Boog's Blog

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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BSCR Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
Saturday 31 January hot windy

First bike ride and zip line adventure

Group of 17 so a big bus/van.

Fruit stand stop.Remnants of a green Mango, caimito (star apple),limon dulce.

Casado- the second national dish, for lunch.

Zip lines. 8 of them, last was longest and most exhilarating. Superman position. Purchase pictures, trust they will look good if No camera possible. Good views of the group all doing the same adventure.

First right, eh. OK but not worth the time. Last ride made them all worthwhile.

Eco hotel, what else.

http://www.villablanca-costarica.com/about-us/

Lovely nature trail should be in Flickr. Wood burning fireplace also pictured. This place has the highest rating for echo tourism but wood burning OK.

r > g

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/boogskbqb/

BSCR San Jose Wyndham
Friday 30 January
Warmer, more humid, brighter, with significant breaks in the rain.

Long luxurious shower this morning. No shortage of water here.

Tried and liked salsa linzana. It is their national salsa. Similar in looks and taste to a lighter A1 sauce.

Boat ride and van return to San Jose. Back through the estuaries of the island and then across the hills on a scenic ride.

Boat ride very much like a ride in the amazon jungle at least look like the pictures we have seen on the amazon river.

Bus ride through many banana plantations with a nice discussion of their farming. One plant one session. Plastic bags keep the fruit the same size.. Thin cows, very well fed but no hormones or antibiotics. Look undernourished but unlimited grass here.

Like coffee very best is exported and second grade is for the locals.

Left the Caribbean climate and flatlands via a pass through and over the cloud forest, 1500 meters plus. Heavy traffic.

Stopped to try fruit I had not had before, a sweet poison fruit, granadilla. At it with a plastic spoon at a roadside fruit stand.

Dinner. Peruvian restaurant.

r > g

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BSCR Tortuga lodge
Thursday 29 January more rain, lots more

Early am bird walk, guided. Lodge provided wellies, needed them. Lots of interesting birds but unfortunately lousy pictures. Guide had a fine spotting scope. All pictures though most of them poor uploaded to Flickr automatically

Walk followed by a quick breakfast and then a boat ride into the national park/rain forest. Open air boat to see the abundant wildlife. Most of the pics are on flickr. They start with the snowy egrets.

Excellent wildlife adventure and sightings.

There are a number of pics showing to various degrees tucans, parrots, kingfishers, many more birds, sloth, iguana, howlers,caiman, spider moneys on and on. Not the best camera but only one that would have survived the constant downpour.

Visit to the turtle conversion center, usual expected film, and a beach walk to the town. Interesting history of how it was transformed from 103 persons living off the land and the turtle to a small poor town of 1050 lining of ecotourism.

Dinner. I ordered in Spanish camarones grandes. The waiter corrected me. No, camarones jumbo. I asked if jumbo is the preferred Spanish word. Si, jumbo. Camarones jumbo, por favor. The prawns were good but the Caribbean sauce a bit sweet for my liking.

r > g

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BSCR Tortuguero national park
Wednesday 28 Jan.
Tropical forest rain in big bursts.

Morning pandiculating.

Early flight and boat ride to this very remote and protected Caribbean island. Nearest road ends 32 km away. No direct land access.

Fellow travelers are very well traveled. Egypt,India,Thailand, Vietnam, etc.etc.

Tropical rainforest hotel with lovely grounds, nature trails and guided activities.

First gallo pinto, rice, beans, chicken breakfast.

A walk interrupted. Seemed like a good idea, walk one of the many trails in the tropical forest. Seemed good so I put on a pair of wellies, provided, high ones, but not high enough. Trail water deep to above the knees.

After lunch, nice light black bean soup, salad, coconut flan walked to the village, about 90 minutes, wandered and took the boat back as it is a planned trip to go there tomorrow. My limited Spanish came in handy for finding a return boat.

Dinner. Rondon, a classic Caribbean soup, fish, chicken, potato, yucca in a very light coconut broth. Other than like little noticeable spicing. Local red snapper and tres leches for dessert.

r > g

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/boogskbqb/

Monday 24 November rain over for today
Tuesday 25 again no rain

One of the many pleasures of London: no need to put on the daily sunscreen

The day starts with a perfect loaf of bread.

Turner exhibit at the old Tate. Special ( read expensive) exhibit.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ey-exhibition-late-turner-painting-set-free

Well worth seeing the last works, over his final 15 years. Color,calumny, and more. Also a visit to the Turner prize exhibit, another special. Terrible. We left after a minute, 45 seconds for Bobby. Extra cost as well.

Tourist walk: big Ben, Westminster, Trafalgar square, etc.

Big blue "kunst" a highlight. This is how the guardian put it.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jul/25/big-blue-cock-trafalgar-square

Final full day: by now we have seen all there is to be seen of London proper except the now visited Wallace collection.

http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Contains the best collection of Canaletos – plus others from that school. Also a fine armory collection.

Final dinner at the second best pizza place in London called Sartori.

In Album London

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Sunday 23 November rain very heavy at times a very wet day

Breakfast at Selfridges. Really more of a brunch as we both had Tom yum soup, previously pictured.

Hiked over to the Chelsea physics garden on the Thames. Through the Park and Chelsea all the way to grandmother's garden. We checked the website before we did the two and a half mile walk in the rain however when we got there it was closed. Arrived quite wet all ready to go to the tea shop.

Found another a short walk up Thames after a short but wet stroll on the Cheyne walk. To wet for pictures.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyne_Walk

Another fab dinner by Bobby! Squash and duck broth soup, salt baked chicken with sauces of basis heat, cauliflower.

Dessert, homemade marmalade cake.

In Album 11/23/14

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Photo work by JD. Amazing how good he made Bobby look.

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