Leaving Costa Rica

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

I had been cycling for many days, occasionally taking a bus but mostly making my way on the bike. When I started it seemed like it was going to take a long time to get anywhere, but later when I checked a map it was hard to believe I was in the middle of the country, and then I was getting close to the Nicaragua border.

We started by driving through more open green spaces and agricultural areas.
its really pretty in this area
more green fields

The last leg from Playa Hermosa though looked questionable. I knew it was more than I could bike in one day but there didn’t look like there were any towns or possible places to stay along the way. I have a tent for emergencies, but spending the night in the countryside in a tent wasn’t really what I wanted to do. So, I decided to take a bus to the border.

After a while the land turned to parts that looked untouched
there were miles and miles and miles of this untouched land with no houses or towns along the way.
it was very pretty, but if I had needed anything, even a drink or a snack, there was nothing available.

I was very glad I had made this decision. I was correct that there was nothing out there but untamed land. There is the Parque National Santa Rosa, and then the Parque National Guanacaste. Beyond them is the town of La Cruz which might have a hostel or two but was definitely farther than I could ride in a day. I was safe and comfortable on a bus that would get me to the border in plenty enough time to bike from there to the ferry to Ometepe Island.

More and more miles of untouched land
after a while it turned more jungle like with bigger trees

We made it to the border in a couple hours, a distance that would have taken me a couple days to cycle. It was also hot, windy, and sunny so I know the weather would have been a challenge. With the bus though, I was at the border fresh and ready to go.

The border crossing went wonderfully smoothly. I paid my $7 exit tax out of Costa Rica, took the receipt to customs where there was no line, and was stamped through immediately. Then I rode a short ways to the Nicaragua border where I was shown to the first stop. They took my temperature by shining a little red light on my wrist, pronounced me fine and gave me a small piece of paper. Then I was sent to customs where I paid $1, I am not sure for what. I took that receipt, the filled out customs form, my health paper and again with no line, gave it all to the agent who asked me where I was going and stamped me through. The next stop was baggage check where they took one look at my loaded bike and just waved me through. The final stop was leaving the area for the open road where an agent checked my passport, asked where I was going, and welcomed me to Nicaragua as he sent me on my way. I don’t think it even quite noon and. I was ready to get rolling!

 

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Playa Hermosa at Sunset

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

I had a really good time at Playa Hermosa, nice friends, comfortable home, beautiful area, what’s not to like! Of course while I was there we needed to walk down and check out the beach. Sunset is my favorite time because it is beautiful and the setting sun doesn’t threaten to burn me.

Playa Hermosa is one of a number of lovely beaches in the area. There are also resorts and many expat homes here.

The setting sun was really beautiful and peaceful.

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We passed by a hotel to wash the sand off our feet. I loved how they had built the hotel around the huge trees.

I really enjoyed my time at Playa Hermosa with my new friends. Sometimes it is interesting to find out how much you have in common with someone. Steve and I were both in home health, had made side roads into computer work, and we enjoyed photography and art, to name just the highlights. He and his wife wanted to meet on their visit to Panama but I had already left on my cycling tour. Who would have thought that we would meet in Costa Rica instead! Check out their blog here http://stevesexpatblog.weebly.com/

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Nicoya to Playa Hermosa

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Wednesday, my objective was to bike from Nicoya to Playa Hermosa where some friends offered to host me for a while. I was so tired the night before that I fell asleep before 8pm, so I woke up shortly after 5am. I packed, checked emails, but wasn’t feeling like eating at that early hour so I was on the road a bit before 6am. It is nice to get such an early start in the cool morning air. I was almost chilly the first hour, and I tend to look around a lot more when I’m not trying to keep my face out of the intense sun.

Like yesterday, there were a lot of green open spaces.
I like this one with the morning sun glowing from behind the tree.
there were some hills but thankfully the road went through the rock walls and not over them.
The roads were excellent

It was interesting to be out so early. There was some traffic on the road, but if I had any ideas of stopping for breakfast in an hour or two I was out of luck because nothing was open. The cool air was really nice though. I had also been warned to get an early start because it was expected to be windy in the afternoon. I could already feel the wind picking up by 7am. This is unusual because this is not the season for wind.

Just another pretty morning scene
horses playing in a field
i saw a truck full of pots and pans. Guys were loading up with supplies from the truck and taking to the streets, like this man who I came across a little later.
after a while I started seeing more and more sugar cane

The time went by, the miles went by, the sun became higher, and the wind got stronger and stronger. Thankfully there was only a few spots where I was facing it head on. Most of the time it was partly or fully from the side and at least the terrain was quite flat. I listened to Seven Years in Tibet on my MP3, and his account of escaping from a prison camp in India by trekking through deadly cold conditions in the Himalayas, often with minimal food, that made my heat and saddle soreness seem quite insignificant.

More green fields
more sugar cane
these oxen were working along side the machines
the pretty scenery continues

Today was a 50 mile day which went very well, but the last few miles were the most challenging. As I got close to my destination the road began to climb, and climb, and climb while I was hot and tired. Another cyclist gave me a big cheer of encouragement, not knowing that I just walked the last section. But, eventually I reached the top but then faced a really intense downhill. I took it a bit slowly and checked my bike part way down, and my rims were too hot to touch. I waited a while until they were cooler and the discovered, thankfully, that I was very close to my destination. The directions to my friends’ house were excellent and I didn’t have any trouble finding them.

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There was a great reward at the end of the day – good friends, a very comfortable house, and even a pool!

I can’t believe I have made it to the other side of Costa Rica! The plan now is to rest for a day at my friends’ house. Then I will bus to the border rather than risk a need to spend the night in a rather remote area. Once at the border I bike into Nicaragua to Rivas and catch a ferry to Ometepe Island, my destination! I am really excited.

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The Ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Tuesday morning I woke up in Puntarenas bright and early because my plan was to take the 6am ferry across to Cabo Blanco, and then bike to Nicoya. There was a lot of rain the night before and the morning was cool, calm, and soft in the gray light.

On the boat, ready to leave
my bike was parked down there with the cars. It was 1005 colones for me, and 2000 for the bike.
Beautiful, peaceful morning
a pelican sits nearby
I live the islands in the gray distance
we leave Puntarenas behind
another ferry heads across the water
We pass beautiful, peaceful islands
there are interesting islands in the distance

The passage across the water was really nice. I was glad my friends gave me the idea of taking an early morning ferry because if I had landed over there late in the day, there might have been a problem finding a place to stay. It is a beautiful place, but not exactly a tourist destination with hostels and cabanas.

Coming in to Cabo Blanco
they carefully bring the ferry in to the dock and line it up with the ramp.

All good things come to a close. We docked, I walked my bike off the boat and proceeded on my ride of the day. This part of Costa Rica reminded me more of Panama. There were a lot of open spaces, agricultural farms with rice and cows, and a lot of the vegetation was very familiar.

These amazing trees caught my eye
a couple more of the amazing trees
There were a lot of open, green fields
Cows grazing in a green field with the water in the distance make a beautiful scene
cattle farm
Just another pretty scene

The ride went well, though it was long and pretty hot by the time I rolled into Nicoya after just over 47 miles. Nicoya isn’t an especially interesting town, IMO, just a working town with the usual essentials. I was lucky to find a really nice place to stay though for 1200 colones (about $22.50).  I showered, had something to eat, spent a bit of time on line, and fell into bed about 8pm. Before I went to sleep though I took my tablet out by the pool and enjoyed this beautiful evening sky and then the rising full moon.

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Exploring Jaco, Costa Rica

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

When I land somewhere for the night, I am usually too tired to do any exploring or anything not essential. In Jaco, however, I knew I was facing a couple major climbs so I decided to take the day off and bus to the next destination. This allowed me some free time to look around the town and take my time. I also needed to find some inner tubes for the bike.

I like Jaco. It is obviously a destination for tourists, but it is an attractive town with lots to do and lots of fun things for visitors. I biked down the main drag, and then headed down a side street leading to the beach.

The beach is beautiful, and there were quite a few people out enjoying themselves.
Pretty as a postcard
there was a pool of water on the beach making pretty reflections of the palm trees.
the beach was beautiful looking in the other direction too.
there are pretty trees as well as open space at the beach

After the beach, I biked through town a bit.

Just a couple scenes in town
the Main Street in town

I learned there was a bike shop it town, but it didn’t open until 9:30. When I arrived, the guy was just unlocking the shop and starting his day. He didn’t have the size tubes I needed but he directed me to another shop nearby. When I arrived that guy was also just arriving. Thankfully he had exactly what I needed, and I bought three just to be sure. He was a really nice guy and we ended up talking for almost a hour!

Condor puts on his most serious face as he poses in front of his wall of photos with famous cyclists and other racing awards. He says they always come to the races in Chiriqui every year. He has my contact info so with any luck, he will get in touch and maybe we can host one or two of the team!
Condor in front of his shop.

After I bought the tubes I headed back to the hotel, where I was told the bus would be by around 11:15. I think I have very bad bus karma! I waited, and waited, and waited…..   Another family arrived at the bus stop about 12:30 and said the bus was expected at 1:00. There was no covered bus stop and I got sunburned. But, I also got to watch the spectacular macaws. They were in the trees making quite a racket and occasionally flying around. When they fly they are fast and only silhouettes against the sky, and when they are in the trees they are hidden in the leaves. But, one time I was lucky and spotted a pair I could actually see!

Macaws in a tree
they are so colorful and so beautiful

Eventually, at one minute before one, the bus arrived, my bike was loaded underneath, and we were on our way. When I saw the couple long and high hills we had to climb I decided the wait for the bus was well worth it. This was the first day I didn’t bike and I (and my sore seat) needed the rest, and with the bus I would easily make my destination in time for a good night’s sleep. And, I had a lot of time to watch the wild macaws which was a real treat.

 

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Costa Rica, going to Jaco

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

I was in Quepos under orders to take a rest day. I spent the evening there doing pretty much nothing, but woke up early the next morning feeling much better. By 7AM it was clear that I wasn’t getting back to sleep, and I could not see spending a day lounging around. I was anxious to get back on the bike and figured if I really did need a day off, I could rest at the next destination.

Leaving the beach of Quepos behind
there was some beautiful scenery. I love the green rice fields.
not only was this a beautiful spot, there was a mango tree next door so I had a lunch of excellent mangoes.

It wasn’t long before I found myself peddling past miles and miles of palm trees.

A palm oil processing plant
there were roads leading into the palm trees that looked like they led back into the depths of the shady palm plantations. From the bus stops and signs, there are homes and whole town back in the palms
cool bird on a wire. I don’t want to say he is a kingfisher without my bird book
Eventually the palm plantations were mostly behind me and the terrain changed to a more untouched look.
but also, there was an occasional mansion, mostly as I got closer to Jaco.
there were tons of cyclists on the road. They went past me in one direction, then another, back and forth until one decided he had seen me enough times to ask where I was going. He said they were out training for competition. There were also tons of motorcycles, many large, noisy Harley’s, and a few going at very high rates of speed.
I had been hearing the surf for a while and knew I was close to the ocean, and soon I got a glimpse of it.
coming in to Jaco was so pretty, excellent road and really nice scenery.

I was getting tired and thirsty, so I was happy to see this ahead. When I got close though, I could see there was a lot going on! There were horses outside and tied up across the street, some of them with guys on them, women were arriving in their best cowgirl outfits, live music was inside, and the place was packed!

imageThere is a Playa Hermosa just before Jaco, another tourist oriented beach area. Do you see the sign in the middle for the Katlin Hotel? Right above that you can see two bird silhouetted against the sky. They are scarlet macaws! They are hard to photograph because they are fast in flight and hidden trees when still, but you sure can hear them. They are very noisy, and very spectacular if you can see their colors! I will keep working on catching them with my camera.

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I left the macaws behind and peddled on, climbing higher and higher. Once I saw the views from up there I was happy to have done the work. It was gorgeous with a number of different lookout points!

What is there to say about a view like this?
looking back was beautiful too
the road comes back down through rocky hillsides.
so pretty
my zoom caught a guy fishing down there
The town of Jaco comes in to view

I like this area a lot, and I liked the town of Jaco. I need to go fetch photos from the camera and put something together about it, so stand by for more.

 

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Costa Rica, Uvita and Quepos

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

We got up in Playa Tortuga (whatever morning that was) with plans to cycle to Dominical and maybe Quepos if we were up to it. Little did I know what lay ahead. At this point I had cycled about 135 miles in three days, more than I had ever done before. Today I learned the importance of carefully checking the route ahead on the handy site http://www.cycleroute.org. If you see something like this with all those red spots, you are in for a difficult day.

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But, as we set out I was blissfully ignorant. I pushed up the first hill, and the next, but soon there was no pushing except on foot and even on foot they were challenging! After each uphill there would be a hair raising downhill (please no blown tires!) followed by another climb. That last climb at about 10 km, I think that one did me in.

We straggled in to Uvita, Elsa tired and me totally spent, sweating so much my clothes were literally dripping. We sat in front of the supermarket to regroup for a while and then decided in the interest of me surviving the day, I was to go on by bus to Quepos. First though we went all over town looking for inner tubes, to no avail.

Recovering at the supermarket

Recovering at the supermarket

So, Elza left me at the bus stop and headed down the road. I waited at the bus stop, and waited, and waited….  One bus was only going to Dominical and told me to wait for the blue bus. After I’d been waiting more than two hours another came, not blue but saying Quepos on the front. He said he didn’t have room for a bike though. Not underneath in baggage??  Oh, ok. He opens the back compartment, perfect for the bike, loads it up, and off we go. At least my clothes had dried by this time.

On the bus
the bus turned off and drove through Dominical
this is obviously a beach, surf, and fun tourist spot.
Back on the road
the bus turned off in another small town. It had to go over a bridge like this both coming and going, and it creaked alarmingly.
Just some pretty scenery

Quepos is an interesting little town, definitely tourist oriented for the Manuel Antonio Park nearby. My first objective was to find inner tubes for my bike.  As I was riding around following various directions I had been given, I rode by a nice looking hostel. All I really wanted was a shower and sleep so I was happy to book a room there.

I should have taken some pictures of Quepos but I was too tired to think of it. I bought some bananas and coconut water, about the only things that sounded appealing. I had no luck finding inner tubes. It was Saturday afternoon and one shop was closed already. Another didn’t have what I needed but they would be in on Monday. Maybe there were some at a hardware store? But, I was too tired to look any more or understand half of what was being said to me.

ELza made it in not too long after and we met in a bakery down the street. She was going to stay with the bomberos, but also stopped by to visit me on her way to turn in for the night.

I was having second thoughts about going to San Jose. I didn’t really need to go and it would extend my trip by a few days, no big deal except when you have a husband at home who you look forward to seeing again soon. So, it was decided that I should rest a day in Quepos and then proceed up the coast. Elza would take off the next day so she could get to San Jose in time to see the head guy at the orphanage she was planning to visit before he left town.

I enjoyed the WiFi to catch up with some things but didn’t get much else done before I couldn’t stay awake any more.

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Playa Tortuga, Costa Rica

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Our cycling trip through Costa Rica continues. On the road, the days don’t mean nearly as much. Which day is this of our trip? What is the day of the week? The date? Who knows!

I have been falling behind on posting anything. For me this is a challenging trip and most nights I want to touch base with family and go to sleep. But, little by little I have been sorting photos and putting things together.

On our way tonPlaya Tortuga, we stopped here for a break. Eliza was cooking some fruit and oatmeal when we heard a big pop, like maybe the stove had done something. It wasn’t that though. It was my front tire 😦 I got to spend a lot of that break patching a tire.
Tire fixed, pumped up to the best of our abilities (hers more than mine) we continued rolling along. Elza was pursuing her dream of finding a papaya here, and successfully.
The river behind our cabaña
the road to the beach.

By the time we rolled in to Playa Tortuga it was afternoon, and I was very tired and about melted. Elza got a lead on a cabaña so we went to look. It was fine, $20, had a bed, water, electricity, and WiFi. What more does one need? Well, maybe WiFi that does need a cord connection that didn’t fit my iPad, but he let me use his computer to at least get a message home.

We couldn’t be this close to our first beach area without paying it a visit, so after we showered and rested a bit, we set out for the beach. It was definitely worth the trip!

My bike made it to a Costa Rica beach!
Elza tests the water

Unfortunately it seems my patched tire wasn’t holding air very well but I was too tired to do anything with it, so we ate and went to bed. The next morning I put in my spare tube, pumped it up, and it promptly went flat. We got some water and couldn’t find anything leaking. We did find a small leak at the patch of the repaired tire though. I hoped the new tube lost air because I had left the pump attached, so I put it back on and hoped for the best. Thankfully it seemed to hold. I am getting enough practice at changing tires! Since this was my last tube though and there were none to be had in this town, I couldn’t afford to have any trouble with it.

Tire changing
our bedroom
the living/dining room
the grounds are beautiful

Bikes loaded, tires adequate, we set off stopping at a gas station on our way out of town to get my tires inflated to proper pressure, thankfully. I’m sure it didn’t help yesterday that I was peddling in that heat on a tire that was low, which takes more energy to peddle.

Hopefully today would be better. Little did we know!

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On the Road in Costa Rica, Day #3

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

Here we are again, cycling through Costa Rica. We were lucky last night to find a simple but charming little cabana which even had air conditioning! We were so tired that we went to bed early and woke at first light. We ate a couple plantains, packed our stuff, I put on my still wet biking clothes and hit the road. It is definitely better to get out early because afternoons get so hot.

There are so many palm farms in this area. This field of young plans caught our eye because it was so pretty.

Today, our goal was to reach the beach. The ride started out fairly smooth but after a while we were going  up and down hills again, not bad ones but enough to make you work.

Eliza spotted some great coconuts by the road

This pretty field was across the street, and the cow didn’t give us much of a look,

Pretty coconut tree

There has been a lot of traffic on the roads at times, and a lot of big trucks. Thankfully they are polite and move over when they pass. For a while the roads were heavily patched and bumpy in places, but later we had great roads, smooth and wide enough for everyone.

We continue to pass palm farms, some beautiful and tall, and others green and open with young trees.

Elza’s sharp eyes spot some huge mangos on a tree.

There were only a couple usable mangoes on the ground but they made a delicious snack for us

Elsa goes for a panoramic shot

When we pedal in to Coronado, Oso, we know we are getting closer to our goal of the beach. This beautiful river runs into the ocean not far from here.

This is the view as we cross the bridge into Coronado, Oso

We spend a bit of time in Coronado at the Movistar office. I bought a chip for my iPad with some internet time, but my tablet was showing no service for a while. I could get an explanation for how much data or time I had bought so I figured I might be out of time. The poor gal at the shop had such a hard time! They can deal with phones, but they don’t know how to recharge a tablet that doesn’t make phone calls. Finally after another guy did something on his phone, and we put the chip in her phone to call it in, the put the chip back in my tablet, things were working again! But even then as we pedaled along Internet has been very spotty. It works in some places, but unfortunately hasn’t been working where we spent the night last night or tonight.

So anyway, we we’re finally on our way after losing some valuable cooler morning time. The terrain seemed to change now with less farms, more natural areas but vegetation that was generally shorter than it had been before. The road was very nice and fairly flat for a while too.

We pedal on going west towards the beaches

After 2 1/2 hours of peddling and not much breakfast we figured we should stop for a break and something to eat. Elsa got out her nifty little beer can stove, mashed some papaya we had picked up with some plantains, cooked it with some oatmeal and it was really good. As she was cooking though we heard a pop and a whoosh and my front tire blew out, just sitting three in the grass, for no apparent reason! Thank goodness though, rather than when I was sailing down some hill.

I spent part of break time patching and changing the inner tube.

We didn’t spot any wonderful break spots by rivers or other scenic spots so we decided to just use this spot under some big trees.

Elsa spots some likely papaya trees along the road

We did find a couple fallen fruits that look like they will be ready tomorrow. Then, we pedaled on but it was getting into the afternoon, and it was getting seriously hot. I was starting to feel very wilted and we hadn’t been able to inflate the tire to full pressure so it was hard going. I made it up the smaller hills but walked any of the bigger ones.

We finally pulled in to Playa Tortuga and that was as far as I was going to go for the day!! Today was only 35 miles but it felt like as much as the other 50 mile days. We were lucky to find a nice cabana though, and after a cold shower, a few liters of water, and a bit of rest I was feeling more like myself. We set off in search of air for the tire so we could fully inflate it, and then we went to the beach.

There is no internet here so I am writing off line again, and now it is late and I am going to bed! The beach was lovely though and there will be pictures coming soon.

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On the Road in Costa Rica, Day #2

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Kris Cunningham

We stayed with the Bomberos last night, and woke up early this morning. It got light. My air mattress slowly deflated itself during the night. And, we were anxious to get going knowing it only gets hotter with each passing hour. I grabbed a banana and water, and off we went only to find out we we’re locked in. But one of the sleepy guys answered our ring and unlocked the door for us.

The bomberos are really good guys

The start of the day was very pleasant, cool, and quit flat. We passed a lot of these palm farms growing palms for oil.

There are so many of these palm tree farms for Palm oil

Elza is always on the lookout for something yummy along the road. She spotted this coconut tree with coconuts within easy reach. The home owner said he has lots and they don’t usually do anything with them so he was happy to let us have as many as we wanted. We each drank a couple and filled our water bottles with coconut water. Not only is it really good, it is really good for you and especially good for hydration.

Elza cracks open the coconuts

 

Then the pro brought out his machete and opened as many as we wanted

After refreshing ourselves with coconut water and filling our water bottles with it, we continued on enjoying some gorgeous scenery.

Beautiful scenery

Just after I snapped this photo, Elza noticed her back tire was flat. She had the tire off in a jiffy, the hole patched, and everything out back together so we could continue on our way.

Stopping for a tire repair

The upside was the wonderful scenery!

Beautiful views

We crossed a lot of rivers and they looked so inviting. Most were too far down to be accessible but relaxing nearby is good too.

Water break by a river

Really pretty scenery

By now I was starting to feel really tired and I was walking up the bigger hills. It was a good thing here or I might not have noticed the cacao trees.

The fruit hanging on the tree trunk is the cacao fruit filled with fruit and those seeds that eventually become chocolate.

By now we were pretty warm so when we saw this river with a road leading down beside it, we had to go check it out!

Elza cools off in the river.

The dogs cool off in the river

There were some women and children on the other side of the river enjoying the day

We could have stayed at the river all afternoon but it was time to move on. We got back on the bikes and peddled on. Elza was ahead of me on a hill when I heard her holler excitedly. There was a plantain tree (at least we think so, or it could have been an unfamiliar type of banana). It had fallen over and the big stalk of ripe fruit was lay by the side of the road! Elza had bee dreaming of finding bananas ever since she started her Central American trip.

Look at all that fruit!

Elza is thrilled with her find! Some of it was past its day but a lot of it was perfect and ready to eat.

Many had perfect white, sweet, delicious fruit

This fruit was really good for me. I had been really dragging and the hills were doing me in. I had three plantains and more water and started to feel better almost imediately! I hadn’t had much to eat and didn’t even think about the body’s need for fuel when asking it to do so much activity.

We pedaled on with more enthusiasm and speed helped by the food and the decrease in hills to climb. Of course when we saw more coconuts we were not about to pass them up.

These coconuts were amazing, full of lots of juice and it was sweet and wonderful!

Right next to the coconuts was a tree loaded with star fruit. It was just a little tart and really good.

I should also mention the mamonchinos that are ripening everywhere. Elza had picked some which we enjoyed eating. It wasn’t long after this rest break that she spotted some nice red ones. The home owner not only gave us permission, he came out with a rake to grab more fruit than she and I could fit on the bikes. My front basket was overflowing with them!

A pretty spot where we took a rest break

We continued to find some hills but not as many as earlier in the day and of course the scenery continued to be beautiful. We were getting tired though and there was very little on the road except the homes of the local people. When we saw a sign for “Cabanas, Waterfall Lodge” we went for it. Down a dirt road we found this charming little place, $10/night.

Waterfall Lodge, our home for tonight

We crossed one river getting here and we’re told that there is access to the river farther down the road, so we went out for a walk.

Another very pretty river

The guy apparently rides through the river to get home.

The beautiful butterfly was by the river

This huge grasshopper was also by the river

We walked through here on our way back from the river

Some of the neighborhood homes

Across the street is another palm farm

It looks so free, pretty, cool and peaceful in there

These are some of the seed pods that are harvested and processed in to oil.

So, that is the news of the day, and we have a great spot to spend the night. We even have air conditioning! We don’t have Internet though, and access with my iPad chip is minimal. I have written this post with an app that saves it for uploading later which is why it looks different. It feels strange being out of touch but I did get a few messages home to let Joel know that all is well. Apologies to everyone else who have had their emails, messages, blog comments, and everything else ignored. I’ll catch up one of these days. Meanwhile, time to get some sleep before we hit the road again.

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