Catching up...by Kelly Carter-Miller

Filed Under : by Greg L. Miller

Saturday, June 18, 2011

What's up with those two? They go down to Costa Rica and nobody hears from them!

Yeah, I know. Pretty terrible. What can I say, paradise goes to your head and we've definitely been enjoying paradise. Of course everyone's definition of enjoying varies a bit. For me its been being fairly lazy outside of school and work. I've been enjoying lazing around our little Casita Romantica, venturing down to the beach for sunset or a nice afternoon read, and over all just chillin'. Greg's been enjoying the beach quite a bit, working on his novel, and just trying to soak up the Pura Vida.

Since I'm a little behind on starting this up again, I think a nice synopsis of the past two weeks is in order. Then we can pick up from there. Groovy...and off we go...

Arrival

We got in to San Jose pretty late and it was well after midnight by time we hit the hotel. After a few hours sleep we got up to meet the shuttle bus from San Jose, the central city of Costa Rica, to Tamarindo, our favorite little town on the Pacific coast so far. In the morning I stepped out to get coffee and as soon as the air hit me, even in crowded San Jose, I knew I was in Costa Rica and I was happy, contented at a deep level. I really relax in the vibe here. So once coffee was drunk and luggage shuffled to the lobby we were picked up by Interbus for the five hour drive to Tamarindo. These shuttles always have a half way point rest stop they frequent. The one on this route is pretty great because it has tons of wildlife, as seen below....

Macaws, there were like a dozen of them around!

A Toucan, he posed pretty for the camera. :)

And here I am checking on the luggage.

The gentleman in the orange shirt to the right is Tom.

Tom was a fellow Tamarindo bound bus passenger. He is also a retired English professor with a wife who is a teacher. Needless to say we had tons to talk about with Tom all the way to Tamarindo. Really nice guy.

Casita Romantica

Finally, after planes, buses, and automobiles we arrived in Tamarindo. Our accommodations are tucked into a series of muddy side streets along the side of a hill overlooking Tamarindo. Only those at the top get the view though due to the greenery, but its lush and lovely all the same. We were warmly greeted by our host Andy and some of his other guests, Billy and Lee. And here are our cute and comfy accommodations...

Entrance to Casa Boaz

Our Casita Romantica

Inside. The couch is super comfy, cable tv up to 80 channels ( only 3/4 of which are in Spanish) The bed unfortunately didn't work well for Greg's back. But our host came to the rescue and brought in another bed which worked out great.

Got a pretty decent kitchen set up. The sink and stuff is further down.

But nothing we cook here can compare to pretty much anything our host Andy can make. That man can so cook! As we learned when we were invited to a pig roast dinner in honor of Bill and Lee's last day.

This was the best pork anything I ever tasted.

And no that meat did not come from a grocery store.

All of this was amazingly good! One of those meals that when you

remember it, you get hungry all over again, even if you just ate!

The dinner party, starting from the bottom left (forgive me if I get names mixed up) :

Bill, Marie, me, Andy, Lee, Scott (Marie's Dad)

Greg took the picture, as always :)

Daily Life

Ok, so other than eating to die for food and riding in buses what else have we been doing? Well we go out to the beach a lot. Eat at new restaurants and old favorites. On most walks we see groovy things like hermit crabs, colorful birds, howler monkey families, and lizards of all kinds. But most of the time I can be found...

Working in our Casita.

Or working outside of our Casita.

Or reading in the hammock.

Or hanging out on the beach.

Greg, as you can tell, spends a lot of time taking pictures of me. :) He also walks the beaches, socializes with people, and is working on his novel and class work. Think I'll finish up with some of my favorite Greg Miller Photographs. Enjoy....