Road to Retiring- Day 5

 

View of the swell from the hilltop looking down at Playa Hermosa

2/12

Off to the beach at 7AM .  The swell has really gone down 1-2 foot, still clean lines though with very low tide which was tending to close a lot of waves, so you had to be more picky on the wave choice.  There were some spectacular views of folk not making the drop or going over the falls.  But we laugh as any bad day of surf here equals a good day of surf in Florida.

There are these very cool little sea critters that create the coolest graphics in the wet sand.  They have a small shell but don't look like crabs, having more of a snail like fin that propels them and a moustache like aperture that comes up for air and food I'd suppose.  Anyone know what they are called?  

Playa Hermosa is also wonderful for families and this little one playing in the sand with Dad is a common sight as well as teaching youngsters to surf.

2 hours in the water and we head back to eat the last of the package of eggs and pack up.  We travel pretty smart and it takes no time at all.  A last, little conversation with Scarlett and Lincoln and we are off.  We will miss this beautiful beach as well as new friends, including Popeye the Kitten Man who can consume his weight in raw fish!

Janoul, the real estate agent,  has called Scarlett and given directions to the Spanish man's house in Manzanillo and we also are given directions for a way to Cobano and the ferry without having to head back to Santa Teresa.  We find the property in Manzanillo no problem and the owner, Geordie,  is in.  Again broken English, broken Spanish but my Pimsleur approach tapes are paying off and I'm doing ok in communicating. He shows us around and it's a pretty Spartan Tico home of a kitchen, bathroom and a loft sleeping area, plus a large cabin with 2 separate rooms each with a bathroom that he rents out.  The property is big and clean.  The reason he wants someone there is that he has on his property the well for the whole neighborhood and it must be protected from vandals and contamination.  Makes sense.  But John is thinking we might want to settle in for the first 6 months to a year in a little nicer digs. 

The road to Cobano going this way is nice and very pretty though still hard packed gravel.  We will remember this way for sure!  Gassing up in Cobano at over $5 a gallon- one of the other "not cheaper" Costa Rico expenses. We make the 2 PM ferry and get ready to finally find that damn toll highway to Escazu where we are staying tonight.

Success on the highway- which is very nicely maintained- but we get to Santa Ana and we are totally lost and our GPS won't find our hotel.  We can't find a pay phone so we stop at a paint and hardware store with 2 employees and a guard at the front door.  I ask - in Spanish- where the hotel is and they don't know.  So I ask for a telephone and they dial up our relocation service, Great Sunrise.  David Marquez answers and comes to our rescue, driving to the store and leading us to the hotel.  It's nice, Los Candiles, servicing mostly business types.  And we've internet.  Whoo!  The weather, by the way, is beautiful in the San Jose area answering why it's a popular relocation location.

We head out for an easy dinner, but end up at a Mexican place where steak tacos, 4 beers and a large sandwich with pork and avocado comes to $35.  Everywhere, outside of the little sodas serving casados, there is 13% Tax and $10% service added.  That’s 23% on top of what the menu price says. Sigh!  Eating out will be a luxury in Costa Rica but since I like to cook, I don't care. Early to bed after driving all day.  Lawyers and paperwork tomorrow.

Road to Retiring- Day 4

2/11

Up at 6:00 AM  and off to the beach by 7:30 with Lincoln in tow.  The swell wasn't as big and John was going to help Lincoln with his turns. I'm kind of creaky today and decide to spend my morning just working on technique of pop ups. John and Lincoln surf about 2 hours. Today 1-3 foot but some chest to head high sets, but still clean, light wind.  As John surfed south down by the reef rock he caught several long lefts- his favorite.

We head back and do eggs and veggies with a side of fish and hunker down for a rest.  Around 1:30 PM I'm ready to get in another session and off we I go.  The beach is almost empty and the swell has greatly dismissed.  But the winds have stayed light and it's a great time for John to give me some lessons.  Literally there are 3 women surfing plus John and maybe 2 other guys down at the north end.   Its 1-2 foot but still super clean and I get in a heady wave count and some great coaching.  John paddles out alone and gets some sneaky south west swell 3-4 footers that go overhead.  We remark that on any given day at Playa Hermosa there are as many women surfing as men.  Some are very, very good too!  

Someone with money has finally placed a small coffee shop on the short beach road to Hermosa, Couleurs Cafe, and it looks as if they are surrounding it with rental villas now being built.  Smart move! We also run into Janoul from CR Properties at the beach with Diego and we chat some more.  She tells us there's a Spanish gentleman who owns a Tico house in Manzanillo with 2 cabinas who is looking to have someone stay free of rent to watch the place. We are somewhat interested but also Tico homes can be pretty spartan.  But we'll check it out.

Back at the house, the WiFi continues to be fussy.  The tower is up and less than 1/4 mile away but it's not turned on yet.  We will send Janoul, Sebastian and some others more info about looking for long term rentals.  Dinner is left over pasta with more avocado, red snapper and papaya served cold and chicken tortilla soup made from stock from Sunday's chicken. Off to sleep and a morning session before packing it in for new digs.

Things we have gleaned so far about life on the Nicoya Peninsula:

1) If not on city water and septic, on the peninsula, the property should have a well and the depth of the well will contribute to whether you have to buy water in the dry season.  To fill a water tank to last 2 for a month is about $80, but that's only 4 months of the year where it's necessary.

2) Goods are tough to get on the peninsula and people pack as much back in from Panama or the USA as they can or even San Jose. 

3) Groceries are expensive so taking advantage of the local fincas, green markets, and fishing is going to be a must.  Eggs are cheap and shopping at the butchers is cheaper than the store. 

4) A pick up truck costs more on the ferry.

5) There's no mail service.  No post office.  No FedEx etc.  NO addresses.  We stayed at Casa Amarillo (it's yellow) on the road up from Playa Hermosa on the way to Manzanillo.  That's their address.  One can have things sent to services in San Jose but it's iffy, and they open 1 in every 100 packages to assess its tariff.  Lincoln had to wait all day to pay $.23 in tax on some electrical wiring he had mailed for pick up at his lawyer's office in San Jose.

6) WiFi can suck.  They are working on putting in the phone cables in Playa Hermosa and more options will then be available. 

7) Electricity and propane not terribly expensive.  We turned off the A/C when not in the room and also at night and it was fine.  But it was also a small room that cooled off quickly and caught a nice breeze from the ocean.  A big tank of propane is $15 and lasts a long time. 

8) There's only a couple of English TV channels and none of them are the Walking Dead or Downton Abbey.  And clearly Netflix ain't delivering.  Here's to more and more wireless advances from that company!

9) The further north you get from Santa Teresa, the more family, quiet, calm it gets.  Of course this is increasing the desirability of the area and will make it harder for us to find a long term rental within our means. It's rather low end Tico to high end luxury, but we feel like we have good feelers out now with real estate agents, Facebook pages and new friends. 

10) Santa Teresa is experiencing a rise in crime between car break ins,  break ins at beachfront places, and tech crime at the ATM's.

11) I will bring a year supply of Oddrie's heart worm/ pest medicine plus ant traps.  Those little blank sugar ants can sneak in anywhere.

Road to Retiring- Day 3

2/10

We get up at 6:30 AM and make the short drive to Manzanillo where the fishing boats are.  We meet Romello who says it'll be a bit before they haul the fish in and we start a lively dialogue with him in broken Spanish and broken English.  He is 54 and owns all 10 of the fishing boats here in Manzanillo plus 7 more in Puntarenas.  We talk about how quiet and crime free Manzanillo is compared to even Santa Teresa, which suffers from the surf tourism that brings elements of crime and carelessness, as does Jaco and Puntarenas.  He is a funny and kind man, quick to laugh.  He likes it when I suggest John will work for him on the fishing boats when we move here.  The boys bring up the crates of fish which are weighed and the fish thrown onto ice on the truck. 

We buy an enormous red snapper for dinner to share with Lincoln and Scarlett- $14 and he throws in another fish- a mackerel about 2 lbs.

Back to the house where John cleans the fish and stores the fillets in plastic bags with some milk- a trick to cut down on the fishy taste. Scarlett's kitty, Popeye, eats his weight in raw fish.  He's probably only 10 weeks old and showed up there with a sister kitty a few weeks back, starving.  Sister kitty unfortunately was stung by a scorpion and was so small it killed her, though the scorpions here are not very poisonous.

Lincoln begs off surf until tomorrow as they have some business to attend to in buying their own property so we head down the bumpy road to Hermosa at around 9 AM.  Another beautiful day of swell and warm water.  Solid head high sets, clean, no wind but a light off shore, the swell still had 14 sec period with 2-4 foot SWS diminishing.  

We surf 2 1/2 hours and go back for some eggs with veggies, and a short rest.  The kitchen has everything one needs excepting an oven. 

After our rest we head to town to check with the real estate agents.  Janouel at CRProperties is the one Lincoln and Scarlett are using to purchase 9 acres that has an ocean view, right next to Giselle's property.  We talk to Diego, her assistant and he rings Jaoule for John to speak to.  She takes some info, has Diego get our contact info and we will try and connect later.  Another office- the 506 and handsome Sebastian from Quebec does the same info gather. We also meet Trent, the proprietor of Soleil y Cielo.  He's been here 12 years, and  he was probably a little more negative in his view of our move. We get the feeling he enjoys tapping into folk with great means and pensionados aren't his thing.  He warns us of how awful June- September are- hot, humid.  I tell him we live in South Florida where June to September are equally hot, humid and NO waves.   We also talk for a while with Sandy at ST CR- a fun t-shirt and art shop.  She gives me some good art intel about the area, including their Facebook Santa Teresa Art, and I share with her the fact that the Art Depot in Escazu will send stuff on the turismo buses.  It's difficult to get art supplies here and spendy! Visitors to Casa Haas, once we live here, will have a list of USA stuff to bring and we will pay for it and the baggage cost. Anyway, her boyfriend's art is very rat fink-esque pop art, she more Art Deco.   

Back at the house we fire up the grill for the fish coated with a garlic, basil butter and wrapped in foil.  I also cut up some watermelon and Scarlett has made cole slaw and potato salad.  We drink beer, box wine and eat the amazing fish along with grilled onion and peppers by the pool.  Off to bed and another full day of surf tomorrow.  God we love this peninsula! 

Pargo (red snapper) on the grill.

  

The Road to Retiring -Day 2

2/9

Playa Hermosa, Nicoya Peninsula

I am up at 4:45 am.  Slept well but I will say the howler monkeys were active last night.  At 5:30 I try and wake John but no go.  At 6 AM I jump on his head and he starts to rouse.  Come on Sea Biscuit, time to hit the race track! We have coffee, stretch on our yoga mats by the pool and hit Playa Hermosa by 7:15.  We give an amigo $2 to keep an eye on the car, and he is wearing a Seguiradad shirt- having been hired by the friends of Playa Hermosa to keep an eye on the small parking area. I surf the secondary swell and foamers and have a blast.  Light to no winds in the morning and wind texture was still light and waves well shaped when we left at 10 am.  Water is also warm and clear.  There are some amazing surfers, a handful of beginners courtesy of Shaka Surf School, a few dogs, and a couple of people sunbathing or reading on a giant stretch of beach. Heaven.  

View of the
"parking lot" from the waves

Using the Surf Lock.

        The swell is lovely, a few close outs, but they are much larger than they appear and John is surfing overhead and 2 feet overhead on the sets.

 

We come back for breakfast of eggs I cooked inside bread with a whole in the middle, and fresh basil courtesy of Scarlett and a local farmer who gifts it to her.  We popped into town to check e- mails as the WiFi is sketchy where they are no phone lines.  We also got some groceries for the rest of our stay in Santa Teresa.  They have amazing restaurants in Santa Teresa but if you've traveled in CR, you know it's not cheap, plus being South Florida residents seafood is not a novelty. 

Back to our digs after checking on 2 rentals.  One is on a pretty isolated road.  Lots of land and a small caretaker house, but the house is odd with an outdoor kitchen only.  The other we see only the outside, not inside,  but have a long lovely talk with the owner and her son.  It's right on the beach road and would be a short hike to the waves.  We exchange emails and Candie gives us fresh made coconut ice cream and passion fruit ice. The digs are not ideal but we are on a mission to gather options.

Fishing boats getting ready to go out for the night in Manzanillo

A little Winter Olympics viewing and a short nap and then we take the walk to Manzanillo beach to see if we can buy some fish for dinner.  It's all downhill and a bit slick with shale.  We watch the sun set on fishing boats but no fish to be had until mañana in the mañana- we will stop and get before tomorrow morning's session. We buy some chicken at the little store for a dinner of pasta with chicken pesto sauce, tomato and avocado slices.  We share cocktails and talk with Lincoln and Scarlett- such great info to be gleaned form people who have relocated here!  John makes a deadly margarita with tequila, the passion fruit ice, lime, basil and jalapeños.  Man that boy likes the "heat"!  More surf tomorrow!

The Road to Retiring in CR-Day 1

2/8

Ready to tackle Costa Rica again! Ferry to Paquera

Arrival at the airport was hassle free.  We had pre-printed out our boarding passes and pre- paid the board bag and breezed right through security.  We caught a brew in the bar because who doesn't want to pay $15 for a bottle and one draft?  But as fate would have it, an expat, Mike was there with his completely cool dog.  We got to talking about transporting pets, moving to CR, rents, electricity, etc.  Spirit will allow Emotional Support Animals on board with their owners and this dog was pretty good size.  A letter from a psych saying you need the animal with you, for whatever medical or psychological reason, plus the necessary paperwork from the Dept. Of Ag, and it's a done deal.  Mike was flying in the front row which only has 2 seats and costs more, but hell, I'd do it for Oddrie.   But we also gleaned some cool info regarding living in CR.  Mike was in the middle of a messy US divorce after which he would move permanently to CR where his Tico girlfriend is preggers- thus giving him residency.  I'd place him at 47.  And his CR digs and activities definitely put him at the "Well- Off" status, bordering on luxury.  Just guessing by the amount of Jack and Coke he was putting down at the bar at $10 each. Pura Vida. 

Well, enough with the easy stuff.  Arrival in Costa Rica lacked the pleasure and calm of our last trip. We got in and cleared customs at 2:30 AM and a shuttle took us to Holiday Inn Express since our favored Trapp Family Inn was booked.  Riding along was another couple, also laden with boards, and we were all ready for bed only to be told- after unloading our luggage-  that the Hotel had accidentally overbooked, and 4 rooms that were to be vacated had occupants who wouldn't leave, so we needed to be taken to a Best Western in Escazu.  NOT pleased.  And we were PRE- PAID!  This got us to bed around 4 am and of course derailed our pre arranged car pickup at 8 am. Several calls to Adobe, which is our preferred car rental, and we finally arranged to go back to Holiday Inn and meet a shuttle to get our car at their offices.  Last year's delivery to us at poolside at the Trapp Family Inn was much nicer!  We did get the room reimbursed so that was one free night but the hassle that went with? Priceless.

We paid for a GPS and told the agent we really needed it to get us the fastest not straightest course as the year before it had derailed us at the Pan Am highway from Liberia to San Jose and we ended up on a 4 hour mountain journey, but unfortunately the agent pushed the setting that avoided toll roads so once again we weren't on the spiffy and fast Pan Am.  Off on mountain roads again.  In Palmeras the GPS was sending us literally in circles.  So we started asking people for directions, which was getting us nowhere given our spotty Spanish and their lack of English.  Finally a guy on a nice bike with helmet stopped and spoke decent English.  He said "just follow me and I'll get you on the right road". So he altered his ride to lead us to the right highway.  Costa Ricans seem a little embarrassed by their lack of road signage and therefore usually willing to help. On the way our bike guide stopped in front of a lovely home and said, "This is my home.  Are you in need of a rest room, a drink or internet?  Please mi casa es su casa."  We politely declined as we really wanted to make headway, but talk about nice?

A slushie on the ferry.  What's the flavor?
The only one they had working- Blue.

We never connected with Pan Am 1 but we made it to Puntarenas and the 2:00 ferry, though we'd hoped to get there at the 11 am.  HA!  A pleasant crossing though John beat the living day lights out of me in Cribbage, but there was entertainment when the ferry's janitor put on an impromptu dance show.  It was quite good.  A local Tico woman, Laura, engaged me in conversation giving me a chance to practice Spanish. Ticos are super helpful when people try and learn their language!

Paquera to Santa Teresa is bone jarring but uneventful. We struggled to find our digs a little outside of Playa Hermosa (the one on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula- there's four Playa Hermosas on the west coasts of CR)) and ended up on Gisele Bundchen’s dirt  road, asked for some directions from a woman who was not Giselle, and then corrected our travels to locate the place we are staying.  Lincoln and Scarlett are a beautiful English couple who have traveled extensively in SA and settled here. 

She's 6 months pregnant- residency again- and this is where they want to raise a family.  John and Lincoln discussed surfing and he'll join us tomorrow.  Scarlett had some great ideas about local rentals and we will check some of them out. The studio apartment we are staying in on their property is adorable and very posh. Well appointed kitchen, comfy King bed, and shared pool with them.

Manzanillo beach, a fishing village, just north of Playa Hermosa

Dinner down the road in Manzanillo- delicious but not cheap for a Tico spot.  $9 each, $2.25 beers, but great service and a view to die for, being right across the street from the fishing beach.  A tiny supermarket provided the fresh brown eggs, butter, bread, coffee, bottle water and a box of vino tinto, which we discovered to be pretty decent for a couple of wine snobs. 

Back to the apt. for a quick swim under the stars and hopefully a full night sleep.  John is like a race horse who's been penned up for far too long and the setting sun on the swell was about to put him literally champing at the bit to hit the water.    

Pics of the apartment: