Nueve

We returned to Costa Rica just two months later, in early November hoping to find that rainy season had ended. And we rented a car this trip, and nice Hyundai Tuscon which in Tico terms means "gringo"! But it was the right sort of vehicle for the trip, and most of the time is what we will rent up until the point we purchase a vehicle there.

We stayed this time at Casa Blanca - a place we absolutely do NOT recommend. Room was very small, bed insanely uncomfortable. But nonetheless, it was a place to stowe our stuff and sleep, best we could, for our stay. And the price was quite low. For saving money, is a pretty good place!

For this trip, Rob was out of the country for most of our stay, so we were fundementally on our own. But we made do rather well. Early on we met with Pietro to go through electrical plans to let them finish the design. On this trip we managed to convert a lot of the appearances of our plan to reality - with a better scale that the original artists rendition took liberties with.

We checked out the beginnings of construction for Rob/Kent casita. And we rechecked out property, waterfall, etc. Met a bit with Gerardo and all in all, got ourselves more familiar with the area. We ventured into stores in Parrita, checked out appliances available there, and some of the Ferriterias in town as well.

We took a good assessment of our new driveway, and determined changes we felt would be important.

Our first night at Casa Blanca, we had taken a quick run up to Alazan, but found all the guys coming DOWN the mountain and a light rain starting. We later learned that there are places on the roadway that it is best to NOT be on while it is raining... Anyway, we went ahead and turned around and decided to settle into our room, and relax a bit. By then the rain had picked up a bit - to an INSANE downpour! We figured we would wait a bit and it would pass, but two hours later it had NOT passed. Another hour after that it still had not passed. So we decided to walk to the nice second floor restaurant next door (Agua Azul - wonderful food!). Mind you we were on a mountainside. But the water was still about 3 inches deep as we walked to Agua Azul. The intensity of the rain caused a mist on all the outer tables of this open air restaurant. So all the customers were in the center tables only. We enjoyed a great dinner, relaxed a bit for the rain to let up, but alas, it didn't. So back through the 3" rain (on a slope) to our room. On the plus side, the Tucson was clean by the time the rain was over.

During this trip we had hoped to connect with our friend Mike Conley. Close, but never quite happened. We did drive the 'bone cruncher' highway southeast to Dominical through some great country and some trecherous bridges. But it was a nice trip and gave us a chance to see another developing community, and more of the coast.

After just a few days on the coast, we headed back to San Jose, another night with Steve and Rita, and back home in time for ThanksGiving.

To be continued....