Our family was honored to be invited to a big
birthday bash for 5 locals.
I say honored because we really have been
taken in by these friendly and generous
people, all expats who have relocated to
Monteverde.
Thursday, March 5, 2026
A few weeks ago I took a bus trip to Tilaran
by myself. I wanted to try to practice my
Spanish (very hard in Monteverde) and check
out a local town larger than Santa Elena.
I caught the bus at 6:30. It cost about $2.
I arrived in Tilaran, about 40 kilometers away,
two hours later. Nothing went wrong, it's just
that the roads are terrible and the bus stops
anywhere and everywhere. It not only carries
people but it actually functions as the mail
service. Packages can be sent, dropped off
and picked up anywhere along the route. It's
quite something.
Anyway, once I arrived in Tilaran I wandered around
had a cup of coffee, found a Ropa Americana (the
Costa Rican version of a used clothing store), and
wandered into the store, pictured above.
The name says it all...it contained everything you
can imagine made of plastic.
TOP PHOTO:
The ride home was actually quite eventful.
The bus left Tilaran at 12:30. It arrived at a spot
where a large drainage pipe was being installed under the road.
They had excavated a bit and the road was quite narrow
over the pipe.
A truck had actually rolled off the road in the late morning.
In order to attempt to cross over the bus driver had
everyone get out of the bus and walk across the narrow bit
of road that was left. Then the bus gunned it over the
same spot, we got back on the bus and headed home to
Santa Elena.
I went to San Jose by myself, another attempt
to practice Spanish and see what kind of trouble
I could find.
Aside from seeing a friend in the hospital and
taking her a duffle bag full of clothing and some
contraband, I really enjoyed wandering through
the Central Market. I had been warned to be
very careful but it felt just as dangerous as
Idlywilde Farms.
I loved the sign and food item, above.
That's "Fish Heads". About 50 cents for 2 kilos.
I had to include a photo of the cows being
milked, part II.
The cows are all on small family farms
down here and they are almost all certainly
milked by hand.
This is a typical arrangement.
The back legs are tied together. The tails
are tied up to a string so they don't swat the
farmer.
Brilliant.
In February our friends the Platts, from Groton,
came to visit.
While Julie and I took the boys to the butterfly
(and bug) garden, Halsey and Artie hit the coffee
farm for a tour. They came back pretty well
caffinated and with a large stick of sugar cane
for hte boys to sample.
The Platts went out to Selvatura for an afternoon
of Zip lining, or a Canopy Tour, as they call it
here.
I wish Oren could get a season's pass...he's done it so
many times!
Alex and Gordon clearly were communicating
with the Boa.
Our guide at the Serpentaria let us play with a lizard.
He went outside and picked about 5 flower
blossoms.
The lizard's skin was very soft and his
claws were very gentle.
My blog would not be complete without
a photo of our very favorite Touristo
driver and friend, Leslie Corrvales.
Leslie has three children at the same
school as Oren and Ethan. His wife,
Gera, is my cooking teacher.
Leslie started driving a Touristo van
a few years ago. He is AWESOME!
We hire him whenever we can to drive
our friends around Costa Rica (mostly to
and from the airport). He knows all the best
spots to stop and eat.
Maggie and Bea Alice came to visit after the
Platts left. We had fun! After a hard day of walking
and shopping we stopped at the Monteverde
Cheese Factory for an ice cream and a milkshake.
Maggie and Bea Alice and I took the
JEEPBOATJEEP over to Arenal for a
night. It wasn't a long trip but it was
really action packed. Just the ride alone
is amazing as the driver takes you up
and over the Continental Divide!
The ride over on the lake was very windy.
We had great weather while we were there.
We same the volcano smoking away during
the day, and rumbling a little. At night we saw the
hot lava coming down the side.
An early morning departure. Sleepy, happy
friends!
This is a pretty grainy photo but I wanted to take a picture
of where we live during the dry season.
You are looking at the San Luis valley from the ridge coming
up to Monteverde. You are looking to the east.
Even though we live way up at the top of the mountain that
is in this picture, where it's wet most of the time, it's dry as a
bone everywhere else!
That big brown vertical mark in the center is a landslide that
happened last fall. No one was hurt.
veggies
Right after the first of the year I started getting a
weekly LOAD of fresh, organic greens, or leaves.
I pick up a bag every Monday. It costs 2000 colones
or about $4.
Typically I get 2 heads of the sweetest, softest, yummiest
bib lettuce, a head of a red leaf variety of lettuce,
a bunch of parsley, a bunch of cilantro,
sometimes some basil, a TON of arugula, some
celery, and then a bunch of mystery greens which
probably are things like beet greens and collared
greens.
Ooo, la, la, delicioso!
Miravalles Volcano
The boys had a week of vacation at the end of
February. We didn't need to get out of the country
so we did some local travel.
We headed to Thermo Mania to start or trip.
It is near Miravalles volcano.
Here is a REALLY warm swimming pool!
The water is all naturally warm due to the local
volcano and geothermal activity.
Another view...
The water slide, may popular!
This is a volcano that provides all of the energy
that heats up the water.
The national energy company has a huge
complex in this area to produce geothermal
energy that turns into electricity.
Actually, Costa Rica uses wind and water to
generate electricity too.
more Miravalles
It is a little hard to see in the photo, above, but the
earth is steaming! There are mud pots in the
ground.
There are regular looking swimming pools,
previous post, and then there is a series of really
pretty natural looking pools. They are all
really warm!
The little cave in this photo is a little room
with really, really hot water.
Sunset, looking east toward to cloud covered volcano.
The day that we left Miravalles we drove
through Liberia and had lunch in a town
called Filadelphia. We found a little
soda that served local food.
On the way to Samara I wanted to stop in
a town called Guaitil.
It is well known for being the home to
the most famous pottery in Costa Rica.
The pottery is officially described as
pre-Colombian Chorotega Indian style.
The clay is a natural color and they
use natural colored paints.
We ended up back in Samara. We met our friends
from San Jose, the Feingolds for a long weekend.
We stayed down the beach, out of town, at a resort
called Villas Playa Samara.
Crazy pretty bird! The boys tell me it is an Oriole.
The boys waited patiently to go to the beach.
waiting...
Another beautiful pacific sunset.
from San Jose, the Feingolds for a long weekend.
We stayed down the beach, out of town, at a resort
called Villas Playa Samara.
Crazy pretty bird! The boys tell me it is an Oriole.
The boys waited patiently to go to the beach.
waiting...
Another beautiful pacific sunset.
We were happy to be invited down to San Jose to
visit our friends the Feingolds for the weekend
of Purim.
We decided to try taking the public bus which was fine.
It doesn't have AC and it stops frequently but the price
can't be beat. It costs less than $5. for a 4-5 hour trip.
We arrived on Friday night. Saturday morning was busy!
There were tennis lessons, piano lessons and fencing
lessons. Oren decided to try the latter. It was great!
The boys wanted to make a group costume for
Purim which was on Sunday. The idea was to
make a giant puzzle. They decided to make a
box of cookies.
They were a little worried by the "cute" factor
in the favor of the little kids but they won!
The prize was a picture frame which seemed
like an appropriate gift to leave with Max and
Alex as a reminder of the fun we all had.
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