Tuesday 21st November - Keep the Home Fires Burning

Today is our last day of beach boat boarding and we are not due to leave the beach until 07.15 but we have aquired the habit of 05.30 breakfast and we are there again today. It appears that the rain continued right through the night and only stopped as we set out for the restaurant. There are still rumbles of thunder about and the cloudbase is low. We breakfast with a pair of toucans - Pura Vida.

We pack and say our farewells. Caletas Lodge is a wonderful place with really good staff and excellent food. The sea is still quite rough today and a smaller boat is sent to pick us up.  Boarding is problem free but the rain has started again and the seats are wet. The crewman briefs us that after the short ride to Drake Bay we will transfer to the bigger shuttle boat for the ride to Sierpe. Again we manage to step from boat to boat as they bob around in the swell, while up front the boys transfer the luggage without dropping a single one.

 The skipper of the big boat takes it pretty steady until we pass through the big waves at the mouth of the river,then puts his foot down. He seems to be an adherent of the school of "The louder you scream ,the faster we go." A couple of sharp turns deposit some of the punters on the floor and there is an emergency stop as we run over something in the water. R probably has it right when she observes that his breakfast is getting cold. 

We extract the car from the clutches of the Sierpe Mafia and set out on the next part of our journey. This involves retracing our steps along the coast to Dominical then heading north east up into the mountains to San Isidro. Progress is good until we leave the coast. The road is narrow, tortuous and steep, with heavy traffic. We follow crawling trucks for long sections as there are no straights to pass on. In San Isidro our written instructions fail us but Gertie Google rescues the situation and gets us onto the right road. This is the southern section of the Pan-American highway, in better shape than the northern end but still inadequate for the traffic carried.

We follow the Man from Del Monte for an age until a brief opportunity appears and is taken. We climb relentlessly on an empty road which has so many bends that we rarely trouble the 60kph limit. Nearer the summit there are crawler lanes for trucks which allow better progress.

Over the summit we go and start looking for our turn off to San Gerardo de Dota. The road we need has a bit of a reputation for being a difficult drive and a couple that we met on the boat to Drake Bay  took great pleasure in telling us what a dodgy road it was and were horrified at the prospect of self driving it. As it turned out it wasn't that bad. The L option on the automatic got a bit of a workout and 4 wheel drive was engaged for a few hundred yards. Having climbed to around 10,000 feet on the highway we descend to about 7,000 in 9 km. We left Sierpe at around 27°C and here it is 15°C. For the first time on the trip it is warmer inside the car than out. The fleece sweaters get unpacked. The drive from Sierpe was just under 180km.

The Hotel Savegre Hotel, Spa and Nature Reserve is a bit smarter than we are used to. Our room is a Junior Suite with two sitting areas. Handy if we fall out. The gardens are full of flowers and there are hummingbirds everywhere. As breakfast was over 7 hours ago we feel justified in having lunch which turns out to be huge. 

One of the phrases we have learned on Duolingo is "hamberguesa de pescado". Troutburger is an option here that D cannot pass up. R settles for the largest BLT we have ever seen. Despite being starving neither of us can finish. Over lunch it has started drizzling so walking around the gardens is postponed. There is an option to take a 4x4 track up the mountain behind the hotel, which is part of their reserve, to a viewpoint which we do. It is even wetter up there but there is a view of sorts through the clouds.

R has booked herself an aromatherapy massage and goes to do her thing. D has a special job to do. The room actually has a woodburning stove with matches, firelighters and wood. Our elder daughter has some expertise with these things and recommends using paper and kindling as starters. These are the missing ingredients. If only we had a copy of the P&J. After 3 failed attempts D has a brainwave and gets some loo roll instead of paper and manages to peel a few splinters to use as kindling. This time it goes and we have a cheery fire to sit in front of.

The Savegre somehow has the feeling of an Indian Hill Station such as Ooty or Manali and the fact that we descended rather than climbed to get here does not detract from that. Caletas food has really spoiled us. The emphasis here seems to be on quality rather than quantity and dinner does not impress. Or it might be that we are dog tired. We both go out like lights before 9 p.m.