Holidays in the tropics

This winter wasn't the first time I spent Christmas away from Sweden or even my family, but it was the first time I spent Christmas in warm climate. It was weird but great! Me and Erin went to Montezuma on the Nicoya peninsula for six days. Or, it was supposed to have been six days, and it was for Erin, but thanks to USAir and my difficulties getting down here I only got four, and that was only because we extended it one day. We were joined by Christna, a German girl I met on the ferry over. On Christmas Eve we hiked up to the local waterfall for a refreshing swim. In the evening Erin had made reservations at Ylang-Ylang, a fancy beach resort, where we had a scrumptious buffet dinner. Almost like a smorgasbord! Afterwards we relaxed on the beach by a bonfire, where I danced "Små grodorna" and other select Christmas songs/dances, to Erin's and Christina's delight.

Christmas Day was as beautiful as the previous day and we took a boat tour out to Tortuga Island for some snorkeling and beach time. Simply great, although the reef where we snorkeled was small with limited fish sightings. For dinner, we went out to a fabulous restaurang called Playa de los Artistes, where we dined sitting on pillows on the ground next to the swells of the ocean, with only candles and lanterns lighting our table. Super good food, too!


After that it was back to the relative cold of Monteverde. For New Year's, we had dinner at Sofia's, a latin fusion restaurant that's very good, and then we went out to the two local bars, Bar Amigos and La Taberna. We met some people we knew and it was in general fun times!

Visitors!

The last few weeks have seen a lot of visitors! Mikael and Bengt did the right thing spending two weeks here, first coming to visit us in Monteverde, and then taking off for some kite surfing in Bahia Salinas while we regrouped in San Jose so they got to see that, too. In between I spent a few days with them in Puerto Viejo, a great beach town on the Caribbean side and soaked up some sun. We also went white water rafting which is always fun.


While they were in Bahia Salinas, Aimee and her boyfriend Matt came to visit and thus became the first visitors in San Jose. We toured the big city and hung out in our house before they continued down to Manuel Antonio.

Lastly, Emily and Joe came to visit the other day. They spent a day here before we all traveled up to Arenal to see the volcano and soak in the hot springs. We were lucky with the weather and managed to get a full and clear view of the volcano. No lava, rocks or rumblings, though. After coming back to San Jose for a few days they continued to Puerto Viejo where we'll soon meet up for a day.

The move to the city

Yes, it's been awhile... In the interim we packed our bags and moved from Monteverde to San Antonio de Escazu, a suburb of San Jose. It's great to be in civilization again! We got here Saturday of last week, so the 16th, and have since had lots of visitors, so haven't really been here much or spent much time on the computer while I've been here. But we have "real" internet now so should be online more often, especially after we upgrade our DSL which is a work in progress. Everything is a work in progress here, I've realized. Such as the PO box which I went to get this morning. They're full so we'll have to wait until March. In the interim you can use our home address for all the letters and postcards you've been dying to send! Address, along with new phone number, at the bottom.



The house is a lovely, colorful Tico style house in San Antonio de Escazu. Escazu is a suburb of San Jose and set on a hillside. It consists of three parts, of which San Antonio is the topmost. Makes for good exercise when you're not taking the bus! It's a two bedroom with a kitchen, living room and a great garden which we'll try and make even greater in the coming weeks and months. So far it's a bit sparsely furnished, but we aim to make it more cozy in the near future.




Del costado este de la Iglesia Catolica de San Antonio de Escazu 350m al norte, 150m al este y 150m al norte, Casa #44, diagonal al Centro Comunal de la Urbanizacion la Avellana.
10202 San Antonio de Escazu, San Jose
Costa Rica


And phone number is: +506 2288 4656