On A Roll....

Most of my posts lately have been about our walks...  into town; to the beach; to the grocery....  wherever.  But then, that's our daily activity.

A typical day for us starts somewhere around 5:30 a.m.   We're both "morning people", and somewhere between 5:00 and 5:30  it gets light.  If we're lucky, the howler monkeys in the valley across from us start their ...  well...  howling.  The neighborhood roosters over the hill start crowing...  the grackles come to see if the foxes left any dogfood from the night before...  sometimes the magpie jays try to beat them to any crumbs.  The other day I was able to get within a foot or so of a magpie jay...  I wondered if I'd had a sunflower seed in my hand would it have taken it (the seed or my hand?).

This morning we had decided to take the 8:30 bus into Liberia.  There are 2 geocaches there - one really close to the bus stop where we get off.  I load the GPS with the coordinates...  there just aren't that many in all of Costa Rica, so I have high hopes I'll find at least one while we're here.

As it happened, we must have walked fast into Coco, because the 8:00 bus was just arriving as we got to the bus stop.  There weren't a whole lot of folks waiting, so we got pretty good seats.  To me, a good seat is up front (I get motion sickness) where I am not over a wheel well (oh... those awful vibrations)...  and a window seat or where I can look forward.  

We've taken this bus several times now, and the route is looking quite familiar.  This time, when we get off in Liberia, at the Jumbo grocery store, I have my GPS and take a reading of the coordinates.

WoooHooo...  the cache that I'm after is only about 500' away!

There is a Best Western Hotel next to this shopping plaza...  and... oh boy!  the cache is over there.  Oh...  Look!  See that hollow place in the tree?  A perfect place to hide a geocache!

Except...  it's higher than I can reach.

About where my fanny pack is, you can see another knot hole...  hmmm...  that must be the "toe hold" the website talks about.  Bill & I take turns climbing up...  scooping out debris from that hole.

I'm fairly certain that that's where it's supposed to be, but for us, today, this is a 

"DNF"  (did not find)

Bummer!  There is one other cache hidden in Liberia, but it is about 1.25 miles from this one and we decide to wait for another day to hunt for it.

We head back to the bus station and make it in time to catch the 10:00 bus back to Liberia.

In Sardinal, a small town where the bus stops at (this is the "local" bus...  by no means the "express") we go past this tienda.  Bill loves this...  in English, it's name is "The Corner Grocery".  I mean, how much better can you say it?

After leaving Sardinal, we head up a hill...  and at the crest....

We drop down into the beach area.

While you can't see the ocean here, you can just feel the difference....

You just know you're heading to salty air, sandy beaches and a vacation atmosphere.

We got off the bus back in Coco and started our walk home.

Remember that new sign on that tienda on our way home?

Looks like it's done....  Look at all the critters (pets...  mascotas) depicted at the bottom of the words.  And...  the parrot over the door.

We got home in time for lunch...  and were ready to enjoy the afternoon.

I can't let today go by without writing about my Dad.  He was born in 1898 and would have celebrated his 116th birthday today.  He's been gone since 1983.  I still miss him.

That's All For Today!