Cabuya, Nicoya Penninsula
On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Federico and Gaudy. They invited us into their house, and we invited them to visit us in the USA.
The road to the lowlands was steep and somewhat rough. It was marked as red on the map, but it was not paved, which says a lot about roads in Costa Rica. The roads have numbers, which do not show up on the signs, which name the next couple of towns. When we got to Highway 1, the road became flat and well paved.
We drove to Puntarenas, found the ferry dock, and then went to Mariscos Don Luis for a take out lunch. Unfortunately, the chicken in the kabobs was not well cooked, although the shrimp was tasty. Puntarenas seemed somewhat seedy. The passengers had to get out of the car before boarding the ferry. The ferry ride took more than an hour, and we were among the last vehicles off the ferry in Paquera. The drive was slow, with bad roads and heavy ferry traffic.
Richard had begun to worry, as he had sent text messages to the daughter of the owner of the house, but had not gotten a response. When we found the house, it was almost dark, and the gate was chained shut. We were not sure what to do, but were thinking about a hotel room. We looked for a restaurant, but all were closed on Monday. We came back to the house, and then were flagged down by Gepeto, who gave Richard a hug and produced the keys. It was evident that our host was new to vacation rentals; there was literally no toilet paper in the house, among other problems. But we did have a place to sleep.
On Tuesday morning, the place looked better in daylight. We drove to Cobano to shop and get cash, and Sandi and I walked out on the rock leading to Cabuya Island, which was passable due to low tide. We also bought some fish from the fisherman there; their boats were high and dry. We dropped off laundry at the lavandaria. We also had some staring and relaxing time.
Wednesday morning early Richard walked to the nearby beach, and continued on to the fisherman's area. He learned that the fisherman use longline fishing; this means up to 500 hooks, baited with pieces of mullet, on a long fishing line, supported by floats and marked by poles with flags. They typically start fishing about 2 AM; however, no one was out that day due to rough water. We had a very good breakfast at the Panadaria/Bakery. We stopped by the fisherman beach, where someone told us where to park, and demanded 1000 colones for parking and security.
We decided to drive to Santa Teresa, on the other side of the peninsula, to watch the sunset. We drove the rough Star Mountain road, which involved fording a stream. As we got close to the beach, the road improved, and the density of young people became very high. We had a good dinner at Banana Beach, watched the sunset, and started the one hour drive back in the dark, on a different bad and steep road, with more traffic. The roads are so difficult that it can take an hour to go 25 kilometers.
Thursday we ate breakfast at the house and then headed for Montezuma. Montezuma is a tourist town full of young people, with a business district a couple of short blocks long. We parked near the beach, and took a few photos. We very much enjoyed drinks at the Sano Banano (Healthy Banana) restaurant. We watched a couple of white-throated Magpie Jays, who seemed to be hoping that we would feed them something. These are large blue and white birds with a crest. We picked up some t-shirts, and stopped at the Selva Brewery on our way back, where we drank beer and chatted with the young lady. We were told that the founder of the brewery was an Israeli who had lived in the area for 20 years, and founded the brewery about 6 years ago.
We all took an afternoon nap, and then drove to the beach around sunset. We cooked dinner on the grille, and finished off the fish we cooked the previous day, with rice and beans.
On Friday, Pam got a cooking lesson from the ladies at the Bakery and Restaurant. This was a fun event, and Pam learned that the plantains must be mushy before you try to cook them in oil on the grille. We also went to Cobano to mail postcards to grandkids; the stamps had a beautiful blue bird on them.
Saturday morning, Sandi and Richard walked to Cemetary Island at low tide. The photo is of a tombstone with a carved stone fist sticking out of it, and a propeller. Afterwords, we went to the market in Montezuma. This was mostly a hippie craft market, but with some good food, including a very tasty lemon tart. Sandy bought a pair of earrings from a young lady from Ontario, we bought German sourdough bread, and we bought soap from a young lady from Austria. The vendors were young and international. We had an excellent lunch at the bakery, and then came back and got a nap. We bought more fish from the fisherman's association, and grilled the fish.
On Sunday morning we drove to Cobano for mass As Dave said, just from the body language, he felt that the priest was scolding us. Richard detected the same thing in the priest's words. The church literally was open to the air, with no windows, and was full. We had another good lunch at the bakery, and then had a nap. Around 4 pm, we headed for the beach, where we watched the tide go out and the full moon come up. We also enjoyed watching hundreds of hermit crabs scuttle on the sand. We stayed until it got quite dark.
We ate dinner and managed to stay awake to see the blood moon and the lunar eclipse. The beach is close to low tide. You can see how rocky it is.
Monday was our day of adventure, thanks to Google Maps. Google maps routed us to the Liberia airport via dirt roads. The area was very remote, with few ranches, no other traffic, and no cell phone coverage. Dirt roads were not a surprise, given the local road system. What was a surprise were the five stream crossings! Luckily the streams were low, and we had an SUV. At the first stream crossing, we saw a family from California, in flip-flops, with a Camry, a regular passenger car. They followed us through the first two stream crossings. As the wife said, not getting an SUV was their first Costa Rica mistake. It was clear that she was unhappy at best. We waited for them at the third stream crossing, but they did not show up. After waiting a few minutes, we concluded that they had turned around, or were having a heated discussion, and we proceeded on. Sandi felt guilty that we had abandoned them far from civilization. At the fifth stream crossing, we saw a partially completed bridge, probably across the Bongo River. Progress was very slow, in terms of inches on the map. We went through the tiny village of Rio Frio, and the road gradually improved. The rest of the drive was uneventful.
We had a late lunch at Cafe Europa, checked into the hotel, and then went back to Cafe Europa for dinner. Richard returned the SUV; they found a piece of trim missing on one of the wheels, but were not sure what to charge us for it. Given the roads, a missing piece of trim was not surprising. The Toyota Land Cruiser Prado was a diesel, got great mileage, and was comfortable even on the gravel roads. We were very glad that we had an SUV for our trip.
Tuesday we had an uneventful trip home, changing planes in Atlanta. Pam and Dave stayed at our house overnight, and left Wednesday morning to drive home to Nebraska.
Our general impressions of Costa Rica were favorable. We were pleasantly surprised at the high quality of restaurant food, even in somewhat remote areas. The roads were as bad as reported; we were surprised how much we were driving on gravel or dirt roads. Costa Rica is a beautiful country; the Ticos are very nice people. We had a great trip.
I have entered La Rioja, the premier wine region in Spain. 
I am so happy that I feel good and that I can walk more than a few km. I am also seeing again certain people that I had seen before, including my Irishman from Derry. 
In Najera I visited the very good Monastery museum, with the tomb of kings and queens, and another amazing altarpiece. 
