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TRAVEL:
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George
Lundquist
George Lundquist is founder of
Retire in Costa Rica on Social
Security
(RCSS) and your Guide!
If you are thinking of retiring in Costa Rica, my goal is to share my experiences here
with you to save you time and money! Write to George at gl |
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Monday 21
July 2003
Our stay at Hotel
Posada Playa Tortuga
After we crossed the
stream where the road was washed out, we were only
10 minutes to the Hotel. www.hotel-posada.com
Mike and Karen checked us in. It was great to
spend time talking about how they came to be here
and how fast the area is growing. They are among the
very first to start to develop this area. Mike is in
the process of adding a large, first class building
for a new reception area, kitchen, bar, and deluxe
rooms. I am very impressed with his approach to
building. He and I have discovered lots of the same
techniques for inexpensive, yet, super strong
construction. He is also building several private
homes for some more Gringos moving to the area.
We just hung around
the beautiful grounds and pool until it was time to
try one of the area Restaurants. I had eaten at the
Exotica the first time I was in the Ojochal area and
wanted to return to see if they could do such a
superb job twice. Mike loaned us one of his personal
cars and we drove the two miles or so up the rocky
road, along a river, towards Ojochal to the Exotica
Restaurant. It was about 6:30, very dark and
raining. Lucy greeted us and welcomed us to her
place. The cuisine is definitely French but the
hospitality is very Tico friendly. She made a couple
of great Margaritas on the rocks (she does it the
right way, with fresh lime juice, no sugar.)
Our meals were
beautiful and delicious. If this Restaurant was
located in any large US City, you would need
reservations weeks in advance and the prices would
be triple or more. The nice tropical rain continued
through the rest of the evening. Pictured is our
hostess Lucy pouring the Cognac on our incredible
deserts.
The next day we went
on a Panga fishing out in the Pacific. We only
caught a couple of Mackerel and a Barracuda. The
trip out of the mouth of the river in the little
boat with only a 25 HP motor was interesting. The
trip back was challenging, definitely not for the
faint of heart. Luckily, we did not get caught out
there by a storm.
This evening we
shared in one of the area events that had caused me
to come back here; Gringo Mike’s all you can eat
Pizza at his Hotel. It was as good as he had
promised. He could open a very successful Pizzeria
in Chicago, but he escaped the rat race like us and
now does this for fun.
A Methodist Church group of 17 from
California, who were in the area building a church
for a small congregation, had heard about this event
and showed up with raging appetites. They said they
had been “rice and beaned out”. They really put
it away.
Gringo
Mike and Lee Anne toiling in kitchen
The next morning
(Sunday) we had reservations for the Brunch Cruise
on the Riverboat Manglar Sur www.manglarsur.com
. It is still the rainy season, but the boat was a
sellout. Everyone on board is either a permanent
resident of the area or visiting relatives who live
here. This is a very tranquil experience and we got
to visit with a lot of interesting Expats. We saw
one Croc jump off of the bank as we cruised. The
brunch was good and presented with flowers and
fruit.
It rained all
afternoon so we napped. Mike then did his special
deep fried pork chops. Very good and of course, low
cholesterol. All of his meals come with his homemade
bread; this alone is worth the trip. After
all of this strenuous work we went to bed with the
sound of the rain on the roof.
There are several
other very good restaurants in the area, one
Italian, one French Bakery, and others; but, we ran
out of time and had already gained 10 lbs. We left
Monday morning and by that time there was a bypass
around the highway washout so our new friends from
the Hotel (with a four wheel drive) could take us
into Palmar for the bus trip back to San Jose.
WHAT A COUNTRY!!!
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