Greetings from our misty mountain cabin

Today's lunch - ballin' on a budget!

 Hola! It's been awhile since we wrote a blog that actually talked about what we've been doing the past couple days, so we figured we'd fill you in. I'm sitting on the deck of our new home for the next 5 nights, our own personal cabin on the mountain!!! Kirby is cooking up some ramen, not the normal plain top ramen but a Costa Rican authentic ramen!  I can't believe we're here at this cabin right now, its so beautiful. I think. We actually got to the cabin just as it was getting dark so we haven't gotten to take in the full view from the deck yet, but the drive up the mountain was amazing! Costa Rica has so many beautiful things to see and people to meet, we feel so lucky that we ended up here.
A few days ago, the night before we left Marlon's, we were planning on taking the morning bus to La Fortuna and staying there until we left to go to the Pacuare Reserve and help monitor the nesting sea turtles. That morning I got an email from David, a friend we made at hostel Galileo who was staying there with his wife and kids, saying that he would be leaving the cabin he was renting near Fuente Verde, a sustainable organic farm, and if Kirby and I wanted we could rent it for $75 per week. We checked out the website for the farm, loved it, and decided to completely change our plans and head south to the cabin instead of north to La Fortuna.
We scrambled to get all our stuff together, ran to the bus stop and barely made it in time! The bus rolled towards us and we felt a rush of excitement at actually catching it, then it rolled right past us! A couple old men were walking up the street and laughed at us, telling us that the bus wont stop for you if you have big bags like ours. We thought about hiding the bags then popping them out after the bus stopped, or taking a cab, or walking several blocks to catch the bus at the Escazu central station. While we debated our options I made another visit to our huge spider friend. He was hangin out right in the middle of his huge web. Awesome! I got more pictures of him but out of repect for aunt Becky and any other arachniphobes I wont post anymore right now.
We decided to walk to the central station, made it to San Jose, and a nice guy took us to the bus stop and showed us where to buy our tickets. The people are so nice here! We had a little time so I sat with our heap of stuff and Kirby popped into a nearby hostel to get online and try to figure out where we would go once we got off the bus in Manuel Antiono. She is quite the hostel finder and made a great choice once again with Vista Serena!!! The past couple days couldn't have been spent in a more beautiful and relaxing atmosphere, and the family that runs the hostel was so welcoming and fun to be around. Especially Alex, who took us to the beach on our first night and out dancing the next two. It's hard to find someone who can shake it as hard as us, but he was quite the dancer! OK the ramen is ready, were gonna eat and then Kirby's taking over.

Blowin' up the dance floor!

OK dinner is over, it was delicious. These Ticos know their ramen.
We had a great time shaking our groove thing last night! I think we might have taught the Ticos a few new moves! This morning we had to get all our stuff packed up and ready to go so that we could enjoy our last meal on the awesome veranda at our hostel, The Vista Serena. Katie introduced me to the wonders of Lizano Salsa, possibly the most delicious condiment in Costa Rica, and a friend we made in the hostel left us a can of corn so we really spiced our rice and beans up for lunch and even treated ourselves to a fresh cup of Tang! We are really mastering the art of balling on a budget!
We were able to schedule our travel plans today for late afternoon so we were also able to take a nice little cat nap in the comfy hammocks hanging on the veranda. It is so peaceful just swinging and taking in the view. The hostel always has good music playing and you can feel all your troubles fade away when you just sit and look out at the valley and the water with birds and butterflies soaring. 
Of course when it was time to leave the rain had just started once again... we seem to have good timing for having to trek through the rain.
We made it smoothly back through Quepos and onto the bus towards Dominical where our new friend David was waiting to pick us up in his Land Rover, which came complete with coconuts strapped to the roof! It was a beautiful misty ride that only took about an hour. We don't mind taking the bus at all here in Costa Rica because there is always something gorgeous to look at, and I must admit Katie is great company. We never run out of things to talk about and when we do, we sing! Katie is becoming quite the rapper, we are thinking of dropping our first album here in Costa Rica.
Dominical is a tiny beach town where surfers come in the green season for the big swells. David was awaiting us just down the dirt road in town and we were so grateful to have him pick us up because it made our travel day nice and easy! We stopped at a little fruit stand on the way to our cabin and picked out some fruit. We got a giant bunch of bananas for like $1.50! We also got some other interesting fruits to try, there is one that is kinda spiky and red and you crack it open and there is like a big slimy grape with a pit inside. I didn't make it sound so appetizing but it was actually quite tasty! I forgot the name of the fruit though so I will have to get back to you on that.
The drive to the organic farm was along a windy road through some of the greenest mountains I have ever seen. The misty fog was rolling over and the rain was still trickling down. We made it to our little cabin and it is the coolest little place I have ever seen!! We have our own wrap around porch that opens out to the mountains outside! We will have to post some pics of this place later because it is awesome!
After eating some ramen and getting used to the multitude of bugs flying around we finally decided to settle down and write this blog. It has been hard staying focused though because these bugs are really beautiful. We were worried about fending off the mosquitoes but luckily they seem to have retired for the evening allowing for the beautiful moths to take over our attention. Katie has been taking a million pictures of the moths the whole time I have been writing this. Right now she is standing on the table heading towards the light, she is one with the moths now! Hee...Hee... We have been thinking we should be National Geographic photographers. That would be an awesome job! It is like watching a live in person showing of Planet Earth out here on this balcony right now. As long as no giant spiders come along and try to crawl on me, we are in bug heaven!
Tomorrow we are going to walk down to the stream that we can hear flowing right below our little cabin and then head out on a walk to the organic farm to meet the people and go on a hike in the mountains. We are getting ready to snuggle up and watch a movie soon. Everyone goes to bed really early here and basically gets up with the sun. We are going to see about getting on that schedule at least while we are here! I can't wait to see the view off our balcony in the morning! I hope you all have a good night and sweet dreams! XO
P.S. Thanks so much for interacting, if you have!!! And also congrats on making it to the end of this blog! Sorry its mas words and menos pictures, but we're working with limited technology here. Kirby' macbook can't connect to David's portable internet 3G thing, so he let us borrow his computer and our access to pictures is restricted. Which also means you might have to wait til we leave here to find out what we were actually doing and thinking in the mystery picture! Hope the suspense isnt too hard on anyone... ;)