Howler Monkeys, Playa Espadilla and a Fairchild C-123 CIA/Iran Contra Cargo Plane

On September 15, we loaded Kermit and our suitcases into the car and headed off to Playa Espadilla, Quepos, on the Pacific Coast.

On the drive to the coast, we stopped for lunch at El Avíón restaurant. This is a fun place to have a meal and the view is spectacular. I ordered ceviche and Lance had pasta with clams and prawns, which he said was excellent, as was my ceviche.

You must go to the restaurant’s web page (see link above) to get views of the Pacific Ocean and to learn the history behind how and why this airplane ended up where it did in Costa Rica - it’s really interesting.

Some restaurant photos:

The bar area in the fuselage:

The restaurant was not too far away from our accomodations, Buena Vista Beach Villas, a small boutique hotel with eight units - steps away from the ocean. Many Costa Rican hotels/resorts offer excellent discounts during the green, or rainy, season. Our room was 30% off. It was a unit away from the restaurant so it was private and quiet. The rooms are comfortable with air conditioning and a large outdoor covered patio.

The staff are excellent, friendly and helpful. Loungers are available on the beach and drinks and food can be ordered and delivered right to you.

We stayed two nights. The ocean is so close that we could hear it at night - there’s nothing better then falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves.

We ate all our meals outdoors:

View from our covered patio:

View of hotel from the beach. Our room was on the lower right.

Kermit enjoying leisure time on our patio, he gets over excited.

 

Some of our delicious meals:

Beach video:

Sunset photos:

There were two doggies at the hotel - one was the resident dog (an old fellow):

And the other one was this sweet little girl. She would gang up with the old fellow to chase horses on the beach.

She lives not far from Buena Vista and when her owner goes to work, she spends her day at the hotel. Here she is keeping Lance company. She would visit us in our room and also sleep beside my beach lounger.

The local monkeys are early risers - both the howlers and the capuchins. They can be difficult to spot but I made a video of them from our patio climbing through the palms. The haunting sounds of the howlers are not something one forgets.

We are also putting together a car cam video of the trip.

Bicycles and Breakfast

On Sunday, August 29, 2021, we decided to drive to La Casona del Maiz to have breakfast. We have eaten there before and I have mentioned it in previous posts. Excellent restaurant for tipico food.

We made videos with our car cam of the drive to La Garita, where the restaurant is located, and our drive back home, with a stop to pick up some groceries.

Video part 1 - from our house to highway 118 south to Alajuela, then highway 3 towards Atenas. Bicycle riding is very popular in our area and weekends are the time for groups of them to travel the roads. This is unfortunate for those driving vehicles. We are required to give riders a 1.5 meter clearance when passing them. This puts cars squarely in the oncoming lane. As you will see in the videos, roads can be narrow, twisting and with little or no shoulders. They often do not ride in single file as they are supposed to do but in groups that occupy an entire lane. For this reason, we usually avoid the highways on weekends.

Video part 2 - Highway 3 towards Atenas. We are now in the area called La Garita where many viveros (garden shops) are located. I was told that the reason for this is because there are many aquifers here, which provide lots of water for the garden shops in the dry season. Also in this area is the Rescate Wildlife Rescue Centre (formerly known as Rescate Zoo Ave). We highly recommend visiting this worthy centre and there is a good restaurant, Kivu, on site also.

After breakfast, we proceeded north on highway 1 and eventually turn off to highway 154 east to Grecia.

Video part 3 - Continuing on highway 154 east to Compre Bien to pick up a few groceries. Then back on highway 154 east, until taking a shortcut route to our house. The entrance and exit gates open automatically with our Quick Pass system - a tag on our windshield.

I hope you enjoyed riding with us!

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - August 2021

During August, visits to this blog were received from the following 10 countries:

The total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 133. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, etc.

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The following is a summary of weather for the month in the area where we live:

As can be seen from the table, the maximum rainfall on any one day so far this year occurred in August. Total rainfall for the month was virtually the same as that in August 2020 but more than twice that in August 2018 and August 2019. If history prevails, we can expect much more rain total rainfall in each of September, October and November. Temperature highs, lows and averages were about the same as last year. 

Click on images to enlarge.