#natureair

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Safely in Bocas after quite the whhhindyyyyy takeoff!! 🇨🇷 ➡️ 🇵🇦 #natureair

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Dehavilland DHC 6 Twin Otter Series 300. http://goo.gl/gwRes5 I took this airplane from Tortuguero Airport to fly San José Airport Santamaria in San José. With Internet Marketing is it possible to create your own income and wealth. http://goo.gl/gwRes5 Nature Air is proud to provide the least intrusive and most enjoyable way to travel through environmentally sensitive areas with the quietest aircraft available in its class. Our recently updated fleet was selected to optimize the comfort of our passengers while improving fuel efficiency and lowering our Carbon emissions http://goo.gl/LJ6JJX The DeHaviland Twin Otter has gained international respect as an indispensable aircraft in all types of conditions thanks to its rugged construction and useful STOL (short takeoff and landing) performance. The aircraft is revered in Canada -- where it is manufactured -- for helping grant access to the harsh Northern Territory for adventure travelers. The Twin Otter has been to the North Pole more times than any other aircraft in the world, and two Twin Otters were used to evacuate Dr. Ronal Shamenski from the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, a mission that made international headlines in 2001. http://goo.gl/LJ6JJX At Nature Air we are proud to continue the rich tradition of exploration and adventure of the Twin Otter. Throughout its 20 years of service, Nature Air was the first to provide regular air access to some of Costa Rica's most remote destinations, previously accessed via long and difficult journeys over land. Today, our three Twin Otters make their home in the skies and 15 tropical runways of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama that Nature Air flies to. Video Title: Nature Air Dehavilland DHC 6 Twin Otter Series 300 Airplane Is Landing On Tortuguero Airport Video URL: http://youtu.be/I3hKIYQIDUo #Natureair #tortugueroairport #costarica #dehavilland #DehavillandDHC6TwinOtterSeries300

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Escape from Tamarindo

Yesterday was our last day in Tamarindo, and it was hard to reset to travel mode. Fortunately, we managed to get everything packed up, but we didn't quite have enough time to clean up as much as I would like. Hopefully we left the place in decent enough shape that the owners won't be too annoyed.  We did leave a lot of tasty (and expensive) food for the caretakers to eat, so I'm sure they enjoyed that!

The Christmas party we participated in (with 18 of our newest and closest friends) went really well. Brad hosted it at his condo, as there was no way we could have done it at ours and gotten any sleep at all.  I did some serious cooking - we showed up with two lasagnas, a filet from the grill, some sausages, and roast potatoes. A few people came over to the condo to help me cook before we high-tailed it over to Brad's with the food. Other people donated salads, deserts, veggies, and similar items.  We had representation from the USA, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Bulgaria.  Not bad for a rag-tag bunch of Spanish students!

While I enjoyed Tamarindo a lot, it wasn't the best place to learn Spanish, unfortunately. The school was good and the teachers outstanding, but most of the people there spoke English...if anything, the people in the stores preferred English over Spanish because they are trying to become better English speakers for the tourism industry. ARGH! The nickname of "Tamagringo" is entirely appropriate.  In any case, minor issues aside, our time there was a blast, particularly after we got to know some of the other great people at the school, and I suspect we will all be in touch in the future.

On To Osa

Today (now the day before yesterday, as I am delinquent getting this post ready), was not our most productive journey (in terms of non-important things going wrong, at least). When we got up and did the last-minute packing, the car service I had arranged through the school didn't show up. CRAP. I was able to walk over to the taxi stand, wake a few drivers up, and we got to the airport without too much trouble around 6:30 AM. That was in plenty of time for the flight. As a matter of fact, the airport was only partially open - the NatureAir ground crew hadn't arrived. About 10 minutes after we got there, we saw a dude riding his bike down the runway...and sure enough, that was him!

We got checked in, which was a matter of weighing everything (the plane was a small Cessna, which seated 15 people, plus pilots), and showing our IDs. We were 43 pounds overweight, so I got dinged for an extra $60 (not a big deal). There was no security check, no X-ray, no line...we just walked out on the runway after the plane landed and loaded up! The pre-flight briefing was conducted by the copilot, who just spoke to us in Spanish and English all of the usual stuff. Apparently since these are local domestic flights that don't connect to regular airports, they don't have the "sterile area" regulations that apply to regular commercial stuff. It was a true pleasure to fly this way! I'm not really old enough to remember "old school" flying, but I can imagine it was similar to this, an era when flights were infrequent, expensive, and exotic.

The flight was bumpy as all hell, but I don't think we ever went above 10,000 feet on either leg of the flight, so we had a great view of the countryside.  I was on the wrong side of the plane to see Tamarindo, but here's a view looking back towards Playa Langosta, and the fabulous beach that we walked to.

Tamarindo would be just to the right, about a 15 minute walk on the road.  Playa Langosta is part of the nature preserve where the turtles come hang out.  You can see the small river you have to ford to walk over to the beach proper.  That might be one of the single most gorgeous beaches I have ever visited.

Costa Rica is a beautiful country from the air...low mountains, forests, lakes, rivers...I even got a great picture of a waterfall from the plane:

The other thing you can tell from the air is the relative wealth of a neighborhood.  The texture of the roofs indicates how large they are.  In the center of this picture, on the way into (or out of?) San Jose, you can see a neighborhood where the houses are tiny....depending on the area, though, they will have power, water, etc.  I didn't venture into any of these areas in our time in San Jose, but it's clear they exist.

Incidentally, if you get the chance to fly one of these smaller props - they are a lot more bumpy than jets, but you have a huge window to sit next to with a great view, and since the flights are usually pretty short, comfort isn't too big of a problem.  There's no inflight-beverage service...but I'm sure the pilots won't mind if you take a nip from your flask now and then.

In any case...we made it to Puerto Jimenez, the gateway to the Osa peninsula. The airstrip is carved out of the middle of the town.  Not that the town is very large. Here, when people say they "live near the airport", they mean it more literally than we might in the states:

That's from the window on the plane. I think people are probably happy there are not more flights into Puerto Jimenez!

Our travel woes continued, unfortunately, when we landed. National showed up with a Yaris instead of a 4x4. This was not going to work...we had to drive to Cabo Matapalo, which is on a very unimproved dirt road that passed through streams. I told the guy that I couldn't take the car, and we took a cab into town instead. They are going to "try" to find us the correct car, but I have my doubts as to whether that will happen today or in three days. We ended up doing our shopping, and then taking a cab ride to the bungalow for $45.

[ Note - Solid found us a car that they delivered all the way to our bungalow yesterday!  Woohoo!  Now I can teach Ileana and Dyson how to drive a stick plus 4x4. Full coverage included, of course! ]

Along the way we were treated to a veritable wildlife display worthy of any zoo:

Parrots

Toucans

Racoons

Monkeys (two kinds)

Hawks

...and that was without leaving the road. There really are flocks of all sorts of animals here, and I am very much looking forward to the hiking in Corcovado park and here in Matopalo!  I tried to take some photos with my phone, but the contrast against the sky was too high and I couldn't capture crap.  We're going to have to get a new camera in Panama, since the one we brought up and died a week into the trip.

Our final challenge was on our arrival at Surfside. Apparently Pete was doing a lot of surfing and had forgotten we were coming...and the condo was a mess from the last tenant. Crap. Fortunately, he was able to hustle up the maid and he, his kids and the maid did a quick cleaning job. It's spacious, enough for four to sleep comfortably (soon to be five, with the addition of Ms. Strack), although since it's off-the-grid a lot of accommodations are adjusted to for very low power consumption.  More on that later. Its got really comfy beds, though, and I crashed at 9:00 to sleep really well.

One quick picture from the beach here...then the next post once we have a chance to explore a bit:

More soon!

D.