Boog's Blog

Also called the Panama hat but not so much here. Here, toquilla or monticriste (high quality).

Ours, I got one too, is a foldable soft low cost (here) type.

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Jardin botanical Guayaquil by Jeff Gray on Flickr.

Just follow this link to see and comment on this photo:
https://flic.kr/p/rX2mU5

Test of posting from flickr directly to G+

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Friday hot humid no rain

Met Fernando for breakfast. Organizational meeting 🙂

Air kisses very different here. One only, different facial location.

Have to love a country and hotel that has ceviche, shrimp, large shrimp, as well as smoked salmon on the breakfast buffet. A local speciality is humitas- corn and queso fresco in a corn husk that is not eaten.

Fernando took us around the neighborhoods,Linear park, expensive areas, mall and over to the parque historical. Number one on TripAdvisor's list. Tropical park,zoological gardens, preserved buildings, large range of mangrove areas, drizzle forest etc.

Visit to sweet and coffee, a chain like Starbucks. Another experience where what you think you ordered and what you get is different. Coffee ordering is so very different in every country. Americano turned out to be Bunn machine filtered coffee, also got a large dollop of whipped cream and some very good expresso. Cortado seems to have only one shot.

Coming back from the park we ordered a taxi. The attendant at the park negotiated the price down from 7 dollars to 5. Gave
him a dollar tip and gave the taxi driver six dollars. All seemed happy.

At a supermarket we found tomate arbol. Look it up.

Jacuzzi at hotel perfect!

In Album 4/3/15

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HOT damp, Guayaquil Ore Verde Hotel Friday 3 April

Boogs are on another adventure, this time to Guayaquil (rain-mangrove forest)and the Galapagos. Details of this adventure will emerge more slowly as there is no connectivity on the boat.

Yep, inter-tube silence while seeking the blue and red footed boobies, penguins and the ever elusive …..

The first leg of the trip appeared to be the Disneyland express. Coughing, crying, squirming in large numbers. Family of four shouting across our aisle seats.

Quick ceviche and soup dinner appropriate for our late arrival.

In Album 4/3/15

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Nice drive from Phoenix to the Sonoran desert. Many Saguaros along the road as we reached the pass over which was the endpoint.

A private reserve, appropriately tended, heavily marketed, and very well annotated and signed. Two aviaries, large cats, plants, scenery never ending.Docents everywhere.

Dinner at a Tucson restaurant, reservations made weeks in advance, George's brother and his wife, they live very nearby, joined.

In Album 3/8/15

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Google Plus put this together – interesting feature and a nice overview. Not all activities as G+ only picks up from the phone camera and not, of course, from the point and shoot.

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Wed 4 February awake to spectacular morning, weather and view

Last day of trip. Volcano visit, coffee plantation visit and bike ride down the mountain

Active volcano then 4000 ft drop via bike.
Through fern farming area, covered greenhouses and higher up strawberries. Climb, by bus, to almost 8000 ft.

Stopped on way down for strawberries and Chorreadas, made with homemade cheese

Coffee plantation tour with lots and lots of information growing cycle and the processing cycle and what various customers buy.

Early return for a soak in a hot tub and then of to dinner at a family home, a final dinner.

Tomorrow I return. Nice short trip.

In Album 2/4/15

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Tuesday 2 February rain and then sun and humidity

Bike ride to a rafting area. Nature, birds, etc. On shoreline ride. Some cloud and heavy rain to start, then 30kms tending downhill, nice fun ride on good roads. Sun came out and it got humid.

Spider moneys throwing tree apples at us at the picnic spot.

Lots of deet needed for the rafting section on the river penas blancas.

Gentle ride on show moving water, lots of wildlife. Stopped in a Costa Rica house, family, for coffee. Agricultural living off the land, got electricity six months ago, delayed by choice.

Windy very steep curves road over a 5000+ foot pass back to the Caribbean side. Over an hour to go 25 kms.

The hotel. Wow. Probably the nicest landscaping I have ever visited, views, sunset, may be the best room to date. Wow!

Some pics on Flickr

http://xandari.com/

Walking back from the sunset view, along a trail, so many birds of different types were screeching that identification would have been neigh on impossible.

Excellent cerviche and salad for dinner.

In Album 2/3/15

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Monday Feb 2 slightly cloudy, not as hot as yesterday.

Bike to boat ride across lake arenal then return around the lake by bike.

High end breakfast, lots of fruit and smoked salmon and so much more. Then of to a boat ride along the coast of a man made lake, took two years to fill, provides hydro power. 95% of costa rica power comes from hydro.

Quite a hilly but scenic ride. Decent roads. See yesterday's post for description of animal pictured. So far the roads have been excellent, far better than home, except for about a half hour first day and give minutes today. Rather surprised, exceeded expectations.

Excellent lunch. From my seat saw literally dozens of birds, many species. Flick pictures may have two or three species in a shot. Notice the trees have their oranges cut, good idea. Cut fruit tree in our backyard future?

On the way to the thermal spa late afternoon. Four squabbling tucans have a shouting match in two trees along the path. Quite entertaining. No camera with me today on way to spa.

In Album 2/2/15

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Sunday 1 Feb hot hot sunny hot

Bird watching early in the cloud forest, then biking to la fortuna

Missed the evening frog walk. Nature walk, very early, many birds, interesting cloud forest ecology, plants, many hummingbirds. Leaf cutter colony. Size of a car.

Hotel room in the cloud forest never dries out The dehumidifier has to be emptied frequently.

Ride. A very hot day, very. Pineapples and watermelon road stops essential. Lots of water. Lunch mostly a tourist affair. Ride through scenic agricultural areas.

La fortuna,a tourist town, filled with stores selling rafting, zip line, canopy, on and on. Reminds of Queenstown with a lot of heat. One long marketing and souvenir street.

Volcano is view my room in this five star hotel. Will eventually bike down from there, but not up.

Saw a troupe of these passing my hotel window. Pizote.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pizote&oq=pizote&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.15155j0j4&bmbp=0&sourceid=chrome-mobile&espv=2&ie=UTF-8

Messed up the blog! Bill park properly pointed out that the cross posting was not working. I checked and it was my fault as I forgot to put the correct link on the Google Plus blog. That is the official blog at boogs.net does not show the earlier postings from this trip I will fix that starting with this post.

Earlier ones at:
https://boogkb.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/bscr-tortuguero-national-park/

The thermal spa is quite an affair. Twelve different areas at different temperatures. None sufficiently hot. All beautifully landscaped. Clear non sulfurous geothermal water.

In Album 2/1/15

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