Rollin' with the Oldies.

In the interest of keeping these postings entertaining and getting a different perspective on things, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to include the travel experiences of some fellow travellers.  Now the obvious question was which travellers’ tales would I pick to document, fabricate, and exaggerate upon.  Who would put their complete trust in me as I lead them around Costa Rica just to get a few funny stories out of?  Luckily for me the answer was easy:  My parents. 

After all of the places I have been, they surprised me when they said they were thinking of coming to see me in Costa Rica.  After multiple Skype conversations guaranteeing them that this country has running water and electricity, they bought their tickets.  I did leave out that having running water actually means you have to run back and forth to the water well in the center of town two miles away and that each house has its own electricity as long as someone pedals the bicycle powered generator fast enough but I figured I could share these minor missed details with them once they arrived.

So in early December, my parents stepped off the plane in Liberia International Airport and my dad got his first stamp in his shiny new passport.  I was anxiously waiting outside and welcomed them to my home away from home.  Now, the question became what was I to do with them for the next week and a half.   With a whirlwind of ideas running through my head, one stood out as being mutually beneficial to my parents and myself:  Find them a job so they would have to stay down here and buy at least a two bedroom house on the beach so I could stay there for free.  Reflecting on this now it may appear that this wasn’t quite as good a deal for them but at the time I was mainly thinking of their best interests.  So I began putting together a list of possible jobs they could try out as we travelled around the country.

 Since my mom would appreciate some grand kids any time since 5 years ago, I thought she maybe interested in a babysitting job.  Although she had the experience to handle the job with ease it turned out to be a hassle trying get the correct paperwork to verify she wasn't going to run off with someone's baby.  The best I could do was find her a job at a local zoo taking care of the monkeys.  She agreed to the idea and as soon as she stepped into the cage the monkeys immediately took to her like she had been there for months already.  I thought this whole finding a job thing was turning out to be pretty easy.  However after the monkeys got their fill of hugs in they began grooming my mom and in the ended we ended up owing them for their services.

Next we headed down to the Palo Verde River where I had lined up something for my dad.  Since he enjoys fishing I thought he would enjoy something a bit different and try catching crocodiles.  Well even though we were guaranteed a croc from our guide, all we got to see was this guy holding a piece of raw chicken over the side of the boat on a not so long stick for about 30 minutes with no results.  We did discuss downsizing our catch and going after the plethora of large iguanas that littered the river banks however as close as they would let you get to them, trying to actually nab was an entirely different story. 

Chicken on a Stick

That evening, debating my next move, I noticed the price of lobster on our menu and tried to figure out why it was so expensive when all you had to do was just go out for a swim and snag a few from the reef.  Well my mom likes lobster and she likes to swim so the next morning I decided it was time for my mom to get her first snorkel lesson and she if she could catch her own lobster.  After giving her the intro on mask, fins, and snorkel we waded out into the waters to tour around the reef and see what we could find.  I stayed by her side until she got the hang of it and told me she could go on her own.  Within 5 minutes she was back at my side saying she enjoyed it but liked it better when I swam beside her and pushed her around so she didn’t have to kick.  The point of getting them a job was to have something for them to do while I could sit in the hammock at the beach and read.  If I had to be by her side while she hunted lobster, this wasn’t going to work.

Snorkel Intro Lesson 1:  Always look cool

 

As much as my dad drove the family around for trips across the States I thought maybe he would enjoy driving a small tour bus to majestic cloud forest of Monte Verde.  However, after driving 3 hours on bumpy gravel roads to get there my dad was more worried about getting a kidney transplant than getting a job.  It’s almost a slap in the face driving up the roads to Monte Verde.  Around every corner there is a speed limit sign of 40 km/h.  On these roads I was happy to average 15 km/h.  I think the government was optimistic when they got funding for these roads and put the speed limit signs up before they actually fixed the roads.  Then they realized they spent all the money on signs and didn’t have enough to actually make the roads drivable.  Real nice signs though.

Speed Limit = 40 km/h.  Speedometer Average = 15 km/h.

 On a side note, when the roads were actually nice enough to drive fast on, there was a posted speed limit of 60 km/h.  Most people were easily going 80 km/h or faster along with myself to make up for lost time on   the bad roads.  Coming over a hill there were two motorcycle cops sitting under the shade of a tree.  Normally I would brake but as I haven’t seen a cop do much more than sit under a shade tree much less give someone a ticket, I felt no need to slow up.  As we got closer one of the cops nonchalantly raised his radar gun and vaguely pointed it in my direction.  As we passed he made a lazy gesture that somewhat resembled pull over.  I took his gesture as “Hey, you may have been speeding.  I can’t be for sure because this radar gun doesn’t actually work but you seemed to be going fast.  If you would please turn your car around and come back to this shade, I may think about giving you a ticket if I can find my pen.  But if you keep driving, don’t worry I am not going to chase you because then I would actually have to do something.”  So I drove on without incidence.   

Back to the mountains.  Once we reached Monte Verde, we discovered this was a great area for growing coffee beans and to make coffee someone has to pick the coffee beans.  Why not my parents.  They could work together in the cool mountain air and enjoy the spoils of their labor.  We easily found a plantation that took them on as interns but when all they picked after the first day wasn’t even enough to make up for the 3 cups they drank earlier they were quickly let go.

Luckily immigrant labor laws aren't as strict in Costa Rica as they are in the U.S.

After this last failed attempt I pretty much gave up hope and decided we needed a pick me up so my mom and I went on a zip line tour which included the longest zip line in the world, over 1 km long.  She only cussed really loud twice and then denied it when I told her what she said.  If you ask her now she will still deny it.

 To wrap things up I decided to take it easy on them and take them to Costa Rica's most famous volcano, Mt Arenal.  It's last major explosion was in 1968 after it completely destroyed the village shown below:

Its last minor eruption was in 1998 and is now supposedly dormant but when you drive up to park they tell you to pull your car in backwards in case you have to make a quick getaway due to an exploding volcanic lava flow leaving you with a slightly uneasy feeling as you hike around.  So we hiked quickly up to the signs that tell you not to go any farther and then a bit farther before we turned around.  

From here it was all down hill as we made our way back to Playa del Coco for our last night together before they left.  Although things didn't quite go as I hoped with the job search, they had a heck of a time and glad they were still up for a bit of travel and adventure.  It was great to have them here to see what trouble we could get into as a family.  I wouldn't mind doing it again some day.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.  I did.

 Jb