Touchdown in Costa Rica

By fluke I managed a picture of the sunrise from 37,000 feet, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico.

Our driver Kuki stopped at a road side Soda for a refreshing coconut drink. In spite of technology's ability to throw me into a frothing rant, I am thankful for Google Translate because it was nice to be able to use it to cover the major gaps in my espanol during our conversation from the airport.  

Lush, and I don't meaning drunk! Everywhere we look its strong healthy vegetation. The weather here is how I remember Calgary and Newfoundland; If you don't like it, wait a minute. In under an hour you can have sultry warm sunshine, misty rain, a torrential downpour or a gentle nor-wester. Notice I didn't say snow? 

We can see the lake from our Lake Gardens Villa. 

The town of Nuevo Arenal has a classic Central American feel to it.  The market has great fresh produce and all sorts of staple foods: wine, cheese, rice, beans, taco chips.  The humidity must be close to 100% as my guitar was an entire semitone higher this morning from last night's tuning. I guess its swelling.

Hummingbirds are plentiful around the birdfeeder. 

Every property is well-fenced and has at least two dogs that bark as you pass by. One unfenced property as we walked back from town last night had their perros on the street and they definitely had the intimidation tactics down pat.  They ignored my "vamos!" commands. Fortunately everybody kept their temper and we passed no problema. It was a long first day and we're taking it easy today. Myra is making up a black bean dish. The sun has just come out again after a light rain and now every plant has diamond-bright drops of water on its leaves. 

It looks like we'll have to rent a car, and more than likely a 4x4, as there are many steep and muddy "roads"; what any farmboy would call cowtrails. Apparently its a well kept secret that there's a rental place in town and that we won't need to go to La Fortuna to rent one.