December 2007

Last year we arrived in Coco about mid-January and we came by car. This year we traveled by plane and arrived the last week of November. Everything went as planned. The only exciting part was our packaging our two dogs into kennels and handing them over to Delta Airlines for their travel as 4th class passengers (in the cargo hold); they seemed to have no problems with the trip (Ginette, however, required sedation, the kind that comes in a martini glass!!!)

The weather has been so mild! The temperature seldom gets over 90F (32C)and it drops to 68F (20C)at night. No air-conditioning is required, the windows are always open. We had a few little rain showers. During the month we added two ceiling fans the living-dining room to make sure the air is always moving.

Our big tropical garden was almost complete last year. This month we had to replace a lot of plants and reinstall the watering system. All is lush now. We have only to attend to the constant weeding; if you add a little water to the abundant sunshine here then everything (including the weeds) grows quickly. The attached photo shows Salvador and his crew installing plants.

For Christmas gifts, Ginette and I made cookies, lots of cookies, sugar and butter cookies with candied ginger on top. Christmas here is not too big an affair. But many Costa Ricans come from San Jose to spend the holidays at the shore so there are lots of folks in town. We went to Mass Christmas Eve in the local Catholic church with some of our Tico friends. And on Christmas Day we attended an Episcopal Mass in a local restaurant/bar run by some new gringo friends. Lots of ex pats attended and we had a great pot luck brunch after Mass. A fine group of people, all so laid back.

Some of our Costa Rican friends invited us for a post-Christmas neighborhood supper in the middle of the road not far from our home. Nice dinner, someone had a guitar and a good tenor voice for traditional Spanish songs. The teenage girls played pop Latin music. Gifts were exchanged. Beautiful people! The photo at the right shows Esteban and his sister Kelly during a visit to our house.


Last night we had friends over for dinner. The sword fish and rice and beans were almost ready; we were having a before dinner glass of wine when the electric power died. Lanterns were lit. Then the water died! So, we finished the wine by lantern light and then went outside to look at the stars. Here the stars are always pretty bright but last night with the whole town in darkness, the sky was full of bright diamonds. Being part of this rural life on the Pacific coast makes us all stand in awe of so many great things including the small kindnesses of the people here. Love it! Pura vida!

Coming Full Circuit

To the right is a photo of a peach shaped water tower that for years has sat along side I-85 in South Carolina. When driving the interstate highways the distractions are few.

We are in Greensboro, North Carolina tonight; only 7 hours of driving remain before reaching the Philadelphia area. By the time we reach home in Drummondville, Quebec we will have covered 10,000 miles: 5,000 from Quebec to Costa Rica and 5,000 miles back. We are ready to do it again. It was a good trip.

Ginette studied the maps and the guide books and selected great routes. Each day's travel had to ensure that we could reach a city where it was likely that a hotel could be found and all border crossings had to take place before 2pm.


Road signs in Central America are few and our Spanish skills not the strongest. It could have been easy to get lost. However, before leaving on this adventure we purchased a hand-held GPS device, a Garmin Etrex Vista Cx. It became a great friend, always at our side. It cost $329 US. We would not want to make the trip without it. The device comes with "base maps" meaning basic maps. For Mexico and Central America these "base maps" are the only maps available for the the GPS but these were enough to show us our position on any of the major roads.

Houston to Mobile

Everyone passing through the Houston area should stop in and ask my brother-in-law Larry for a bit of his key lime pie; it is the best of its kind. Mary and Larry took great care of us; they are always wonderful company. Our dogs and their dogs had fun together. Only Senor Gato, the cat, disapproved of our presence.

We stayed overnight in Mobile. Today we want to reach Charlotte, North Carolina. We are just driving hard and fast now. The super highways are fast but leave little to see.