So Much To Say And So Little Time

We you are lounging by the pool, there is lots of time to blog but not much to say.  When you are busy, there is lots to blog about but no time.  Such a puzzlement!

New Year's Day was spent reading and swimming (finally some sun).  James and I did little - Lisle went to a pool party at Gary and Kim's - all the usual suspects, beer, food and fun - - me, I was frankly partied out!

January 2 was a day at the beach - bright sunny and clear - we went to Playa Tortuga with Dwight & Wendy, Dean & Michelle and their friends Rick & Cindy.  The tide was out and the beach went on forever.  Fortunately it clouded over a bit - some respite from the heat.  Then home and in the pool, dinner and bed (funny how lying on the beach and in the water can make you so tired!). 

The best part of the day was the flock of 20 or so Red-Tailed Macaws that flew back and forth and played in the trees behind the beach - so beautiful.

 

Good thing it was early to bed as it was early to rise yesterday - we were up at 4:30 to head off to the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary in Golfito.  Lisle and I were there in 2009, and can say without a doubt that it is the most interesting, enjoyable and enriching time we have spent in Costa Rica (apologies to all our friends I have just insulted).  Lisle arranged for a group to head off for the day and experience the jungle close up.  Lisle, James and I, Dwight & Wendy, Bruce & Barb, and Bruce, Mary and their girls, Holly and Jocy.  11 of us in a little van - 2 hours south - then into a boat for an hour up into the Golfo Dolce, where we climbed out onto a deserted beach to be greeted by Carol Crewes, the most remarkable women who runs the Sanctuary - over 2 hours of seeing the animals of the jungle close up, and learning about their struggles to survive, the successes of the Sanctuary in releasing animals back to the wild, and just a whole lot of neat stuff about nature and the world we live in.  I still get chills looking at the photos.

Farewell hugs, a boat ride back, and a lunch at the Banana Bay Marina where there is a resident sea turtle.

Then we made a stop to buy our Tarjetas.  Golfito has a 'Tax-Free Zone' - it is a walled compound with maybe 100 'locales' or stores - - sort of like an outdoor mall with a 15 ft concrete wall and barbed wire around it.  Every January and July you are eligible to get a Tarjeta (voucher) that allows you to purchase $1000 worth of goods in the zone, duty free.  The Tarjeta is good only for the period (Jan - Jun or Jul to Dec) and can't be used on the day it is issued.  You can buy appliances, electronics, housewares, alcohol etc at unbelievably cheap prices - but everything is cash and carry, so that full set of appliance - you better know how it is getting home, or you get to hire one of the guys with a truck waiting outside.  A very simple process to get the Tarjeta - had them your passport, they fill out a form, you sign - all done.  We were introduced to Octavio, 'the King of the Zone' - he will take you to the places where you can get the best deal for what you want, have one of his guys take it to a gathering spot while you shop for other stuff and someone watches over your acquisitions.  When you are all done, he arranges for it all to go to your vehicle and be loaded, or arranges for a truck if that is necessary - all no charge (well, the bottle/case of scotch you give him[depending on how long he spends with you, and the kickbacks he is likely getting from the vendors he takes you to).

The drive back started boisterous and ended with most of us snoozing.

So today is the last full day at home - tomorrow is an early start back to San Jose and then flight home on Friday - Sh..!