Monday, Dec 5th & Tuesday, Dec 6th to last AirBnb & San Jose Aeropuerto

Are you sick of hearing us talk about the rain yet?  Well, we certainly are tired of it ourselves.  So what a joy waking up to a little sunshine on  Monday ... it actually made me feel like doing a little work for one of my clients, which always makes me feel more normal.

And just to explain a little further, especially for Deb Carnsew, when we do extended trips like this, it is not our intention to make it purely a vacation.  It is an experiment in creating an alternate lifestyle while still keeping all of our balls in the air.  It just isn't feasible to travel and enjoy extended stays without staying connected and organized.  It's just who we are and we have no intention of giving up The Efficiency Experts.

Living room view to the rear deck from our cool AirBnb home

Modern and unique design of this AirBnb rental

We left this AirBnb right at 10:00 am and what a surprise... the rain started again.  But it was still a beautiful drive out of valley and then back onto "The Mountain of Death" road.

We neared the top of the valley in the misty cloud forest... this horse was curious why we stopped. 

It took us four hours to get down and through the mountains to Alejuela, a town north of San Jose (capital city) and the airport. Of course, it should NOT have taken us that long, but the Lady in the GPS was having fun with us again.  We ended up on some back roads that gave us the REAL Tico view of life here.  It was actually a blessing because the mountains south of San Jose are teeming with dense and varied vegetation.  And the sun came back out!  It truly was breathtaking.  We wanted to take pictures but it was quite the challenge just figuring out how to understand the Lady in the GPS.  Dennis has really evolved in this regard; it's much easier for  him to be lost and OK with it. That is, until the Lady in the GPS tells us to turn down ANOTHER crazy dirt road, and then he's DONE.  

Coming into San Jose again was a big shock after the beauty we have lived in.  Talk about traffic and crazy drivers!  Of course it had started raining again and we had a little difficulty finding our next AirBnb. In fact, the Lady in the GPS didn't have a CLUE, so we resorted to Google maps.  At one point we turned into the WRONG driveway and found a GORGEOUS home across the street who didn't even know about our AirBnB.  A hidden secret.  

CLICK HERE to check out our current AirBnB  

Our hosts, Danny and Patricia, are lovely and friendly people.  Danny is from Texas, and Patricia is a local Costa Rican "Tico".  We were looking forward to enjoying the 365 view of the the area, but gee whiz ... look  what happened.  We were completely socked in!

So once again, making the most of the situation, we decided to enjoy your FIRST Bed Picnic and TV of the trip.  But the cable TV didn't work.  Murphy's Law!  But there's always a solution so we streamlined Netflix on my tablet and found "Wildlife of South America".  It's a fascinating show and we'll keep watching it once we get home.

We woke up around midnight and we were ABOVE the clouds.  Just gorgeous views of San Jose in the valley.  And when we got up at 5:00 am... another WOW!

Break of day view at 5:00 am down the valley toward San Jose

Really... our LAST partial day in Costa Rica and the sun comes out  Please... this must be a joke on us!  Clear blue skies, only a few clouds, gentle breezes and warm temps.  Let's tell you a few more stories before we finish our last day in this beautiful country.

Diana NEEDS SUN... she's soaking up the sun on our last day in Costa Rica 

Our gracious "Tico" host Patricia (in the back of the pic) prepared a yummy home cooked breakfast.  

What an amazing view while eating our breakfast!  

ALL local ingredients (eggs from their own chickens, toast, jam, fresh veggies, watermelon juice, bananas and pineapple)

   

  We returned the 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe 4x4 SUV rental in perfect condition.

Yeah... no damage or extra charges and Dennis ALL BY HIMSELF drove 1006 KM in 14 days (which is 625 miles).  However, those are TEDIOUS miles in Costa Rica.

After breakfast, we safely drove down the mountain navigating the crazy local roads.

We're writing this post from the San Jose airport on Tuesday afternoon... preparing for a long (3 flight segments) routing home due to multiple airlines.  We have to do an overnight stay in San Francisco and will hopefully get to our hotel in San Bruno around 12:30 am on Wednesday early AM..  Our final flight should get us home on Wednesday afternoon (fingers crossed) around 3PM.  Don't feel too sorry for us... we're flying 1st class on Avianca and United airlines. We plan to enjoy each minute of the 1+ day trip home to Arizona.  More news when we're safely in the USA!