d a request from Brigitte that we clear out of our room asap so her maid can get in to do the cleaning before she left for the day, so we had to rush around, grab a shower, pack as best we could then move everything out on to the patio so that the girl could clean. Her cook had left us a couple of sandwiches for lunch which we scoffed down, then we finished packing and waited for the bus to pick us up. It arrived at 2:30, which was right on time according to our tour company, but then we ran into bad rain and fog on the mountain, plus the driver seemed unaware that we had a 6:00 connection with another bus to get back to our hotel, but when I told him he assured me after calling his office that a bus would be waiting (as best as I could understand, for he spoke little English, and I speak little Spanish), but when we arrived, we were surprised and delighted to discover our new friend Paulo was there to meet us!! How great it was to see him again! Apparently the Interbus service didn’t wait for us after all, so Paulo came out to rescue us when the Costa Rican Reps office learned of the confusion. After many hugs and thanks, Paulo dropped us off at the beautiful Bougainvillea Hotel again. We invited him to dine with us, but he had a pickup at the airport at about 5:00 in the morning, so he deferred. We’re hoping to see him again before we leave, but were very thrilled he was there to help us again. Ran up to our rooms, changed clothes, went straight to the bar for a drink, then had another FABULOUS dinner in the hotel restaurant. We’re starting to wind down now, and we are SO glad we have tomorrow to sleep all day if we want. Couldn’t imagine trying to fly back tomorrow!