Preparing for the weekend...More complicated than usual...

A house built on the mountainous road.

"Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica"

Hoffman's Woodpeckers often stop by for nectar from the African Tulip Tree and to sing.  Other birds are flying in the background.

Over the past few days, I've spent more time contemplating what to bring for the two nights in Nicaragua than I spend while packing to leave a location.  In those cases, of which there are many, it's relatively easy to pack.  We simply include everything we own and voila!...we're packed.

In this case, I've had to pick and choose clothes for daytime and evenings.  In this case, I know I'm packing way more than I'll need attempting to make it fit into my half of the black duffel bag.  With only the duffel bag and the computer backpack, we won't require checked baggage.  The flight is about one hour and hopefully, check-in will be easy. 

Typical road in Costa Rica, without a shoulder.

At this point, we're glad we didn't plan to get our passports stamped by driving back and forth to Panama or Nicaragua.  Many roads are blocked due to landslides as it continues to rain in buckets almost every day.  That type of road trip would not have been easy or enjoyable.

Although its more costly to travel outside the country with the cost of the round-trip flight, hotel, and meals the ease and convenience are often highly instrumental in our decision making.  That's not to say going to the airport is convenient but in this case, with the bad weather, it may have been the best course of action.

More topiary in Zarcera.

As of this morning, I'm totally packed and ready to go.  With Isabel here cleaning today, I wanted to get it done and out of the way.  Tom has yet to pack and will do so after she cleans the bedroom.

Last night, during a major storm we had a power surge while watching a show in the screening room.  A sudden pop and flash startled us as the lights and the TV went off in that room only. 

Cloudy day view from the hills.

Luckily, we were using surge protectors for our laptops and they're fine.  We moved to the living room to finish the show we'd been watching on Netflix and notified Aad and Marian this morning as to the electrical issue.  Julio should be here within a few hours to make the repairs.  

The attention to detail and quality service we've received while living in La Perla de Atenas has been exceptional.  We need only mention an issue, big or small and in no time at all, it's resolved.

One could easily assume that the laid-back lifestyle in Costa Rica might result in days of waiting for power outages to resolve or repairs to be made.  But, that hasn't been our experience in Costa Rica.  In the three outages occurring since our arrival, the longest wait was 10 hours with the others resolved within six hours.

Rapids flowing after all the rain.

As we wind down the time in Costa Rica, we realize how quickly it will go once we return from Nicaragua.  We'll celebrate our fifth-year of traveling the world anniversary on October 31st and then, 22 days later we'll on our way to Florida for the lengthy cruise.  

Today, it's cloudy and cool after last night's monstrous storm.  We have great leftovers for dinner which we'd planned in order to avoid a busy cooking day while Isabel is here cleaning for almost eight hours.  These past three months, we've made a point of having leftovers on the days she's here allowing us to stay out of her way.

Have an excellent day!

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Photo from one year ago today, October 27, 2016:

We'd left the villa in Sumbersari six days earlier than planned due to the poor Wi-Fi signal preventing us from posting. We then spent six nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Ngurah Airport and yet, never used this pool.   For more photos, please click here.