Costa Rica Part 2 Dominical
Posted on | July 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
Dominical Costa Rica, not really sure what day we arrived as all the days seem to run together, I think it was a Wednesday….I know it was paradise. Every town we had been too was beautiful, lush, and welcoming, but there was something about Dominical that just made me feel part of Costa Rica. Maybe it was the house we rented, Sea Breeze Casa that stood elegantly on top of a mountain overlooking the jungle and with a view all the way to the pacific ocean or maybe it was all the animals that made it magical. I really loved our time in Dominical.
View from Sea Breeze Casa
There’s a toucan in the tree! There is another one! Snap, snap, snap… there are so many pictures of toucans you would think we were snapping pictures for Animal Planet special! (If only, wouldn’t that be fun!) Oh, what’s that… a parrot? A parakeet? There’s another one… things you could hear us saying when hanging out by the pool at Sea Breeze Casa.
Hanging at the pool
Toucan at Sea Breeze Casa
But to really appreciate what we went through to get there I need to try to explain the journey to the top of the mountain and down. We got to Dominical and were instructed to call Bob and Bee, transplants from Washington State since about 1989 and owners of Sea Breeze Casa. We were instructed to meet somewhere in downtown Dominical and follow them to the house. Okay, that sounded reasonable enough. Bob arrived on an ATV, still not alarmed as we had seen many people on ATVs as it was a popular mode of transportation in Costa Rica. As we headed out of downtown Domicical which was two dirt roads with a few shops, restaurants, bars and yoga studio on the beach, we headed “up” to the paved road and through a police check point station. Without going into too much detail, it is important for you to know that we had two cars, affectionately called car 1 and car 2 and we communicated via walkie-talkies. Although car 2 did have 4X4 capabilities, it did not have very much power. Car 1 seemed to be always leaving car 2 behind…. so back at the police check point, we got through that just fine as we didn’t have drugs or guns, but we had to pull over and wait for car 2. (there is a big hill to climb getting out of downtown Dominical). When that happened, Bob’s ATV no longer started. He hopped into Car 2 and off we went, leaving his ATV behind to get later.
Playa Dominical
Up the mountain we went, Bob was giving us directions… mostly saying, “keep going, keep going.” At every turn we were hoping (and praying) that we had arrived. Our ears were popping, the rocks, mud and lack of protection from going off the side of the mountain made the drive a little stressful. (Just a little, gets more stressful later!) It took us a good 20 minutes to get up to the house with all the twists and turns, going up and up and up… and at last we were there! I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to go back down again not just because of the beauty of the place but the drive! But we had too. Within 30 minutes we were back in the car with Bob going back down the mountain to drop him off at his ATV and for us to find a grocery store. Let’s just say that when we started to go up a hill and then we started to slide backwards on the road down the hill while, I think I can safety speak for everyone, it was freaky!, even Bob put on his seat belt at that point. Our driver, our friend, remained very calm as we slid backwards, he handled the situation very well. The 3 girls in the backseat, me being one of them, very calmly offered to walk up the hill to be picked up. We figured less weight might help. No one really said a word about it until much later…. just one of those things that if we didn’t talk about it right away, maybe it didn’t really happen and we still had to get back up the mountain now with groceries. Later after arriving safe and sound back at the house, we had a good laugh about it, sort of. Did I mention that car 2 had license plate watch? Car 1′s license plate kept dangling… actually fell off on the way to the airport near the house, we realized it as we were reaching the paved road! Luckily, we had plenty of time to get to the airport and we found it.
We have a Dangler
It happened one more time in car 2 on one of the last days of the trip, everyone remained calm, and we didn’t even have to get out of the car to walk, we made it just fine. It had rained the night before and the roads were muddier, which made it a little trickier to get up that hill. I commend the drivers, they did an amazing job! I don’t know that I could go there without someone driving me, I would not be comfortable driving on those roads myself.
In Dominical we experienced grocery shopping at the local Corona grocery store. No air-conditioning, eggs on the shelf, meat counter, limited choices and very different choices than in America and high prices on alcohol. Their alcohol distribution is run by the government, so Costa Rican beer and liquor was reasonable but anything outside of that we were going to pay for. The money conversion was quiet fun, I felt like I was spending so much money with prices like 5,000 colones for a meal, which is $10 US dollars. Money comes in 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000 bills. It was a great math lesson in converting for the kids (we had them figure it out, you know as a lesson!)
While in Dominical we went on an amazing horseback riding tour, Don Lulos Nauyaca Waterfall Horseback Riding Tour. The tour took us up the mountain to the home of Don Lulos for a typical Costa Rican breakfast and later a typical Costa Rican lunch. The delicious breakfast of fresh pineapple, papaya, potato pancakes, bread, juice and cafe con-leche. For lunch we had baked chicken, rice and beans, a salad, and juice. It was one of our very best meals of the trip. The horses were funny, competing for being the leader on the trail, many times they even began to gallop. So much fun! We were all giggling (okay, maybe it was just the girls) our guide had a good laugh at us silly Americans on our horses trying to be John Wayne. We rode to the waterfall, parked the horses and hiked to the bottom of the Nauyaca Waterfall. The water was so cold, but felt so good. Here we had a chance to climb up the waterfall and dive off… yep! As much as I would have loved to do it, I didn’t think I was strong enough to pull my weight up to climb the rocks of the waterfall. Next time! But 3 of our group did and it was so cool to watch and they loved it! What an experience!
River Crossing
Three Amigos
Whoa! Way to go Rich!
I loved everything we did in Dominical! We also went on a catamaran called the Tom Cat to snorkel off the coast of Manual Antonio Park, one day we spent the day at Manual Antonio Park, were we saw lots of monkeys, went on a guided walk through the park seeing a sloth and learning about the environment and settled on the beach to play in the water for the rest of the day.
Here Fishy, Fishy
Manuel Antonio Park
I see you!
Can I take you home?
I could go on and on about our time in Costa Rica, it was absolutely an amazing adventure! I loved the people there, the animals, the way of life. I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to get away, to experience another culture, to have the opportunity to do things that I have never done before. I can’t wait to plan our next trip… hmmm Alaska? Europe? Ski Trip?
Yeah! Costa Rica!
More pictures can be found on the gallery page, under Costa Rica.
Love & Peace,
Kim
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Keep Your Face to the Sunshine and you will Never see the Shadow - Helen Keller
Welcome to Save My Sunshine. I'm Kim, a wife, mother, amateur photographer, blogger, djembe drummer enthusiast, artist, animal lover, dog owner, beach dweller, travel junkie, tattoo bearing, positive thinker, newbie "empty nester", and a full time professional. ...and that's just on a Monday.
I write about my thoughts, things I find interesting, my tribe and our adventures. Come back often, as you never know how this will evolve. I am a work in progress and so is this site. Take a look around and stay awhile, I hope you will find a little sunshine while you're here.
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Peace & Love,
Kim xoxoFollow Save My Sunshine
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July 21st, 2010 @ 10:57 pm
I’m seriously jealous! except the monkey kinda scares me, were you afraid he’d jump on a shoulder?
I think Alaska would be amazing!
July 23rd, 2010 @ 2:00 am
Aww! I highly recommend the trip (if you couldn’t tell), it was more reasonable for us than going to California for less time! I never felt like the monkeys were going to jump on us, they were just doing their own thing. They looked a little scary through the lens with their teeth visible. But they never bothered us or anyone else that I saw. The crazy raccoons were another thing, they could unzip bags and take food, we saw it happen on the beach! They were not scared of anything. Alaska is on our wish list for sure!