The plans, they are a changing

The plan was. Come to Costa Rica, find a piece of land the same value that Marc got for his recently sold bit of property in BC, and buy it. So for the first week that I spent in Costa Rica, that's exactly what I did. I found some beautiful pieces. Then I started chatting with people about other tiny little details like building costs, maintenance during the wet season, the possibility of renting a house out to other tourists, the costs of a vehicle, equipping said house with kitchen appliances, beds etc etc, and I began to get a little trepidatious.

Onward I headed from Nosara, to the little town of Montezuma where I spent a week playing in the ocean, climbing hills to get to waterfalls and negotiating the local bus system. Marc and his folks Pat and Bob experienced some horrid travel woes and were delayed arriving by a full day, no big deal for Marc but a crap deal for Pat and Bob who only had one week to spend with us here. But they had non the less arrived just a little worse for wear. Just as they arrived, I received an email from an agent who I had been working with in Nosara. The perfect piece of property had come up at a great price! So arriving only the day before, Marc and I headed out to Nosara (a pot-holey 3 hour drive away). We checked out the location, it looked perfect, and even if we didn't end up building on the land, it would be a great investment. We put in an offer and headed home. The next day we found that a bidding war had started so we backed out of the purchase of the piece that we had looked at. Almost immediately after that, Marc came to the same conclusion that I had come to. If a vacation home is what we want, buying here would mean tying up our finances for many years to come and would most probably bring more hassle that it is worth for a place where we would only spend 3 months of the year. So just like that, the plan changed.
We love the rental house that we are staying at. We love the fact that when the light switch broke, the owner had to call an electrician in to deal with it. And we love that when we are done with it all, we just drive away. So after some discussion, we are now entertaining the idea of buying a compact camper van. When we travel it's the car rentals and hotels that kill the budget. And we are now past the age where dragging a heavy backpack on public transport in far flung areas for months on end has lost some of its appeal. A campervan that we can ship around the world seems like a good idea. We'll be looking into it much more when we get back to Canada.

So that now means that we have all the rest of our time here to actually be on vacation!

During the past week that Pat and Bob were here we drove around spotting howler monkeys along the way. We spent a whole day at the Mal Pais beach plsying in the tide pools and water. We headed out to a nearby animal rehabilitation centre called rainsong. They do the best that they can to help out orphaned howler monkeys whose mom's were electrocuted on the power lines, they take in animals that people have poached for pets then thought better of it when they realized how difficult it is to have a wild animal in the house etc etc. They lack any government funding so facilities are bare and they do the best that they can. It's all a little sad as places like this need a serious cash injection to really do some good.

Yesterday, Bob, Marc and I headed out for a full day's snorkling adventure. For the low price of 50 bucks a person, we got a half hour boatride out to isla tortuga (an uninhabited island) where they anchored the boat, handed out snorkling gear and let us explore for over an hour. We saw so many fish! Such bright colours and we were so glad that our little waterproof camera takes videos! Trying to photograph quickly moving fish is a challenge, the video makes it very easy. We had a bit of an adventure where Bob dropped he and Pat's camera where is rested quite comfortably on the ocean floor until Marc rescued it.
I am usually a little trepidatious when it comes to the ocean, but the water was so calm and clear that I had no worries. The only funny thing is that after snorkling for about an hour, I began to get sea sick. I've heard of this happening to some people as there is no horizon to use as a point of reference. No problems though. We were soon all back on the boat, headed towards the island for a lovely beach lunch. After lunch everyone lazed around, swimming, some people took a banana boat ride, and most of us (Marc in particular) spent lots of time petting the island's tame peccary. The peccary (kind of like a wild pig) had quills like a hedgehog instead of bristles like other porky animals. She would see people coming over to pet her and just flop over on her side so as to expose the parts that she wanted patting. It was incredibly cute.

Back on the boat, back to Montezuma, and back to the beautiful rented house for supper. Pat and Bob head back to Winnipeg tomorrow, boo hiss. I hope for their sake that the weather has improved.

Take Care!
Erin