Tag Archives: Costa Rica

Travel

Crime In Costa Rica

Church Merced, San Jose, Costa Rica
Church Merced San Jose Notice the high fence surrounding the church Photo Courtesy of Artist Hubert Steed http://www.pbase.com/hjsteed/profile

 

How about going to a country that is absolutely beautiful, but the inhabitants live behind fences, windows with bars and razor wire on top of the fences? Welcome to Costa Rica.

Judy and I went to Costa Rica recently, along with a friend that owns property there. In San Jose, capitol of Costa Rica, we were informed at the car rental agency not to leave our SUV unguarded.  If we get a flat tire, keep going, thieves there slash your tires, than come by on the pretense of helping you, but instead proceed to rob you. That’s right get a flat, ruin the rim, but keep going until you get to a service station.

Judy and I were eating at a restaurant in San Jose and I said, look at the front door. She said what? I said, there are two men there with steel pipes in their hands.  They are guarding the entrance to prevent being robbed here. Walking back to our hotel, a taxi cab driver went by and stopped to tell us, watch out for thieves, be careful. Nice.

Going to a local bank, there were two guards at the entrance, both with guns behind locked bullet proof glass. They would let one person in at a time, lock the door, search the person, than let repeat the process after a few minutes wait, so there were not too many people in the foyer.

Leaving San Jose, we found much the same thing throughout Costa Rica. Private homes with eight foot fences with razor wire on top, guards at restaurants, stores shuttered at night, windows with steel bars.

Arriving in Nicoya, we broke the rule that the rental agency gave us, leaving our SUV unattended. I parked the car downtown and looked at the street. I saw a lot of school children going home and thought, well, our vehicle should be save.

Wrong, came back thirty minutes later and all our luggage was gone.  We called the police and after much jabbering, we were told to drive to the local police station. When we got there, there was an identical vehicle to ours. Robbers had taken a screw driver to the back door lock and stole all the luggage out of this guy’s SUV.

Gone was all of our suitcases, everybody’s medicines my new Sony camera, laptop,     I-pad, Bose earphones, Judy’s Kindle and new binoculars, as well as a few gifts we had purchased.

So Judy lost all her luggage which her home insurance policy will not pay because she has a $2,000 deductible.  I have AAA and my home policy will pay for most of my loss.

After that, we drove straight to San Jose, got a room for the night and flew back to California.  Along the way, we talked to at least three people who knew of similar robberies during their vacation in Costa Rica.

One incident, as told to us, involved a case where armed robbers went into a hotel room and stole everything the tourist had, including the wife’s wedding ring.

Than after we got home, I talked to one of my former clients who had a friend that went to Costa Rica last year and was robbed at gun point while a policeman across the street completely ignored the situation. Then, to top it off, another friend of my told me his cousin went down there with his grandmother and was killed when he resisted the robbers. He was 27 years old

If you are going to Costa Rica, just be careful.

For further information please go to the following sites if you are considering a trip to the land of crime, Costa Rica.

United States Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security Crime in Costa Rica 2011 

British Foreign & Commonwealth  Office  Travel Advice

 
For all your real estate needs:
Call or email

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Real Estate Broker

(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

 

Travel

Costa Rica – Corcovado National Park

Tapir browsing in the jungle
Tapir browsing in the jungle

By Judy Pinegar

The day dawned (it was a 4:30 AM start) without rain and clear skies promised, and it lasted dry all day which I feel was a near miracle, given the amount of rain we have been encountering so far in Costa Rica. We had opted for the longer trip, by boat to La Serena Station (reached only by boat or small plane), although San Pedrillo station was closer to us, because the word was the animal “finds” were much better at La Serena.

So it was an hour and a half, out of the bay and through the open Pacific on a small boat holding 15 people  max, to a beach unidentifiable to my eye than any other, but the guides knew. With the tide out, and no dock, we landed in the water and quickly got to a huge area of old lava flow, at least 150 feet of it, before the sand and then the jungle started. At about 9 AM, stowing some stuff on shore we were quickly into the jungle and our first sighting was a Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, beautiful in black and yellow. A while further and we saw a pair of Scarlet Macaws.

Within an hour we had also seen three of the four species of Monkeys in Costa Rica, and had heard the fourth, the Howler Monkey. First was the tiny Squirrel Monkey, then the largest, the Spider Monkey, a whole family, and then a family of the White Faced Capuchin. Then we saw some cute, tiny Leaf Tent Bats, who bite at a leaves by the main rib until both sides fold in, then they attach upside down within the leaf.

By then we were back on the beach and following the tracks of a Baird’s Tapir, which had traveled quite a way up the beach, so we rapidly walked up the beach in the now hot sun, when we found a group of tourists with cameras, there he was… HUGE really, with a funny elephant like nose with a prehensile finger like structure on the end. And boy could he eat, our guide said he ate 80 pounds of leaves a day. He continued to graze, ignoring at least 20 people who got within 3 feet of him for pictures for over 30 minutes.

costa-rica-coast

Image 1 of 9

Costa Rica Shoreline

Looking up we found a White Nosed Coati, resting, after a feast of what was a nest of turtle eggs laid last night, we could still see the tracks of the poor mama turtle, and the eggshells left over, now being nibbled by Hermit Crabs. By now we had also seen the fourth species of monkeys, the Mantled Howler Monkey, and more toucans and macaws too, as well as the other monkey species. So we moved to the river, where a large American Alligator was resting with his mouth completely open (because he was lying in the sun and was hot).

A noise behind us and it was a small Collared Anteater, who however quickly moved away, our guide said it was unusual to see them. Moving back into the forest, a Three-toed Sloth was resting high in a tree, after more monkeys, we came to about four Collared Peccaries, including a baby about 8 inches long… sort of grey instead of black and so cute. The monkeys were eating and dropping many of the nuts so the peccaries were having a feast.

We came to the ranger station for a rest, seeing another pair of Scarlet Macaws, one of whom had been nursed back to health there and keeps trying to come back to get food (which everyone was forbidden to give them of course). Then a walk back through the jungle with more sightings of the same animals, to arrive at the beach about noon, for the boat trip home. It was an extraordinary 3 hour jungle hike, full of seeing fantastic mammals, birds, and a reptile in a well protected rain forest.

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.


View Larger Map

For all your real estate needs
Call or email

John J. O’Dell® GRI
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

 

Travel

Costa Rica – Dominical Costal Area – Watta Waterfall

Upper Cataratas Nauyaca
Upper Cataratas Nauyaca

November 21, 2011

By Judy Pinegar

Waking in Dominical, Costa Rica at 6:45, far before our usual time, at first we thought that the rain that had poured down during the night was still with us… but no, it was gone and the weather report said clear, but we knew better than to expect that by now.

So we packed our daypacks and waited on the veranda for our ride to the gates of Cataratas Nauyaca. It was a $50 fee for each person consisting of a full day’s tour, horseback riding, breakfast, horseback riding, hanging at the waterfall(s), horseback riding, lunch and more horseback riding back to the entrance!

But the trail (though awful, rocky and wet for the horses) was beautiful, in the virgin rain forest jungle, crossing a very green river (over a bridge) and through at least three additional streams flowing into the river. Upon arriving at the waterfall, called Santo Cristo Falls, we discovered it was a two level fall, the higher was about 200 feet high with several tributaries into a very rocky basin. You got wet from the mist, just standing there.

Walking a fairly steep trail to the lower falls, which were broader and not so tall, but falling into a swimming pool area, the adventurous (not John and Judy) jumped right in. (I would have if it had been warmer but the temperature was in the low 70’s and the water was a little cooler). The guides set up a rope and inter-tube relay to the far side where the really adventurous climbed the cliff through the spray of the face of the waterfall, and jumped to the left, falling into a pool, reentering the swimming area. By this time it had started to rain, but everyone was so wet from the mist off the waterfall or the swimming that no one seemed to mind.

cataratas-nauyaca

Image 1 of 5

Upper Cataratas Nauyaca

Breakfast was good, although simple, fruit and bread; lunch the typical “casado” of Costa Rica: chicken, beans rice, potatoes and salad. At the meal station they had a bunch of monkeys that they fed with bananas in the morning, and also two beautiful scarlet Macaws.

But the horses!! I swear everybody had a good one except me, and she was a devil!! Her name was Tequila and she acted like she had had a few shots! She did not like ANY of the other horses… If one tried to pass her she would bite, or lunge in front of the other horse to prevent overtake. If they even got close from behind she would sort of walk zig-zag in the trail to prevent either from passing us, and when they tried we would be into a race!! The first half of the trip (this being maybe my second time on a horse), I sort of let her go, but that just made her worse, so in the last half I was pulling on the reigns and shouting (in Spanish)!! Luckily we got back in one piece.

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.


View Larger Map

Travel

Costa Rica Transition Day – San Jose to Dominical

Sunset beach off of Dominical, Costa Rica
Sunset beach off of Dominical, Costa Rica

By Judy Pinegar

Waking earlier than usual (8 AM), we found another totally new menu for breakfast, this time including French toast which Ted reported as excellent (we didn’t have any). Our ride to the rental car agency (usavecostarica.com – good prices) arrived at 9:30 as promised, and we were taken to the other side of San Juan. The nice people there answered all our questions, set up the GPS and even helped John buy a cell phone or $36 (Others had quoted us over $100 to $300!).

In very short order we were on the road, although Ted scrunched into the backseat of SMALL 4-W Suzuki was a sight to behold! (And it got worse as the day wore on… not sure that was the right way to economize.) Starting out due west we came to the famous bridge over the Tarcoles River. Stopping at a restaurant with a parking lot guard (the site is also famous for car break-ins) on one side of the river, we walked on a very narrow sidewalk toward the far side of the river to see the famous crocodiles of the Tarcoles River. Although some are reputed to be up to 18 feet long, the largest (of about 8) that we saw was probably only about 14 feet long… but quite impressive all the same! It is said that the better way to view the beasts is in a boat with the guide dangling a dead chicken overboard… then you see some real action… but this was good enough for us.

Looking down on a crocodile off the bridge over the Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Looking down on a crocodile off the bridge over the Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Then off we went down the coast, past Jaco (say Hako), to Quepos, where we decided to have some lunch. The restaurant, El Gran Escape (recommended in Frommer’s was wonderful, with 6 kinds of fresh caught fish. John and I both had wonderful mahi-mahi – mine a fish sandwich and his – the catch of the day meal. Fantastic I would recommend it to anyone, and you could tell it would be a “happening” place later in the evening.

A few more Km’s and we were at Dominical, sort of a surfing village, unpaved roads, very close to the beach. We stayed at Cabanas San Clemente, on the beach, which I would only recommend to the bargain hunter willing to go sort of primitive. Unfortunately after a mostly dry day it rained quite heavily from Quepos onward and only stopped as the sun set over the beach. John took beautiful sunset pictures though. The water is not really warm, but much warmer than the Pacific in California… I am sure with some sun tomorrow I will be willing to go in!

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications.

Note most of my pictures are taken with a Samsung G20 camera with built in GPS.  The GPS tagging really comes in handy when you get home and wonder where you took that picture.  -John

 


View Larger Map
 

For all your real estate needs
Call or email

John J. O’Dell® GRI
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

Travel

Costa Rica – INBio Park and the Jade Museum

 

By Judy Pinegar

Well I was down with a head cold and John thought that he was right behind… but Ted came up with some medicine to be used pre-cold and we took it. Seems quite nice so far!! Wonderful, totally NEW breakfast again! So after a bit of a sleep-in for me and Breakfast for John and Ted, we agreed to split for the day. Ted needed to go see his attorney, and we were going exploring in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Our first stop was INBio Park, a natural history museum, a living monument to the biological diversity that has made Costa Rica famous. Paved trails lead through re-creations of several distinct ecosystems in Costa Rica. We saw several Iguanas (see picture) and other creatures.

After that we went to the Jade Museum. Jade was the most valuable commodity among the pre- Colombian cultures of Central America, worth even more than gold. The museum holds a huge collection dating from 500 BC to 800 AD. Most are large pendants, primarily of human or animal depictions that were part of presumably massive necklaces.

The museum also had a large collection of pre-Colombian terra-cotta vases, bowls, and figurines. Some of these pieces are surprising in their modern design and advanced techniques. Particularly fascinating are a vase that incorporates real human teeth and a display that shows how jade was imbedded into human teeth for decoration!!

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications

 

 
For all your real estate needs
Call or email

John J. O’Dell® GRI
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
jodell@nevadacounty.com

DRE #00669941

Travel

Costa Rica, Coffee Everywhere

A squirrel joined us for breakfast this morning
A squirrel joined us for breakfast this morning

By Judy Pinegar

The day began with another full breakfast at Hotel Aranjuez  in San Jose, and except for the made to order omelet and the typical rice and beans, every dish was a new item! Wonder how many days they can keep this up?? Today our table was visited by a local squirrel, exciting all us tourists, so of course we took a picture too.

We decided to visit a coffee plantation in the nearby hills of Jan Jose, over 3000 ft altitude. We picked the Doka Estate, out of Alajuela as they offered tours even if it rained. The drive was supposed to be 45 minutes to an hour, but after about an hour we found our taxi driver had never been there either. Luckily I had the phone number and our taxi driver had a cell phone, so we got there 5 minutes after our reservation, and the tour hadn’t left yet. True to the ad, it was a “seed to cup” tour. We learned it takes a full year to grow the seeds into a plant, ready to be transplanted to a bigger container, and another year to grow the plant to be ready to plant in the field.

The plant is more of a shrub than a tree, the top of each one can be reached by the arms of the picker (migrant workers from Nicaragua or Panama), who picks each berry individually, only when they are red, so a plant has to be picked many times, from October until February of each year. They fill a basket, tied around their waist, which when full weighs 25 pounds. A very good picker can pick 30 baskets a day, and gets paid $1.00 per basket!!

After that the berries are taken to a wash bath where they are re-measured, then dumped into a water bath. The good quality beans sink, and are exported, the bad ones float and are sold in Costa Rica!! They are then again processed so the outer red shell comes off leaving from 1 to 3 seeds and again are sorted by size into three categories (biggest is best). After that they are “fermented” for 3 days in a large open vat with some water. It is a natural fermentation, the guide didn’t know what caused it, but I assume it was natural (or wild) yeast, as she said nothing was added. The alcohol and some water is then siphoned off and shipped to another company that makes coffee liquor.

The remaining beans are then dried for 3 days on a concrete pad in the sun and are raked to turn over, every 30 minutes 24/7! After that they spend another day in a gas fired dryer, rotated constantly. They are then stored in bags for 3 months (the berry is still “green”). Then most of the beans are exported in that condition as the gourmet coffee companies (Starbucks gets 60 % of this plantation’s crop), like to do their own secret roasting and blending.

entrance-doka-plantation

Image 1 of 5

Entrance to the Doka Plantation

Then we saw a roasting room where three levels (light, medium and dark) or roasting is done. This is a very small plant as the only coffee they roast is that sold in their own tourist shop, and are the very highest quality of beans. The low quality beans are sent to another Costa Rican company to roast for the locals and all export beans are sold green.

Tastes of their 7 blends were then offered (John and Ted imbibed; I just toured the gift shop). An interesting fact was that to make decaffeinated coffee the beans are shipped to Germany, where they were decaffeinated through a water process at NO cost, because the German company sells the Caffeine all over the world for other purposes. Doka Estate only pays to ship them over and back to Costa Rica. But again this is a very small % of the crop.  All in all it was a very interesting tour taking about 2 hours whicha I would recommend to any visitor.

You can buy their coffee by mail order here is their website   Doca Coffee Plantation

Judy Pinegar is a writer and her articles have appeared in numerous publications
.

 
For all your real estate needs
Call or email

John J. O’Dell® GRI
Real Estate Broker
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
jodell@nevadacounty.com
 

 

Travel

Costa Rica Vacation Day One, San Jose

Post office building San Jose, Costa Rica
Post office building San Jose, Costa Rica

 

By Judy Pinegar

Well, really day two, but getting in last night an hour before midnight doesn’t count!! The trip didn’t start too well as they held us for an hour in Sacramento while they fixed some computer problem. This caused us to miss our connection in Denver to go to Houston. When we got there we were told we had been rescheduled on Continental, but arriving at that gate we found it was NOT reserved. We were then put on “standby” but luckily got on anyway. Then somebody had a medical emergency (heart) on our plane, but (also luckily) there were 3 Doctors on board.

The Hotel Aranjuez in San Jose is very nice and inexpensive too. Wonderful FULL breakfast included with a double room (actually two beds and a bath) for US$ 48.00. It is within walking distance of the main downtown, which is what we did today. …oh and RAIN…did I mention it was raining… (pouring) most of the morning? John and I were prepared, but several hours into it Ted realized his windbreaker was not waterproof (duh)…but tiendas (shops) abound so we found a nice waterproof Adidas jacket with hood.

museum-rafael-angel-calderd

Image 1 of 9

Rafael Angel Calderón Museum

Our walking tour started with the Rafael Angel Calderón Museum, Costa Rica’s (CR) President from 1940-44, and the social reforms he helped to create in that time period. Educated in Costa Rica and Belgium as a medical doctor, Calderón soon turned his back on the conservative coffee elite to address widespread poverty and poor health conditions among the working poor. He became the first Central American president to primarily focus his attention on poverty and deteriorating social conditions.

Continue reading Costa Rica Vacation Day One, San Jose →

Bits & Pieces, Real Estate

Rush Limbaugh Sells New York Upper East Side Apartment for $11.5 Million

Rush Limbaugh railed against proposed New York tax hikes last year, and vowed to leave the city for good. It took a little while, but Limbaugh has now unloaded his ritzy Manhattan condo for about $11.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Although Limbaugh wanted $12.95 million for the Upper East Side apartment, he still comes out ahead on the deal. The conservative talker paid less than $5 million for the place in 1994.

Limbaugh hosts his top-rated radio show primarily out of Palm Beach, Fla., where he lives full time on a palatial beachfront estate. But Limbaugh occasionally treks to New York, where several of his staffers work. These days, Limbaugh’s fill-in hosts are more likely to use the New York studio.

“Basically I go to New York now for hurricane relief, whenever a hurricane hits,” Limbaugh said on his show in March 2009.  “No other reason to go there.  Well, sometimes I visit the overrated staff, but it would be cheaper to fly the staff down here to visit me than to pay these stupid tax increases!”

Even if Limbaugh traveled north only for hurricane relief and staff visits, he had a nice place to crash in the city. The Fifth Avenue spread includes four terraces, double living room, large media room and Central Park views, according to Corcoran’s real estate listing.

No word on whether or not Limbaugh will also make good on his threat to flee the country to Costa Rica for medical treatment  if the health care bill passes. It is said after he made the statement that he clarified saying he would go to Costa Rica for health care. I guess he may want to go there for the following reasons:

“Fact: Life expectancy in Costa Rica for men is 76 years and for women 79.8 years, both longer than in the USA. Also the infant mortality rate is a lot less in Costa Rica in comparison with the USA. The UN (United Nations) has ranked Costa Rica’s public health system within the top 20 worldwide and the number 1 in Latin America!

With a network sponsored by the government with 29 public hospitals and more than 250 medical clinics throughout Costa Rica, the Social Security System (CCSS) has the primary responsibility for providing health services at low costs to the Costa Rican population. Not just available for Costa Ricans, the CCSS also provides low cost medical service to any foreign resident or tourist. Foreigners who live in Costa Rica with a residence can join the CCSS by paying a small monthly fee or another option would be that they can buy an inexpensive health insurance from the Insurance Company (INS) which is owned by the State valid with over 200 affiliated doctors, hospitals and pharmacies.

The hospitals and doctors in Costa Rica have the latest equipment, and the laboratories are simply perfect. You can feel secure having most operations here in Costa Rica without having to return to the U.S. or Canada. Most operations, such as surgical procedures are a lot cheaper here! A quick example, a heart bypass costs about 1/3 of what you would pay in the USA and the professionalism is the same or better.”  Source: Century 21

You can draw your own conclusions as to why he wants to go there.