Saturday 26th November - Do you know the way to San José?
All sing along now. As it turns out Gertie Google is not totally au fait but that is a story for later.
We thank Pieter for the last couple of days and for the itinerary that he put together for us. There have been no problems of any consequence, the hotels have been good, the hire car excellent and the birding spectacular. D must also apologise for describing Pieter as Dutch somewhere earlier in the blog. He is in fact from Belgium. Back at the Hotel Quelitales we see off splendid omelettes before packing for the last but one time on this trip. Just as we are about to leave a couple of quite large birds that we have not seen before fly into the trees above us. They are Squirrel Cuckoos.
The last self drive leg of our trip will take us to downtown San José and we do know the way to go for the first part of the trip. Once past Paraiso we need to fire up Gertie in order to navigate through Cartago and on to San José. At first things seem to be going well as we take a north westerly direction through Cartago but then it seems to go awry as we zigzag up and down a series of hills, crossing the railway line several times. We climb a really steep road and near the top have to come to a stand while a man with a small truck demonstrates hill starts using a pair of rocks rather than his handbrake. Evehtually Gertie gets us onto the Pan American Highway, by now a dual carriageway. Progress is steady and the driving not too bad. We remember to fill up with petrol and make good progress.
Room 1614 is exactly what we would expect of a Holiday Inn, bland, uncontroversial and perfectly adequate. It lacks only a fridge but by now we know how to cope with this. A bucket of ice is procured and as much of it as possible packed into our thermos flask. The rest goes into food bags which are tied tightly and placed on top of the items that need to be chilled in our French supermarket sac isotherm.
After completing last night's blog entry we discover that we have a squatter. He looks a bit damp in this picture but is still with us in the morning
Pieter is giving us a bonus birdwalk this morning to make up for yesterday's delayed start. We drive down the valley to the Cafe Chumi. The owner is the sister of Jose who owns and runs our hotel and Pieter has arranged that she will open the cafe a little early. There have been recent sightings of Aracaris on feeders by the cafe so Pieter thinks that we might get lucky. We see quite a few different birds but only fleeting glimpses of an Aracari. We do get very good coffee which comes from the plantation we visited yesterday.
We move on across the dam towards Paraiso, but turn off onto a very quiet side road and park up. We are on the trail of Cabanis's Ground Sparrow, which is unique to Costa Rica, and looks like a sparrow wearing a Russ Abbot style ginger wig. These birds can be hard to spot but there is plenty to keep us occupied. As it starts to get warm we spot them but they are deep in the foliage so the photos are nothing special. Instead have this spectacularly red Summer Tanager.
Gertie directs us to take a right turn, then a left and we are alongside Estacion Atlantico from where D took his train trip nearly three weeks ago. Suddenly we realise that there are big notices saying "Reserva Para Autobus". Thanks Gertie. We turn off at the next opportunity and pick up the parallel street which seems to be open for cars. It is quite busy and we crawl along for a few blocks before turning right to see the Hotel Aurola in front of us. There is plenty of space in the basement car park and we get lucky as our room is ready, even though it is not yet check in time.
We are on the 16th floor with a view to the north which does not include the major civic buildings of the city, but we can see the rain on its way. Once we unload the car we call Adobe Car Rentals to say that they can collect the car. Within 30 minutes a chap turns up and the car is handed over. It has been just what we needed for the 1175km that we drove and a couple of days with hoses and chamois leathers should have it looking like new.
We are both quite tired and resolve to have a quiet evening, so walk a couple of blocks to a quite smart supermarket where we look for a simple supper. One aisle of the supermarket has a display of gift hampers with, to our eyes, unusual contents. Walkers Shortbread features a lot, as do tins of Herring Fillets in Mustard Sauce and Del Monte Fruit Salad. We have had wonderful fresh fruit here. Why on earth would you want tinned?
We find what we need. A Spanish tapas style pack of meat and cheese with some bread, cucumber and tomato. Our travelling survival kit will come into its own tonight. We like Gallo Pinto (Rice & Beans) but it is nice to not have to say "Not tonight, thank you." While we are in the supermarket the rain gets heavy and we congratulate ourselves on having the vision to bring umbrellas. We take supper early and by 20.00 R is fast asleep, missing the spectacular thunderstorm outside.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Costa Rica play their World Cup
group match against Japan with a kick off at 04.00 local.
Aurola is downtown! Tad drab. With a car, you could have stayed elsewhere!
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