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| Arrival Day on Charlie's Terrace |
Adios Costa Rica! It's Time to Go Home to Nashville!
Thanks, Charlie, for a great two weeks in Atenas, "the town of perfect weather", and Costa Rica, "the country of 'Pura Vida'". Charlie brought me to the Hampton Inn near San Jose International Airport this afternoon. After a late American lunch together at "Denny's", I am now realizing how fast yet how good these past two weeks have been. Tonight I am remembering that each day was full of "pura vida" and lots of photos. Actual photo count on my Canon camera is 1,053. Most of those photos will make my photo galleries in a new Folder Costa Rica in a couple weeks. It was not easy but I have selected one photo per day from my blog updates to reminisce over. So here are 14 days of photos.
Arrival Day - A perfect welcome! That's Charlie with the sign waiting for me as I exited the immigration process.
Day 2 - I found my perfect spot to hang out at Charlie's in the rocking chairs on his terrace. We stayed in his town Atenas and got familiar with the town.
Day 3 - We did a nice long car ride first to Volcano Poas but decided not to go in the park due to rain and fog preventing one from seeing the volcano. We did go on to La Paz Waterfall Park to visit in the rain. Beautiful and scenic even when wet.
Day 4 - Farmer's Market day followed by an afternoon at Charlie's. I got photos of several birds in Charlie's garden from his terrace.
Day 5 - We visited ZooAve Park for rescued birds and other wildlife.
Day 6 - Toured El Toledo Coffee Farm. Here Charlie and I are taste testing different variations of roast. Tour ended with a family farm dinner.
Day 7 - Two photos - We took a 3 hour motor coach ride with a breakfast stop and a 1 1/2 hour boat trip to Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero National Park. That's Robert, our guide, in the second photo. He met us with the motor coach in San Jose and stayed with us in Tortuguero and returned with us to San Jose. He was simply one of the best informative and friendly guides I have met.
Day 8 - A full day at Tortuguero with Robert providing a 3+ hour exploration boat ride along the river and narrow canals leading away from the river to see birds, crocodiles and monkeys.
Day 9 - Day to return to San Jose and on to Atenas back to Charlie's home. While at Tortuguera I met new friends Colin and his dad Milo from Manhattan in New York.
Day 10 - A day of rest and hanging out at Charlie's. These tropical petunias are in Charlie's garden.
Day 11 - Charlie's does not own a car so he uses the public transportation system including nice buses and economical taxis. Friday, we went to Alajuela by taxi and bus. While there we visited the new USA style City Mall and ate lunch in the food court. Of course I had to try McDonald's.
Day 12 - We visited Crocodile Bridge and Jaco Beach on the Pacific Ocean but the highlight of the day and maybe the trip was stopping on the way back home at a nice souvenir shop where I found a painter finishing up this painting. We waited for him to complete and partially dry and then I purchased it. This will be a great memento of my visit to Costa Rica.
Day 13 - A quiet Sunday in Atenas at Charlie's and this fantastic view from his terrace. Of course, I have multiple photo views from Charlie's terrace to share in my photo galleries.
Day 14 - This colorful art work is in front of the Hampton Inn where I am staying tonight awaiting my flight home tomorrow at 9 AM.
I confess to enjoying nature but not really into bird and other wildlife names. If you would like to see more bird photos and the names of birds we saw in Tortuguero I highly recommend you check out and even subscribe to Charlie's Blog.
It's almost 9 PM here in Alajuela tonight and my flight to Dallas/Fort Worth connecting with my flight on to Nashville leaves in 12 hours so time to wrap up this blog and get some rest before my 5:30 AM wake up call.
My next official blog update will be to let you know I have updated all my photos to Reagan's Photo Galleries. That may be a week or so. I'll be home five weeks prior to my next Amtrak trip New Orleans to Seattle, Washington.
Costa Rica is Pura Vida
My Next 2016 TRAVEL PLANS
Spring Amtrak Rail Adventure March 27-April 13 - Flying to New Orleans, LA, to travel via Amtrak's City of New Orleans and Empire Builder to Seattle, WA. After a week in Seattle, I will return to New Orleans via Amtrak's Coast Starlight(Sacramento), California Zephyr(Chicago) and City of New Orleans. Return trip is compliments of Amtrak Guest Rewards points I have been earning from all my Amtrak travels for the last few years.
Via Rail and Amtrak Trip to Canada and Albany, NY, May 28 to June 15 - Traveling by Via Rail in Canada to Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Returning to USA via Amtrak for visits to Albany, NY and New Orleans, LA.
You can click on any of the small photos in this blog to open a full size photo. Also, click on the "blog title" at the top to view this blog on the web.
All my photos are available to view on Reagan's Photo Galleries website.
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