Border, Beach and Body

Borders, I love borders as much as I hate them. The Nicaragua to Costa Rica border was fairly smooth but some of the lines were a bit long. All in all, another decent experience!

We decided to head to a campsite that I was familiar with, so after a stop in Liberia for supplies and to pickup Dave’s wife at the airport we headed to Playa Avellanas near Tamarindo Beach. Specifically we camped right on the beach about 200 yards south of the famous Lola’s beach restaurant and home of the huge pig Lola..

This is one of the best beaches in the world I would say. Everything about it is great. You want to stay in the water for hours and there is plenty of expert or novice surf. We stayed for two nights. We will miss this spot for sure. But our next destination was exciting as well.

Arriving in the town of Nuevo Arenal was like stepping into a little German village. Hills, lots of green hills, temps around 80 and a huge blue volcanic lake, with view of a huge live Volcano in the background. The first stop was a little coffee shop on a bluff overlooking the lake, we ruffed it and had some local iced coffee, of course I had a fruit shake.. (my body is a temple). We slept at a great park with lake views and enjoyed a nice campfire. Ok it’s Stacey for the moment…our truck was parked by the roadway, so while cooking dinner I was pretty close, everyone told me to be careful as a car came by, two guys with a big flashlight out the window, they drove about 300 ft to a dead end boat ramp at the lake. A couple minutes later a white police pick-up came by flashing lights. They were down the end talking for about 20 minutes. Now dark, they head back our way. The police stopped by where I was cooking so,  I got James’ attention, he and Scott walked up to the truck. I continued cooking as they are talking. I took a few steps closer to get a listen. James asked him to repeat what he was saying and asked me if I understood. I got bolsa (bag) and cuerpo (body)I repeated back what I thought he said and asked if the cuerpo was muerte?? Yes, they were looking for a dead body, in a bag they thought someone dumped or was looking to dump and asked us who we have seen coming and going. There was also police boat activity in the water, big lights searching. It obviously was quite unnerving. The cops assured us all was tranquilo(peaceful)…  haha… we had a great night’s sleep anyway.

In the morning we headed out early for a long drive back towards the shore in the direction of Quepos, eventual we are heading to an Eco Lodge near there. But while still in the mountains we passed an amazing little mammal on the side of the road. After offering him a few nuts about 25 more showed up. We had lots of fun photographing them, they must be used to the tourists feeding them…

Now we are near Jaco on the shore for the night. Tomorrow we head to the Rifiki Eco Lodge.

Hope all is well with everyone..

J y S

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