A Life Gem: Costa Rica, Part II--Arenal and Montezuma

Last riff of 3 on my Costa Rican Adventure.  It's been awhile, but I'm back to wrap up the tale of this magical Life Gem I've had the privilege to experience!  As I told you in earlier posts, we stayed in the Arenal/La Fortuna area at a wonderful spot called Bio Thermales and then we traveled south to the Nicoya Peninsula to stay in the Montezuma area near the Pacific Ocean. SUBLIME!  We stayed at the enchanting Solyluna owned by Patricia and Simon Dezetter.  Our hosts in both places were absolutely incredible!  If you love places off the beaten path, want beauty, privacy, and wonderful vibes then DEFinitely check these spots out! Below are some highlights from our time in the Arenal area:

 

I mentioned in an earlier post about the kindness of our first hosts Bernie and Kathy.  They knew my dude had fallen in love with sloths.  Yup.  Sloths.  At first I was like 'ok' dunno whatcha see but hey, I understand connections.  But as I began to learn more about these animals I began to realize they are truly the "Zen of the Animal Kingdom" and boy, I wanna be chill like them when I grow up! Anywho, on our last day, Kathy came running to get us, Bernie had seen a sloth in a tree you gotta come see!  So about 10-15 minutes later VOILA! Bernie spies said sloth!  [how he saw it was truly a sign of knowing what to look for!  AND since some time had passed between his initial sighting and our returning, it was truly miraculous!].  

My dude was in HEAVEN!  He was sooooooo happy to see that guy or gal hanging out chillin' he was grinnin' like a Cheshire Cat!

I will leave you with this last video below which is in the Montezuma area with a couple added details on a couple topics: 
1) The Frog in the Toilet.  Yup.  That's what I said.  The Frog in the Toilet.   The morning after my birthday at 6:30AM, I was sleeping and I am awakened by my dude who says, "babe, Babe, you gotta see this."  Now, I am sleeping.  I don't wanna see ANYTHING other than the inside of my eyelids.  And WHY are you standing at the EDGE of the bed?!  "babe, Babe, you gotta see this." "I don't WANNA see it!"  But he was stubbornly insistent. "Can't you show me later?  It's six-THIRTY and I'm not awake yet!"  "You gotta see this now."  UGH.  OH KAY.  Now since he's given me no hint, I have absolutely NO idea what I'm about to see.  I sure hoped it wasn't one of those ji-nor-mous waterbugs he kept telling me he saw on early morning bathroom trips both up north and here.  Puh-LEEZE don't let it be that!  And I guess it didn't make sense for him to give me a hint cause I probably wouldn't have computed it anyway.  But in our toilet, yes, there was a frog languishing in what looked like total bliss.

2) When I'm talking about pelicans, one of those shots are not of pelicans but of what looks like a tern.

I hope you enjoyed my tome about Costa Rica and if you are considering a visit there I WHOLEHEARTEDLY suggest it!

The 411 on my Costa Rican Adventure: 

1) Bio Thermales Hot Springs www.biothermales.com

Suwit Light Travel--Wilson Cortes Nunez, Susan Jody Mangue [write Jody through Casa Marin]

Casa Marin Costa Rica www.casamarincostarica.com 

2) Solyluna, between Montezuma and Cabuya on the Nicoya Peninsula www.playamontezuma.net/solyluna 

3) La Boruca www.laboruca.com in Alajuela 30 minutes from the airport. 

Air BNB the website that lists B&Bs, apartment rentals, specialty lodging. That's where I found Bio Thermales  www.airbnb.com 

TripAdvisor--travel reviews and the site I found my second and third places www.tripadvisor.com 

Thank you Bernie and Kathy!!!!  Thank you Patricia and Simon!  Thank you Wilson and Jody! 

Dekalb Market--SilkWire Jewelry

Photo by Farooq Alihassan

SILKWIRE JEWELRY will be at the Dekalb Market this Sunday May 27th from 10-6 in Downtown Brooklyn!  Located at 138 Willoughby Street, over 60 vendors, a beer garden, mucho food and music all day in this market constructed of recycled shipping containers.  Holiday weekend fun fo' sho, take the D Q R to DeKalb Av or the 2 3 4 5 to Nevins St.

Soooooo stop on by, say hi :-)

What is SilkWire Jewelry? Handcrafted, unique original jewelry designs of silk yarn over copper wire, adorned with gemstones for their beauty, healing, balancing, clarifying, and grounding powers.  Silver charms, shells and brass Baule beads from Ghana are also used along with whatever goodies I find in my travels. Fun, comfortable, adjustable 'one size fits many' Conversation Pieces.  

Black Silk & Labradorite  Neckpiece--Stone of Magic

Blue Silk & Aquamarine  Bracelet--Stone of Empowerment

Mens Citrine Neckpiece on Black Silk

Rose Quartz Earrings of Wire--the Stone of Unconditional Love

Black Silk & Baule Bead [brass]

Cirtine Ring of Wire

SilkWire Jewelry at Not Yo Mama's Craft Fair!

Come on by, hang out and get your shop on! Citrine Ring of Wire--SilkWire Jewelry Black Silk Neckpiece & Citrine--SilkWire Jewelry Black Silk Bracelet & Bronze Baule Bead--SilkWire Jewelry Multi-Brown Silk Neckpiece & Citrine--SilkWire Jewelry    Quartz Earrings of Wire--SilkWire Jewelry  Ametrine Ring of Wire--SilkWire Jewelry

Dekalb Market Weekend Launch

SILKWIRE JEWELRY will be at the Dekalb Market which launches this weekend in Downtown Brooklyn!

Located at 138 Willoughby Street, Saturday and Sunday, April 7th and 8th from 10am-6pm. 60+ retail and food vendors operating out of recycled shipping containers. $1 mimosas til 2pm! Petting zoo, Easter egg hunt at noon both days, face painting, and classes by places like 3rd Ward and Family Cooks. Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra on 3pm Saturday! Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens (Daptone Records) at 3pm on Sunday! AND a beer garden. AND a farm. 

B D N Q R to Dekalb Ave.

Sooooo stop on by, say hi :-)

Black Silk With Labradorite Gemstone Neckpiece--the Stone of Magic

Blue Silk With Aquamarine Gemstone Bracelet--the Stone of Empowerment

Brown Silk Neckpiece with Mookaite Jasper--the Supreme Nurturer

Chalcopyrite Ring of Wire--the Powerful Energy Conduit

Rose Quartz Earrings of Wire--the Stone of Unconditional Love

Craft and Gift Fair at Jersey City Medical Center

SilkWire Jewelry will be at the upcoming Jersey City Medical Center's Craft and Gift Fair on April 15, 2012 woo-HOO!!  Come on out and get your shop on for these unique, one of a kind one-size-fits-many Conversation Pieces!  Not only that, there will be many fabu artisans and crafters in which to peruse and support. Ok ok Bird, you've done a shameless plug for your stuff, where the heck is it?

WHERE? WHEN? Covered that. Oh, not totally. The fair is Sunday, April 15th at the Jersey City Medical Center from 11:00-4:00 and located in downtown Jersey City at 355 Grand Street and Jersey Avenue.  It is the Jersey Ave. stop on the Light Rail and is directly across the street, and if coming from the city you can pick the Light Rail up at the Exchange Place or Pavonia/Newport stops on the PATH train.  OR you can take the PATH train to Grove Street [10 minutes from WTC in Manhattan or 25 minutes from 33rd St.] walk South on Grove to Grand St. cross the street and hang a right to Jersey Ave.  10-15 minute walk FOR REAL.  [You ever have someone tell you 'oh it's just a 10 minute walk' and it takes a half hour?!] 

HOW MUCH???!!!!    Sweet to your pocket, FREE AND FREE PARKING!

 

Sooooo stop on by, say hi :-)

 

Black Silk With Labradorite Gemstone Neckpiece--the Stone of Magic

Blue Silk With Aquamarine Gemstone Bracelet--the Stone of Empowerment

Brown Silk Neckpiece with Mookaite Jasper--the Supreme Nurturer

Chalcopyrite Ring of Wire--the Powerful Energy Conduit

Rose Quartz Earrings of Wire--the Stone of Unconditional Love

 

 

A Life Gem: Costa Rica, Part I--Arrival

I generally riff about gems of the stone kind, but for the next installments, the Life Gem of Costa Rica is the gab.  This was probably 1 of 3 times in my life that a flight I'd been on was not only ON TIME but EARLY!  The vacation was off to a sparkling start as we landed to the view of mountains and blue skies.  It was a dismal 16 degrees Fahrenheit when we left New Jersey earrrrrrrly that morning!  Shoot, our baggage was even sitting right there when we cleared Immigration but what delayed us an hour was waiting to get SIM cards at the  I.C.E. booth, [pronounced ee-say] the government operated cellphone outfit.  I was second in line. 

I had read that the roads were BAD down there, [AND THEY ARE]  so that + the prohibitive cost of renting during the high season were the reasons we opted not to get a car but followed a suggestion and hired a driver to transport us to the Bio Thermales Hot Springs.  While being stuck on 'line' the thought came to me that our driver might think we missed our flight as baggage claim was now totally empty.  The I.C.E. agent was kind enough to allow me to test my phone to call and let the driver know what we were up to.  Once done with that, we headed out looking for a sign with my name on it and was pleasantly surprised.  Ok, gotta back up a bit--when I was researching to put this trip together, I connected with two of the nicest people, Kathy Dyhr our host and Jody Mangue one half of the driving team.  Over the months, tons of emails zipped back and forth between us and I knew I had made friends before laying my eyes on either one of them.  So when Jody informed me she wouldn't be driving us but it would be her partner Wilson I was sooooo disappointed!  I mean I figured Wilson was lovely too but I wanted to meet the person who had been so friendly and helpful. They are in the process of putting the finishing touches on their B&B Casa Marin Costa Rica and she needed to be there.  WAAAAH!  Though I did understand of course.  BUT

don't you know she showed up at the airport just to say hello?????!!!!!   I sooooo appreciated that!  Wow.

After our meet and greet then goodbyes we were whisked off in the van and started the 3 hour journey northwest.  What I was seeing reminded me so much of Kauai, Hawaii--the lush green landscape and rolling mountainside along with the sweet scented air.  I believe that scent comes from the Heliconia flower but don't quote me on that but you can quote me on the fact that flower is called the False Bird of Paradise because it looks so much like...well the real Bird of Paradise.  

Heliconia, the flower of the Hummingbird

Anywho, the colors, the sweetness and clean atmosphere were a balm to my soul!  And coffee fields galore, LOTS of coffee, which Wilson told us was once the #1 industry.  Can you guess what's #1 now?  Take a moment and don't look...

...did you get it right?  TOURISM.  Uh-huh, and me and the dude were part of the influx.  Soooo-ohhh,


initially, the road was fairly straightforward [and pretty decently paved (!)] but as we began to climb in altitude, it narrowed a whoooooole lot and the winding dance began uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh-UH!  I decided NOT to dwell on 'ooooh ooh, that's a beeegggg truck and it doesn't look like there's enough room to pass!' or 'OHMAHGAWD, OHMAHGAWD LOOK AT THAT DROP!' or 'boy are we undulatin' away on this windin' road OY-EEEEEEEEEE!' but decided to remain calm though the term 'hairpin roads' did come to mind.  What helped was that Wilson was a sure and Zen-like driver, native to CR plus he was quite entertaining!  A wealth of knowledge, he pointed out many sights, one of them being these trees with amazing orange blossoms, informing us that the tree also produced yellow flowers that only bloomed for 3 days a year.  They are called Cortez Amarillo and they are very brilliant in color.  I was on the hunt for the yellow blooms and when I finally saw them, I thought I'd won the lottery.  Well, at least the sight-seeing lottery lol.

Cortez Amarillo at Bio Thermales--a long shot

Cortez Amarillo on the last day [they were already falling off]

When we stopped at a very nice 'pit stop', Wilson took us across the road to show us a man training a horse to dance!!!  Man, was that way cool!  Now, the audio on the really short video below is pretty sucky because the wind kicked up somethin' awful but I wanted you to hear the rhythm and believe me, it's just a snippet.  After that, you maaaaay wanna turn down your volume...

We lucked up to even be able to see this, I'd say we caught the last 15 minutes of training before finishing.  The wind was so loud we could barely hear each other speak!  Then the show's over so we head back across the road to this really groovy local souvenir shop, replete with many beautiful wood-worked artisan pieces.  I was fascinated by the smoothness and colorful work so I got a bit caught up in figuring out if I had any room in my suitcase to cart some goodies off, but when I came out of my reverie I turn the corner to see my dude totally ensconced counter-side, feasting on a designer cup of Costa Rican coffee looking quite at home! I'm like 'we haveta leave, we still have 90 minutes ahead of us, we still have to stop at the supermarket and the day is waning.'  We had been advised the trip required 3 FULL hours of daylight so we needed ta be about it!


By the time we lollygagged, sight-see-ed, and food shopped, dusk was rushing down upon us.  As we made the final approach to our week long abode, around the bend we stop and I look up at that eleven grade incline of graveled road [actually, it was more like a twenty-one grade incline--treadmill anyone?] and think, 'we're dead.'  There's no way this van's gonna handle that.  We're gonna hurtle backwards through space, hitting the ground miles below to be smashed and dashed on the gravel and rocks and and [OH GAWD BIRD SOMETIMES YOU CAN BE SOOOO DRAMATIQUE! STOP IT!]  Ok. Well, that is how I felt but maaaaaannnn Wilson kicked that puppy into gear and that van gobbled up the road as my brains got scrambled from the rockin' anna rollin' ooooooh DOGGY it was was a LUMPAY, BUMPAY RIDE!  But the greeting we received from our host Kathy quickly made me forget my trauma when she warmly came up to meet us as we alighted from the van saying, "I feel like I already know you," followed by a very warm embrace. After entering the Mariposa Casita [Mariposa is butterfly and casita is a small house] and getting the 411 on things and making sure we wanted for nothing [she even ordered our meals ahead of time so they'd be there when we arrived from her neighbor Estrella who does catering and, oh the food, MUAH!] she left us to ourselves and we settled down into our cozy digs, ooh-ing and ahh-ing like children, full of wonder and excitement marveling at the handcrafted bed and the exquisite care in the creation of the casita.  And after a loooooonnnng travel day full of expectation and anticipation, we were lulled into bliss by the splendid symphony of the tree frogs accompanied by the various denizens of the night.

Mariposa Casita at Night

Wood Carved Doors by Bernie to the Bedroom at Bio Thermales

The Welcoming Committee

Wood-Carved Headboard

Ceiling Detail

The Shower

Sideways view of our terrace from the swing.  Spent alot of time here :-)

The 411 on this leg of my Costa Rican Adventure: 
Bio Thermales Hot Springs www.biothermales.com
Suwit Light Travel--Wilson Cortes Nunez, Susan Jody Mangue [write Jody through Casa Marin]
Casa Marin Costa Rica www.casamarincostarica.com 
Air BNB the website that lists B&Bs, apartment rentals, specialty lodging. That's where I found Bio Thermales  www.airbnb.com 
TripAdvisor--travel reviews and the site I found my second and third places www.tripadvisor.com 


Thank you Wilson and Jody!  Thank you Bernie and Kathy!!!!


Stay tuned for the next installment where I'll be riffin' about the hot springs and our trip to Arenal...

A Life Gem: Costa Rica, an Introduction

I'm takin' a side step from gemstones to riff about a serious Life Gem: my Costa Rican experience.  I spent two weeks among sublime beauty, an oasis of wild life, and off the chain weather.  Was recharged by Gaia [Earth] in the waters of the Hot Springs, by breathing deep of the sweetly scented air, and hearing the sounds of silence interjected by songbirds.  I also met some kind, earthy Human Beings along the way.  What a bargain and blessing!  And I did see some gemstones in their natural state which was surprising because I'd read that the country wasn't much in that department.  But along the beaches of Montezuma I saw large deposits of Jasper along with Agate. A-MAY-A-ZING!  I'll hit cha up with the deetz in a later post as I'll be riffin' about this odyssey over a few installments.

I wanted to celebrate my birthday and the start of 2012 by doing something I'd often daydreamed about--take a vacation!  Years came, years went and FINALLY I said THAT'S IT! I'M DOOIN' IT DOGGONE IT!  What was I waiting for?  For the planets to align?  The only time we really have is now so I said "plan this NOW."  I said yes ma'am and proceeded to plan what

...would turn out to be the most complex and difficult vacation to date.  Costa Rica offers sooooo many things to do and has quite a few different regions with different terrain and climate.  If you are a beach or a mountain type the choices are clear cut but if you want both you have to be prepared to travel within the country and though small, [roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined according to the U.S. State Department] depending on where you wanna go you could be in for a long trip as there is no rail system and the airports may not be anywhere near your destination.  Lots of folks stay a few days here, a few days there.  I didn't want to bounce around that often but because I love both mountains and the ocean I saw we'd need to move around somewhat.

I spent a laaahhhhhhht of computer hours researching this baby but this is what I came up with--1st stop was found on Air BnB: the Bio Thermales Hot Springs, 45 minutes from La Fortuna and Arenal, www.biothermales.com  2nd stop Solyluna, between Montezuma and Cabuya on the Nicoya Peninsula www.playamontezuma.net/solyluna and the 3rd stop was La Boruca www.laboruca.com in Alajuela 30 minutes from the airport.  I found those 2 places on on TripAdvisor.  Each place was gah-LOR-ius!  Just PHENOMENAL.  And I can tell you that when we go back, we will return to Bio Thermales and Solyluna fo' sho!

At Bio Thermales just beyond our casita [little house]

At the Eco Centro Danaus

At the Eco Centro Danaus

Park in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Made sure I gave Mr. Iguana LOTS of room!

Stay tuned for the next installment!!