Stray Dog Theater

by Scott

During our second stay in Esterillos Oeste (Costa Rica), we didn't see Patty, the dog that broke our hearts during our first visit. While we were gone, her owner was deported, but she was adopted by a local gringo. Unfortunately, he doesn't live by the beach, so that meant we had to go for runs and walks and find monkeys on our own.

That didn't last long. A couple days later, we met a new dog at Dominicalito, Costa Rica. She looked similar to Patty, but with different coloring. She clearly was or had been someones pet. She'd been spayed. She had a nice Animal Planet collar, but no name tag. We called her Mimo, Spanish for mime, because of her black triangle eyes. She was very skinny, so we gave her lots of treats.

Like Patty, Mimo loves to go on walks and runs on the beach. She also loves chasing birds, lizards, and pleading with the monkeys to come down out of the trees. We stayed at Dominicalito for 2 nights. Both nights, Mimo slept under the truck, and barked if anything look suspicious. Good puppy.

We were nervous about leaving. We didn't want a repeat of a desperate dog chasing us down the highway. Mimo hadn't left our sides for two days, so we were worried that she might chase us. We nonchalantly fired up the truck and started driving slowly down the pot-holed road to the highway. Mimo just sat there and watched. It was almost as sad as Patty sprinting after us--like she's been abandoned so often that she's lost all hope of something better.

A Quickie Update From Costa Rica

I guess we should never be surprised when we have vehicle problems, considering we drive on lots of pretty rough roads. Over the past couple of weeks Scott has had his nose under the hood and under the truck much more than normal. He recently replaced the fuel filter, air filter, and oil filter as part of his regular maintenance on the truck. After a slightly botched job on our suspension by a shop near San Jose, Costa Rica, he is resigned to doing everything himself.

Our truck had been starting rough a couple of weeks ago, and quite honestly, we weren't surprised that our 10-year-old starter batteries might be nearing the end of their life. Instead of preemptively buying new batteries, we waited until they completely kicked the bucket. Stupid, but luckily we were parked on the beach near a town called Esterillos Oeste (you may remember this town from our previous post where we met "perfect puppy Patty").

Esterillos, the best pleasure - unless your truck won't start

We had a friend in town, named Brett, who we had met a couple of months ago.  He was a life-saver.  He helped us procure 2 new batteries while being our personal Spanish-English translator. Batteries are not cheap in Costa Rica.  The new Interstate batteries, which would have been around $100 each in the states, were $200 each. OUCH!

Brett helped deliver our batteries with his 1968 Land Rover

We were excited to get the batteries, install them, and see if the truck started up.  Our anticipation was met with flashing dashboard lights and a clicking sound we later learned was from our glow-plug relay (kinda irrelevant though). Scott stayed cool and calm during the blazing heat of the day while working to try and figure out what the problem was.  We erected a temporary shade shelter and spent the next 2 days researching what the problem might be.

Nose to the grindstone

He did 3 things all around the same time, so we don't know exactly which one fixed the problem, but it starts up better than ever. He cleaned all the corrosion from the battery cables, added a new ground cable, and discharged the residual system voltage to force a hard reboot of the engine computer. We expect there to be more problems related to corrosion as we continue to park on the beach with salty air and onshore winds.

Not the worst place to be stuck for a week

Perfect Puppy Patty

by Scott

We met Patty as we walked down the beach in Esterillos Oeste, Costa Rica. She was super sweet and followed us everywhere for the next few days. She'd try to come in the truck with us when we went to bed. She'd sleep under the truck so that she could greet us first thing in the morning. We'd go for a run on the beach, and she'd follow, lead, go off on a tangent, and return for more. She went nutty when we came across a family of white-faced monkeys. Her "barking" sounded more like a plea for the monkeys to come down and play. When I paddled out to surf, she'd try to swim after me. While I was in the water, she'd play soccer with the local boys--crouching low to defend her goal and using her nose to header the ball back. She was clearly someone's pet. She was healthy, spayed, and had a collar. What was the deal?

Patty would close her eyes and go into a trance when I rubbed her throat.

Well, the deal was that Patty's owner had recently gone to jail. He might even get deported. Patty was clearly looking for a new pack, and thought she found one with us. We worried about leaving her, but Brett (see previous post) assured us that there would be a waiting list to adopt her if her owner didn't return. Still, it was hard. When we left, Patty followed us for 2 pot-holed miles out to the highway. When I opened the door to give her a last pat on the head, she jumped up on my lap. She soooo wanted to be our dog. And despite Heather's allergies, our tight living quarters, increased border crossing hassles, and general aversion to responsibility of any kind, we were seriously talking about how we could make it work.

Finally, on the verge of tears, I put her back down, waited for traffic to clear, and gunned it down the highway. I knew she'd follow for a bit, but I thought she'd give up quickly. She didn't. As she faded from view in the mirror, she was sprinting down the middle of the highway. It was one of those images I'll never forget. It's amazing the bond we formed in such a short time.

Bad picture, but look how happy she was to finally make it inside the truck.

I was shook up for the rest of the day, kicking myself for not taking her back to Brett's and tying her up until we were gone. What if she'd been hit by a car? We immediately emailed Brett to ask if he would let us know as soon as she made it back. The following day, we were relieved to hear that she was safe and sound. We hope her owner gets deported so that she can upgrade owners--hopefully in the same town so we can see her when we return. However, if she's still homeless, we just might have to succumb to fate.

Costa Rica

Contrary to what we expected, the Costa Rican border was not especially easy. The lack of organization and haphazard placement of buildings made for our longest border crossing yet. Come on Costa Rica, get your act together!

As we worked our way south, through the upper half of Costa Rica, the verdant, green landscape took hold.  Everything is so green and, for lack of a better word, pretty. Our first stop was a random, mountain town called Zarcero. We went there to enjoy some cooler weather and the hilarious hedge art. The heat and humidity of the past month had really taken it out of us. As we climbed to about 7000 feet, the cool air blew through the windows, and I exclaimed, "My brain is back!" Heat and humidity has a tendency to make us dazed, lazy, and irritable.

My brain has returned!  And I'm wearing pants - yeehaw.

Zarcero hedge art

Costa Rica has a much higher standard of living than the previous 4 Central American countries we drove through. The animals are healthy, most people have sturdy homes, and the transportation infrastructure is good in comparison (lots of street signs!). The cost of food and drink is easily double what we experienced in Nicaragua, sometimes even surpassing what it would cost in the USA. But, the pineapples are plentiful, insanely delicious, and cheap (less than a buck for a big 'un). The higher cost of food/drink is mitigated by the fact that we feel safe camping (for free) on any beach or public street.

In Costa Rica, you don't even need 2 trees for your hammock 

We'd anticipated the rainy season to start in May. On the evening of May 8th, I said, "so where is all this rain we're supposed to see?"  Sure enough, the next day it poured.. and the next, and the next. We are officially in the rainy season, but it's all good. Usually, there are a few hours of the day that are dry, and likely even sunny. The rain keeps the temperatures down to a reasonable, sleepable level. We might like it better than the dry season!

We made a bee line for the famous surf spot known as Pavones, near the Panamanian border. Friends had raved about it. Unfortunately, the waves weren't great, but it is a gorgeous spot, with spider monkeys and a resident flock of 10 Scarlett Macaws. We surfed, we sweated, and we met some cool people. Oh, also it was my birthday, so we ate a huge pizza.

Sweaty and dirty, but still blissfully happy to eat a delicious birthday pizza in Pavones!

Since the swell wasn't cooperating in Pavones, we headed north to Domincal. Jamie and Kelly from Tranquilo Adventures had just arrived in Pavones, and told us the surfing had been good up there. Unfortunately, we mostly struck out there too, other than one so-so day on the SUP's.

This picture makes it look much better than it was.

We explored a couple more beaches before ending up at Esterillos Oeste. Thanks to the conversation starter that is El Tigre (our truck), we met Brett, from "Brett's Board Rentals and Surf Lessons". He invited us to his hostel for dinner one night, and we ended up parked outside his place for 5 nights and almost adopting a dog (see next post)!

Group dinner in Esterillos with new friends Brett, Scott, Troy, Rich, and Jim (not pictured). The power went out while we were cooking dinner so we ate by candlelight. Classy and oh so romantic.

Some more of our Costa Rica pics