191. A 50th Birthday Celebration

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    Saturday 11/15- This is it!! Our guests will arrive today!! Before they do, though, we have the cleaners coming to scrub the floors, dust, and do all of the things that I don’t want to do to get the house looking good for our guests. The cleaners arrived first thing in the morning and spent about 3 hours here. With the house all clean and ready, now we wait. We got updates from our guests at each leg of their trip and they were fortunate not to have any flight issues or delays. This is good news! Around 2pm we got a message that Ramie’s sister Taryn, her husband Steven and our nephew Will had landed in Costa Rica!

We had a shuttle lined up and waiting for them, all they had to do was make it through immigration and customs. Lucky for them there were no long lines at the airport, so they made it out the doors before 3pm and were in the shuttle on their way.

We got little updates of their location along the way, and they finally arrived at our house at a little after 7pm after their very long travel day.

For the past several weeks, Will has been saying that the first thing he was going to do when he arrived at our house was jump in the pool.

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After we greeted them, gave hugs and got all the luggage in the house, Ramie asked Will if he was going to jump in the pool like he said he would. It turns out that Ramie couldn’t convince him to actually jump in, but we all did sit outside and dangled our legs in the water and talked for an hour or so instead. They had a long day, as do all people who have to travel from MN to come see us in Costa Rica. They were up early this morning and exhausted by now, so it was time for bed.

    Sunday 11/16- Ramie and I were up at our usual 5am time, enjoying the morning listening to the birds and enjoying the peacefulness. Eventually, one by one, our guests started waking up. We enjoyed a slow morning of drinking coffee and visiting. Ramie was still trying to get Will to jump in the pool, but he said it was “too cold”!

Once we were all fully awake and talking, we tried to figure out a game plan for the day. We took our time before heading out, but the first stop of the day would be for groceries! Within the first day or two we always take our guests to the grocery store to pick out their own snacks, lunches, and drinks, and decide on a general plan for dinners for the week so we aren’t scrambling at the last minute when everyone is hungry but we don’t have anything that they want to eat. 

After the grocery store we hit up the fruit stand to get some fresh fruit and vegetables before returning home to put everything away. Of course, as you probably recall, when we have visitors travel here from the US, one of the “fees” that we charge is to have them bring down things from the US that we just can’t get here. These guys brought us almost a whole suitcase full of things that we had ordered or requested. We went through our “Christmas Morning tradition”, and after being reminded of all of the things that we had them bring down for us, for the time being, we just tossed it into the dry room where it will stay until they leave and we put it away properly.

There was really no other agenda for today, so they decided that it was pool time! Finally, and only because mom and dad got in the pool too, Will finally got in!

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We don’t have a large pool, but it is definitely large enough that all of us would comfortably fit in it.  Even still, Ramie and I hung back on the patio to chat while they floated and relaxed in the water that wasn’t actually cold at all.
 
The weather was nice, but we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Ramie decided that before it started raining, he would take our visitors on an ATV ride to the waterfall. Since the ATV is only a 4-seater, I stayed back with Skye. 

Taryn got adventurous and decided she would make a trek out to the waterfall, via the jungle. I had to snap pictures for "insurance reasons" to prove she was a willing participant of her own demise. 

Thankfully she made it out there and back safe and sound and had to show off while out there! Tragedy averted!

Our Fairchild lizard that lives in our back yard made an appearance while the house was quiet. We have affectionately named him this because of the very long toes that these guys have. 

After everyone got enough pictures, they started to make their way home, but leave it to Ramie to suggest stopping at the brewery for beers instead of spending the afternoon at home with me. That evening, Ramie and Will tried their hand at gecko hunting to see if they could catch any. Even though they saw a lot of them, they were not successful in catching one this time. We finished off the evening sitting outside, chatting by the pool again, since there few bugs out tonight. 

He went this way Will, No Ramie he went this way!

    Monday 11/17- Happy 50th Birthday Ramie! 

Ramie and I were up early again, just like we always are, and once again, one by one the guests woke up and joined us. Even though we have guests, I still had to work at least some to keep everything running smoothly, but you’ve seen photos of our house in previous posts and know that my desk is right out in the living room where I can still kind of be part of the conversation. Steven was up first, even before Will. Eventually Taryn, the last to rise and shine, come out singing her rendition of the birthday song for Ramie. Now, what was the plan for Ramie’s 50th birthday? It started with a traditional Costa Rican breakfast at a restaurant that is a short walk from our house. What is a traditional Costa Rican breakfast? It's typically gallo pinto (a mix of rice and beans, a dish that is the most traditional Costa Rican dish that I can think of), fried plantain, eggs, and coffee, although you get slightly different versions depending on where you go.

After breakfast we came home for a little while, and I jumped back on the computer for a little while. It was decided that today we were going to go to the beach for some boogie boarding, sea shell collecting, and relaxation. We decided to head to Playa Ventanas since they seem to have the best shells as well as some vendors who sell the Costa Rican copas (those flavored ice drinks that we got when Taylor & Dylan were here), food, and drinks, and is fairly convenient. We all took our turns with the boogie boards and once everyone was tired from that, it was time to toss the (American) football (not to be confused with the rest of the world football ie. soccer) on the beach. Even with the boogie boarding and playing catch, Will was most interested in playing with the hermit crabs and had a collection of them going. 

Eventually it was time to go get a that copa. You may remember from the blog when Taylor & Dylan were visiting that it consists of shaved ice, with powdered milk, sweetened condensed milk and a flavor syrup of your choice. Even though they don’t really sound that great, you’d be surprised at how good they actually are! While Will and the girls got their icy drinks, Ramie and Steven opted for beer instead. We sat around for a while sipping on our drinks and people watching, before finally calling it a day at the beach. Once at home, everyone rinsed off all of the sand and salt, and, as Will would say, it was "time for a pool party!" Ramie turned on some music, we grabbed some drinks, and all of us floated around the pool for a while!

To finish off the day, we went out to dinner at La Choza, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. The food here is always a hit, and even though the birthday boy didn’t order his own desert, Will got a brownie and Steven ordered flan. No one liked the texture of the flan except for Ramie so he ended up getting his birthday dessert after all. Something that our friend Marshall got us started on when coming here is getting a good sipping tequila to enjoy after dinner; after all, this restaurant is known to have the largest tequila selection in the area! We ordered our usual, but it turned out that Taryn and Steven didn't really care for it; I just don't think they can do the whole tequila sipping thing! lol After dinner, the rest of the night was pretty low key as the boys have to get up early tomorrow for their adventure. There was no late night of partying for Ramie’s birthday!

    Tuesday 11/18- Today's adventure is what Ramie would consider his gift. He and Steven were going offshore fishing. Ramie will tell his story of the day.

Well, having family here for a week could be considered a gift as well, but this fishing trip was something I've been wanting to do for a while. I also learned that Steven has only been offshore once when he was in his teens and was just as excited as I was. Steven mentioned that he has never caught anything bigger than… and held out his hands stretched about a foot or so apart. I think it was more like this.

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In all reality, though, I think he said something about 15lbs if I recall correctly.

Steven and I were up even earlier than Dana was this morning, a little bit after 4am, and had to leave the house by 5am to make the hour drive South to the town of Sierpe. We arrived right on time at 6am, to meet Esteban, our Captain for the day, and were quickly loaded up in the boat and ready to make the 30-40 minute trip down the river to the open ocean. It was a beautiful morning and looking like it would be a nice day.

The ride down the river was breathtaking in itself, and we spotted many crocodiles along the way. Eventually we arrived at the end of the river, and in order to make it past the break and into to open water, Esteban had to time the swell and break of the waves and navigate it just right. It was easy to tell that Esteban had done this many times before as he easily navigated between the breaking waves that were entering the river mouth.

Once we were out in the ocean it was time to head to the fishing grounds. We would head south today since the day before the captain went north and didn't have any luck at all. Esteban navigated around a big squall (a storm out on the ocean) but we still did get a little wet. 

We just kept going, getting further and further out to sea. Captain Esteban was in contact with a friend that was about 20 minutes further out and they were not having any luck finding the “blue water” that was needed to find the fish. Esteban decided to turn the boat around and head in the opposite direction and further out into the ocean instead of following the coast to see if they had any better luck out there.

We eventually ran across a “long line”, which is a commercial fishing line that stretches for miles, but the water’s color was more green than blue. The captain followed the long line to the boat that was attached to and had a conversation with the fishermen. In the end, those fishermen handed over a net with some bait fish and Esteban tossed back 4 cans of pop in exchange. The crew was pointing out and somewhat back in the direction that we came from so that's the direction Esteban brought us. After about another 20 minutes, Esteban stopped the boat, prepped the rods, and tossed the lines into the water that was more of a blue-green now. By this time, it was about 9:30am, or about 3 hours after we left the dock.

We fished for about 40 minutes but there was nothing showing up on the fish graph. Esteban's friend had since passed by us and was heading to deeper water further out; he reported that they found the blue water, so we decided to head in that direction as well. After another ½ hour ride we came across 2 more commercial fishing boats. Unfortunately, we were still not seeing the signs for tuna or mahi mahi in the area. What signs were we looking for? A couple of of the indicators are usually large groups of birds, and spinner dolphins, because both of these mean that the bait fish that the tuna and mahi mahi also go for are close to the surface.

On the way here we also came across a drifting commercial boat whose crew were sleeping; we learned from Esteban that these commercial fishers mainly only fish at night and sleep during the day. This boat had some pallets tied to the back of the boat to attract the bait fish that they used, so captain Esteban tossed out the lines here to see if there were any tuna or mahi hanging around underneath. It didn’t long and we were hooked into our first fish of the day: a mahi. Steven took the rod and caught his first “big fish”, probably around a 25-30 pounder. 

We hooked into one more but lost it when the line went through the prop. Esteban's friend called said that they had found tuna, so we were going to try to get closer to him. Before we left, though, Esteban wanted to catch some more bait fish. We watched as he effortlessly threw a line in the water with 3 hooks on it, dropped it down and reeled it back in fast after filling all 3 hooks with different bait fish. Once we had enough bait, it was time to leave this area and make the 20 mile run to the area his friend was in.

It was around 12:30pm when we arrived at the new location. Sure enough, now we saw hundreds of birds, but there was no sign of the tuna on the graph. Esteban's friend was hooked into a tuna that they had been fighting since they called us about half an hour ago and couldn’t tell us where the rest of the tuna may have gone. We spotted more birds further away so decided to head in that direction. As we were trolling, we hooked into another mahi mahi. This time it was my turn to reel! As I was working on it, Esteban spotted a big bull (male) following the fish I was reeling. He quickly tossed out another line, and it hit it. Now we had 2 fish on at the same time. Steven and I both fought these fish and eventually got them in the boat. Sadly, though, there were no tuna anywhere in sight. This meant that it was once again time to move on. We now had 3 mahi in the boat, and there was the one that we lost.

We tried a few more spots but still had no luck. We heard back from the other boat who said they finally brought in their tuna that weighed about 90lbs, but hadn't found anymore fish. The school of tuna had moved on quickly. We decided that instead of searching out here and potentially not finding anything else, we would make a run back toward shore to try to catch some rooster fish, which I have always wanted to try to catch too, before it got dark. At around 3:20pm, as we were cruising along back toward shore, we spotted the tuna! They were jumping out of the water, and it was pure beautiful chaos. 

We aborted the rooster fish plan, because that wasn’t nearly as appealing as tuna… after all, we’ve been searching for the tuna all day! Esteban quickly got close to the school and dropped the lines. Almost instantly two of the rods hooked up. Esteban told me to grab the first rod and then he set the second rod and handed it to Steven. After a short while I noticed that the Stevens line was going everywhere that my line would go. This was kind of weird! I eventually got my tuna in close enough, and sure enough, this Tuna was greedy and had both my and Steven’s lures in its mouth! We were able to get it close enough to the boat for Esteban to cut the line on the rod Steven had. Before the line was cut, reeling wasn’t too bad when we were working this tuna together, but even together, it was still a struggle for the both of us. After the line was cut and it was just me, it turned into a much bigger fight! Out of nowhere, the tuna made a run for it, and the fight started all over for me, now on my own.

That is when the 3rd line hooked up. Esteban grabbed the rod and made sure the hook was set, then told Steven that he would get the big tuna! We laughed, but as we did, the tuna that was on Stevens line took a massive run. As I was fighting mine, I heard Steven say, “I think I'm almost out of line”, and the tuna was still running, and had been this whole time! Esteban thought Steven was joking until he looked over… sure enough almost all of the line was off the reel. Esteban set the drag a bit tighter and the tuna’s run slowed to a stop. Steven got to reel a little bit, but the dreaded “snap” occurred. The tuna was gone. If he had to guess, Esteban figured that tuna was close to 200 or more pounds.

Now, Steven had to reel in all that line, and while he was doing that, I got a short break from reeling mine. We really didn’t want that loose line to wrap up in my Tuna! I was on a short pause and watching the tuna swimming in big circles about 30' below us. Steven and Esteban had to take turns reeling as fast as they could so I could continue my fight. Unfortunately, not only did I get a break to recover, but so did the tuna, and as soon as I started reeling again, it decided it would go on a run. I could get it close to the boat, and then he would just gooooo again… and this repeated 4 or 5 more times. By now, I was about 45 minutes into the fight and getting exhausted, my arms were numb and my coordination was lacking.

That's when Esteban had to step in. He took the rod out of the holder and help me pump the rod while I struggled to even reel it. My arms were Jello and not working so well. I told Esteban and Steven that I was going to have to tap out soon. Even Esteban had to take a break helping with the rod at this point. For those of you who have done deep sea fishing and are imagining what I was going through, I want to mention that in this boat there was no fighting chair or harness to comfortably sit in or work the rod. I was stuck in a corner at a weird angle which really added to the difficulty of this catch.

Steven waited for me to call it and quickly jumped on the rod. Now I got to watch the tuna do the same thing to him… as soon as Steven got it close to the boat, it would go on a run. We were nearing the 1 hour mark and finally, the tuna gave up just close enough for Esteban to gaff it get it into the boat. This was by far the biggest fish I have ever caught, of course, with the assist from Steven and Esteban. Esteban estimated the tuna at around 100lbs while we were reeling it in. After it was in the boat it was about 125lbs. 

Yep, I was excited! This guy was a nice Yellow Fin

High on adrenaline and happiness, it was time to get get going. By the time we got everything back into the boat and started making our way back to the mouth of the river it was close to 5pm. It would be completely dark in about 45 minutes. 

Esteban stopped at one more location to look for a specific rock that the rooster fish usually hang out at, but unfortunately the pin on his map had disappeared and they couldn’t find the rock, so it was time to head in. By the time we were a couple miles up the river it was already dark and we still had another 20+ minute ride back to the docks. Using just a large spotlight mounded on the bow of the boat, Esteban navigated the river at full speed in the dark and did an amazing job!

When we finally got back to the dock, it was time to snap some photos, cut up the fish, and have some fresh sashimi. 

The haul at the end of the day. 3 Mahi, 1 Tuna

Filleting the fish on the dock, and when done with the carcass they would throw it over the edge and the crocodiles would come and grab it!

Fresh Sashimi, (Raw Tuna and a little Mahi, with onions, cilantro, spices and soy sauce) It was so good!

That was a perfect end to such a fun day of fishing. Yes, it started off very slow, but it ended up being a fantastic day! We had so much fish that we had to give Esteban and his family 1 and half Mahis and 4 15lb tuna steaks. After all of the excitement and the hour drive, we got home after 9pm with our 2 large coolers packed completely full of fish. Of course, we were still so excited and had to tell Dana and Taryn all about our fish stories!

That’s all for my part of this, and I’ll hand this back over to Dana to let her tell you about their day.

Well, I will say, we could absolutely tell that these guys had a great time by the way they told their stories and all of the laughter. I’m glad they had a good time, and that Ramie got to catch a big tuna for his birthday!

So, what we did we do while the boys were playing with some big fishies? I ended up working for a good chunk of the morning while Taryn & Will had a pool day. Will was also getting an odd rash, we think either from the sun or the sunscreen, so Taryn and Will walked into town to the pharmacy and stopped for some ice cream on the way back. Back at home we hung out the rest of the day and just had a low-key relaxing day, definitely not as exciting as their fishing!

    Wednesday 11/19- Today we didn't really have a plan, so I got up at my normal time to put in a few hours of work. Since I didn’t know what the first part of this week would bring, I had told work that my plan was to work in the mornings for at least a little while, and I would log off whenever I was ready to. They were cool with that, and were just thankful that I was working partial mornings to help make decisions and put out fires.

Since there was no reason to get up early, everyone else took their time waking up. Once everyone was awake, I took a break from work and it was time to get the fish that had been on ice overnight cut up into the proper “dinner size” portions and put away. 

Cutting one of the Mahi Filets into a proper size for meals.

  

While we were working on the “fish processing line” this morning, a wayward bird got into the house and couldn’t find it’s way out. Taryn decided that it was her duty to catch and release it out of the house. Ramie got out the ladder for her and I found the butterfly net, and from there, she was on her own (while the rest of us watched). She chased the poor little bird from window to window. 

The handle fell off of the net at one point, and while she was trying to fix it, the bird finally found it’s way out, and flew down and out an open window, leaving Taryn standing on the ledge above our bathroom with a broken net in her hand. All of that work and she never even got to hold the bird! 

After the excitement of the bird, we finished up bagging and vacuuming the rest of the fish, got them into the freezer, and cleaned everything up. Now with our morning chores done, it was time for me to log back onto my work computer and for the rest of them to head to a waterfall. Taryn has been looking forward to swimming in a waterfall so she searched online for and found the one here in town that we drive by all of the time but haven’t been to since our first vacation in Costa Rica in about 2018. This place charges an entry fee and it's usually full of tourists, so we tend to go to the hidden ones in the jungle that we know about to avoid the crowds and the fees. Ramie suggested checking out a one of those waterfalls instead, but we weren’t not sure if it was accessible right now since there was a river crossing and we he wasn't sure how high the river was. 

They headed there first, and as was sort of suspected, the river was too deep to cross. It was back to Taryn’s original idea, and they came back toward town to go to the tourist one. This waterfall has 3 different pools, a natural water slide, and some cliff jumping points. There is also a new butterfly garden that wasn’t there the list time we were there. It was actually quite large and they enjoyed walking through it and seeing all of the butterflies and caterpillars up close.

Look Out Behind you Will!

This was a dead butterfly that we found on the ground.

After they had their fill of butterflies, it was time to follow the path that led to the waterfalls. They stopped at the first pool and watched a guy jump from the highest jumping point and another person go down the natural water slide, but honestly neither one of those things are exactly safe and we hear reports of people getting injured doing both of them far too often. No one was going to take the risk, so they didn’t spend a lot of time here.

That's as high as Taryn would go

Holding on for dear life!

The boys, watching the people jump from the cliff and go down the slide

They moved down to the 2nd pool, which had another jumping platform that was much lower. This one didn’t look so unsafe, and after watching another guy go first and asking how deep he thought it was, Steven decided that he would try this one. He had a blast jumping from it and spent some time doing this over and over while recruiting strangers to join him. Ramie and Will swam out to the little waterfall for some pictures and Taryn hung back and just enjoyed the water.

Will! Are you drinking Uncle Ramie's beer?

Who's hiding under that waterfall?

Will eventually had enough of pool #2 and wanted to check out the 3rd and final pool. Will and Taryn followed the river carefully walking over the rocks while Ramie and Steven took the path instead, which was much easier. The 4 of them had this pool to themselves and enjoyed swimming around what they thought seemed like a “lazy river”. Here, the current circled around so you could start at one point and almost make it all the way around again. Once they were fully waterlogged, it was time to head home for a delicious fresh fish dinner.

The day wasn't over yet though! This evening we had scheduled a guided night hike. This will be Ramie and my 3rd time on this hike, and so far each time we found different critters and enjoyed it just as much as the prior time. We were also getting better at helping spot the critters and knew what we were looking for and where we typically found them. The tour starts just after dark, so at a little bit before 6 we left the house to drive up the mountain and meet at the hotel whose trails the guides use. Taryn, Steven, and Will were issued the standard equipment of rubber boots and flashlights, Ramie & I came prepared with our own. You probably remember from our prior blog posts about this tour that we keep our eyes open for insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and anything else that creeps around in the dark. If you see something, you call it out and the guide will come and tell you about it. For the next couple of hours we searched in the dark for any animals that we could spot. These are some of the things that we found. We would never be able to take photos of EVERYTHING we saw.

Vine Snake

Male Glass Tree Frog guarding the eggs

Coral Snake

    Thursday 11/20- Since the family is only visiting for a week, which really isn't long enough in our opinion (we like to recommend a minimum of 9 days if coming to see us since the first and last days are “wasted” travel days), we are trying to pack in as many activities and have as much fun as possible in our short time together. Today was the day reserved for our long ATV ride. I knew that this was the plan and today would be a day off work for me. Since Dusti only seats 4, and Steven is an experienced ATV driver, he rented a 2-seater 4 wheeler like Dylan’s family did when they visited in August. While we have enough room in Dusti for both Taryn and Will, if either of them wants to ride along with Steven they would be able to. We scheduled to pick up the ATV at 8am, so Ramie, Will and Steven jumped in Dusti and drove to the rental place to pick up the machine and the needed safety gear. Will and Steven were fitted for their helmets, they grabbed their required reflective belts, and took care of the paperwork, which didn’t take long, and they headed home to pickup me and Taryn.

While they were picking up the ATV, Taryn and I started packing the cooler and grabbing some snacks, so once they got home we were ready to load it all into Dusti and get going. The route that we really wanted to go was still not passable, so we took the shorter route up the mountain. Along the way, since it was such a clear day, we stopped at various spots for scenic views and pictures. 

Ready for a day of fun!

Typical Allen Family photo

After, finally making it to the very top of the mountain, we debated on which direction we should go. It all depended on what the weather was like. Right now it looked very nice out, but that can change in an instant. We decided to keep our fingers crossed that it would stay so nice and headed on a long route to the Mirador La Faralla. About a year ago Deiner brought us here and we’ve wanted to go back since. So far, that just hasn't worked out, but today would be the day! Taryn and Steven kept asking where we were going, and we just kept telling them “you’ll see”. After what seemed like a long drive along a different route than Deiner took us last time, we finally made it to our destination. There is a fairly small entry fee to get in and we made our way up to the overlook at the top of the mountain. When they saw it all, I think they were in awe. If you’ve been following along, you may remember that there is an “edge of the world” style swing where, at your own risk, you can swing out over the drop off to the ravine. Ramie pointed this out to Taryn and she was super excited and the first to give it a try. This swing is not for the faint of heart, but she seemed to enjoy it! After some photos & video, Steven was peer-pressured into trying it out. He was a good sport about it, but I am not sure he enjoyed it quite as much as Taryn did. There was a “no kids” sign, so unfortunately Will was unable to try it, and I would not be bullied into going on this swing now or ever! 

1st one up for a try

Now Stevens turn

 
Sometime after everyone was finished playing on the swing, the owner came by and bought us some fresh bananas as a snack. As we were having our snack and some of the beverages that we brought with us, we found a second swing and Ramie hopped right on to give it a try. Instead of swinging down over the ravine, this one was swinging out into the jungle, so he didn’t give it too much of a look before he went, and as he swung out, suddenly he left out quite a yell. I guess it turns out that this one was shockingly startling, even after the first one that they went on. Initially he didn’t think it looked bad, but once he was out there he realized just how high he was as he was looking down at the tops of trees. Everyone giggled at him as we really didn’t think it looked bad from our vantage point. Taryn was up next, and wouldn’t you know it, she had the same shocked yell reaction. I guess maybe it was as startling as Ramie said it was. Steven gave it a try too, but, even thought they tried, neither Will nor I would give it a try. 

After everyone had their fill of the swings, we went back to the overlook to snap some pictures. The owner was around and told us about a short trail that we could hike if we wanted. We knew about the long one down to the river, but I guess there was a short one too, so we decided we would check it out. It wasn't a long hike, but it had beautiful overlooks of waterfalls and the valley below, and they made it fun with a little goblin village. 

Will going to check out the Goblin village

Since we still had to go to the coffee plantation, we decided that it was time to head out after spending about 1-½ hours there. We jumped back on the ATVs and made our way toward the town that was at the bottom of the mountain to fill up with gas. It wasn't far away, but we did have to back-track about 35 minutes the wrong way, before we could head back the way we came. It was getting close to lunch time and while we were in town getting gas we found a small soda to get some lunch. 

Once the gas tanks and bellies were full, it was time to head towards the plantation. We ran into some rain on the way, so Ramie made sure to hit the mud puddles to splash Will, who was riding in the front seat. It took us about 45 minutes to make it back to the coffee plantation, and by the time we got there it was close to 2pm. When we finally arrived Deiner was wondering if we were going to show up today or not, as Ramie did tell him that we would be stopping by but didn't have a timeline. When he asked why we ended up being so late, we filled him in on our adventure south to the place that he originally showed us. 

It wasn’t long after we arrived that Emilio greeted us with the bottle of shiny moon, Juanca showed up, and Rita came to say hello and meet the new faces. We were offered all of the things that our gracious hosts often bring us: fresh homemade banana bread, fresh coffee, and Rita even surprised us with Ramie’s favorite chicharrónes. As we all enjoyed the food and company, we knew that the day was coming to an end. Not only were we all somewhat tired from the long ride, but and Deiner and Jaunca still had to work this afternoon, and Ramie had to tend to the guests that were at the Airbnb next door. Guests visiting Don Emilio’s very often leave with coffee or other souvenirs that they sell, and Taryn & Steven were no different. Once they had picked and paid for all of the things they wanted, it was time to head home. Once we arrived back home Ramie grabbed the hose out to wash the mud off of Dusti & the rental ATV, but Will decided that this was a job that he wanted to do and took over while Ramie headed next door to check out an issue with the gate at the house next door.

The evening was very quiet and no one stayed up late because everyone had to get up at Dana’s normal wake up time of 4:30ish tomorrow. While I wouldn’t be getting up to work in the morning like I usually do, we would all be going on a turtle walk tomorrow.

    Friday 11/21- BEEP< BEEP< BEEP. The alarms went off somewhere between 4-4:15am. It was quiet in the house as everyone slowly woke up and got dressed. Amazingly, we were out the door right on time at 4:45 to get to the beach just before 5am. As we walked, Will had a bunch of questions about turtles which Ramie was happy to answer. At some point Will decided to start collecting rocks in the egg bucket that he was in charge of carrying, but was still empty since we didn't have any luck this morning. Surprisingly, Will made the full 5 mile walk with ease and without complaining. The walk took longer than it does when Ramie does it with his regular turtle team, but no one minded, even though it was just a long walk on the beach this morning. At this time of the season, it’s somewhat expected to not find any nests.

The ATV had to be returned by 8am this morning, so Ramie, Will and Steven didn't stick around the house too long after we finished at the beach.

Since it's their last full day in Costa Rica, our visitors just wanted to take it easy and not do anything big today. Will held another of his requested pool parties and mostly we just hung out at the house and enjoyed the time together. We originally talked about going out for dinner, but ultimately decided that we would rather go out for lunch so that they could come back to pack and get ready to leave tomorrow morning. We brought them to Los Gatos Locos, which is the tree house restaurant that we like going to. Everyone enjoyed their lunch, and on the way home Steven mentioned that he was disappointed that he only got to go to the brewery once during this trip. It was still early enough, so we decided to go back to Whale’s Tail for a couple more beers, and this time I even got to go with them.

Playing the bar game while waiting for our drinks to arrive. 

While we waited Ramie also decided to play with his phone filter with Will

Will is so pretty!

Shortly after we got home Ramie got a message from the turtle reserve that there were baby turtles that needed to be released at 5pm. Ramie had let them know previously that we would be interested in helping with a release while our guests were here, and they gave us first option. Yes, we had time- sign us up!! It sure was a good thing that we went out for lunch instead of dinner!

We had about a half hour before we had to be back out the door for turtles, so Ramie and I quickly changed into our Reserve shirts, found an extra one for Will to wear, and grabbed gloves for all of us so that we could hold the babies, before loading back into the truck. We were meeting Cycy and the other volunteers at the beach and had to wait a short time for them to arrive with the turtles. We would be releasing 7 nests for a total of more than 500 baby sea turtles!! Once they arrived we grabbed a few buckets of babies and walked to the very edge of the beach, trying to avoid attention of the public. 

Taryn, Steven and Will each took a baby turtle out of the buckets so that they could hold it and snap a few pictures. This release had to be done quickly and discretely because technically it was not a “public release” but the beach was very busy. In order not to draw a huge crowd of onlookers, everything was rushed. 

Ramie drew a semi-circle in the sand to attempt to keep those onlookers far enough back, Taryn and Steven snapped some pictures, and when everyone was ready, we all dumped the buckets of babies into the sand. It didn't take long and there was a pretty large crowd forming to watch. Now Ramie and I switched to turtle patrol mode, meaning, we had to make sure people didn't get too close and step on the babies when the waves washed them back up into the crowd, and to ensure that no one tried to pick up or touch them. Eventually all of the babies were safely in the ocean and out of our hands. 

 

Will with his bucket of turtles

Off into the Sunset!

As we were heading back to the car, Taryn made the comment that this was the icing on top of the already awesome vacation, and a great way to finish their last day. 

After this last day of turtle duty, they decided that they wanted to go home with some commemorative t-shirts, so after the release we drove to the reserve so that they could get some, then finally made our way home around 6:45 so that they could pack and get ready to head back North in the morning.

    Saturday 11/22- Today would be the other dreaded travel day for our guests, and they didn't even have an awesome vacation on the other end of it to look forward to. The shuttle arrived at our house to pick them up at 7:30. Their flight wasn't until about 1:30, but due to the 3-4 hour drive plus the 2 hours before your flight that you have to be at the airport, this was the time they had to leave. We helped load the luggage and gave everyone hugs and said our goodbyes. Skye even was outside with us to get her final scratches and watch them leave.

Once they were gone, we spent the rest of the day cleaning, doing laundry, and some other odds and ends until the early afternoon. We relaxed the rest of the day and were tuckered out from the busy but fun week with the family.

Hasta Luego- Until next time 

Pura Vida!