April 1 - No April Fools
This was no regular April 1. We spent the morning taking a whale excursion that would not include seeing whales because they left several weeks ago. Our children had booked this trip with Bahia Whales and Kayak Tours in Uvita with guide Henry. We requested Henry as well and up to the night before we were only assuming the trip was on, due to some confusing WhatsApp messages clearly translated from Spanish. Henry was there to greet us and remembered our kids. He was so happy to hear that we had come to Costa Rica for the fourth time. Clearly he loved showing off his country and they were in great need of getting started up again after the last two years of the pandemic which shut down all tourism. This tour was clearly scheduled for us because there were no other people joining us. Tourism is still not in full swing. Henry first took us across the road to a field to show us some baby caiman (a smaller crocodile) which use this little stream as a nursery. He said he would rather confront a caiman than a croc, because they are much more docile and would not attack. We also saw a few rails, a beautiful shore bird.
Getting on to our boat was a challenge because you had to walk a few feet into the water and then try to step in while the boat is rocking, but before the next big wave would toss you around. All us seniors made it though. We boated south and stopped at a gorgeous sandy beach, Arco, which requires a 20 minute walk to access from the road. There was a tunnel through a rock outcrop and the beach was a perfect setting. It also has fresh water access with a hose coming out of the rock, pouring out fresh mountain water. It can also be used as a shower, as was evident by the white butt we saw before we decided to turn around and wait for the woman to finish showering. Her husband (?) came running in his underwear with a towel for her to cover up. He missed his shower because after us, another boat came. We also saw many caves and tunnels in the rocky shores, including Playa Ventanus, where we frequent. Then it was off to find dolphins. I think one of the pleasures of guiding by boat is giving people a cup of water to drink, then taking off through the surf, smacking up and down just as you bring the cup to your face. With the help of other tour boats, we located a pod of dolphins and followed them for some time. We were going to go to a spot for snorkeling but the water was too rough so we returned to Uvita, and found a spot under the Whale's Tail, (land formation that is only above water during low tide). The swells were still pretty high and the snorkeling was useless. Water was murky and the few fish we saw were colourless forms below mossy rocks. The only nice thing was being in the warm ocean water. We returned to shore where Henry demonstrated the old art of opening a coconut using only a pointed edge of a tree trunk and a rock. On our walk back to the office, by the entrance to the marine park, (there is a daily fee for entering the park), we found trees filled with capuchins. Jo found a tree right next to where some digging was going on with a backhoe and stinky, noisy dump truck, and there was a two-toed sloth in it. Soon a crowd gathered. The sloth was actually moving, climbing most of the way down one tree and up an adjoining tree. It didn't seem perturbed, but how can you tell with sloths? At one time, I could have almost touched him.
After a quick grocery stop for wine and pop and a few edibles, (not laced with anything!), we headed back up the mountain. While sitting outside for lunch Jo glanced up at the down drain at the corner of the house by the kitchen. There on the horizontal part under the eaves was a big snake, curled around the pipe and sleeping in the sun. Needless to say, we were all a little on edge from this and after a few attempts to id it and a email to the caretaker, we assumed it was a boa constrictor and probably did not pose a threat. We suggested we would just keep and eye on it as make sure it leaves but within half an hour a young fellow came by and using a long, telescopic broom handle, he coaxed the snake to let go and it wrapped around the end. It was at least 5 feet long. It was released back into the jungle. In the evening, we watched a movie on DVD. A large grasshopper had got into our house, and often jumped at or crawled over the TV screen. An eventful day.
April 2
Another busy day today. We got up early, sat on the terrace sipping our coffee and eyeing the sky and trees for exotic wildlife like fiery-billed aricaris. We then had to get out of our chairs, make breakfast, actually Jo fried me an egg, and resume wildlife duty. One of our friends decided to go for a walk up the road. Luckily I caught her and enquired about whether she had a camera with her. She did not! Have I not said a hundred times, when in Costa Rica, do not go anywhere without a camera. She complied and took one. I went outside and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a montezuma orependola in flight, my ID was clear. I have never seen one except in a zoo. My friend came back and did report seeing this bird sitting in a tree. She had one job and one job only, get a photo. But alas, she failed. If flew away before she could react. I may need four more trips to this country to get a photo of it. The original plan was to go to a beach and come back before going for dinner in Dominical. However, we decided to stay home for the day instead, cooling in the pool, reading, sorting pictures or updating blogs. We left for Dominical at about 4PM with the plan to see some of the wares being peddled in town. However by the time we got there, most people were closing up shop. We drove to a local pub, Jolly Rogers, which I had always wondered about because it was near where we stayed the previous two trips here. The road to the pub was a gravel road that would steeply up the slope. It was a little smoother than our own mountain road except some deep ruts in one section. It was farther than we thought and eventually there were signs along the road such as "Yes, there really is a bar up ahead" and other signs to encourage you to keep going. The pub was OK and had a great view. We sat at bar stools overlooking the view to the ocean. A couple sitting behind us offered to take our picture. They were from Ottawa. The specialty was beer and wings. I ordered a hamburger with jalapenos, (it was the closest to a normal burger), and Imperial, the local beer. My dear wife thought 8 wings seemed a little skimpy, so she ordered tow different kinds. The plate was a combo of wings and drumsticks and any jokes we may have had about small, scrawny chickens was soon forgotten. These were no ordinary chickens. She could only finish one plate. My Jolly burger was also huge and one beer was not enough to offset the jalapenos. A nice evening but honestly, I would not go back to this place. There were plenty of better places close by. We did get showers by bedtime.
April 3
Today was to be the apex weatherwise. The weather apps showed rain and lightning showers everyday since our friends arrived, and going forward to the next week, but today it said thunderstorm with torrential rain. We got up to some clouds but lots of sun too and we spent the morning and early afternoon at our beach, Playa Ventanus. I went to "online church" before cooling in the pool after lunch. It was only after dinner that the dark clouds rolled in and we had significant thunder and lightning. It did not last too long, I hope, but we are waiting. The power often goes out here, mostly for a second or two. One night we were in the dark for perhaps 30 minutes. Even as I write this blog the power went out for a few minutes, and who knows what else is in store. Tomorrow is an early morning as we go to Manuel Antonio National Park. The forecast is for intermittent thunder showers through the day. We will see. Stay tuned.
Not much else to report today except we did get a glimpse of some white-faced capuchin monkeys in the trees near by, I got a few nice hummingbird photos, and an aricari dropped by but was high in a tree. Better make some tea now before we lose power again.
April 4 - Manuel Antonio
We got a 6AM start on our trip to Manuel Antonio National Park, the premiere attraction in Costa Rica. It was a drive of about an hour and 15 minutes. Having learned from an earlier visit to here with our kids, I was not taken in with the people directing traffic and trying to direct us to a parking lot near the Quepos beach. I just waved at them and wagged my head and kept going. We did find the parking lot near the entrance to the park. Even though the parking fee was similar to the other lot, it was very close to the park. We had the 7:00 - 7:40 time slot for entry. It seems funny to me that you had to wear a mask while going through the ticket area and entering the park and entrances were controlled to reduce crowds and promote safe distancing, (groups of only 8 - 10 people were permitted on guided walks), when there was something to see like a sloth, there was no control of how many people crowded together to see. When we entered, there were very few ahead of us and it appeared that the guides did not go in until a little later. That was good for having a peaceful walk, but one of the strategies for seeing things was to check out where guides were showing their group something with their telescopes, and finding the wildlife you would probably miss on your own, without having to listen to long talks about the trees and medicines, etc. As a result, we got to the end of the main trail near the beach without having seen much of anything. The crowds may have been down as well because the forecast was for thundershowers throughout the day. It was overcast and less hot and muggy than usual in this area, so it was all good. After getting some refreshments, we took one of the secondary trails and soon were seeing things. We found a sloth, aided by a guide, some white-tailed deer, a few small birds to be positively identified later, a great tinamou (ground bird), howler monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys and assorted lizards. We saw 4 sloths in all during the day. We began to walk up a trail to a waterfall but got word from another sucker that the falls were dry, so we turned back. It was beginning to get hot and one of our party was suffering from knee injuries, so we headed to the beach and enjoyed the warm water. Being protected by a stunning cove, there was little wave action, so it was very relaxing. We left the park for a late lunch just outside the park gates and watched a chestnut-mandibled toucan, now known as the yellow throated toucan, harassing and being harassed by a flock of kiskadees. We got home at the right time. It began to rain. In fact we had significant rain that evening.
April 5 - Playa Hermosa
After a leisurely breakfast, we headed to nearby Playa Hermosa. This was a very nice beach with a local vibe. There was a stand with towels, shirts, etc. for sale, a stand selling coconut water and unfortunately a board that acted as a bar for someone selling bar drinks. You can park your car under the trees right up to the beach. I don't know what goes on here, but we often see police stop by. Jo and I did a long walk down the beach. It went on for a very long ways in both directions and was awesome, with tree and vine covered cliffs lining the other side of the highway that passed by. The women discovered the two for one bar and of course, that does not mean getting a drink at half price, but buying two drinks. This was also in addition to the regular daily happy hour at home where margaritas are served up. Again, we had good timing. It began to cloud over when we packed up, and it was pouring by the time we got home. On the good side, this eliminated the dust from our mountain road. However, we had to spend the evening in doors because even though we later had clear skies, everything was soaking wet. For dinner we went to Pizza Time/Bagel Time, a fairly new restaurant in Uvita that operates as a bagel and breakfast place for part of the day, and a pizza joint at night. The breakfast we had here last week was great and we discovered that the pizzas were very good too. A good discovery. Driving up our road in the dark, a critter came across our path. It was black and white with a bushy tail, and based on subsequent research, the best guess would be that it was a local weasel, known as a tayra, which is not endangered. I never got a chance to photo it.
On another note, living in a house tucked into a jungle has it's unique issues. Apart from a visiting snake, being woken up every morning at 5AM by the sound of howler monkeys starting their day and rooms with not glass windows to block the sound, and a myriad of exotic bird sounds and crickets that peak to a crescendo about 6AM, there is the ants and geckos, not to mention the giant grasshoppers we need to evict almost every night. Our house is full of geckos. The living room ceiling alone had five resident geckos that patrolled the ceiling for small bugs. I enjoy geckos and they are welcome. However, we soon discovered that geckos also need to go bathroom. One of the chairs was spotted with gecko dung and the floor often has dung even after a good cleaning a few hours earlier. The kitchen has tiled counters. If you leave any kind of food spill on it, especially a sliver of cheese, ants seem to come out of the grout by the dozens and soon you have hundreds of ants swarming the counter. Wipe up and they disappear as if they were never there, but do not leave even a drop of anything. The even get in the dishwasher. If plates, bowls, etc. are not fully rinsed before being put in, the dishwasher has hundreds of ants that enter from the framework and get on everything They are very small but overwhelming in numbers. We have learned to control this somewhat with being extra careful, but there are always some ants in the dishwasher when we run it. We have accepted that our dishes are clean because the ants probably don't survive the hot water but know there are always more lurking at the counter and by the dishwasher just waiting for a careless dishwasher putter awayer.
April 6
Our friends were away for the morning on an excursion and we relaxed and did a few things around the house. We spent time in the pool. As was the case the last several days, and apparently quite normally, it was sunny with a few clouds most of the day with temperatures around 35 degrees. Then the clouds roll in around 4PM and it rains in the early evening. Tonight we decided to try a restaurant that was out on a small peninsula just before Dominicalito called La Parcela. It was recommended to us. We had a torrential downpour as we drove there and during much of our meal. The restaurant had great views over the bays on both sides and it would have been amazing if the rain wasn't so hard. The restaurant, open as almost all restaurants here are, looked fancier than most. There was white table cloths, different glasses for different drinks, etc. On the other hand, a cat roamed around and another family came with their large dog. The food was amazing. I had chicken parmasan with a side salad and it was great. We had desert for a change, ordering banana flambés and coffee. Jo also ordered an appetizer, bruschetta, which I sampled and confirmed was the best I ever tasted. We expected a big bill but was amazed later how much we got for so little. The bill for us came to $57US. We wondered later whether they made a mistake. This was definitely worth it, even on a rainy day. Since everything was still wet when we got home, it was movie night.
April 7
The day began amazingly before breakfast even. While sitting outside with my coffee, two aricaris came by. One posed in the dead tree nearby in the sunlight. The other went into a bush near the pool. I never got such close up photos of these beautiful toucan related birds. Later, the dead tree was filled with four toucans at once. I have never seen that many together at once. Great photo ops. We spent the day in Jaco, a surfer town two hours away. Jaco has many souvenir shops so it was mainly a shopping outing with lunch. We ate at a restaurant with wood burning pizza oven. Jo and I enjoyed our first smoothies here with my sister and B-I-L on our first trip to Costa Rica. It was another hot day, but a shower came before we got home. We still managed a dip in the pool to keep our consecutive pool day streak going.
April 8
This morning early we drove to Bahia Aventura, a tour company in Uvita for an excursion to Corcovado. I had enquired about this and was told there was openings, but when I responded that we wanted to go, I never got further emails, so we had no idea if we were registered or not. We arrived at 7:15AM and even though they claimed not to have a record of my email saying we wanted to go, there was room so it didn't matter. However the coffee and goodies normally offered did not happen. We were told they were ready to go and after a brief intro, we were off parking our car and walking to the waiting boat. Good thing I did no listen to Jo but made a piece of toast at home. No coffee today though. We took a 90 minute boat ride to the ranger station in Corcovado National Park on the Osa peninsula. Along the way we did see a few dolphins but got only a few poor photos. Despite the forecast for stormy weather, it was mostly sunny with only a very brief little shower before lunch time.
Once on shore, we gathered our belongings, put on running shoes and left our sandals behind. We were to take a walk of about 2.5 to 3 hours. Soon we came upon monkeys. There were howler monkeys high in the trees and a few spider monkeys as well. They kept knocking almonds down to the forest floor. You had to be careful if that is possible. An almond landing on your noggin can hurt, as I have first hand experience with. There were also two coatis on the ground foraging. They were very unconcerned with all the people nearby. Then our guide got word that a tapir had been spotted nearby. This animal was one of my main motivations for wanting to do the Corcovado tour, because the chances of seeing one were greatest here, although none were seen on my last trip here. Another target of mine was to see an anteater. We hurried down the trail and soon came upon the tapir walking through the bush. My first attempts at a photo failed because people kept walking in front of my camera. The lighting was poor so photographing was difficult with a large lens. The tapir was soon away and our guide started running up a hill to head off the animal, encouraging us to follow. I didn't need to be prodded twice. I was right behind him. We did get a good glimpse of him coming across the trail before disappearing. The groups that came after us never saw him or her. Returning down the hill was tricky because the ground was covered in slippery leaves. Our friend slipped a little. Jo followed her and slipped a lot. She fell and twisted her ankle, as she is prone to do on most of our holidays. She could not go on, so she was escorted back to the little creek we had to cross to get to the ranger station. She was left there to figure out how to get across with a twisted ankle. I felt bad leaving her behind, but we could not both miss this outing as it was expensive and there was nowhere we could go but sit by the ranger station until it was time to go. So, I carried on for the both of us. A tough job but I was up for the task. After the guide came back, another guide with us whispered to him that there was an anteater nearby. Again we dashed down the trail and soon found the anteater, climbing up a tree. Again, taking pictures was very difficult because it was a dark area and the animal got up quite high. I did manage some decent shots. The two animals I want to see were spotted within the first 30 minutes. I was excited, If we did not see another thing I would still consider the day a complete success. Shortly after this, we came across a long snake that was creeping along the ground and over fallen branches. It seemed non-aggressive and we were told it ate small birds and reptiles. He called it an oriole snake, I thought to myself, sure, he made up that name because an oriole is a kind of bird. I looked it up later and sure enough, it is called an oriole snake, an non-venomous snake. After this we saw more monkeys and a number of pairs of scarlet macaws. The walk was all flat so was not difficult. We did see tent bats as well on a tree and later a bat under a large green leaf near a hornet's nest.
When the walk was over we returned to the ranger station. Jo of course had made a new friend, as is her nature. I had to help her get back onto our boat which was difficult because you had to wade into the water first and try to board between waves that tossed the boat around. With effort, she got in. Usually the mornings are still nice, as it was on our trip, but here at the house, perhaps due to elevation, it was bad all day. One concern I had was how the rain was cooling the pool water. We lost our internet during the evening and we never got it back until Sunday afternoon, April 10.
April 9
Surprise, it was a sunny morning. After breakfast we went to Playa Hermosa at 9AM until lunch time. Jo just stayed in her chair although she was well enough to get a margarita. We came home for lunch and soon the clouds were rolling in again. The pool was definitely much cooler than a few days ago. The rains came again in the afternoon. By now we were running out of food so we started going out for dinner, which was probably cheaper than buying groceries we may not finish. We went to Fogato, a pizza restaurant we had been to several times before. Almost every time we drive up our road after dark, we see nightjars, medium sized birds which sit in the middle of the road until you are almost on top of them. The challenge now is to get a good picture of them. Tonight we failed.
On a side note, many Ticos, a term used here for Costa Ricans, seem to yell a lot. A few neighbouring places seem to be having some renos done. Frequently we hear guys up the hill yelling full blast at each other at 6:30am or earlier. No concern for those of us trying to sleep after the howler monkeys have moved on. Even at the beach, I noticed family gatherings and people talking loudly to each other. The Ticos are very friendly so you can't be offended when you get yelled at, unlike the gringo who yelled at me for driving to fast up the hill when I was doing 20 kph.
April 10
This morning we went to Bagel Time for breakfast and to pick up bagels and cinnamon buns for lunch. We tried to go to a new beach, but the road was blocked so we ended up back at our old haunt, Ventanas Beach, I don't know if it was because it was Palm Sunday and a reason to celebrate, but the place was packed. Soon they closed the parking area and only let in cars as others left. We had some sun but mostly clouds, but of course, it was over 30 degrees. The ocean had cooled a little due to the overcast and rainy weather of late. In the afternoon it rained again but less heavy. I did get in the pool for the first time in two days but it was noticeably cooler. For dinner we descended our mountain and discovered that it was nice weather down below. We went back to Don Rogers, in Uvita, the restaurant with the view of sunset. We saw a great sunset and had a good meal. We again missed the chance to get a photo of the nightjars. The night was clear so after watching church, we spent the evening on the terrace.
April 11
Another fine morning which started at 5AM with the sound of howlers and morphed into the loud cries of various birds waking up. I couldn't sleep through it so at 6:30 I walked up our road a ways to see if I could see any wildlife. I was still on the hunt for a montezuma's oredendola. Alas, I only found dog owners walking their dogs. After breakfast, we headed south to see what was in the Ojochal area where we were originally booked to go. It was pretty but we didn't find the turnoff for the town. We gave up and returned home to enjoy our pool. It was still cooler than a few days ago, but was warming up in the sunny weather. For dinner we went back to La Parcela. It was nice weather and the ocean views were terrific. However, the place was packed. The parking lot was full and we were soon hemmed in. Dinner was great but took over two hours. Pura veda, we had nothing else to do. Before dinner, a capuchin monkey clammered on the roof above us and then poked his head around the eaves to look in. We were sitting on the outside and soon half the restaurant was gathered by us to see the monkey. Some tried to feed him fruit but he took it and threw it away. Good for him! Later, true to form, it started pouring. Fortunately, it was almost over by the time we left. For dessert Jo ordered a banana flambe, the same dessert we had last time. This time, when it came, they turned down the lights so it was dark in our area, and the waiter put on a show, pouring flaming sauce back and forth between two silver boats. It was quite spectacular. It appeared that there was no rain by our house, as the dirt road was dry and so were the chairs on our terrace. It was still in the mid 20's, perfect for sitting outside and reports of snow back home, on April 11 of all times, did not have us looking forward to leaving in a few days.
April 12
Our last day in Uvita. After breakfast we went back to Playa Linda, AKA Secret Beach. It was sunny and hot and the beach was great. There were a lot more people here but the beach goes on as far as you can see in each direction, so there was plenty of room. Not so secret though. After we went to Dominical for last minute shopping and lunch. My last smoothie? We returned home for a last few hours of cooling in the pool. Then back down the mountain to Las Laurella. The food was great again but with two people serving and lots of people, it took a long time. Jo got her margarita at the same time as her food and it took forever to get our bill. Pura vida. Driving up the road, I got another chance to photograph the nightjars that sit in the dips of the road after dark. I did get a good shot of one. Then it was time to pack. Feeling sad to see this come to an end but nice to see the kids and grandkids soon. We discussed it, and decided that we are not done with this country.
April 13
A sad day. I woke up at 5AM as usual to the loud sound of howler monkeys. You could set you watch to this. I tried to go back to sleep but the birds were unusually loud this morning and perhaps they were saying goodbye. I got up just after 6AM. This is unheard of back home. Nothing of interest to me happens before 8:00AM. We enjoyed several cups of coffee on our terrace for the last morning before breakfast. Having packed last night, there was not too much to do before we got ready to leave. There was the issue of the garborator not working and the sink and dishwasher backing up but with a plunger, that was soon fixed. Several toucans flew by to say goodbye and I discovered a few more new birds in our yard. By 9AM we were ready and left for the start of our journey home. The weather was beautiful. The 3 hour drive ended up taking over 4 hours due to some very slow stretches of traffic and a brief stop at the crocodile bridge. During a stretch of highway heading inland, the outside temperature reached 45 degrees. We had gassed up earlier and wanted to make sure we had at least 7/8 of a tank of gas when we returned the car, being the amount we had when we got the car. In a brilliant move, our driver, not me, decided to turn off the air conditioning to save on gas. This was quite successful we thought although the women in the back seat were not as appreciative of our cost cutting measures. However, it worked, despite abandoning the plan after a while because of the back seat opposition. We checked into our hotel, Hampton Inn & Suites across the highway from the airport. Returning our rental vehicle went smoothly and by 2 o’clock we went to Dennys for lunch. A very big lunch. As anticipated, the pool was very cold by my standards, and so swimming was out of the question. We had a late dinner in the hotel at about 7:30. We were all still full from lunch so for the second time in my life, I ordered a salad instead of an entree, chipotle chicken salad. I didn’t quite finish it.
Our hotel room was less than we had experienced in the past. There were no glasses, only two coffee cups. We had wine to finish up before tomorrow! There was no tea bags. The room had two queen beds. It appears that I may have seemed less than impressive when I booked the rooms both for the beginning of our trip and this time. We were on record for a handicap room. I changed it. My pet peeve once again was a room for two or more people with only one, rickety chair. One person is required to stand or go to sleep at all times. After our friends check out to go to bed, we tried to watch TV. The room came with no guest info book and the TV only produced Spanish TV. Jo called the front desk to inquire and was told to go to channels higher than 1,000. They did not register. Someone was sent up to help and finally reported that the problem was with the service provider and they would send someone to fix it tomorrow. We told him that was of little use to us as we were leaving tomorrow. So much for TV.
April 14
After a fine complimentary breakfast in the hotel, we took the shuttle to the airport for our long journey home. Things went smoothly in San Jose, and we were off at 1PM for Toronto. We arrived in Toronto at about 8PM local time, 6PM Costa Rica time. We learned that Toronto airport is notoriously known for being understaffed as travel increases coming out of the pandemic. Our first indication was the announcement while taxiing to the gate that we would be held up in the plane for an undetermined amount of time and we would not know anything until ground staff talked to the flight attendants. First we had to wait a few minutes for the ground crew to be ready to escort the plane to the gate. We learned a flight from Mexico had arrived before us and we had to wait to unload. Then it was announced after some time that they would be deplaning 50 people at a time, with 10 minute intervals in between. After over half an hour we finally got off the plane, followed the long walk towards the security area only to end up in an area with no way out. The door was locked. Finally someone came and asked what we were doing there. He called to find out why no one had met us, then unlocked a door to allow us to take the escalator to carry on our long walk. At the security area the room was full with a line snaking back and forth and leading to where you got your security pass. Fortunately the line did move and after a while we were able to get to the machines, get our phot taken and get our security pass, and then join a new line leading to the Customs booths. The Customs officer was very nice. She was taken aback that we had spent a month in Costa Rica and we could joke around. We then got our suitcases and I asked a staff member by the Connections area if we could check our bags in for our flight tomorrow morning. She said no. She then said to go to the 3rd floor. I asked if we could get the bags checked in there. She said no. I looked very confused and asked why we would go to the 3rd floor if it would not accomplish anything. I guess she meant tomorrow, but did not explain. We took our luggage and a nice shuttle driver let us on his shuttle even though it was full and two of us had to stand. At the hotel, The Crown Plaza, we were again in a line. For some reason, some people seem to take forever checking in. Lots of questions, waits for who knows what, etc. When we checked in, it took only a few minutes. By now it was 10:25PM, almost 2.5 hours after arrival, and the only restaurant closed at 10:30. Jo went to ask if we could still get in as we hadn't had any dinner. The woman there was extremely nice and held a table for us while we brought our luggage to our rooms. We were able to eat and drink and got back to our rooms shortly before midnight. A short night ahead.
April 15
5AM came quickly but at least we got in 4 hours sleep. We took the shuttle to the airport and again, I felt like cattle at a slaughterhouse. We had to line up to deposit our luggage which actually went very fast. Then we lined up to go to the gate area. From there we lined up to go through security. That usually is a quick process, but not in Toronto! The bags and coats, etc. went through a scanner and in the line we were in, almost every bag was diverted to a line for inspection. They backed up quickly and we had to wait forever while each bag was retrieved and gone through with a fine-toothed comb. Jo had a small bottle of sauce, which she bought in the San Jose airport, and which they sealed in a plastic bag, rejected. I had a small bottle of nitro which I carry with me on all trips in case of heart issues. No one has ever challenged me on it. This same bottle passed through many scanners. The officer, clearly new and going by the book, asked a lot of questions and frequently had to consult with others. I was told to bag the bottle in the future. Security took just long enough that when we got to our gate, boarding had started and any thoughts of picking up some breakfast to go was dashed. I was happy to leave Toronto airport though. YVR seemed much more efficient. We were home by 10AM and the adventure was over. That is, unless you count the fact that our car had a very dead battery. I got a jumpstart the next day and drove for about an hour and a half, including taking the freeway to Matsquit and idling in a parking lot while Jo shopped. Then we went shopping and I pulled into the gas station for gas. I turned the car off and it would not start again. Grounded for the rest of Easter weekend.
