Life in Costa Rica: I do not understand....

why someone who lives in Paradise needs a vacation. And maybe I didn’t need one, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Last minute and only a few days but definitely worth the trouble. Find a place to stay, find a cat sitter, arrange transportation. It is Sunday and we are leaving early Wednesday morning.

I found the cutest house, a 2 minute walk from the beach and just a little farther to a resort with a restaurant. The house has indoor and outdoor eating areas, jungle gardens, fully walled in and what proved to be so enjoyable - a plunge pool.

We went by bus, well most of the way. Jose took me to Paraiso, then the bus to San Jose, then taxi to the other bus and off to Puerto Viejo. It takes about 4 hours from San Jose but there was road construction so it was slower and coming back the bus was 45 minutes late and bumper to bumper traffic so it took 6 hours to San Jose.

I have been to Puerto Viejo before. This was my 4th. time. There is something about it I really like. Many of the people are of Jamaican descent so the feel is more Caribbean island than Latin American. Will you get asked if you want pot? Maybe. I haven’t but Heather and Courtney were. Thursday I was walking in town and I told a local I really liked her dress. She offered to trade with me cuz she liked mine. Then she went on to say something about no underwear. I laughed and said no thank you but your dress is very pretty. The shops there have much different things than around here. The pretty painted Costa Rican coffee makers, bright bed coverings and wall hangings. I have some of all of them now. My two red bags were really, really full coming back.

Our first stop was the grocery store to get what we needed for a few meals, then a taxi to meet the property manager and go to the house. We cooked beef, chicken, made guacamole, pico de Gallo and cleaned spinach. I brought retried beans and chunky salsa and we turned it all into chalupas. We ended up making burritos with all the leftovers for the trip back. We had mango and watermelon and French toast and scrambled eggs for our breakfasts. I love having a house with a kitchen. It was pretty well equipped except no oven but that is common. Very shaded. No air conditioning but 3 fans. Very interesting flowers in the gardens including one that looked like a miniature pineapple growing on a stalk, not out of the ground. Really cute. All of the windows are screens which was very nice. No real bug problems.

I messaged Otto about cat sitting but he was going to the Pacific coast the same dates so I messaged Brandon. He said yes. Otto told me when I went to the US I didn’t explain enough to Dally about what I was doing and that is why he was really wild and naughty. This time I told them again and again and they seemed to be better. They weren’t mad at me when I got home. I gave them treats and
they weren’t too wild. Guess telling them must work. They were very happy to be able to go outside
again. There is one mystery though. How did two cats, locked in the house for 3 days, end up with a little dead bird on the living room floor. There are feathers on my floor that they knock off the dream catchers and play with and that is what I thought this was. Nope!