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Old 05-17-2007, 12:39 AM
Matt Flynn Matt Flynn is offline
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Default Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

We went to Costa Rica in February. We got to the airport over an hour before takeoff and waited an hour in a line with 30 people. There were three reps, each outdoing the other in sheer stupidity. How is it possible that American Airlines is still running?

Our flight was delayed 1.5 hours, so we didn't miss it. We had ten minutes to make our connection in Miami. Miami airport is almost a mile long. I had to run full out carrying my 45-lb son and luggage, which wasn't too bad until the second set of stairs. Then I was royally screwed and my chest started hurting in that worrysome raidate-down-the-left-arm way. Out of shape city. Theresa took over and we made it with a few minutes to spare.

We landed in Costa Rica uneventfully. The contrast was stark. Some guy gave us a few chocolate-covered pineapple pieces and coffee beans, and the customs agents took us aside out of the long line and escorted us to the kids line. It was only 10 people long! we had no clue how we were going to hook up with Mom and Dad save for reaching Jaco. But there they were, in the it-sucks-not-to-have-kids line. We waved them over and enjoyed the wait.

On to the rental car agency, where we paid $650 for a week's rental. That's the first shock: Costa Rica is not cheap for Americans. I lived in Guatemala for a few months in 1990 for almost nothing. My weekly room and board then was $23 US.

Mom, Dad and brother Todd hit the road for Jaco. We have younger boys and knew not to push them too hard. So we set off for downtown San Jose. San Jose is batshit nuts. It's like driving in Boston, only with really aggressive pedestrians and motor scooters. Further, there are almost no street signs. My wife can't read a map under pressure to save her soul, so we had one of those interesting husband-wife moments while big trucks tried to run us over, pedestrians kept walking right in front of us, and we had no clue where to go. Very peaceful.

We finally found our hotel thanks to a very helpful parking lot attendant and my wife's fluent Spanish. They didn't have a reservation for us and were full. No problem, we got a room nearby and walked the few blocks to the next hotel. Which was right across the street from a casino. I resisted. The food was bland; the alcohol sufficient, and we all went to bed early.

Next morning we ate breakfast, walked to the central square and other areas, buzzed into the Catholic church for water and knee for the wife and then went to the children's museum. You have to walk through the red light district to get there, but it just looks like a minor slum. The children's museum is a converted palace. Best children's museum we've been in by about 20 big exhibits and a huge margin. Really great place for kids and parents. After that we headed out for Jaco.

Jaco is a surfer town on the Pacific coast north of Manuel Antonio. Pretty touristy place, but we were there to see my brother's land development project and stay in the hotel we bought. Can you say deductible travel expense? I knew you could.

To get there, we had to go about 80km. Costa Rica is quite dry in February and much of it was brown save for the trees. The first 20km were no problem. After that we hit a huge traffic jam and three suicide bridges with one lane only. It was a polite game of chicken. The travel guide warned that in the event of a flash flood, you should not leave your car because the crocodiles would get you. I am not kidding. We finally made it after 3.5 hours.

Tucan Calvo Hotel turned out to be the minor league nuts, especially my 1/12. We had a room in the main house and a condo right on the small swimming pool. We spent a fourth of the trip in that pool playing with the kids. Great good fun. Over the next couple days we ate in town, goofed around, and generally did nothing useful.

On Tuesday Todd, Dad and I went deep-sea fishing. We took dad for Father's Day, so he got first fish. A 30lb dolphin! Better known as mahi mahi in the states. One hell of a fight. Todd asked the captain what kind of fish it was. Captain said, "Dinner!" Todd and I ro-sham-boed for second fish. It was Armageddon. After a long-fought battle with many ties (Todd and I know each other too well), Todd finally won. But did he? He hooked a 40 lb mahi and then tried to horse the fish when it ran. Broke at least a 30 lb line. Dad very authoritatively and very kindly said it was not his fault, and Todd took that as truth, as my father is careful about such things and one to believe. We also raised about 5 mahi and 8 sails, with multiple strikes and one hookup but no joy. Third fish was mine, a 60 lb sail. Boated easily. Here she is. This is the first picture of me to appear on the Internet. I was gonna show me holding the pierced carcass of a woodpecker, but the Law and astroglide convinced me otherwise.

I'm the guy on the right holding most of the fish.



Then nothing for four hours. Finally, with minutes left and Dad internally quite sad but externally stoic at not getting a sail, a medium representative of the species took a baitfish by leaping clear of the water straight up. Dad took the fighting chair and got 6 or 7 leaps including a full tail-walk, and with minimal effort landed a 90 lb sail. Beautiful fish. Pictures taken, fish released, Dad most happy. Did I mention the hundreds of dolphin that shadowed the boat and swam around and under us, or the spinner dolphin in full aerobatic display, or the pod of pilot whales that swam under and around us for 20 minutes?

On Wed night, we travelled up the nearby hills to the 330 acre development project brother Todd is working on. The entire lot overlooks the ocean. We had wine and sushi, then watched the sun set. The sunset view from the hills over Jaco looking onto the Pacific was as breathtaking as it comes. I tried to wrangle for a prebuy on the acre I was standing on and was politely declined despite the six-figure bid. Unreal beautiful.

We went into town for dinner at a local bistro. Many bottles were drunk. Jeff, the main lawyer on the project, is with us. After learning that I play poker, he is dead set on going to the local casino to play a few hands. I tried to make out like I didn't really want to go, but wife said she was sober and I was obvious. I have too many tells. We walk a couple blocks to a hotel that looks like a Days Inn past the three armed guards and head into the casino. They are playing one table of 500-1000 no-limit. That's $1-$2. I am seriously underrolled, having brought a grand total of $1200 cash for the trip. I buy in for $500.

Some hands were played, everyone sucked, I made a few hundred. The one hot waitress really liked my $1 tips for drinks and replaced my half-drunk glass (yes, glass) of beer several times. The third time she brushed her breasts on my back. That was repeated, and I pretty much got a no-hands neck massage with half-beer #6. I tipped $2. Costa Rica balla.

Thursday we went to the Monkey Bar for breakfast. Great simple buffet breakfast. Two hours, no monkeys. I told the waiter I was going to open up the Dragon Bar next door, but he didn't get it. We said goodbye to the family and start the long drive to the Peace Lodge.

Most of the way there, we stop and get directions. The guy says turn left at las cruces and right at la fuente. "Las cruces" may mean "crosses" everywhere bloody else in the Hispanic world, but it means intersection in CR, which is doubly weird because all the traffic signs say interseccion. And the guy meant to say "la puente" (bridge) instead of "la fuente" (fountain) but it was clearly a fricative and not a plosive. Fric'd us up good. Costa Rica is linguistically rich with many idioms causing even Theresa trouble. She is fluent and has many CR patients, but until you travel you cannot know.

We drove up out of the valley and into the Lord of the Rings. It was foggy, verdant green, and beautiful. We had to stop for the cows crossing the road, and then go slow following another herd up the street. The kids were getting restless, so I asked them to look for cows pooping. They found one, and I drove over the pie.

We finally made it to the Peace Lodge. Peace Lodge is the mortal nuts for rooms and sucks food-wise. Our bathroom there had a waterfall, bathtub, two showers, one a waterfall shower, double vanity, stone flooring and wood, wood, and wood. The bedroom was equivalent in size (a bathroom with a bedroom) with a canopy emperor-sized bed, two little beds, fireplace, and a sound system playing a classical mix in the eve. In the morning we played Kung Fu Fighting while Sean broke plastic boards. (His front kick is excellent now. Still having trouble with the palm heel strike, but power is increasing. My little brown belt.) The balcony had a hammock, a separate waterfall jacuzzi, and a full view of the rainforest. Peace Lodge is part museum, part tourist attraction, part retreat. We learned that hummingbirds have the highest heart-to-mass and brain-to-mass ratio of ANY animal. Poison dart frogs become non-poisonous after a month in captivity because their venom derives from eating termites and fire ants. Costa Rica has 13 species of snakes for which CR is the northernmost latitutude and 22 for which it is the southernmost. The kids each caught a trout, and we meandered along the waterfall path.

Then off to San Jose. I had a $4.75 shake at a Denny's. Theresa and I dutifully ran through the Jackrabbit Slim's dialog from Pulp Fiction. The trip home involved very polite Costa Rican customs agents and a steroid-enhanced custom prick in Miami.

The main downside were that the food is bland, and the prices are not cheap. Otherwise it's a great country. We saw a lot of poor people, but no destitute or hungry-looking ones. Everyone we met was friendly, liked Americans, and went out of their way to give directions or chat.

I suspect many Americans will retire there, and also many American doctors will quit practicing in the U.S. and go to Costa Rica to treat ex-pats if the government allows it. We're definitely going back.
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  #2  
Old 05-17-2007, 12:46 AM
edfurlong edfurlong is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Costa Rica. I totally crushed the video poker at Cocal in Jaco, so soft.

I had no clue you were spongers dad btw.
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Old 05-17-2007, 12:53 AM
xxThe_Lebowskixx xxThe_Lebowskixx is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

that water is really blue.
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Old 05-17-2007, 02:02 AM
JaBlue JaBlue is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

How'd you not know Costa Rica was gonna be expensive where you stayed? Its main industry is tourism. Beautiful country.

Nice fish, man. I wish my charter boat experiences were as good. Got skunked on a four hour trip in Alaska trolling for king salmon and landed a 75lb marlin in Mexico, but needed a little help from the mates and the fish hooked its own damn self. I feel real weird about catching something when I don't set the hook or even bait it. Much prefer streams or lakes or creeks.

Cool report. You look like Ace from some old Real World.
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Old 05-17-2007, 02:30 AM
john voight john voight is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

How touristy is it?
How are the sanitation conditions?
Will the USD$ get you 10% more in CR? Or is it about a 1:1 ratio?
Overall, are most of the places you visited family friendly (suitable for children) ie: no drunk hookers puking, etc...
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Old 05-17-2007, 03:49 AM
Artdogg Artdogg is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

you really screwed up by not going to the casino next to the airport to see the hottest girl in history, she was dressed up as a pirate when i was there last
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Old 05-17-2007, 08:03 AM
GTL GTL is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

[ QUOTE ]
How'd you not know Costa Rica was gonna be expensive where you stayed? Its main industry is tourism. Beautiful country.

Nice fish, man. I wish my charter boat experiences were as good. Got skunked on a four hour trip in Alaska trolling for king salmon and landed a 75lb marlin in Mexico, but needed a little help from the mates and the fish hooked its own damn self. I feel real weird about catching something when I don't set the hook or even bait it. Much prefer streams or lakes or creeks.

Cool report. You look like Ace from some old Real World.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know what you mean. Although certain live baits seem to take some skill, and I feel like I would be slowing things down if I didn't let the mates do it. I remember using live eel, and they would whack it's head to make it not ball up and then have it on the hook in no time. Also used virginia spot once where they hooked it through the jaw. I could do it, but not as fast as those guys. I have always set the hooks myself though which is one of the most fun parts of fishing (besides landing a monster after a big fight). That said, I have never gone after marlin, or any other fish that you troll for. I definately want to though.
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Old 05-17-2007, 09:01 AM
Matt Flynn Matt Flynn is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

ed: i'll remember to ask Sponger "who's your daddy?" when we meet.


[ QUOTE ]
that water is really blue.

[/ QUOTE ]

it's even bluer than it looks. we didn't realize until the dolphins (the non-mahi ones) started swimming under the boat.
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Old 05-17-2007, 09:12 AM
Matt Flynn Matt Flynn is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

Ja: Lots of cheap places where tourism is the main industry, including most of Central America. Even three years ago CR was quite cheap by report.

John: You can drink the water, and the toilets have seats. Jaco is very touristy, but the rest isn't. Cost depends on what you do. If you eat in the sodas you can get a good plate of local food for $3. Beer is like cheap beer in the U.S. Motel rooms are comparable to cheap motel rooms in U.S. in cost. U.S. stuff like restaurant meals, U.S. beer, U.S. products like our shampoos and so forth were 10-30% more expensive than the U.S. It is VERY family suitable. So much so that we were in Jaco for two days and I didn't notice the hookers. My mom pointed them out to me. How embarrassing is it I couldn't spot hookers Mom could see. I didn't get local prices, which is a fascinating economic subject fit for Freakonomics.

Art: We did go to that casino on the last night. You were drunk when you went, or there's been a roster change.

Ja, GTL: The mate did all the baiting and hooking, which was weird. It was $960 with tip for a full day for the three of us.
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Old 05-17-2007, 09:52 AM
traz traz is offline
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Default Re: Costa Rica trip report and my first sailfish

That is a sweet catch
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