Because we are in San Jose specifically to attend our “ex-pat 101” seminar this Thursday and Friday, and because we haven’t rented a car, we’re thinking it would be a good idea to walk to the ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) offices where the seminar will be held. We want an idea of how far and how long our trek will be.
After a quick breakfast of coffee and cereal, Jeff checks the location on his phone. Hang on… This shows that our condo is a lot further from ARCR than we thought, like a long cab ride further. But then we realize Jeff entered the address the condo owner gave us where the calle/avenida’s were backwards. Correcting that error, we see that ARCR is indeed within walking distance (about a mile), and off we go.
Any research you do on San Jose, Costa Rica, will tell you it is a high crime city with lots of pick-pocketing and non-violent mugging. In my mind, that sounds pretty much like any major city in the US, still we are careful to put our money and ids in zippered pockets. Of course we stand out as gringos, but we walk purposefully and I don’t think we put off that “we’re clueless tourists” vibe. Well, considering the amount of international traveling we do, I sure hope we don’t give off that vibe!
Our walk is along a busy street which is easily crossed on a long, steel pedestrian bridge accessed by about a million steep steps up and a million steep steps down. Along the walk we pass the National Art Museum, a small unassuming building along the side of the road. This little building and the surrounding area used to be San Jose Airport. It was teensy.
Our walk takes us around La Sabana, a large, beautiful park. Think of it as the Costa Rican equivalent of NY’s Central Park. There are people strolling, running, using the exercise equipment in the park and makes the area so vibrant.
A turn down a side street takes us to the ARCR offices. We go into the building and introduce ourselves. “We wanted to walk down to see how long it would take so we aren’t late for the seminar on Thursday.” We tell the receptionist. “Oh, the meeting isn’t held here,” she responds with a cheery smile. “It will be at the Palmares Hotel.” I did NOT say, “Are you kidding me???” but I sure wanted to. She takes us to meet the meeting organizer so we can pay our registration and officially get all the details. At least now we know. Turns out the hotel is only 4-5 blocks from the ARCR offices. Jeff and I pay our registrations, look around the office where I’m pleased to see a free member library. Leaving there we look at each other. “Okay, lets go find the Hotel Palmares,” Jeff says. I jam my hat back onto my sweaty head and we start out. It is an easy walk and we both sigh with happiness when we get there and feel the air conditioning.
Our return to the condo, retracing our steps, around the park, over the pedestrian bridge (like a giant stair stepper over a 4-lane highway), and back up the hill to the condo. Golly it’s hot!
Jeff has a response from the guy, Roy, who is the owner of the cabin we might be interested in. He and Jeff have a couple of messages back and forth. We’re hoping he can accommodate our timing and he does allow pets! (I’m not going anywhere with my Rufus-kitty.)
Tonight’s dinner is spaghetti with one of those cute little sauce packets. Very tasty! We hang out…Jeff looks some more at la puerta del cielo and I read.
We do sleep in a little bit this morning, but eventually get up and make breakfast. While Jeff straightens up the kitchen, I make the bed and take out the trash. We want to leave the house as tidy as it was when we arrived.
We decide to send an email to the owner of the Puerto del Cielo cabin and tell him we are interested and to share our time frame. We’ll see how/where that goes.
Soon Pedro and his wife (whose name I cannot say or spell, but it sounds like Patricia) pull up and they come in. They seem stunned at how clean the house is. I mention that I had not washed the towels or sheets because I knew no one would be here to put them in the dryer and Pedro says “You can rent from us anytime! Anytime!”
We load our luggage, including a grocery sack filled with food that we are taking to our condo in San Jose, hop in and the four of us are off to the capital of Costa Rica. We stop for gas (all the service stations here are full service) and are soon on our way for real.
I knew Pedro had made lunch reservations for the four of us and before leaving the house, I decided to exchange my tee shirt for a blouse and necklace, figuring any restaurant that needed reservations probably needed a nicer appearance. Boy, am I glad I did because, first of all, Pedro’s wife is a knock out and second, she is wearing the tightest, most gorgeous dress I’ve seen in years, along with high heels and make-up. (There’s no way I can step up my game that much!)
It is 45-50 minutes to San Jose and as we drive through the city, they point out various sites. We arrive at Tin Jo, a very, very, very nice Asian restaurant. This place is great, and the menu is wonderful. I order miso soup, paneer with tofu and ginger/lime ice tea. Jeff has the same soup and salmon with some sort of glaze, veggies, and a glass of wine. Wow! YUM!
In Costa Rica, you eat your food when it arrives at the table and the dishes come out at different times. You eat while it is hot, not waiting until everyone at the table is served. And, the check is not brought automatically, but you must ask for it. Meals are to be relaxing and enjoyed…and this one was.
Now, to our condo. We are staying at “Condominio 6-30” and it’s a darn good thing I have Waze on my phone because we never would have found this place. The owner had mixed up the Avenida (avenue) and Calle (Street) numbers, but luckily, I had entered the name of the condo and not the address. It takes some time to find, but here we are. We say good-bye to Pedro and Patricia and start our big city adventure.
Unpacking is a breeze. I find a safe in the bedroom closet and before putting our passports into it, I make sure I know how to open and close it. Umm…no. Now its locked and I can’t get it open. Thank goodness it is empty. Jeff tries and now the stupid thing is beeping. Oh dear. We text Elena, the owner, (she lives on the 11th floor) and she says did you use the code? “Code?” I text back. “Yes, there is a code in the message I sent to Jeff.” Well, okey dokey then. Yup, there’s the number and it does work.
After a while, Elena stops down to meet and greet us and to see if we need anything. The only request that we have is for more coffee. Though she lives in Costa Rica, home of some of the best coffee in the world, Elena has a Keurig; I guess that makes sense because this is a VRBO. And it is great of her to supply coffee at all.
For dinner we finish up our beans and rice with tortillas, and afterwards explore the little complex. We find the swimming pool, which is a wide lap pool next to a kiddy pool. Eventually, after two tries, we find the workout room. It is small and has some weights, a couple of bikes and an elliptical. It is going to be too cold to use the pool and we think we’ll get plenty of exercise walking everywhere. Exploring for the evening complete we go back upstairs, where we are flummoxed by the condo door. It has an electronic lock, which is what we have at home, so that is not the issue; the issue is that we are supposed to touch the pad, two numbers will appear and then after you press those, the full keypad pops up, so you can type in the code. We take turns pushing on the keypad to no avail, but finally it works. Weird. It shouldn’t be that hard.
We hang out watching a Netflix movie for background noise while I cross-stitch, and Jeff does some more research on the Las Puerta del Cielos cabins. Soon it is time for bed.
First of all, pura vida is the Costa Rican way…strictly translated it means “pure life” but is used as “that’s the way things are”, “have patience” sort of stuff. It is a catch all term commonly used for various situations. Today was our pura vida day…
Today is going to be a Pedro-free day! We get up to wonderful sunshine and about a million birds chirping outside. Jeff makes breakfast and then we execute our plan, which is to drive to Alajuela (all the way back to the San Jose airport) and go to Walmart. No, we are not enamored of Walmart, but there are certain things we buy there that we want to check the availability of here. We have a list.
Getting in the car, we check: sunglasses, money, Walmart list, etc., etc. The car doesn’t start right off but the second time it is fine and we’re off. For the first time in the 7-8 visits we’ve made to Costa Rica, we do not get lost going to WalMart! Google maps is almost useless here, and Waze (pronounced ‘ways’) is what everyone uses. Waze takes us straight to Walmart, where we spend 2 hours walking around the store. No kidding…2 hours of wandering up and down the aisles looking at products, sizes and prices and writing them down. As we’re finishing up, I realize I’ve been hearing a tremendous roaring sound and Jeff says, “Let’s wait for the rain to let up.” It is POURING outside! So, we pick up a couple of little souvenirs for friends and buy ourselves a bag of Lays potato chips and a 15 can case of beer (splurge!)
Eventually the rain stops, we pay for our goodies and scurry to the car. That was all we had on our list today; except maybe looking at another rental opportunity. We haven’t done our due diligence on this one except asking a couple of questions of the owner. We know the house is in Los Angeles de San Ramon, but we don’t know if it is South Los Angeles or North Los Angeles; and it really doesn’t matter, it will be a nice drive.
And it was a nice drive – until it wasn’t. I had forgotten that this highway, according to a San Ramon Facebook page, was under construction. When we got to the road construction we were the first car in line – or the car that didn’t get to go. So, we waited. And waited. And waited. The construction guys walked up the growing line of cars selling watermelon slices, lottery tickets. Still waiting. Happily, we had stopped for gas in San Ramon and had a full tank. And waiting some more. After 30 minutes, we decide to open the chips. I had to convince Jeff that we were not opening the beer. Waiting…waiting. FINALLY!! We waited for almost 45 minutes! When we get up to Los Angeles (South), a mile and a half from where we were waiting (we could have walked up here and back in the time we had waited) there is a small restaurant on the side of the road. Since we have no idea where the potential house is or even if we are in the correct town, we decide to have a bite to eat and then just drive home. What is interesting, and a wee bit puzzling/annoying, is that the road construction is past the restaurant and stopping us a mile down the hill was bizarre. We will be able to just drive down without a long wait because we are below the construction area. So odd.
For lunch we order a vegetarian plate to share. It’s delicious. Lots of fresh vegetables, and one of my favorites, fried plantains. YUM! But, it is getting time to head home. We are at a higher elevation here and the fog is starting to roll in; we don’t want to drive back down in the fog. So, we hop in the car and… it won’t start. Seriously?? Jeff tries several times; the car wants to start but won’t kick over. Pedro had told us to ignore the check engine light which has been on, but not to worry about it. Well, now we are worrying about it… Still won’t start…and now it’s thundering. Jeff and I both think it is the car’s fuel pump because when he turns the key, the car starts, runs for a split second and then sputters out. Okay, pura vida. Jeff tries to start it off and on for about 20 minutes. Time to call Pedro.
“Jane! How are you?” “I’m stranded, Pedro. In Los Angeles del Sur outside the Mi Rancho restaurant.” It takes a while to convince Pedro that it wasn’t the car’s battery that is the problem – I finally hand the phone to Jeff thinking maybe he needs to hear it from a man. So, we are stuck, and we are going to spoil Pedro’s Saturday as well.
He tells me that he will call his mechanic to come to us, and he will be on his way immediately. So, we wait. Knowing that there is probably a 40-45-minute delay coming up, Jeff and I relax and chat. About 10 minutes later, we are surprised to see Marcello –Pedro’s construction foreman; I guess he knows something about cars because he has Jeff pop the hood. He checks the oil (seriously??), the battery connections (good lord). Okay, now he has pulled the floor mat out of his car and is climbing under ours. My phone rings. It is Pedro and he is calling to tell me that there must be some sort of big accident or something on the mountain because he is sitting in a long line of stopped traffic. I tell him about the construction.
Now it has started pouring rain and Marcello jumps back into his car to wait for a lull. The rain stops after a while; fog is rolling in for real. Jeff and I get out of the car to stretch our legs; I’m happy that we are stranded here because there is a bathroom and, if needed, alcoholic beverages! Marcello is back under the car banging away at something with a wrench or hammer.
Car trouble!
We walk across the road to look at what is left of the view and hear a car roar up. Pedro has arrived much more quickly than we imagined he would, maybe 30 minutes after he called. He chats quickly with Marcello, who has stopped hammering on the underside of the car, and tells Jeff he thinks it is the fuel pump (I do not roll my eyes).
Pedro calls a tow truck, pays Marcello to stay with the car and Jeff and I climb into Pedro’s car. What a riot! He drives us home a different way which is fine, until at one intersection he stops and says, “I’m a little confused here.” but he guesses correctly and about an hour later we arrive home. Pedro is concerned that now we don’t have a car – and he’s out of cars! LOL Since we are leaving tomorrow at 11:30 and he is driving us to San Jose, and we don’t drive after dark, that’s not an issue. We thank him, go in the house, pop open a couple of beers and finish the chips.
Because we are leaving tomorrow at 11:30, we need to pack tonight; then, if we want to, we can sleep in a little. Pura Vida indeed!
This morning we have several things to accomplish. Things that fall under the “can we live here?” banner. After a quick breakfast of sharing my leftovers from yesterday’s gringo breakfast, our first priority is housing and to that end, we go to see the long-term rentals we were told about yesterday at breakfast.
This small development “La Puerta del Cielo” (translates to “Door to Heaven) is comprised of 5 completed (2 more planned) 2 bedrooms, one bath cabins in a gorgeous 8 acre pastoral setting. Freddy, the caretaker, has left the security gate open for us and we drive down (steep!) to Cabin #3. OMG! This place is wonderful!! It is small but the furniture and stuff like the kitchen appliances and decor are great. It is a secure neighborhood and the house has an alarm system. It is rented fully furnished and the rent of $950/month includes all the utilities, (trash, water, electricity, gardener, cable, and internet) except propane. The neighborhood has its own cell tower so there is excellent Internet connectivity. However, no ocean view and no monkeys. Now what?? We both like it a lot, the price is perfect, and it is available; but that is actually serious drawback – it is available now.
Freddy tells us that Cabin #1 is also available and we walk up, up, up to see that one. This cabin is a little different from the other. For example, you have to go outside to get to the laundry room – a definite drawback during the rainy season. In addition, it is RIGHT ON the road, and it’s a busy road. I look at Jeff and simply say ‘no.’ But the other cabin…we need to think about that one. Before we leave the neighborhood, we walk down the (steeper) drive to Susan and Ben’s cabin and pop in on them. They are delighted that we are looking at the cabin and we chat for a few minutes before going on our way. (Susan and Ben said their propane runs about $40/month.) We wave to Dale who is sitting out on his patio as we drive back up the mountain.
You can see photos/videos of this little neighborhood here. These photos are of Cabin #3. The photos at the end that look like paintings are the utility boxes.
We have more stops to make today.
La Puerta del Cielo is close to downtown San Ramon which is where we are heading. It is a straight shot on a good paved road into town. Parking in San Ramon is a nightmare, but Jeff finally finds a spot only a couple of blocks from the farmacia (pharmacy). I take several prescription medicines and I need to know if I can get them here. The farmacia we are going to has a reputation for being very helpful and some of the staff speak English. We walk in, take a number and wait our turn. As the English-speaking clerk helps me, I dump my bottles on the counter and she checks them one by one. Of the five, only ONE requires a prescription!! One is not available in Costa Rica (which isn’t a problem) and all the others are available over the counter. I can’t believe it! Then she helps me figure out the monthly costs – without any insurance my costs will be about $60 U.S. That’s amazing and I am sooo excited!
We go back to the car and head for the feria agricultura where we pick up a few things: half a watermelon, lettuce (23 cents/head), a large tomato (45 cents), cucumber (40 cents), onion, 2 potatoes and some broccoli. We pay less than $5 U.S for our fresh produce.
We need to hurry home to meet Pedro for our tour. He wants to show us around; I think it doesn’t register with him that we’ve been here at least four times. Let me explain Pedro a bit. He is famous (or maybe infamous) in this area because he is the big developer. He has developed a couple of the high-end neighborhoods and knows everyone, and everyone knows him. Pedro is Cuban but has lived here in Costa Rica for the last 12 years. Before that he lived in the States where he worked, quite successfully, on Wall Street and then retired to Lake Tahoe. Tiring of that lifestyle he landed in San Ramon. He says now he is working harder than ever. LOL
Anyway, he is not only the developer, but also has part interest in several of the luxury homes in Magallenes (the neighborhood that Jeff and I fell in love with a couple of years ago) and in Casa Mostaza. These homes do not rent long-term; in fact, they don’t rent at all because the owners want to sell them and can afford to just let them sit empty. But Pedro and our friends, Joe and Debra, said they would make an exception for Jeff and I because “everyone knows us.” Pretty funny.
We head off to see Joe and Debra’s 2nd house which is empty and for sale. We have been thinking about seeing if they would rent this to us. And apparently, they are willing to do that, though it would still be for sale. (We would have right of first refusal and if we didn’t want it, 90 days in which to move.) The house is gorgeous and in the right neighborhood. Jeff is mainly interested in the view and as we look out toward Puntarenas (the coastal town on the Pacific), we notice that the ocean view is obstructed by some trees. Hmmm. Also, there are a bunch of power lines and a streetlight on that side of the house. I feel like I’m in a ‘too close’ neighborhood; I would like more space around me.
After seeing that house, Pedro insists on taking us to other places; we don’t get out of the car, but ride around while he describes different lots; who has built what where and stuff like that. It is fun but exhausting because he talks almost constantly and very loudly. I feel badly for Jeff who is in the front seat. Pedro talks to us about the booming real estate market and the fact that houses here are selling very quickly and prices are going up. Well, we’ve been watching this market/area for around three years now and know that isn’t true. On top of that we have no interest in buying and are sure as heck not going to build a house! But it is interesting to hear Pedro describe the different options. What we do know from our years of research is that homes for sale stay on the market a long time; but rentals (long-term especially) get snapped up very, very quickly. We end our tour stopping by Andy and Nancy’s hacienda – Jeff and I stayed in their casita in January and it is nice to see them again. We are with Pedro for just over 2 hours and my ears are tired when we get home.
Pokey & Gumby at home
We say good-bye to Pedro, tell him we’ll think about Debra and Joe’s house and go inside. Jeff takes a short nap while I do Sudoku puzzles. It is dark out now, and Jeff asks if I’d like to walk back up to Deborah and Joe’s house and check out the night-time view. So, we do. You remember the steepness of our hill, right? Geez Louise. We got a workout. And the view was not better in the dark. Too bad as Jeff has his heart set on an ocean view.
It has been a full day.
Back home we eat our beans and rice with tortillas while we talk about the pros and cons of the cabin. Afterwards, Jeff plays around with our Chromecast to see what all we can do with it in Costa Rica and it works great. We watch a disaster movie that he had downloaded to his IPad and it casts to the television just fine.
Tomorrow we have some errands to run; more stuff to check off our ‘relocation’ list. Want to join us?
These first four days of our vacation we have rented Casa Mostaza (Mustard house) in San Ramon. You can tell from this photo
Mustard house
that the house is mustard color, hence the name. San Ramon is the area to which we are planning to relocate. We’ll be at Casa Mostaza until Sunday afternoon, when we’ll got to a VRBO (vacation rentals by owner) condo in downtown San Jose. We’ve never been to San Jose and are looking forward to exploring a little.
This morning we are going to the ‘gringo breakfast’ in San Ramon, but first we need a car! It is 9a.m. and here is Pedro arriving with our borrowed car. He is charging us only $25/day which is an amazing price. He has a couple of cars, but we need his 4-wheel drive because of the road we are living on. Here is a photo of the road sign at the top of our hill and it is NOT an exaggeration!
Check your brakes!
The gringo breakfast happens every Thursday morning and is an opportunity for all the gringos in the area to get together and visit. Café Delicias is a nice little restaurant and the gringos have been meeting here for so long that the staff can bring some folks their orders without them asking for it. We have been to the breakfast once before, so we see a few familiar faces. When we walk in, I announce, “We are Jeff and Jane” to the group of about 25, and a man next to me stands up “It can’t be!” he practically shouts. It is our friend Butch and he is as excited to see us as we were to see him. (We thought Butch and Margarita were on vacation, so we hadn’t told them we were going to be down.) And there’s Norman, my friend Annie’s husband.
We order breakfast. I have a vegetarian skillet and coffee, Jeff has a skillet also, but I can’t remember what kind. Breakfast is hot and huge. As we begin to visit with those around us, a woman, Linda, sits down next to me and gives me a hand-drawn grid paper map of the town of San Ramon. She also has her card and a brochure about a local group called the “CAA” which stands for the Community Action Alliance. (More about that later.) Linda is extremely nice and informative. Next to Jeff is Susan (married to Ben, who takes Linda’s seat later). Susan has brought a newcomer to the group. She introduces Dale and I ask how long he’s been here. “17 days” he says. Okay, now get this…Dale is 82 years old and being alone in the States, he has uprooted himself and moved to San Ramon. I hope I’m that adventurous at that age. I ask him if he’s experienced any culture shock and he says “not really.” He and his wife lived abroad for several years in Hong Kong and he said the biggest culture shock they ever experienced was returning to the U.S.
We mention that we are interested in a long-term rental and Susan jumps right in. There is a house that just went empty in her neighborhood. She describes the area, the house, and says that this little neighborhood was built specifically for long-term rentals. This is where Dale has settled, too. Hmmm….Jeff takes down the information and we decide it is worth checking out. Jeff has his heart set on an ocean view and I want monkeys in my yard. This neighborhood has mountain and valley views, so no ocean; and sloths but no monkeys. It is worth checking out anyway.
After breakfast we walk back through the town’s main square which is quite crowded. There is some sort of concert going on. I’m not sure if it is a school group or what, but we sit for a while and listen to the music. What a fun thing to stumble upon.
We need a few groceries and drive to MaxiPali, one of the local grocery stores. We pick up just a couple of things like milk, cereal and eggs, beans, rice and tortillas, cheese and pasta and two cute little packets, one salad dressing, one pasta sauce.
Aren’t these cute little packets?? And just the right size, too.
We don’t get any fruit or veggies because la feria agricultura (farmer’s market) is tomorrow.
I’m proud of us (of Jeff actually) as he’s found Las Delicias and the grocery store without getting lost. We’re getting good at this!
Returning to Casa Mostaza, we unload our groceries and I make a big pot of rice and beans to go with our tortillas for dinner. Jeff contacts the owner of the house that Susan and Ben told us about at breakfast and we arrange to go see it tomorrow morning.
In Costa Rica the sun comes up around 5:30 a.m. and sets around 5:30 p.m. year-round; and since this is the rainy season the fog rolls in around 3:30.
As we eat dinner, Jeff has a beer and I have my Cubra Libre – a canned Rum and Coke that you can buy at the grocery store(!)
Ron y Cola
We watch the Thursday night NFL game: Denver Broncos vs the Cardinals. The game is in Spanish, of course, and since the Broncos are decimating the Cardinals, we switch to the Boston Red Sox playoff game, also in Spanish.
While we watch, Jeff looks up the cabins where Susan/Ben and Dale live along with a couple of other housing possibilities on his iPad and I work on my cross-stitch. Suddenly it is really late, and we have got to go to bed! Tomorrow we have some “can we live here?” errands to run; and Pedro is coming by at 1 to take us on a “tour.”
Pokey and Gumby are comfortably snuggled into a backpack pocket, suitcases are locked, passports in hand…time to go!
Tom Delaney arrives to take us to DIA (Denver International Airport) and we’re off; we arrive at the airport in plenty of time. Tom is going on vacation tomorrow and is going to have to make this same hour long drive again in the morning. Thank you, Tom, for doing this for us!
DIA is undergoing some massive remodeling (who knew?) and will be for about 2 years. For a few minutes, Jeff and I are discombobulated. We want to go to the north security gate because it has the shortest wait time, but we can’t figure out how to get there. The airport is well prepared as there are information people everywhere. We learn that we can’t get there from here. We need to go down the escalators to baggage claim, walk as far north as we can and turn left. Ta-dah! Since we are both TSA pre-approved security is a breeze. Part of the security area is being remodeled and some of the changes look very modern.
Our first flight is into Houston where we will have about an hour layover before leaving for San Jose, Costa Rica.
This trip, in addition to what we hope will be a relaxing vacation, has an agenda. First, we will be looking for a place to live. WHAT?? While some of you know, most do not. Jeff and I are going to relocate to Costa Rica for at least a year. He turns 65 in January, retires February 1st and we plan to move sometime mid-to-late February 2019. During this trip we will be looking for potential long-term rental opportunities.
The second purpose is to attend a seminar in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. This seminar is conducted by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR); an association we’ve belonged to for the past 3 years. The seminar will cover the legal, medical, banking (etc.) ins and outs of being an ex-pat in Costa Rica. Jeff calls it “ex-pat 101”; I’ll let you know how that goes.
Oh, we are so lucky! For both of our flights we have a row to ourselves. We have flown into the San Jose airport several times and in past blogs I’ve listed our itinerary for getting out of the airport: baggage claim, ATM, liquor store, customs/immigration (not necessarily in that order!). Then we always walk out of the airport, across the drive, and catch the shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express where we spend the night. This arrival is going to be different for two reasons. First, in addition to the usual ATM, liquor store, etc., I am going to stop at the “Kolbi” kiosk and buy a Costa Rican SIM card for my phone. I’ve brought my old IPhone 4 to use here. We’ve never done this before and are curious as to how it will work. The second difference is that instead of going to the hotel, we are being picked up at the airport. Pedro manages Casa Mostaza (Mustard house) and he and his wife have driven into the airport to pick us up. And, Pedro is renting us one of his 4-wheel drive cars for only $25/day. That’s a HUGE bargain!
Getting the SIM card is not difficult; for about $10 US, I got 2 gigs of data and I’m not sure how much “talk” time. The staff tells me that their system is down, and I’ll have to activate it tomorrow. Okay, the instructions for doing that are clear. I’m good.
We are pretty much the last people out of the baggage area, so it isn’t difficult for Pedro to find us. We climb into his car and we’re off to San Ramon.
This is the problem with a week long cruise – it is over much too quickly! We are determined to make the best use of the little time we have left and get up early.
Something I forgot to mention during this blog was that there were a couple of days that you did not see Pokey or Gumby, so I want to reassure you that they were always nearby. Closer than you might think because a friend recently gave me a pair of Pokey and Gumby socks! I have them on today.
We have breakfast and then walk our mileage on the Promenade deck. The weather is just amazingly beautiful and, as I have every time we’ve walked, I’m keep a close eye on the ocean as I look for dolphins or whales. No luck.
We have about $35 of non-refundable cabin credit that we need to spend today and, just our luck, there is another sale. After breakfast we go check out the offerings. These sales that occur near the end of the cruises are usually items (hats, sweatshirts, bags) for ports other than the ones we’ve been to. For example, today we see a lot of Panama Canal hats. But there are other things, too, like sundresses, ties, shirts, etc. Jeff and I get to the sale about 30 minutes before it ends and we do find a couple of items to spend money on. Jeff buys a short sleeved button down shirt with a tropical print and I pick up a small manicure set. The manicure set will go into our “always ready to go” travel kit. We take our treasures back to our cabin and head back down to the fancy coffee place. We are going to enjoy a couple of mocha lattes. I think I’ve consumed most of my calories this week either with alcohol or fancy coffees!
We sit in the piazza and people watch for a while and then go back to our cabin to hang out on the balcony. The boat is sailing slowly because we don’t have far to go today to reach Fort Lauderdale. There is another cruise ship trailing us – it is much larger and we watch it in the distance.
This afternoon we go to a special talk in the Princess Theater. The guest speaker is Amy Purdy, a para-Olympian snowboarder. She was super inspiring and very, very funny. She lost both of her legs below the knees due to an infection and she cracked us up with her description of her artificial legs. Apparently she can adjust the height of her legs anytime and she would make herself taller or shorter depending on who she was dating at the time. hahaha! She also has several different set of feet depending on what shoes she wanted to wear. Jeff and I have never seen the program, but she came in second on “Dancing with the Stars.” She played a short clip of dancing and it was spectacular.
Amy Purdy on Dancing with the Stars
She has a book out and after the talk was going to sign copies. (We skipped that part.)
It has been a fun, semi-lazy day.
We go to the ‘elite’ passengers happy hour in Skywalkers on the topmost deck at 5:30. There is smoked salmon with toast points and capers; the usual cheese and crackers, olives, and vegies. Here is where we will spend the last of our non-refundable cabin credit. Jeff orders a beer and I have a margarita – delicious! This finishes off our non-refundable cabin credit. We dip into our refundable credit by about 75 cents leaving us over $150 to be refunded. Yippee!
We sit with an Australian couple, and are soon joined by another Australian couple. They are a riot! They met on the cruise but you would think they’ve been friends for years. This is only the second time we’ve been up to happy hour on this voyage – had we know they were here we would have made more of an effort. As happy hour winds down, people are beginning to leave; a man who was sitting behind us stops to chat. Then he asks if he could do a song for us. What?? Well, this guy was unbelievable! He doesn’t sing, he whistles. Holy smokes! He does a song for us and then, because he says he is in the mood, asks if he can do another. Yes, please! (This video is so short because of the limitation in upload size. The song was about a minute and a half.)
Apparently he tried out for one of those “America’s Got Talent” shows and got cut at the point that they were picking the people to actually be on TV. I can see why he didn’t make the TV time, because, let’s face it, whistling isn’t very exciting. But he really was good.
We’ve closed out the cocktail party and are heading for dinner. Our shared table tonight was very fun and we laughed a lot. Where have these people been all cruise long? LOL.
Back in our cabin we sadly pack our suitcase. We were so late returning from dinner that we have to hustle to get our bag out before the 10 p.m. deadline. We were careful to remember to leave clothes out to wear tomorrow…
One last evening – we finish our bottles of wine and stand out on the balcony until late. It was a fun day and a great cruise!
We’re happy that you came along with us and hope to see you on future adventures.
One of the reasons we booked this particular cruise is because the last two days, returning to Ft Lauderdale, are days at sea. No ports, no packing beach bags, no busses or crowded beaches, just relaxing on the ship. Sea days are our favorite days.
This morning we even slept in a little; eventually making our way to the coffee shop and on to breakfast. There is a special “everything is $10″sale this morning and we wander through the offerings. We still have non-refundable cabin credit to spend so I don’t feel badly for choosing two small zippered cosmetics bags and a very cute little sling backpack. I don’t wear makeup; we will use the bags when we travel. They are the perfect size for keeping chargers and cords organized in one place and rounding up small stuff that seems to always migrate to the bottom of our bag. The little sling backpack? Well, I’m a sucker for cute bags. $20 poorer we go back to the cabin to drop off our goodies.
Time to get some exercise. Jeff debates whether to go to the gym or to walk and we decide to walk around the Promenade deck together. We are aiming for at least 5 miles. We set our fitbits and start out. Very soon, too soon, my fitbit buzzes that we’ve walked a mile…in 6 minutes? I don’t think so! I look at the mapping and see that though we are walking a big circle, the fitbit is keying off the ship’s position. It thinks we are walking in a straight line (apparently we have untapped potential and can walk on water!). I turn my fitbit tracker off and set it to just count steps. Around and around, up and down the steep metal stairs. The ocean is very calm and there is a gentle breeze. This is much more pleasant than the other day when the wind was so strong. We hit our 5 mile goal and decide to keep walking another 10 minutes to make an hour and a half of exercise. Very nice.
Let’s see…breakfast, shopping, workout…time to relax for a bit. In our cabin we sit out on the balcony, Jeff is reading while I write. After a bit we go inside where I turn on the television (we are on vacation!) to see if there are any movies we’d enjoy. Oh boy! Jurassic World is available. I recently watched the previous 3 Jurassic Park movies, but we don’t own this one. Jeff and I get comfy and start watching the movie until, about half way through he asks me to pause it. He is going to look for snacks and soon returns with my favorite, guacamole and chips. (He had taken a zip lock bag with him and that’s what the chips were in.) Yum!
Tonight is another formal night so we get cleaned up and pretty much wear the same outfits we had on for the first formal night. There is a special, invitation only “Captain’s Circle” gathering tonight – it is to recognize people who cruise a lot on Princess. We are in the second seating and ours doesn’t start until 7-ish. At the event, Jeff and I sit with another couple who are quite fun. Amy and I are having champagne and it seems that our glasses don’t get even 1/2 empty before the waitress delivers another. The captain and a hostess announce the people on board with the most days on Princess…of course, all three couples are from Florida. The four of us decide that they should also have awards for people who do not live in Florida to make it really fair. There is music, free drinks and good conversation, but soon it is over and we make our way to dinner.
We share a dinner table tonight as well and join to other couples who are very fun. Tonight’s dinner is a special one as they have lobster and beef wellington. As a committed vegan (and allergic to shellfish) neither of these options sound at all good to me, but I have a yummy dinner as I watch almost everyone at the table order 2 entrees so they can have ‘surf and turf.’ Jeff was the smart one, though. He asked just for the meat from the beef wellington, so he didn’t also have the side dishes. We both splurge and have dessert – creme brulee for him and XX for me.
We return to our cabin, change clothes, pour ourselves some wine and stand out looking at the ‘just past’ full moon over the ocean. Gorgeous!
Last fall, August/September of 2017, Jeff and I spent two weeks on St. Maarten. Well, actually we spent the first week sailing around it and nearby islands on a catamaran; the second week we actually spent on the island at the Little Divi Beach Resort. We left St. Maarten five days before it was devastated by hurricane Irma. Of course, we saw the subsequent news reports of the terrible impact the storm had on the Caribbean and are anxious to visit the island and see how it is doing.
We signed up for an excursion today – before we realized it would require us to be upright and off the boat ready to go at 7:50 a.m! It is okay though because this is an important excursion – it falls under the idea of “traveling with a purpose.” Our excursion group is going ashore to help, as much as we can in the time we have, with the island’s recovery.
We board the bus to our first stop which is St Maarten’s National Institute of Art. The Institute has been instrumental on the island in helping children and young adults deal with the trauma, fear and loss they experienced during and after hurricanes Irma and Maria.
When we arrived we first were greeted by the Institute’s director and then heard firsthand from two teenagers what they went through during the storm…having the roof of their house blown off as they struggled to the second floor to escape rising water. Leaving a parent to try and hold a door closed while the children tried to escape and not knowing if their father was dead or alive. It was, of course, powerful testimony and very moving.
Hurricane survival testimony
The Institute uses art and music as therapy and today we are going to do a little of both. Our group is split into two. One group, ours, is going outside to paint a mural on the wall surrounding the building. As we go toward the door, it begins to pour rain, but it passes very quickly. The staff dry off the wall as we select our brushes and paint colors. There are line drawings already on the wall and we are basically coloring them in, but many of us provide our own little flair. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body but this is something I really enjoy. It is just like coloring except on a larger scale.
Jeff working on the mural
We make a good deal of progress on the wall before our time is up. Now the other group comes out and we go in. Inside we are given our choice of many percussive instruments including a wide variety of drums.
Drum circle
Then the instructor teaches us several different types of rhythms and we all play together. This is wonderful…we play for a while, then everyone chooses a different instrument and we learn more about Caribbean music and rhythm. After our percussion lesson we go outside to see that the mural is finished and it looks fantastic!
We’re so happy to have been a part of this.
Back inside we have lemongrass tea. It is in one of those big coffee urns and one of the staff opens the lid for me to see in. It is filled with what looks like weeds! “It is lemongrass that I pulled out of my yard this morning,” she tells me. She simply put the lemongrass in the pot and added boiling water. It is delicious.
Time to go on to our next adventure though it is hard to leave the Institute where the staff, director and kids are so appreciative.
Back on the bus, we are driving to Mullet Bay to do a beach clean-up. When we arrive, we hear a short lecture about the impact of plastics on the ocean environment…and, of course, plastic is everywhere. Each of us picks out a pair of work gloves and are given a burlap sack. Our job is to pick up all the trash and stuff that just doesn’t belong on a beach. When our bag is full we bring it back to be weighed because this beach cleaning is part of an international movement and there is a site/organization that keeps track of the amount of trash cleaned off the world’s beaches. After your bag is weighed, you then throw the trash in a dumpster and begin again. I don’t know how many plastic straws and water bottles, glass beer bottles and styrofoam take-out containers I picked up. I found a big piece of plastic sheeting that looked like it had blown off of someone’s roof. It was kind of horrifying that it took so little time to fill my sack. While I was picking up stuff a woman, a taxi driver, called out to me, “Hello! Are you all part of a group?” I shouted back that we were off the Princess cruise ship. She thanked me/us for “helping my island”. It was very gratifying. My second time out, I lugged out a huge piece of cardboard that turned out to be infested with biting ants. Ow! It was way too big to put into my bag so I dragged it across the parking lot, swatting ants off my hands and arms the whole way. My final round of trash pickup was three wooden pallets. Seriously? They were really awkward and heavy and weighed a ton; or felt like they weighed a ton as I was dragging them. They were very difficult to weigh, so we got one weighed and estimated the other two.
Jeff and another man helped me get them to and into the dumpster.
We had only about 45 minutes for our cleanup, but we brought in close to 500 pounds of trash!! And I came in 2nd for the amount collected! (The first place person picked up 5 more pounds than I did.) Now we’re all sweaty and hot but have a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
End of our beach clean-up
Back in the bus to return to the ship, we see a lot of evidence of hurricane damage. In fact, when we visited in September 2017, a couple we met, Les and Cathy, were staying at the Royal Sonesta resort. Today there are bulldozers leveling it…. The whole resort is a total loss. Unbelieveable.
As we drive through the capital of Phillipsburg to the cruise ship, our guide offers to drop off anyone who wants to shop. It is an easy walk back to the boat from here. We aren’t interested in shopping, but we do want to see how the city fared so we get off. Also, we know that if we went back to the ship and got cleaned up (or sat down!) we wouldn’t be interested in going out again.
The streets are familiar as we walk to the main boardwalk. This is the tourist area with waterfront restaurants, bars, beach chairs and umbrellas. Many of the building on the boardwalk still have smashed windows, boarded up windows and doors, missing roofs covered with blue tarps.
St Martin hurricane damageHurricane damage (notice the top ripped off the palm tree and the man working on the roof)
There are people working on buildings everywhere we look. But the boardwalk is bustling…the sidewalk vendors are selling goods and the little restaurants and bars are serving food. Because tourism is the major economic driver here it was imperative that St Maarten be able to handle cruise ship tourists as quickly as possible after the storms. Today there are four cruise ships in port! We walk the entire boardwalk and then back to the ship. One on hand we’re happy that progress is being made on clean up and restoration and on the other hand sadden that there is SOOO much more that needs to be done.
Before we return to the ship, we stop at a duty free shop for a bottle of wine which I slip into my bag. We pass through ship security and the x-ray; no one notices or mentions our contraband wine. Yeah!
Back on the ship we take nice cool showers and put on clean clothes. Today I wore one of my favorite tank tops – it is one I bought in St Maarten last fall. When I took it off I saw that apparently I had brushed up against the wet paint of the mural and there is a large blue paint blotch on the back of my shirt. At first I was unhappy, but then it made me smile – that blue blotch was a reminder of my attempt to help St Maarten recover – so appropriate that it is on my St Maarten shirt!
Since we haven’t eaten since very early this morning we go up to the buffet for lunch. Being tired and starving, I did not make great food choices, but everything was delicious and I probably worked the calories off on shore. Now its time for a little nap or time to relax out on the balcony.
Jeff and I walk around to the back of the ship to watch the sunset before going to dinner around 7:30 or so, and after dinner we plan to go to the Movies Under the Stars. First though a quick stop in our cabin where Jeff puts beer into our little cooler and I mix a gin and tonic in my water bottle. We are going to see Jumanji. I love Duane Johnson (“the Rock”) and am looking forward to the movie. Neither Jeff nor I saw the original Jumanji starring the late Robin Williams so we don’t know the premise of the movie. Hahaha! The movie was hysterically funny!! Even a short rainstorm couldn’t make us budge from our lounge chairs. And, true to form, the popcorn was delicious. This was a relaxing way to top off our day of service.
Back in our cabin we stand out on the balcony and watch the ocean go by.
“Do you remember me sleep-walking last night for, say, 7 miles or so?” I ask Jeff as I strapped on my fitbit this morning. “What are you talking about??” he answers. We both know I don’t sleep walk. “My fitbit says I have over 13,000 steps and I’ve been out of bed for about 20 minutes.” We realize that the rocking of the ship has fooled my step tracker and it thinks that the gentle movement of the waves is steps. Wow! I’m going to be in GREAT shape by the end of this cruise!
We’re up and about – going for a leisurely breakfast. The ship doesn’t arrive in St. Thomas until about noon so we’ve plenty of time to dink around. After breakfast we go to the library to pick up the daily sudoku puzzle, get some fancy coffee and work our way back to our cabin on the Aloha deck (deck 12). We always use the stairs when going up or down and I swear this ship has the steepest stairs I’ve ever used. Whew!
We have two excursions planned today and since the first returns at 5 p.m. and the second departs at 5:30 we’re a little concerned about timing.
We get ready to go on our first excursion by packing swimsuits, towels, sunscreen into our beach bag and leave the ship to meet our tour group. We are going to “Coral World” with a beach visit to follow. Coral World is a 4.5 acre marine park, and though it was heavily damaged by hurricane Irma in September of last year (2017) and again by a second hurricane, Maria, roughly 3 weeks later, it has reopened with some exhibits. The description of the tour sounded almost apologetic, but these folks have nothing to apologize for! Though their recovery and cleanup are continuing (and here we are on the cusp of a new hurricane season) the tour was great. Coral World has a 360 degree observatory where there are many, many fish, stingrays and Caribbean lobsters. It was very fun to walk around the glass walls and see the fish, some of which were huge, swim past. A scuba diver entered the water and, so everyone could see a stingray up close,was feeding it and the lobster. She carefully walked all the way around the enclosure feeding the fish; several times the stingray plastered itself against the glass
Stingray
and provided for some great photos. I say “enclosure” but there is a connecting tube that goes out into the ocean and small fish come and go quite readily.
The second area was a turtle habitat that had enormous green sea turtles. These turtles have been rescued and for one reason or another cannot be released back into the wild. For example, one of them had been raised in captivity and had never learned to submerge! She didn’t know that her food was really sea grass under the surface of the water having been fed inappropriate things like processed turtle food pellets and fruit throughout her life. In addition, because she was in such an environment, she had grown very accustomed to human contact. Our guide said that every day, sometimes several times a day, staff would come down to the pool and either scratch her shell or slide into the water so she could touch them. If they didn’t do this, the turtle would get depressed and demonstrate stress by pattern swimming. So they were careful to keep her happy and healthy.
Our next stop was very cool! We crossed a walkway to a concrete tower and descended a couple of spiral steel staircases in near darkness. At the bottom we found ourselves about 20 feet underwater, separated from the ocean only by thick glass windows. Here we could observe a huge variety of fish in a completely natural habitat.
We saw an enormous school of “feeder fish” (about the size of minnows); our guide referred to them as the “potato chips” of the fish world. They are called feeder fish for a reason, and where they are found you will see many larger fish looking for a snack. Again a diver entered the water with a bag of dead fish and began feeding the fish. Naturally she was mobbed by fish large and small. Our guide told us that fish who commonly hide in the nearby coral emerge when the diver appears, and since this is the open ocean, sharks have been known to attend as well. As a result there was a second diver closely watching the first in case any of the large predators arrived as had been known to happen. Hey, free fish food buffet? You can see how that would attract lots of hungry mouths.
We climb back out of the cool dark tower into the heat and sunshine to make our way to the sea lion enclosure. It is only through the care and quick thinking of the staff at Coral World that these sea lions survived the hurricanes. Of course, Coral World had a hurricane plan which was put into effect; what they never counted on was the first hurricane taking the roof off the “safe” sea lion area. Luckily the animals had moved very far back in the cave like enclosure and were unharmed. But, with hurricane Maria bearing down they had to quickly find safe space for these three very large animals. The sea lions at Coral World are trained – not to entertain, but for research. For example, if a researcher needs to know the average weight or something like that, the sea lions are taught to get onto a scale. So the staff put their training skills to use. They acquired gigantic kennels, one for each animal, and with Maria getting closer and closer, began training the sea lions to go into and out of the kennels. Not an easy task, but a day or two before it was clear that the hurricane was to hit St Thomas hard, the sea lions were trained; and the kennel doors were closed on them for the first time. It really is a testament to the staff that the animals didn’t freak out at being enclosed. Then a giant crane picked the kennels up and moved them to a more secure hurricane ready building. As the hurricane hit, a young woman, one of the staff members, stayed with the sea lions, cleaning their kennels, feeding them, etc. and everyone was safe. Wow! During the sea lion “show” we did see one stand up on her front flippers, clap, bark, etc on command. All of these “tricks” are taught to help evaluate the animals’ health. It was a very, very interesting session.
We also learned that Coral World had had a shark enclosure, but as Hurricane Irma approached (the first hurricane) and its strength became clear, the Coral World staff realized that the shark tank would flood and the sharks would escape, with a high probability of injuring themselves in the process, so before the storm, they opened the gates and released all the sharks to safety.
Our next stop was to a small petting pool. Jeff and I had seen everything in the petting pool in the wild, and in at least the instance of the starfish and rays handled them in the wild. We enjoyed watching the little kids hold the various creatures. One little boy shrieked as the sea cucumber he was handling moved. Quite funny! He shouted, “That’s alive!” hahaha!
Red footed turtles
Like I said earlier, the people at Coral World have no reason to apologize for some of their exhibits being closed and for the still obvious damage from the storms. They are working hard to come back to full strength.
The beach part of our day is right next door to Coral World, so we walk over and find a mass of people. It is super crowded…not at all enticing. Jeff and I go back to Coral World and ask our guide about renting a locker so we can stash our beach bag. Though there is a fee for the lockers she doesn’t charge us which is very nice. Unburdened we go for a short walk around the area, returning to find our group all sitting around together. Our taxi driver out was “Mr. McQuire” and he told us to take “Grandpa’s” taxi back. Soon, grandpa’s wife arrived; immediately she is adopted and we all clamor for seats in Grandma’s van.
We get back to the ship about 4:45 and have plenty of time to go up to our room, drop off our stuff, and freshen up before we need to go back down to the dock for our second excursion of the day. Jeff has booked us on a catamaran sunset cruise. First, though, we walk and walk and walked to get to the dock where the catamaran is moored. There are not very many of us so the boat is not crowded at all. Soon the rum punch and champagne is freely flowing. The young woman piloting the cat puts the sails up and we are zooming across the ocean. Jeff and I start the sunset cruise sitting in the back on benches with older folks (i.e. people our own age +) but then I go up to explore the front of the boat. Oh! This is where we want to be! I motion for Jeff to come forward and we join a lively group…wind is rushing through my hair, great conversations, glasses of champagne (skipping the watered down rum punch).
The sunset is absolutely gorgeous!!!
I think this is the best, definitely the most romantic, excursion I’ve ever been on. Everything was perfect…the people we hung out with, the weather, the sea spray splashing on us as we sailed across the ocean, and the sunset. I wanted to never get off. I think even the crew was having fun…one of the mates said this was the first time they’ve actually had a sunset recently because either they’ve had to return to port before sunset or it has been cloudy. We were late returning, but no one cared.
What a wonderful way to end our day in St. Thomas!
