It began in the summer of 1995 -- we were taking a Spanish language class at lunchtime.  The courses were jointly sponsored by the state government and the local community college. The instructor is a lovely lady of Spanish heritage who has a gift for teaching.

Actually in our minds it started about a dozen years ago when Dean traveled with a local pastor and native of Costa Rica, on a trip home.  He so enjoyed the people and the country that for years after he has talked of going back to stay for a few months.

Marietta, our Spanish class profesora, asked the class if there was any interest in making a group trip to Costa Rica and we eagerly signed up.  Everything would be arranged by her sister, Stella, who lives in San Jose.  It was scheduled for over the Christmas holiday for about 12 days.  Thus we began to make preparations.

But by Fall 1995, Marietta's husband, Tom, who was in a battle with cancer, was not able to make the trip.  Other's from the class also dropped out for various reasons, and so the trip was postponed until the following year during Spring Break.

Will we ever get off the ground?

Spring saw Marietta taking her husband to the Mayo Clinic.  It is sad--they are such a sweet couple.  After a lot of family discussion, we think we can gather enough information and with the few people we know there, we decide that we will go on our own the coming summer.  So we stayed close to home and enjoyed visiting the nearby Wooden Shoe tulip display gardens, the Schreiner's Iris Farm and our beloved Keiko then at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. But, then came El Nino.  We were advised against going then as the rains were so extremely heavy that roads were washed out and some places were unreachable. We will postpone once again.  And then came autumn and things are too hectic for us and the trip is pushed yet again until spring.  This time though we purchase our tickets 6 months ahead -- departure date -- March 20, 1997! 
 
February 1997 - Our Spanish instructor along with her sister who lives in Costa Rica was going to help us arrange accommodations as well as an itinerary.   But her husband's cancer had gravely worsened. So I have spent hours and hours on the Internet researching places to go and stay. After not a few dollars worth of phone calls to Costa Rican contacts that we found on the Internet and in a years worth of Tico Times articles we’d saved, plus a report from a local couple who just recently visited Costa Rica for the second time, we finally decided on a tentative itinerary for our first week:

San Jose to visit friends, then pick up a rental car and head to Las Tortugas in Playa Grande on the Pacific Northwest coast.  Next we would head toward the southern Nicoya Peninsula and hopefully stay at Los Caballos B&B near Cobano and Cabo Blanco National Park.  And after we would just see what opened up.

Continue - Leaving Portland

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