Wednesday, March 1, 2006

I really didn´t enjoy the two tickets I got in Nicaragua. They were not good at all. It was less than five minutes between the two, and I wasn't doing anything wrong or speeding. Its just so frustrating. Just like at the border into Costa Rica we paid $80 to a border guy in taxes, but we got no reciept in return, and are pretty sure that it went to fund his own personal pocket. Corruption!!!!

Costa Rica is beautiful!! We found Jackie Liles up in Monteverde. We stay with her for one night, it was good to see another person from Tennessee. On the way to Monteverde, we picked up a guy named Oliver. He is Belgium, and has a house out on the Pacific ocean. He is a big time surfer, and has offered for us to meet him at his house and he will give us a tour of all the hidden surf places, the ones that are 4x4 access only. He also has several boards that he said we can use if we want. We gave Oliver a ride from the border all the way down to the second turn off for Monteverde. He was a really cool guy. I think He was around the age of 26-28. We packed him and his gear in my truck. Yep, Three up front, and one in the bakc with the sub. Pretty tight squeeze!

After we dropped him off we picked up two girls that were heading from the CA 1 up to Monteverde. Come to find out, both of their birthdays are on March 10! WOw!! One was from Holland and the other from Bosman, Montana. The Hollander was 36 and the other was I think in her late twenties. Anyways, one rode in my truck and the other in Jareds. We put Ryan and Tom up on my roof rack. They road in tandem sitting in my two spare tires. They said the ride was good and the view awesome. We didn´t travel very fast though, the road was dirt and very bumpy, lots of pot holes everywhere with big and small rocks to run over. We never went faster than 35mph. It took us an hour or more to make it up to Monteverde, but it was well worth it. The view up there was breath taking!! Lots of sharp steep mountains up in the clouds. we saw a huge rainbow that stretched from one valley to another. The elevation was higher than a mile, 3..4km high.

We are now in Cartaga, just outside of San Jose. We are staying with Jared's friend Oscar. Oscar has a Soy Yogurt farm. the Yogurt is very good. His product is the only one in Costa Rica, and is in all major grocery stores.
He´s pretty big time. His father is also the head of the Latin America OCI. He has given us many good contacts for our future travels.

The farm is nice. It is on the top of a mountain that over looks both cities, San Jose and Cartaga. the view is incredible!! We will work on several projects here at the farm before we head to the beach. Then after we return from the beach we will work on some more projects. All in all we have plenty of things to do for two months. After the two months its on to Panama. Hopefully Josiah and Aaron can cartch up to us here. It would be nice to see them.

Anyways, I will write more soon.

Love,
RAY

back to journal index