hipvirgochick

DAY 17 - must...finish...!

We had no idea what time it was the entire trip. Therefore, we woke up at the crack of dawn, showered and went out looking for breakfast only to find it was just 6:15am! We passed time in the living room reading and waiting patiently for coffee to be put on. There were 3 choices for breakfast and I chosee the typico breakfast for my last authentic Costa Rican meal Shortly after we called our taxi and were off. Flight was pretty quiet this time, and daughter was happy because the monitor was not straight overhead this time! Flying into Dallas posed a problem because lighting was striking the runway. We stayed in a holding pattern for an extra 1 - 1/2 hours and then had to land at another airport to refuel Fortunately, most connecting flights were delayed as well, so we were still able to make our connecting flight. Yay! An officer with a dog approached my bag and said "find it, find it!" Well, being a little flustered and in the middle of trying to figure out if our flight was cancelled or what, I responded by saying "what, what is going on?" I guess he took that as me being paranoid and was very rude stating "I was talking to the dog, I'm not talking to you, do you have a problem with that"? Anyway, I was very irritated by this and even more so when he told me where I needed to go to transfer to the next gate. He told me to go in one direction, when it was visible in the other direction, but he ordered me to go the other way. I obeyed and then went around back to where I need to go. It was just wierd and his attitude sort of pissed me off. Even more so knowing there was no supervisor to speak of that I could relay this too. I shook it off and went off to board our next flight. After that it was smooth sailing. Best thing about getting home, getting to snuggle with our 2 kitties. Worse thing, getting to see the 2' yard and all the weeds

All in all...a wonderful trip with memories for a lifetime!

hipvirgochick

I almost forgot! 2 of the friends we became closest with, Jaime and Aileen, are now in the middle of closing 15 hectares in Osa. Jaime has a couple of other properties in Calif., so with lawyer in hand he began working with Jose (from BDC) on the purchase of his friend's property. He just got back from Osa a couple of days ago taking care of the preliminaries, and intends on returning in September to close.

It will be fun to see how it develops. Hopefully we'll stay in touch and visit there one day

tully

Awesome report. Bosque is one of those places that it's hard to not keep going back to, good thing you got your reservations early - seems they're booking up further & further out.

I had a weird experience with one of those dogs (actually his handler) in Miami - he was really rude to me too, guess they feel a little too empowered or something & don't have to worry about being remotely polite.

Glad you finished...now it's time to dive right into details for the next trip, lol!

hipvirgochick

Thanks Tully! I'm really looking forward to next Spring already and thinking about where else we might go. Also, to see the new bar area, not that I spend much time there And new pool from what volcanogirl says. I wonder if it will be done...

Wierd thing about the dog handler's. I will be more prepared if there's a next time!

Where's Shillmac? Is she home yet?

hipvirgochick

Finally got pics up and posted! I will be posting on a separate thread as well for people who don't make it to the bottom of this trip report

I've mostly included the wildlife and "things we saw" photos to pare it down from all the silly, similar and "us" pictures for our personal album. Also, I'm oldschool so I actually print photos and make an album, so no labels on the photos here, sorry. Most are self explanatory and are in consecutive order of the places we stayed.

If you see anything you want to know more about, or where/what it is, don't hesitate to ask!

Here's the link:

http://www.shutterfly.com/view/pictures.jsp

Then enter:

e-mail: [email protected]
password: fodors

The best ones are near the end!

volcanogirl

hip, I love your pictures. You're a great photographer. Is that Alex, the famous smoothie drinker? I love the one of her with the little monkey peering out of her raincoat!

hipvirgochick

Thanks volcanogirl. If I weren't gawking so much I'd have plenty more...I'm sure you know how that is! Yes, it's Alex and I love that picture too, mostly because she just looks so thrilled!

cmerrell

Hi Hip,

I just took a look at your pictures. Thanks for sharing them! You've got several really nice shots. Alex is a cutie-pie!

hipvirgochick

Thanks cmerrell - I obviously do the best with still objects! My daughter fit right in CR with her skin coloring and brown eyes! I have blonde hair and blue eyes, so it's hard sometimes to even tell we're related!

sylviam

hipvirgochick: great pics and your daughter is a beauty. My husband is now trying to figure out how to use the macro lense on his camera.

hipvirgochick

silviam -- Ugh! Can he let me know too? LOL!

MichelleY

Topping for reference.

hipvirgochick

ttt for Shillmac!

shillmac

Thanks for the TTT! Just looked at them--I smiled all the way through. Alex is looking like she's having the time of her life. So glad you two did Costa Rica together. Loved the monkey in the raincoat photo.

And so many others. The white hawk, the squirrel monkey (good shot, and not easy!), oh and the photo of Abel pretending he was going to eat the centipede/millipede. It took me a moment to realize who that was! I was like, "wait a minute, I KNOW him!"

Thanks so much for sharing!

hipvirgochick

Glad you were able to find time to view them. I didn't include a zillion, you know how digitals can be...(How many photos of hummingbirds can one take)?!?! My favorites are of Alex and the monkeys. I'm sure we'll go back to visit them next Spring.

shillmac

Were they taken at the Wildlife Sanctuary? I had thought I'd do that and the dolphin thing this time, but found myself too selfish with my time and not wanting to leave the property for any amount of time. Didn't even do the Golfo Dulce Trail as it generally takes the entire day. One of these days, we'll have to go there and schedule more than 4 nights!

hipvirgochick

shillmac - Yes, indeed those were taken at the Animal Sanctuary. I only did part of the Golfo trail last time, but intend to do the trails next trip that I missed.

MichelleY

Dear HVC:

I saw on another post that you used www.centralamerica.com. Did you like dealing with them? I want to reserve the Peace Lodge for 2 nights in Nov. I was e-mailing the PL, but got centralamerica.com instead. Should i go ahead and book thru them or go directly to PL???

Thanks,

MY

volcanogirl

Hi, Michelle - we dealt directly with the Peace Lodge; I don't see any benefit to going through a third party. Have fun!

tully

I agree, why involve a 3rd party? I would e-mail them directly at [email protected] They were very quick to respond to my emails when I booked.