It’s 10 o’clock at night.. i’m sitting under a shelter looking at the pacific ocean in the middle of an amazing storm.. driving rain thunder and lightening. We’re here in Dominical after a VERY long day of driving. We started in the very nice Biuena Vista Hotel in the mountains above San Jose.. it’s a cool old colonial style place..

(It’s a great place.. but hey need to work on their wireless security..They had a password to log in, but  they like many folks they had left default passwords on their wireless router..  took me seconds to get in ..  a hackers dream..   )

We went for a run around 6 am (we’re near the equator – the sun rises before six AM and sets before 6 PM) The near mile high elevation made for interesting running !

The view of the two neighboring volcanoes was stunning.. here’s Poas.. the one we visited later in the day..

We ran through coffee plantations.. the buds were still gren. but tasted of coffee if youbit into them.. which I couldn’t resist.

Every house had a dog it seemed.. they all gave us a friendly-ish  greeting..

We woke the boys up for breakfast in the hopes of getting on the road early.. breakfast was delicious tropical fruit. .

We were on the road at 7:30 !!! (when has that EVER happened ? ) // First stop was a zipline canopy tour near Poas..

The streets were narrow, rutted and windy.. very beutifull..

The zipline place was idylic.. in a valley.. with a new fish pond. and wonderful gardens

The guides.. (jason.. and ????) got us geared up with helmets, gloves and harnesses.  The zipline thing was AMAZING !.. They had 8 runs.. over deep canyons with waterfalls running beneath. the longest was 600 meters.. you went over 50 KPH on it.. totally mind blowing.. !  We had so much fun flying through the treetops..  

From there we drove the short 15km to the Poas volcano.. We’ve seen Arenal, the bigger vactive colcano in Costa Rica.. but we’ve only seen poas from afar.. It was worth the trip. The drive up to the park was stepp an empty.. we hiked up to teh caldren.. it was really, really coo !.

The boys created a diversion to distract the guard sodiane could through a SamStone into the pit.. I think we’d be forgivien if they heard our story.. I hope so , at least.

We then hiked back a mile to the car in the most amazing nature trail .. no real animals.. but some imagined ones.. like this stump which looked like a pig..

and a stick that looked like a snake !

We saw an older extinct crater which is now a lake.

Then it was time for our drive down south.. We stopped at a market and bought what we though
t was food..

 not all of it was edible.. liek this.. uh..m milk candy thing.. don’t ask..

Here’s Max gagging on it.

One of the porudest moments came minutes later..we have a nice stereo in the rental car.. it has and audio in port for things like ipods.. unfortunately.. it had a different input jack than we were expecting.. no prob!.. We stopped a t a local everythign store ( a Kmart !.. ina  village of about 100 people). and bought 2 2 dollar earphones.. 
Max cut them appart and wired th e two ends together as we drove to link the ipod to the car stereo.. and voila.. we had weird techno music for all or driving.. A great cohn on the fly invention moment.. )I’m so proud of these boys making ability !!!!)

The drive.. well.. it was tough.. about 6 hours of unimaginably tangled and twisty roads.. top speeds of 30 MPH.. rain, fog, pot holes.. and THIS was the Panamaerican highway that links North and South America.. t was greuling.. but fun.. we were all good passengers.. we stopped often.. laughed alot and made it here safe !.

here we are gettign passed on a curve by a truck full of horses.. they passed the gasoline truck in front of us at the same time.. Oy Vey !!!

The road truly looked like someones knotted intestines.. and  at this point. I feel like I went through those intestines.. if you get my drift..

We got to our hotel around 8.. tired bu happy.. We’re right on the pacific.. here’s the view from where I sit.. .. we’ll explore more tomorrow..

Moments after checkign in , I heard three screams .. I rushed out to find Max, Gabe and Diane all up on charis and counters.. they’d seen a HUGE roach !!!.. This place is full of life.. not all of it gorgious.. We were all lauging so hard !

There was no food open.. so we improvised.. we made nachos in the microwave.. and drank warm beeer.. Fit for the g-ds !.. Really. it

tasted so good !