February 4
We spent a quiet, but fun weekend in Nuevo Arenal. Yesterday (Saturday) we walked into town. It was mostly downhill so it wasn’t too bad; only about a half hour. Lynn wanted to go to the German Bakery for lunch so we had delicious sauerbraten and dumplings. The town is only about a block long but we wandered for a little while looking for a SIM card for Lynn’s phone. Everyplace we stopped the answer was “no” but they pointed us to another store down the street. Of course when we got there the answer was “no” and they pointed us to yet another store. After about 3 times we decided that no one has it but everyone wanted to be helpful so they directed us to someone else. We still don’t have a SIM card but we’re hoping for better luck tomorrow when we go back to La Fortuna.
We called the one number we had for a taxi to get a ride home but when there was no answer, we decided to walk back up the hill to home. We didn’t get very far before a couple from Wisconsin we met at the grocery store picked us up. So instead of a 30-minute walk we had a 5 minute drive. It was a good thing, too, as we were only home for about 15 minutes when it started to rain. It rains several times a day but this one was pretty hard so we would have gotten soaked. It wouldn’t have been much fun walking on the dirt road that was probably going to turn into a muddy mess.
After a simple pasta dinner, we entertained ourselves by playing rummy and Yahtzee all evening. Lynn had more fun then Peter as she kicked his butt in both games. He’s looking forward to a little payback tonight.
Later in the evening we finally met our hosts, Wolf and Heidi. They’ve been in Cuba for the last 10 days and just got back yesterday. Apparently they flew from Havana to Panama City and then drove home. Seems like it would have been easier to fly but what do we know. Obviously they were pretty tired so we didn’t visit for very long. They weren’t terribly impressed with Cuba and said 5 days would have been plenty.
Today we woke up to beautiful sunny skies. It was the best weather day since we arrived on Thursday; clear and sunny all day. Wolf drove us to the local park which is right on the lake. We only waded as the water was pretty cold but we stayed for several hours chatting with a couple from Wisconsin. They’re the 3rd couple we’ve met from Wisconsin; guess they’re doing the same thing we’re doing to escape the winter. These folks were just on vacation where as the people who brought us home yesterday live here full time. We spent an enjoyable few hours with them then walked back into town where we enjoyed a delicious pizza at the local Italian restaurant. Wolf had given us his phone number and told us to call when we were ready to come back, but we decided to walk off the pizza and beer with a stroll back up the hill to home. It’s about 1.2 miles and pretty much uphill all the way but we managed it on only 30 minutes. Now we’re enjoying the late afternoon on our beautiful deck overlooking the lake. We’re also enjoying a cold adult beverage.
Still no luck on uploading pictures. We discovered that the internet connection is better on the deck than in the house but it’s still not fast enough to upload pics. We’re afraid it will have to wait. Hopefully our next apartment in Manuel Antonio will have a better connection. This seems to be a problem everywhere not just here so thanks for your patience. Once we do have a good enough connection, we’ll upload a bunch of photos from our trip.
Tomorrow we’re back to La Fortuna where we’ll take a kayak trip down the river. We could have kayaked from here on the Lake but we thought the river would give us a better chance to see wildlife. Lynn still hasn’t seen a Macaw or monkey so she’s looking forward to it. We’re also picking up a car. When we priced out the expense for tours and shuttle, it was actually cheaper to rent a car. The roads have mostly been fine so as long as we don’t head off the beaten path too much we should be fine. This will give us the chance to do day-trips from the beach without having to go on a tour. The only problem is that we’ll be driving back from La Fortuna tomorrow in the dark. Peter isn’t too excited about that but there was no other choice as we don’t get finished with our kayak trip until 6pm, which is just about when the sun goes down. It will be dusky for a little while but full dark before we get home. Of course the worse part of the drive will be the 1.2 miles up the dirt road to the house but we’ll be fine.
Talk with you tomorrow. Love from us…..