Pictures!

Some of you have been requesting that we post more pictures, but due to our internet connection it takes forever. So if you are interested in seeing ALL of our pictures check out our flickr account. Here is a link that should take you there...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23018042@N02/

If this doesn't work then go to flick.com and type in TheBurbAdventure in the search people section, hopefully it works!

Love you all,
REC

Costa Rica...Nicoya Peninsula

Pura Vida!!!

Considering we have been living in Costa Rica for over three months now I figured it was about time for an update on our whereabouts and continual adventures. Although the Costa Rica border crossing appeared to be a bit more "legit" than the previous border crossings, a bribe of $10 was eagerly accepted in order to allow us to cut to the beginning of a 100 person line. It was clear that we were more seasoned travelers than the fanny pack toting gringos we passed up in line...suckers! After about $52 dollars, a little hassle from the "official" Veternarian about our little precious Dogger, and a heartfelt "Pura Vida" (Costa Rica greeting) from the customs officials we had finally set foot in the land that would soon become our home.

Chad and I originally thought that we were going to settle on the Nicoya Peninsula (North Western coast) home to the infamous surf town, Tamarindo and famous surf breaks Witches Rock and Ollie's Point. Within about 3 hours of crossing the border I quickly realized that I was not a fan of this area. It was highly touristed and the terrain was extremely dry. I had envisioned beautiful white sand beaches backed by tropical rainforest's and this was essentially a desert. Due to the fact that we had been on the road for 38 days we were both eager to find a place to settle down, however I was not willing to settle down in the freaking desert. As we drove through the towns of Playa Grande, Playa Avellanas and Playa Negra I sat quietly gauging Chad's reactions, so as not to influence his decisions. I was quickly becoming overly irritated with the photo-shopped pictures of these towns that I had been researching for the last 2 years. This was some serious false advertising. The locals told me that if I come back during rainy season it would be more green, but lets be honest with ourselves, who wants to come during rainy season when you can't leave your house because it rains all day and the dirt roads surrounding you are flooded. So you are probably thinking that I sound like a spoiled brat, but honestly we didn't drive 5,500 miles to live in the desert, we could have driven 60 miles outside of San Diego and had ourselves some nice desert property. OK, enough with the negativity! We spent a couple of fun days in Playa Negra and although it wasn't a place we wanted to settle down we did enjoy ourselves while we were there. We had a chance to meet Lola, the famous and might I add HUGE pig that lives on the beach at Avellanas. It is quite the spectacle to watch a giant pig roll around in the surf, it reminded me of my late pig Louie Luau. I also enjoyed kicking Chads butt once again at a couple of games of horseshoes. As we all know, Chad gauges a town based on the wave quality and not the beauty, so THANK GOD the waves were far from world class when we were there. After two days on this stretch of coastline we decided to move further south.

The drive South from Playa Negra to Playa San Miguel was filled with horrible dirt roads and about 10 river crossings, however the Burb handled the trek with ease and as you can imagine Chad was in heaven flooring it through the rivers. The further south we got the more green and tropical the terrain became. Due to the road conditions the towns along the way were fairly deserted with very little tourist traffic. Parts of the drive reminded me of the Napoli Coast on the island of Kauai, absolutely stunning. At points the road was barely wide enough to fit one car with 800 ft drop-offs and no guard rail. I spent my time trying to enjoy the beauty while freaking out that we were going to fly off the cliff. Needless to say, after about 8 hours in the Burb we made it to the little beach town of Playa San Miguel. This stretch of coastline is among my favorite in Costa Rica, however we decided to find another place to live during our time in Costa Rica because due to road conditions and impassable rivers it is common to get stuck here for weeks at a
time during rainy season.

We stumbled upon a little Bed and Breakfast in Playa San Miguel called Escorpion Volador. It is run by an American guy originally from Philly named Brandon Rossi. Hands down, this is the best place we have stayed on our trip to date. Chad and I refer to our week here as our vacation from our travels. Rossi is a perfectionist and this becomes apparent as you look at his rooms (all teak wood and spotless), taste his unreal cuisine and hang out with him for more than a day at this little gem in paradise. As mentioned in previous blog entries, there are positives and negatives to everything in life. Although we LOVED our time in Playa San Miguel we encountered more than a few challenges during our stay here. Here is an e-mail I sent following the most adventuresome day yet:

"Everything was amazing until yesterday when Chad woke up with horrendous diarrhea and was pissing shit all day. Then we went on a hike and we walked through a mess of bees and I got stung by about seven and everyone else came out clean. I am now swollen all over but everything is fine. We slide down these waterfalls and then here comes the worst part...on the drive home we crashed into the side of the cliff. Luckily we were only going about 10 mph but the Burb with all our weight and small tires just had no traction and we slid into the side of the cliff (luckily we didn't go the other way otherwise we would have been dead). It was Chad and I and the owner of the hotel's mom. It scared the shit out of us so we went super slow the rest of the way. No mechanical problems just a messed up right bumper and the right passenger door won't open. Hey at least we are alive right? We have a local mechanic coming out tomorrow to look at it. The owner of the hotel set us up with him and he apparently knows about Burbs and may be able to fix the tranny as well. We lost second gear about a week ago so the thing definitely needs some work. We hooked up the Burb to a palm tree to pull the bumper out and then Chad changed the tire so things are all good right now. Hopefully the mechanic tomorrow will make it as good as new, ha ha.
Chad spent the rest of the day on the toilet and Rhino threw up from all his romping in the jungle. I spent all night itching my 7 swollen bee stings so basically it was an amazing day :). Needless to say we love this place. It is so peaceful and the people are great. We are going to continue on down to the central coast once the Burb heals and most likely settle there or here. I will keep you updated. Oh and I surfed the white wash and had a blast. I even caught a tiny ass wave and rode down the line, sooooooo fun, but I have a long way to go!... So today is super relaxing and the owner is throwing us a nice little party tonight, he is so great! Adios!"

...this about sums it up. Now three months later the Burb has not been the same since. We skipped out on using the mechanic and headed on our way. We are true explorers or idiots depending on the way you look at it. We met some of the greatest people during our week stay in Playa San Miguel: Rossi, Jenny, Courtney, Cheryl, Bill, Marjolein, Dan and of course we can't forget Rhino's new pack, the four beautiful Weimaraners. I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you for making our stay so memorable, you guys were awesome!

One thing that I accomplished during our stay in San Miguel was to instill a bit of spirituality into my lover boy. Chad is always such a realist when it comes to life. He is not comfortable with the notion that things may not have a concrete answer and may take on a spiritual meaning. I was told by Rossi's mother after my 7 bee stings that when a bee stings you it means that you need to just "be" in life or where you are at. Going along with this theme, Chad was hit hard with Montezumas Revenge not allowing him to move for a few days forcing him to just "be". Additionally the Burb took a little spill and once again going along with the theme needed to just "be". Rhino threw up and wasn't feeling well...just "be". OK, you get it and after a lot of
thought and criticism, Chad somewhat accepted this idea. However, true to his nature he said "screw it, lets get out of here and test the spirits". So we were on our way!