All Over October

. October 2011 .

The kids are off scrounging chocolate/candy andwhatever else they can get

Errr... oops!

Well, an interesting month has just whizzed by! We have some travel, some sport, a small party and we also catch up with a few interesting characters on the way. There were also some late nights and early mornings as we watched the World Cup from afar. The main games were on at about 3 or 4 am here, and some of the pool games starting around 9/10pm...But the good guys prevailed and we can't complain about that...unless you are French, Welsh, South African or Australian.
Did you know that the first qualifying game for this year's world cup was played here in Cayman? See link: http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/mediazone/news/newsid=2022896.html

Enjoy the read, and also the pics!



Halloween 2011
Halloween has just been and gone and as usual, there was the Rugby Club's Annual Halloween party. And as usual it was well attended by people with some pretty cool costumes. Here are a few images from the night.

Meanwhile, back in the Blue Oyster Bar

Errr...Oops again! Code brown!!!

Awwwww......
It was held at one of the local hotels/resorts and they had several bars set up outside as well as inside and a DJ. We don't know how many people were there, but it was pretty busy and everyone seemd to be having a good time.

We were about to head home at the end of the night and as we passed the pool, a hoard of drunken Irishmen dressed as Roman Gladiators came racing out of the dark to launch us unsuspecting partygoers into the pool.

Luckily none of our get up was affected by the water, but some costumes dissolved or dissintigrated fairly quickly - especially the paper/cardboard ones!
We managed a wee sleep in the next morning which was needed. Then it was off to the beach for the afternoon.

See more pics from the night here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150349338833602.346894.766998601&type=1&l=dfb87b6b2a

Travel Report

ince it was mid-term break for the kids, we decided to take some time out and head up to Orlando, Florida and check out the theme parks there. We had been to Disneyworld about four years ago but thought it was time to see some of the new attractions in the area - and besides, Jake couldn't do some of the rides last time because he wasn't quite tall enough. This time he was pretty confident in getting his heart rate up.

We flew direct from Cayman to Tampa, thus avoiding Miami airport and then took a rental car over to Orlando, which is a little over an hour's drive - that's if you get the directions right, which we didn't...initially. We included a GPS with the rental so we could find our way a little easier. This was fine in theory, however we neglected to turn it on until we were out of the airport and passed the 'critical' turn-off. This meant an additional trip across one of the Tampa Bay bridges...and back. But we eventually got on the main road to Orlando and found our lodgings.

We must make special mention to our friends Marianne & Simon (and James!) for the use of their lovely house. It was so nice coming home to a real home at the end of each day. Although having said that our initial introduction to the house revealed that there was an alarm set and we didn't have the code to turn it off. So we did the next best thing and jumped in the car and went out for dinner while the neighbors enjoyed the soothing shrill of the alarm as it blasted into the quiet street.

We got hold of Marianne who assured us that they didn't have an alarm. We assured her that they did but managed to remove the fuse to it imediately restoring the tranquil silence that you get when living on a golf course resort. However that same fuse was responsible for lighting in the upstairs bathrooms but we preferred darkness to noise and survived in peace...although shaving wasn't quite as accurate in those conditions. Oh well - Movember comes!

The Everest Rollercoater at Animal Kingdom

The longest drive we had from the house to one of the Theme parks was about 20 minutes. So we were able to have a wee bit of a sleep in each day beforeracing off to get to the respective Park for opening time.

Lion King show

We spent a day at each of Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom and both days met up with some Canadian friends (living in Cayman) which was good. It meant the kids could run around with their friends and allow the bigger kids a bit of space, although it was a pretty full-on couple of days!

Swarming to see "It's Tough to be a Bug!" (in 3-D)

Tonya looking a bit worried stuck at the top of Everest

with a mangled track ...

Sam looking worried as we head over another waterfall

Mum, Dad and Baby gorilla.

The Baby's antics were a hit with everyone.

We pretty much did all of the good rides as soon as we could in each of the parks we went to. Then if there was time, we went back and did them again or tried out other ones. There wasn't too many that you could consider boring, but there were a few that were hair-raising to say the least!

Sam takes pot shots at unsuspecting tourists

Jake tries to run everyone off the track at Daytona

Sam and Skyler and Don Crockett

Not many people pose for this shot...

More Disney pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150347200933602.346269.766998601&type=1&l=6391182af1

We took a day out from the theme parks to drop Michelle at the Airport (she had to go back to work). And as luck would have it, as we drove away from the airport, our faithful GPS lady sent us across that damn Tampa Bay bridge again! Another 20 minute drive for no reason. We have now driven across this bridge four times... and we never wanted to go there in the first place!

Anyway, once we got back on track we headed off to catch up with our good Mate Rebecca from BVI days. Rebecca now lives in Melbourne (Florida) with her pet Hubby and two very little, but cute girls Scarlett and Vienna.

We met up at their local zoo and had a good wander about while catching up. For a small zoo it had plenty in it. The kids fed the Giraffe and saw the Hippos and Alligators and various other animals and birds.

Rebecca was Sam's very first PE teacher and they didn't hit it off very well on her first day (well, to be honest, Sam didn't want to do whatever game had been set for them and gave "Miss Rebecca" the old evil stare and arms crossed routine. But that didn't last very long and things picked up from there.
It was a nice afternoon out and it was great to catch up with Rebecca.

On our way back we managed to go through one of the automated toll gates without paying...Oops! .75cents missing from the day's take. We tried to contact the Toll people and the rental car place, but gave up in the end as none of them knew what to do. Maybe they'll just bill us the outstanding amount...

Pirate impression

More "Non-Theme Park" pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150347187583602.346266.766998601&type=1&l=0fbf670750

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Jake and Elwood Blues!

The Blues Brothers put on a show for us at Universal Studios. The kids didn't really know who they were but enjoyed the show anyway. We must get the movie for them.

This is one of those live statue guys.
Everytime someone posed in front of him he made fun of them.

It was pretty entertaining.

Celebrity Scoop!
Yep, we bumped into a few well known characters on our travels. If you've never heard of them you can probably Google them and learn a bit more.

Dustyn Mulver - well known astronaut and beer taster.

Spends a bit of time at his secluded holiday spot in the BVI.

He had just popped into the bar we were at for a beer after a hard day at the Kennedy Space Centre.

The lovely Cassandra "M" - part time model and all-round good chick.

Cass is also a semi pro Rugby player on the Caribbean women's circuit.

Famous Gymnast, Personal Trainer and now super-mum, Rebecca Smith-Reese!

Rebecca travels globe these days causing havoc and having babies.

Has been known to frequent small Caribbean islands laughing at uncoordinated kids.

Capt Hook's best buddy...

The Mayor of Trentham, Mr Graham Auker.

Graham and the lovely Susie took time out from his Mayoral duties to do a quick circuit of the Caribbean, experience a Hurricane close up, and try out some international beer and rum.

OK, back to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure....

Two Kiwi's the day the All Blacks won the world cup.

Three drips...

Some of the 'water' rides were pretty impressive. We got absolutely soaked on a couple of them and they certainly made sure that you felt lucky to be alive afterwards.

We dried out after this and headed off to do the Hulk! A massive rollercoaster with plenty of twists and turns and loopsand speed. This one doesn't inch it's way to the top like most of them. It shoots you up like a rocket launch and doesn't slow down until the end.

Spiderman was another cool 3-D ride.

The last ride at Universal was the Rip Rockit Ride. This was a ridiculous set up where at the start you are tipped back and begin a vertical ascent about 200 feet up, before heading down the otherside at a great rate of knots. This carries on for what some would call an eternity. There were some wobbly knees after that!

Butter Beer Mo's at Harry Potterville

The Harry Potter set up was very impressive. They had Hogwarts, and Hogsmeade with all the shops and the
Jellybeans of all different flavours. The Dragon ride was a hit with the kids - it's a Rollercoaster that you hung underneath. It does the loops and things as well so you get thrown about a bit. Sam was a bit hesitant, but after the first ride she was into it!

The Hogwart's Express

Wasn't scary at all...

This is a really cool ride

One of the water rides.

Check out Sam's face... genuine fear

Killing Alien critters

See more pics from the Orlando trip:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150346976983602.346216.766998601&type=1&l=72bcb27331

Dave and the kids came back on the Thursday after almost a week in Orlando. On the Friday they went out to Rum Point for a play with Lisa, Tommy and Molly. Unfortunately the rain that had been pelting down all week in Cayman (it was dry and sunny in Orlando) came back. The kids promptly jumped in the sea and had a ball thrashing around in the pouring rain. Lisa and Dave sought shelter of an overhanging roof and sampled a wee mudslide while watching the kids horse about. Probably a very sad sight indeed!

Swimming...

The kids continue swimming strongly, with mostly PBs in two swim meets this month, and both of them getting top points scorers in the first meet. Weather put a damper on the first one and the kids were upset that it was called off due to heavy rain and lightning before their favourite races - they didn't care - they were getting wet anyway but the officials were looking a lot like drowned rats! Michelle is now getting more involved when she can and was one of the stroke and turn judges at the second meet - she even had to DQ Jake for an illegal turn - what a tough mum! It became obvious at that meet that one of the reasons that she doesn't always volunteer to help out is that she cannot trust a certain boy to get to his race if she isn't able to keep an eye on him. He had been told about his race and had wandered in the right direction but when the whistle went there was no sign of him on the blocks. Michelle saw him just in time and promptly yelled (while all else was silent) "Jake - this is your race!". Amazingly, he ran straight onto the blocks, dived in, did the correct stroke and won the race...

The recent stash of trophies...

Building up to the big event...
Michelle has been training hard for this year's Olympic distance triathlon but this month has been the biggest challenges yet. After managing to barely escape being hit by a car and attacked by dogs last month, she lost control on a sandy corner coming into the carpark at the end of one of her rides and hit the deck, landing on her shoulder. She came off with a few scrapes and bruises but the shoulder issue put a stop to the swimming training for 4 weeks - hopefully this won't have too major impact since it's her strongest part of the event.

The following week she started out in the dark of the morning and managed to hit a pot hole, causing two flat tyres and a buckled back wheel. She tried to carry the bike home but ended up having to get Dave out of bed to the rescue (who had been asleep for about an hour as he was up all night watching the rugby!)!

She took the bike to the bike shop but they did not have any replacement wheels in stock – it would take 4 weeks for delivery - Fat lot of use that was as the triathlon was just over two weeks away. Luckily we were travelling to the US so decided to order online and bring one back….unfortunately they didn’t deliver it when expected and we missed it by a day. What a saga – had to have it returned and then redirected to Cayman at additional cost of course! Still no sign of it and the triathlon is this weekend!

A friend has kindly lent her a bike which she took out at the weekend, making sure she was extra careful - all was well until that evening when her calf started to be really sore and even more so the next day - it seems the bike is a lot bigger than the last one and she strained her muscle - OMG what next? - will she actually get to the start, let alone the finish? Watch this space...

Next Month:

• 
  
  Plenty happening in MOvember!


• 
  
  Race report from the tri (weather and incident permitting)


• 
  
  Pirate's week is a comin! Aaaarrrggghhh!!!!


• 
  
  More swim meets


• 
  
  1/2 Mile Sea Swim


• 
  
  and...and... other stuff!

Issue # 49 - Stories of September

. September 2011.

Hello there and welcome back to our September missive. Compared to last month it doesn't look as though we've done all that much in September. There have been a few goings on - touch season ends, sea swim, health alerts, alien invasions. Just the usual really. Read on!









End of Season Touch Rugby Dinner

The Annual Touch Dinner & Prizegiving was held earlier in the month. This event always has a theme. This year it was "Space". So there were plenty of space-related outfits on show.

As is the norm, it was a great night with good food and plenty of beer, wine and whatever else was on offer. Yes, it's true, some people were feeling a little worse for wear the following day.

Michelle managed to get herself up on the podium...twice. She was the highest points scorer amongst the women, and she was also voted Best Female player in our division.

The Avatar folk won the prize for Best Dressed

Spock and his mates beamed themselves down for the evening.

A couple of Space folk with Princess Leia.

Pigs in Space meet Avatar

Alien chick

Hmmmm....

See more photos from the touch dinner:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150289567388602.336118.766998601&l=0a43d91060&type=1




800m Sea Swim
The next day was the half mile sea swim from Governor's beach. Although we were feeling just a little bit under the weather we all headed off down to the beach to take part. Michelle, still sporting a bit of green paint, had a good swim and came in in first place in her age group.
Sam did the same in hers. Jake also did well with a third place in his age group. Dave finished the race in a reasonable time for him, but unfortunatly wasn't rewarded with too much silverware.


Beach
Since we can, we head down to the beach most sunday afternoons. We have had the odd rainstorm of late, which results in the kids splashing about in the sea and the adults sheltering under their beach umbrellas while nursing a beer or two.
Our last visit was a hot one, which is no surprise really.

Sam has a play in a Kayak

Sunset means it's about time to head home for the day

These critters have been appearing on selected power lines around town in the late afternoon recently. We wondered if Alfred Hitchcock was doing a re-make of 'The Birds'.

Touch Rugby

The touch finals day was held a few weeks ago. Our team had managed to claw its way into the top four over the previous few weeks, securing third position in the division. That meant we were to play the 2nd placegetters in the semi final.

It was a very warm day but the team was confident of causing an upset. The game was a very even affair with the scores being tied at 3 - 3 at full time. This meant extra time was to be played and each team would drop a player every minute. After working up the pitch with some solid attacking play, the good guys camped on the opposition line. It was down to the last touch when a gap was spotted and Lisa (one of our more experienced players) popped a ball to Dave who managed to dive over for the winning try. They had made the final!

Dave's other team got cleaned up in their semi and they quite happily set up camp close to the bar for the remainder of the day.

During some of the other games later on in the day, the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down. The lighting cracked and people scattered for cover as one lightning bolt struck ground somewhere close. All play was suspended as within minutes the pitch disappeared under water.

The rain eventually stopped and play continued, although only games for 1st and 2nd would be played given the state of the ground, and the time lost.

Because it was so wet and slippery, the style of play had to change. Some teams managed, some didn't.

Michelle got roped in to play for a team in one of the other divisions and delighted the crowd with a diving sliding try through a massive puddle.

We were up next. We had beaten this team the previous week so knew we could do it again. But they were well up to the task and their superior speed made all of the difference. The final score was 5 - 3 (or there abouts). But it was a good season for reatively inexperienced team.

The good guys!

Half time during the final. Things aren't going so well -

as you can probably tell by some of the body language!

That's more like it! Notice how sodden some of us are!

The kids at a recent sleep over/birthday party

Health Alert

Well, it's not that bad. The Chicken Pox have been doing the rounds here of late. Some friends of ours picked them up and as the kids hang out a lot together, it was likely that there would be a few spotty kids around. Sam was OK as she'd had it as a baby. We weren't sure about Jake. We thought he may have had it when Sam did, but just didn't show any spots. But no, this wasn't the case - he got it big time. Jake has had the last week at home with a few other kids while they were banished from school.

We even had a "Pox Party" here at home last weekend with three families of pox-ridden kids runnng about.

He's all but over it now so should be back at school this week.

Work function

Michelle had some clients visit and rather than just taking them out for dinner it was decided to take them on a boat ride to see a bit of the island. They hired a really flash motor boat and went over to Rum Point & Kaibo for a quick Mudslide. While over there the Captain got his jetski off the boat and tried to entice everyone - there wasn't much interest since they were all still in their work clothes but since they were assured they wouldn't get wet, Michelle bravely decided to give it a go. Captain Adam told her to hold on tight three times and even though she thought she was, she realised why he kept saying it - they took off very fast and she nearly fell off the back! They got to 70mph very quickly - it was very cool but windy! Some of the others then decided to have a go as well which was great. The ride back was very pleasant into the sunset - a very nice evening which everyone seemed to enjoy.

Still wearing the office attire...
.

Next Month

October brings us Halloween and maybe a trip somewhere. Not sure what else we have planned, but we'll be reporting back at the end of the month, so have a good one and we'll catch you soon!

Issue # 48 - The August Gist

.August 2011.

Hola Chicas!

Welcome to the bumper August 2011 edition.
We've only done about three things of note this month, but they take up a bit of space, or at least one does.
And just to keep you on your toes, we are doing it in reverse order this month. Mainly because our graphics editor put all the pics in backwards. But I guess it doesn't matter that much.
So, this month we have some beach time, some fitness stuff and a bit of a holiday with pics included.

Time to get on with the show!

Beach Time

So, we ended August with a few trips to the beach. One day Michelle and a friend took the kids out to Rum Point for the day where they spent their time playing the water, in the trees and generally having fun. Meanwhile Michelle worked on the tan and kept the fluids up using the occasional Mudslide.

Another day we all headed to Governor's beach and had a relaxing day watching the kids run around and make lots of noise annoying the odd unsuspecting tourist who had ventured out looking for a nice quiet afternoon in the caribbean sun.

A new form of beauty treatment

Active Stuff

Over three wednesdays in August, the Annual Stroke and Stride series is held just down the road from our house. It's a series of Swim/Run races - hence the name, Stroke and Stride. The first race is a 400m Swim and Two Mile run. The second is a 600m swim and a two mile run. The third and final race is an 800m swim and a two mile run.
Dave went in all three races last year when Michelle and the kids were back in NZ. Both Michelle and Dave entered this year but only for the 2nd and 3rd races.

Luckily for Dave, the first leg of the swim was downhill.

Michelle being a better than average swimmer blitzed Dave in the swims and pretty much kept the same pace in the runs, so the chances of Dave catching her were slim to none.
Still, they both enjoyed the event and improved on previous years times. Michelle even placed in her age group, which was a fairly competitive bunch. Dave placed as well...near the back!



Pre-race nerves. Someone dropped a clanger...

Phew!Michelle clocks in after the run

More pics from around Cayman Click here!

Touch Rugby

The Summer Touch League draws to a close shortly.

Just last night our team managed to convincingly thrash the top team (8 - 5) and secure 3rd place in the league with finals day being the end of the competition for 2011. Michelle currently leads the table in the Women's Top Try Scoring stakes, but there are others lurking who could overtake her given the opportunity.
The finals are being held in a week's time so we'll bring you the results of that in September's offering.

Sailing Camp pics (from July) - Click me


Diving

Sam dragged Dave out for a dive last weekend. They headed across the road to Don Foster's and did a shore dive from there. It was a nice quiet dive with plenty of fish about. Sam was a bit wary of the big crab that they spotted

To see more cool dive pics - click me!

Travel ReportCosta Rica!
(sdrawkcab)

Si! We managed to slip out of the country and make a break for the unchartered hills, lakes, volanoes and beaches of Central America's Costa Rica.
During the last few days of our trip (told you it was backwards) we visited the surf village of Mal Pais. As part of the deal we had Israel's ex-National Surfing Champ Amit Londner to give us a bit of a brush up on the ins and outs of surfing.

Trying to find him was a challenge because when we did the booking, we were never told who he was or what company he worked for. Our Hotel Manager had no idea either. So we did what most people would do, sat by the pool and had a beer.
Lo and behold, this guy found us! We were sitting at the pool drinking said beer(s) when this dude rocks up looking for Michael and Dave (this was a common theme during the tour). We corrected him regarding Michelle's gender and made plans for him to pick us up the next day and take us surfing. And that he did, in his rickety old piece of.... (you know what I mean) with surfboards strapped on.
He took us to a beach where the waves were relatively small, and the noise of the Howling Monkeys in the trees was relatively loud.
Amit was very good and had us all standing up in no time. Next we took the boards to the water and tried to do the same there... with mixed results.
He called each one of us 'Lovely' e.g. "Lovely Sam, your turn!", "Lovely Michelle, lean forward!", "Lovely Jake, great work!" and even "Lovely Dave, you're awesome!"
But he soon had us getting up for most waves, even though they were in the wash and we had lots of fun.

Jake was in his element.

Jake had chicks falling all over the place

After lunch we went out again. The sea was a bit rougher by that stage and our successes of the morning were soon a distant (wiped out) memory. We'd all had enough for the day so headed back to the pool for the requiste number of cervesas by the pool.

Sam shows us how its done

The next morning we went out again. The conditions and tide were much better and we had a pretty good time practicing what Amit had told us. In fact he had come down and sat hidden in the trees watching us. We met him on the way back and he said we were all doing pretty well.

Michelle shows off by riding one all the way in

Dave shows everyone how the pros dismount

We had to take a ferry to get to Mal Pais. The trip over was fairly non-eventful until we got to the destination Port to see one of the older ferries looking a bit worse for wear.

Funnily enough, when we came to go back a few days later, we were sitting in the ferry terminal waiting for the ferry, with the sunken ferry in full view while they played "Titanic" on the TV! Luckily we had a few cervesas to calm the nerves before getting on the ferry when it arrived (a storm was brewing as well). By that stage Kate Winslett and Leonardo Di Caprio were dangling from the vertical ship just before it plunged back into the icy sea below.
And once on the ferry, the electical storm kicked in...

Hmmm...this is right next to the ferry terminal

There was plenty of excitement on the Ferry trip!
We were recommended a resturant while in Mal Pais. Las Piedras, as the sign says, was the sh*t! It was a very relaxed and laid-back BYO place that cooked all of the meat on racks over a big open fire pit. The food was awesome - both in quantity and taste. Dave and the kids went for the ribs while Michelle had beef. It started hosing down outside while we were there, so we battened down the hatches, opened the fridge a few more times and rode out the storm. If you ever happen to visit Mal Pais, eat here. You won't be disappointed.

Another place we ate at was Cafe Zula, an Israeli resturant in Mal Pais. You may notice a bit of an Israeli theme here. In fact all over Costa Rica there are plenty of Israelis settling there. Most of them in the tourism/hospitality industry. It is so common that a lot of the menus and signs are written in Hebrew, Spanish and English. Again, another lovely mediteranean style meal.

Sunset in Monte Verde
Before heading off on our three hour drive to catch the ferry to Mal Pais, we spent a few days up in the mountains. Monte Verde was the destination. It was a lot cooler up in the atitude, but still comfortable.

One thing you miss when living Cayman is the hills. Costa Rica has plenty.

While in Monte Verde we did plenty. Quad biking filled in one afternoon. Probably not the most environmentally friendly thing to be doing in a rain forest, but lots of fun! In fact we didn't really spend much time in the rain forest at all. It was mainly farm land on the outskirts. We did have fun tearing it up in the mud and stuff though!

Look out!

We did a night tour while in Monte Verde. A guide took us into the forest and showed us lots of animals, insects, bird, reptiles, arachnids and amphibians.

There were a bunch of us creeping around in the dark with our guide seeking out the various critters for us all to see and take photos of.

This is a Viper
(coming to Vipe your vindows!)
Sam wasn't especially pleased to meet this guy

This is a Rhinoceros Beetle (funnily enough).
(Megasoma elephas)

We found a Hummingbird 'area' in the Rain Forest. There were hundreds of them all hanging about the little feeding stations that had been placed there. There were pretty cool - and very tiny!

Humming Birds

(they didn't know the words)

Before we found the Humming Birds we spent the morning Zip Lining in the Monte Verde Rain Forest. There were about 14 lines for us to travel down/across. Some short and some really long. The longest was about a kilometre across and Michelle screamed the whole way. We know this because Dave and Michelle had to go across that wire together and Dave couldn't block his ears because he was hanging on to his rope as they zipped across the gap way above the trees and even further above the ground!

They made it across unscathed however and then waited for Sam to come across. Jake had already come over with a guide. Sam eventually made it over. There were three girls all strapped together, along with a guide. They didn't quite make it and had to pull themselves hand-over-hand the last 50 or so metres.

At the end of the Zip Lining at Monte Verde they have a Tarzan Swing. You get strapped on and then leap out into the air and swing way out over the trees. It was quite a hair raising event but a good one to finish the zip lining with. See the video at the end!

We had dinner in the "Tree House" resturant one night in Monte Verde. It actually has a big tree in the middle and the resturant part is upstairs in the branches. We had quite a good time there sampling their wares and keeping the cocktail waiter busy.
Speaking of food. There was a little Cafe just along from our hotel that we popped into one day to see if they would be open for breakfast the next day (as the breakfast in our hotel was pretty average at best). The lady who ran the place was very nice and said no they weren't but would open up for us if we wanted. We wanted. So we did and it was very nice. She just cooked whatever we wanted. We got her to open up on the following day as well. So there's another place we recommend - The Orchid Cafe (close to Jardin de Orquideas) , Monte Verde.

Prior to Monte Verde we were in our first main Port of Call in Costa Rica, Arenal. Sitting at the bottom of an active volcano was always on my top ten list of things to do. And that's exactly where our hotel was. It was very nice though. Nice views, resturant, bar, hot pools, cold pools, water slides, frog enclosure, Butterfly cage, Ant farm, crocodiles, turtles, horses and Howling monkeys in the trees out the back. The volcano never erupted while we were there.

Some of the Howlers that seemed to hang around making lots of noise.

Yeah, well...enough about that.

We did a horse trek one day and went up the hill behind to get a better view of the volcano. Jake seemed to really enjoy having his own horse and wanted to do it all again in the next place we went. Michelle's horse was a bit of a nag and spent most of the trek at the back, which was a good thing really because man could that horse fart! I don't know what they were feeding it, but could've flown up the hill had they managed to harness that gas!

While in Arenal we had our first taste of Zip Lining. Up we went on a cable car to a spot several hundred metres up in the sky (see photo below). From there we were hooked on to little flying fox type contraptions and sent out into the wild blue yonder. The first line had a drop of some 600 feet and certainly set the scene for the rest of the morning. Jake went first - strapped to a guide. Then Dave went, clinging on for dear life, but made it across unscathed, and even managed a peak out to the left, and the right...and then down. Holy toot, that was a long way down!

Sam was next (on her own) and managed to pull up short by about 20 metres. There she was, dangling like a wet tea bag with the tops of the trees about 300 feet below her. She thought it was fun and did the sloth impression and pulled herself the rest of the way.

Michelle came whizzing in next to a spectacular stop just short of the tree, and shaking like a leaf!
The longest line was 760m and the speeds we got up to over all lines ranged from about 30 to 80km/hr depending on the length and slope. It certainly felt pretty quick!
There was a 78 year old granny doing the zip lining as well. There was no way we could chicken out after we saw her!

We were hoping to get some videos uploaded so you can see what it was like. We will continue to try and get those to you. If we don't, there is one on Dave's Facebook. Link is:

Zip Lining Video - click me!

Brace yourself!

Sloth Impression

The Volcano at Arenal with a bit of steam coming out

A couple of trendy looking frogs

The Three Fingered Sloth

(Bradypus infuscatus)

On our first full day in Costa Rica, we went White Water rafting. It was mostly brown water since it was raining in them thar hills. We were picked up from the hotel and taken to the start point. We had our own raft and a guide (which was a good move) and away we went. It was a Level 2/3 river which was ideal for the kids. There were some really good rapids and the kids had a ball...until Carlos managed to tip us all out and Sam thought she was about to slam into a big rock which was coming up fast. Dave happened to be floating a little ahead of her and pulled her away from 'percieved' peril.

They even stopped halfway down the river for a break where we were treated with fresh Pineapple, Watermelon and Papaya. Then it was back onboard for the final hour or so of the ride.

Once finished we were offered a cervesa which was duly accepted and then bussed to a resturant for lunch, which was a nice touch.

To see all of the rafting pics, click here!

More evidence of the Israeli influence in Costa Rica

The Toucans were huge!

OK, we are almost at the start of our Costa Rican Holiday! It's cool in rewind aye!

After arriving at the airport in San Jose ("Do you know the way to San Jose?" Just imagine Burt Bacharat or whoever it was playing this tune in the background) we were met by a Driver and a mini bus/van who drove us to our destination. We did have to have a comfort stop en-route to stock up on Cervesas and vino.
In fact all of our transfers were by van with our very own driver. It was hassle free, comfortable and cheaper than renting a car - so therein lies a tip for wouldbe travellers to Costa Rica.

We should add that on the way back from Costa Rica we stopped in Miami for a spot of shopping. Well, it was more like a really large blob, not a spot. Any space in our suitcases was soon taken up with new 'essential' clothes and the like.

It was nice to finally get back home to Cayman after a very busy trip. Rice and Beans for breakfast was wearing a bit thin anyway. The only bummer was that we didn't get to catch up with Brodie & Joe and Simon, Marianne and James (all from the BVI) who just happened to be in Cayman while we were away.

Some more Costa Rica pics available here! Click me!

For more Costa Rica pics, click here!

For even more Costa Rica pics - click here!




Video
Don't forget to watch the Tarzan video below!

See you all soon for the September offering!!