Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face. -Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960)
Had another refreshing sleep last night. Put the air-conditioning on while I read a few chapters before turning unit off. This cooled the bedroom off so that the temperature in the room itself was fine until the night air became a little less humid. Woke up, towards morning, with a pesky mosquitoe buzzing in my ear. Only one, I must say, I've encountered in the house. Plenty elsewhere, at times. Poor Lady Dar, overly sensitive soul that she is, had her legs bitten, almost to shreds, in Monteverde, and had to buy some anti-itch ointment, so irritating were the numerous bites.
For my part, I really only had three noticeable bites. Largest, on my left calf, was the result of a larger insect, I believe, perhaps a spider, as I remember swatting something on our Night Walk from El Bosque, hotel in Monteverde. Took a few days for anything to develop but when it did I was a bit worried as it was an angry looking, raised bump, about half an inch off the surface of the skin, tight as a drum. I imagined it was filled with nasty eggs of some kind, the hatchlings waiting to spread throughout my system, causing untold damage. Even thought about lancing it but was afraid it might become even more infected. Put Polysporin on it each day but nothing changed until a few days ago. Took a little more than a week but almost no trace of it now, I'm more than pleased to report.
Two other smaller bites. One on the fleshy webbing between the thumb and index finger of my left hand, the other on the inside of the index finger of my right hand. Both were small, blood red bumps, almost like one receives when one pinches oneself with a tool that slips or a finger is caught between something. Not overly itchy unless I rubbed them so I had to try not to do so. Can barley see the on eon my left hand but the one on the right hand is still visible, a shiny black ink-spot the size of a grain of sea salt. Need to buy more Cacique, local white rum, to use as a cleanse!
Plan for today is to walk the beach as we only managed to flop in and out of the pool yesterday. Will try to plan it so that we can go for a swim before watching the sunset and then go for dinner on the way back to our hotel. Leave at 7:00 am tomorrow morning so will have to be ready to roll, with most of packing, such as it is, finished tonight. Must away as I've been delegated to stroll to local mercado to buy some cheese and a cuke, to put atop our lunch salad, tasty, large field tomatoes and perfectly ripe avocados. If one was here for a couple of weeks, or longer, it would be very easy to make many of one's meals, given our kitchen and availability of pretty much anything one might wish to eat, from wonderful seafood to fresh vegetables, to lovely breads, etc. Bit like Guaybitos in that regard.
Hello Palm Springs!! Trust you are both well. I gather from Robo Man's last message that you will be in Palm Springs for February. We return to Tinsel Town on February 4th we'll spend a couple of weeks visiting friends in Palm Desert, Sun City and Sedona, and then a week or so back in LA before heading north towards the end of February. If you are up for a visit perhaps we can pop in, (Probably somewhere around the weekend of the 17th if we visit with Lady Dar's second-cousin in Carefree, after Sedona.] Anyway, let us know what you think and we'll plan accordingly. As you probably know, we drive right past Palm Springs en route to Tinsel Town. Fondestos from Hammock Woman to you both. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Hi Wole, et al! When we return to Tinsel Town in February hope we can arrange a ride or two. Fondestos from Lady Dar to you, Wole. Cheers, Patrizzio! Pic: Do you know Sandrone Dazieri, Rosita?
Enjoyed reading your account of Costa Rica. We were there for about 3 weeks 10 years ago to attend the wedding of the son of one of Frank’s cousins who married a local whom he met at Uni in England. Loved it!! Frank’s sister organized the trip for us & the cousin’s husband’s sister & her hubby too, so 6 of us. We also rented a van & did a lot of traveling around, staying anywhere from 2-4 nights each stop. Wish I could recall names of places.
Did a small plane trip (4 passenger) to a tiny air strip along a beach & then a 30 min walk on very hot sand to a tent village!! A mtn lion had been in the bar with an iguana in its mouth just the day before. There had even been a few tourists sitting in there, including one grandmother with her young grandson. At our welcome, in the bar/come library, shortly after our arrival, we were all given an 8x10 handout of how to defend oneself in the event of a cougar attack, lol!!! We ate a lot of rice, beans & local veggies there.
We slept on two cots in tents on wooden platforms. Portopotties, most with lizards or bugs/ spiders inside, were up a set of about 30 steps behind the tents. There were signs which said to watch for mtn lions & not to run!! Lol!! I tell you in the middle of the night when one has to pee and it’s dark, well I ran. Funny, Frank’s bro in law David, now sadly deceased from cancer, had measured his average pee before leaving home & had a collapsible container so didn't leave his tent.
While there, hiked up a 1000 ft hill to the base of a 100 ft tree where 3 local guides awaited us. We were then strapped in diaper-like harnesses & hitched up the 100 feet to a 3 meter platform to observe local birds, flora & fauna. Could hear the howler monkeys. I am terrified of heights so was very proud of myself. We were attached to the railing by what they call monkey tails. It took 3 mins to go up but only a min to come down.
Another high light was the suspension bridges where we could see through the bottom. That was scary for me too since we were up fairly high. I recognized some of the gigantic plants as some my mom had in her home, much smaller of course. Frank would walk behind me & shake the rope railings. We went to a spider museum which was interesting but I was happy they were contained. Don’t like spiders!! One place we did what they call a night crawl. It was guided & we could see so many night animals & insects in the special purple light of our headlamps.
The wedding, which was fabulous, was in a luxurious hotel subsidized by the groom’s parents. Few of the bride’s family spoke English. The family’s Catholic church was tiny and the service was in both languages. It was extremely hot but if surprised me that the Costa Rican women wore pantihose & coat dresses in the almost unbearable humidity. Frank was wearing a light coloured suit but he was dying & finally reluctantly had to remove his jacket. There were fans placed on the seats when we arrived, thank heavens!! The dancing at the reception was highly entertaining, lots of salsa!!
I loved seeing the view of the volcano at a different locale, popular tourist spot. You were likely there. The van ride around & around up & down was rough for me. I have a very sensitive tummy & was nearly sick after one stop. Well do enjoy the rest of your time there!! Travel safely. Hi to Corinne. Maggie
Hi again, Steel Magnolia! From the sound of your description you really had a wonderful time in Costa Rica, spiders notwithstanding! For our part, our last full day was most, most enjoyable. We lazed around the pool until about 1:00 pm.Lady Dar, sunning and reading, I digitating and dipping and then I walked to the nearest mercado for a cure, a package of cheese and a large bottle of water. Made a large tomato, avocado and cuke salad, topped with diced Emmenthal, the cheese I had picked up earlier. Enjoyed it on the patio and then returned to book/computer until our tummy's had had a chance to digest tasty lunch when we then cooled off from the heat of the day. Around 5:00 pm we had showers and changed into our dinner outfits and then strolled tot he beach to watch the sunset. Plenty of surfers and many others, like us, just wanting to enjoy the setting sun.
This is where we will be love to see you. Instructions included. Where are you driving from? The Francis Alexander Address: 377 E. Francis Palm Springs, CA 92262 Hi Patrick We are en route to ps and stopping in Lodi for two nights to sample some zins. Tomorrow plan to cycle to some wineries and stock up with some wine for ps. Hopefully all will be consumed before your visit. We would love for you and Corine to visit when you are in the area. Call us on Polly’s Cell.
Looking forward to seeing you both and catching up on your news. Hopefully you already received house address from Polly. Mick Hi again, Lodi People, or is it Williams People? I see you stopped at Granzella's! Thank you for your coordinates, Polly. We will be driving from either Carefree or Sedona. Former if Lady Dar's second cousin will not be away on a possible motorcycle trip. Either way, we are about six or seven hours from Palm Springs. Without being too, too pushy, do you have room for us for a night or so? Not to worry if you don't as we can stop in to say hello, have a brief visit and then push on to LA. Anyway, let us know and we'll plan accordingly. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Gracias Patrizzio You real always choose the most beautiful places on earth, a bit away from the maddening crowd. Spent time with locals, listen to their stories and learn their way of life. it is so educational. Thank for charing it. Life at the moment has been a busy one, as the opera season is just coming to an end. It was busy, the weather has been just absolutely horrible, but not much we can do. I am good life marches on with all its ups and downs with the young folks. Take care and all the best save trip home. Adios Gisela Hi again,Gisela!
Had another refreshing sleep last night. Put the air-conditioning on while I read a few chapters before turning unit off. This cooled the bedroom off so that the temperature in the room itself was fine until the night air became a little less humid. Woke up, towards morning, with a pesky mosquitoe buzzing in my ear. Only one, I must say, I've encountered in the house. Plenty elsewhere, at times. Poor Lady Dar, overly sensitive soul that she is, had her legs bitten, almost to shreds, in Monteverde, and had to buy some anti-itch ointment, so irritating were the numerous bites.
For my part, I really only had three noticeable bites. Largest, on my left calf, was the result of a larger insect, I believe, perhaps a spider, as I remember swatting something on our Night Walk from El Bosque, hotel in Monteverde. Took a few days for anything to develop but when it did I was a bit worried as it was an angry looking, raised bump, about half an inch off the surface of the skin, tight as a drum. I imagined it was filled with nasty eggs of some kind, the hatchlings waiting to spread throughout my system, causing untold damage. Even thought about lancing it but was afraid it might become even more infected. Put Polysporin on it each day but nothing changed until a few days ago. Took a little more than a week but almost no trace of it now, I'm more than pleased to report.
Two other smaller bites. One on the fleshy webbing between the thumb and index finger of my left hand, the other on the inside of the index finger of my right hand. Both were small, blood red bumps, almost like one receives when one pinches oneself with a tool that slips or a finger is caught between something. Not overly itchy unless I rubbed them so I had to try not to do so. Can barley see the on eon my left hand but the one on the right hand is still visible, a shiny black ink-spot the size of a grain of sea salt. Need to buy more Cacique, local white rum, to use as a cleanse!
Plan for today is to walk the beach as we only managed to flop in and out of the pool yesterday. Will try to plan it so that we can go for a swim before watching the sunset and then go for dinner on the way back to our hotel. Leave at 7:00 am tomorrow morning so will have to be ready to roll, with most of packing, such as it is, finished tonight. Must away as I've been delegated to stroll to local mercado to buy some cheese and a cuke, to put atop our lunch salad, tasty, large field tomatoes and perfectly ripe avocados. If one was here for a couple of weeks, or longer, it would be very easy to make many of one's meals, given our kitchen and availability of pretty much anything one might wish to eat, from wonderful seafood to fresh vegetables, to lovely breads, etc. Bit like Guaybitos in that regard.
Enjoyed reading your account of Costa Rica. We were there for about 3 weeks 10 years ago to attend the wedding of the son of one of Frank’s cousins who married a local whom he met at Uni in England. Loved it!! Frank’s sister organized the trip for us & the cousin’s husband’s sister & her hubby too, so 6 of us. We also rented a van & did a lot of traveling around, staying anywhere from 2-4 nights each stop. Wish I could recall names of places.
Did a small plane trip (4 passenger) to a tiny air strip along a beach & then a 30 min walk on very hot sand to a tent village!! A mtn lion had been in the bar with an iguana in its mouth just the day before. There had even been a few tourists sitting in there, including one grandmother with her young grandson. At our welcome, in the bar/come library, shortly after our arrival, we were all given an 8x10 handout of how to defend oneself in the event of a cougar attack, lol!!! We ate a lot of rice, beans & local veggies there.
While there, hiked up a 1000 ft hill to the base of a 100 ft tree where 3 local guides awaited us. We were then strapped in diaper-like harnesses & hitched up the 100 feet to a 3 meter platform to observe local birds, flora & fauna. Could hear the howler monkeys. I am terrified of heights so was very proud of myself. We were attached to the railing by what they call monkey tails. It took 3 mins to go up but only a min to come down.
Another high light was the suspension bridges where we could see through the bottom. That was scary for me too since we were up fairly high. I recognized some of the gigantic plants as some my mom had in her home, much smaller of course. Frank would walk behind me & shake the rope railings. We went to a spider museum which was interesting but I was happy they were contained. Don’t like spiders!! One place we did what they call a night crawl. It was guided & we could see so many night animals & insects in the special purple light of our headlamps.
The wedding, which was fabulous, was in a luxurious hotel subsidized by the groom’s parents. Few of the bride’s family spoke English. The family’s Catholic church was tiny and the service was in both languages. It was extremely hot but if surprised me that the Costa Rican women wore pantihose & coat dresses in the almost unbearable humidity. Frank was wearing a light coloured suit but he was dying & finally reluctantly had to remove his jacket. There were fans placed on the seats when we arrived, thank heavens!! The dancing at the reception was highly entertaining, lots of salsa!!
I loved seeing the view of the volcano at a different locale, popular tourist spot. You were likely there. The van ride around & around up & down was rough for me. I have a very sensitive tummy & was nearly sick after one stop. Well do enjoy the rest of your time there!! Travel safely. Hi to Corinne. Maggie
Hi again, Steel Magnolia! From the sound of your description you really had a wonderful time in Costa Rica, spiders notwithstanding! For our part, our last full day was most, most enjoyable. We lazed around the pool until about 1:00 pm.Lady Dar, sunning and reading, I digitating and dipping and then I walked to the nearest mercado for a cure, a package of cheese and a large bottle of water. Made a large tomato, avocado and cuke salad, topped with diced Emmenthal, the cheese I had picked up earlier. Enjoyed it on the patio and then returned to book/computer until our tummy's had had a chance to digest tasty lunch when we then cooled off from the heat of the day. Around 5:00 pm we had showers and changed into our dinner outfits and then strolled tot he beach to watch the sunset. Plenty of surfers and many others, like us, just wanting to enjoy the setting sun.
I would have been happy had I been a surfer as waves looked terrific to my untutored eye. Huge orange globe started to sink below the horizon at 5:45 pm and we watched it slip beneath the waves before we made for Restaurante Al Chile Viola, spot the thad been recommended to us by the chef at La Pachanga in Tamarindo, a fellow Italian. Funnily enough, when we walked onto The Strip, from the beach acres road, who should we bump into but Micah, the guitarist we'd seen perform at El Facon two evening ago. He was on his way to another gig. Wished him well and continued walking until we found Al Chile. Nobody there but we two when we arrived as it was only a few minutes after 6:00 pm. Nevertheless we ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and Tuna Tartare for an appetizer. Latter was delish, (so was wine), bold but not overpowering spices, and was served with puréed avocado, divine! Lady Dar decided upon BBQ'd Baby Back Ribs while I went for the Breast of Chicken, on a bed of Cannellini beans in a light tomato sauce. Both dishes were extraordinarily tasty and I was even allowed to gnaw on Lady Dar's pork ribs once she'd finished with them! In fact, our witness and the chef's wife encouraged us to eat with our hands! My kind of place!!!
Were having such grand time that we ordered another bottle of SB and shared it with a couple from Kentucky, at the next table. Chatted until we polished of the bottle, asked for our bill, waved goodbye to our wonderful waitress and toddled down the dusty byway home. Only 9:00 pm when we walked in the door so we set about gathering up what little needed to be packed. Lady Dar is already sound asleep and i plan to follow her shortly. Had set our alarms for 5:59 pm so we had plenty of time to have shower and mugs of coffee/tea. Unfortunately, for us, breakfast isn't served until 7:30 am so we will miss the delicious offerings we've come to relish over the last four mornings. Must away otherwise I'll need toothpicks for my eyelids! Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics: Many of the ATV's and motorbikes here have holders for surf boards; Lady Dar working on her Summer Skin! Just on the beach; Four Swedes from our hotel, couple on left are on their honeymoon; Sunset begins; Patrizzio, Golden Boy! Pure Gold! Arrivederci Sol; Micah; Chomp Chomp!
Looking forward to seeing you both and catching up on your news. Hopefully you already received house address from Polly. Mick Hi again, Lodi People, or is it Williams People? I see you stopped at Granzella's! Thank you for your coordinates, Polly. We will be driving from either Carefree or Sedona. Former if Lady Dar's second cousin will not be away on a possible motorcycle trip. Either way, we are about six or seven hours from Palm Springs. Without being too, too pushy, do you have room for us for a night or so? Not to worry if you don't as we can stop in to say hello, have a brief visit and then push on to LA. Anyway, let us know and we'll plan accordingly. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Gracias Patrizzio You real always choose the most beautiful places on earth, a bit away from the maddening crowd. Spent time with locals, listen to their stories and learn their way of life. it is so educational. Thank for charing it. Life at the moment has been a busy one, as the opera season is just coming to an end. It was busy, the weather has been just absolutely horrible, but not much we can do. I am good life marches on with all its ups and downs with the young folks. Take care and all the best save trip home. Adios Gisela Hi again,Gisela!
Thank you for your good wishes. All the best, Gisela. Cheers, Patrizzio!
Pics: Lunch at Otro Lado, our hotel, in Santa Teresa; Israeli couple playing cards on pool edge at Otro Lado; lunch on our downstairs patio, last day at Otro Lado; Lady Dar sunning and reading there! At beach, waiting for sunset, that evening. Four Swedes from our hotel, couple on left were on their honeymoon; Golden Patrizzio; last rays; en route to dinner!
Pics: Lunch at Otro Lado, our hotel, in Santa Teresa; Israeli couple playing cards on pool edge at Otro Lado; lunch on our downstairs patio, last day at Otro Lado; Lady Dar sunning and reading there! At beach, waiting for sunset, that evening. Four Swedes from our hotel, couple on left were on their honeymoon; Golden Patrizzio; last rays; en route to dinner!
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