Hola Muchachos y Muchachas!

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post, my apologies. There has been a lot going on that I would LOVE to share with you but the time is not yet right.

In the meantime, I can say that the summer “high season'“ is most definitely back which means every day dawns sunny and bright and HOT…which is how I recently discovered that it is in fact possible to get a bad sunburn on your lips.

I also now know that sunburnt lips are swollen lips… I am now rocking some really interesting Angelina Jolie-ish lips and they HURT!

Now that I see this photo, I think my nose needs some help as well…

All things considered though, I prefer sunburn over wind burn or frostbite ANY DAY!

I would highly recommend some SPF 15 lip balm for anyone who is a sun worshiper because I can tell you from experience that sunscreen doesn’t do it and this is not fun.

Okay, enough whining!

It’s been a busy week with tours and I will be adding British Columbia Canada to my Map , as well as Boston and Upstate New York.

I now also know that I have a strong Canadian accent…it usually takes less than ten minutes for my American Tour Guests to pick up on it… and I try so hard not to say “eh” too.

Oh well… Canadian and proud of it!

As I mentioned on the Joy Ride Facebook Page, one of our tour guests this week was a talented man named Sheridan who serenaded us from the cockpit with his custom made ukelele. It was the perfect accompaniment to the sound of the wind and the waves…

Here is a little video that I took for you to enjoy…

We really do meet some of the most wonderful people doing what we do!

Today we took a break from sailing to go look at an old 4 X 4 clunker so that we might be able to do more exploring. The owner was a nice young man named Josh who took us up to the top of the mountain between Jaco and Hermosa.

Chris took these photos… what an absolutely amazing view.

So in the photos where I am standing normally, that is Jaco in the background…and in the one where I am posing like an idiot…that is the strip that runs south to Hermosa and Esterillos. (the white strip you see is the surf )

The road was quite steep and rutted so our little Yaris wouldn’t have made it to the top.

It is a little hard to describe the terrain of Costa Rica to people who haven’t been here but I think these photos are a perfect example. We live in an area which, thanks to its proximity to the beach, is relatively flat but you are really never very far from a mountain…. and if you get to the TOP of the mountain, you can see them stacked beside each other with these amazingly deep valleys tucked in between.

On our first trip we (accidentally) took the route that has been knick-named “The road of death” by the locals because it goes up one side of a large mountain range, follows the ridge for a while (picture drop-offs that go down thousands of feet on either side of the road) and then goes back down the other side of the mountain using a series of switchbacks. Corners are made “safer” by the placement of large convex mirrors so you can see if anyone is coming the other direction before you make the hairpin turn Bridges often appear rather unexpectedly and are one lane wide so that you have to hope no one is coming the other direction. It was certainly an adventure and the scenery was absolutely spectacular but I’m sure that I left fingernail prints in the door jam of our little rental car.

Living in Costa Rica requires a bit of an adventurous spirit!

Well, I’m off, we have one more tour to do this week and I have to catch up on my housework…sigh.

Toodles for now and Pura Vida!

It's Been A While...