Week 1 Recap from Earthstead

On Sunday, June 19, 2011, we began our journey to Earthstead – our wwoofing home for two weeks – from rainy Raglan on the western coast of New Zealand. As we waited for our bus to arrive to take us into the central part of New Zealand’s North Island, Debbie and I enjoyed a cup of cappuccino and a giant bowl of “patatas” at a little café in downtown Raglan. The weather was blustery, with moments of rain, wind, but then sudden sun as well. We sat outside sipping our cappuccinos, optimistically encouraging the morning sun to warm the day. It apparently worked, as the last 20 minutes of our little rest the sun came out and it actually became quite warm. I began to worry I was going to get a sunburn!

At 11:15 am we packed up our patatas, hefted our packs, and ambled the short distance from our café down to the bus stop. Right on schedule, the Raglan to Hamilton bus – Bus 23 – arrived and we hopped on board. We passed through nearly indescribably gorgeous countryside, idyllic green hills with cattle and sheep and the occasional farmhouse. Around 12:30 we arrived at the central Hamilton bus station and settled in for about a two hour wait as our next bus didn’t leave until two o’clock. Our destination was Cambridge – and our wwoofing destination, Earthstead, was apparently just a short distance from the town of Cambridge. The rain had completely set in when we arrived in Hamilton, so we spent the two hours inside the bus station staying warm, reading our books, and eating our peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches we had prepared that morning before checking out of our extraordinary bed-and-breakfast called the Four Elements on the outskirts of Raglan.

At 2 pm we got on the local bus to Cambridge, and arrived about 30 minutes later. We got off the bus and walked a short distance in the rain to Cambridge’s Information Center. The lady working inside was nice enough to call the Osmond’s for us – the Osmond’s are the family who own and run Earthstead and they would be our wwoof hosts. After speaking with someone at the Osmond residence, the Visitor Information lady informed us that someone would be along shortly to pick us up. About 30 minutes later, Dave arrived and introduced himself. Dave is the son-in-law of Al and Suzie Osmond, the owners of Earthstead.

We got into his truck and headed down the highway. A short time later, we arrived at the Osmond’s farm. It is a large complex consisting of several buildings. Several of these buildings have been constructed by wwoofers (and the Osmond’s of course), and are now rented out as accommodations.

Meanwhile…16 hours later…

Monday morning we rose in our camper around 6 am and headed to the washroom across the yard and next to the chooks (chickens). After a bit of morning cleaning up, we headed to the main house and relaxed a bit in the early morning quiet. Debbie prepared a pot of tea, and we sat reading and sipping tea. Around 7:30 others began to stir on the farm; first Alistair appeared and then Dave. The porridge was soon bubbling on the stove and around 7:45 we sat down for breakfast, enjoying some morning conversation with the family.

At 8 o’clock we started work. We did our morning chores – consisting first of tending to the chooks. This involved tossing the chooks two types of feed from the feed bin, and also a bit of light cleaning of their roosting spots. We checked for new eggs, trying to leave a new egg in each roosting spot to encourage the chooks to continue laying eggs. On Monday as on most days during our wwoof at the Osmond farm, we only discovered one or two new eggs. We tended to the chooks in both the old chook pen and the new chook pen. Once in the old chook pin, we also laid down fresh newspaper for the chooks in their small roosting house. Additionally, we spread out some chook scraps that had been collected the previous day from various leftovers of human food. Also in the old chook pen, we moved through the various mandarin, grapefruit, and lemon trees, picking a few pieces of fruit here and there and filling our bucket.

With that, our morning job with the chooks was complete and we headed back toward the house. From there, Debbie spent some time cleaning and sweeping the walkways that converge toward the main house, and I moved out to the round-about and spent some time cleaning the driveway, the walkway up to the Earthouse, as well as the gravel driveway into the Earthouse. As it is winter, new leaves would fall every day, but we did our best to get the walkways and driveways reasonably leaf-free. I gathered piles of leaves and debris and transferred them to the compost heap in the yard near the main garden.

At this point it was around mid-morning, and Debbie and I began work on our first primary jobs. I was given the task of relocating a reasonably large pile of what I think was called scoria – a type of volcanic rock which contains many holes and is very “airy.” I would rake and shovel a wheelbarrow load of the scoria, roll the wheelbarrow down to the dumping spot, off-load the scoria, and return to the pile to repeat the process. In all, I transferred 5 wheel-barrow loads of scoria and by the end I was working in just my short sleeve shirt and sweating. It was an excellent workout!

Debbie worked very busily with Suzy in both the Earthouse and Cob Cottage, cleaning and preparing them for upcoming guests. I finished with the scoria relocation project around 11:30 and headed out to the front entryway road frontage area, where Dave had been busy at work at morning building a new front gate/fence using old railway sleepers.

With that, I have run out of time to finish writing this in detail; see related posts in this blog describing further activities that followed at Earthstead in narrative form.

Here is a rough outline of what happened that first week:

Morning – Lance; hauling volcanic rock, building fence with Dave (preparing and mixing cement). Debbie; cleaning Cob Cottage and Earthouse with Suzie.
Afternoon – Lance dug up Griselinia from flower garden by Cob Cottage – wheelbarrowed to front entryway where Debbie and Suzie planted them. Finished at front by relocating dirt with Dave.

Tuesday – Lance and Debbie, morning – potting shrubs, carpeting; then weeding driveway

Wednesday – morning – Lance and Dave – hauling chip to outside entryway
Morning, Debbie – carpeting right side of front entryway
Afternoon – laying out and smoothing chip (Lance and Debbie)

Thursday – Lance, morning – hauling timber and iron with Dave; hoeing flower garden by Cob Cottage; delivering motorcycle with Alistair to Lynne’s house.
Debbie – planted plants by Cob Cottage; weeded front entryway to main house

Friday – morning (Lance and Debbie) – weeding garden with Suzie
Afternoon (Lance and Debbie) – relocating hay bales with Dave

Then it was off to Rotorua for our weekend getaway! Bye.

Day 3 of our Detox begins with Monkeys!

Debbie hiking in Taiwan

Day 3 of Clean is here, and Debbie and I started the day with an early morning hike in the jungle near our apartment. It was gorgeous! We got up and headed up the mountain in our car for the short 20 minute drive to the trail-head. We began our hike just after 6 am. This is a steep hike; Taiwanese trails are often built of logs and more or less go straight UP the mountains – no switchbacks here! I think the log-constructed trails are easier to maintain than dirt trails due to the heavy rains (especially this time of year). We took it reasonably easy, considering we have been advised to be careful with our level of exercise in these first 7-10 days of the Cleanse. We hiked for approximately 25 minutes and reached something that looked like a summit, though the trail continued on a traverse from there. The morning sounds, smells, and just general richness and vibrancy of nature were quite stunning and therapeutic. Perhaps these feelings were in part due to the early effects of the Cleanse – but also probably due to the effects of my Lasik eye surgery, which I had one day prior to beginning Clean. I can see so well and it was frankly quite glorious, if I may be permitted to use such a strong word!

Me, halfway up the trail

On our way back down, we passed a little restroom building and heard these strange sounds emanating from the general vicinity. We heard this “hooing” sound and then some odd grunts. At first we thought something odd was going on inside one of the bathrooms – then the sounds got closer! We looked up and a group of monkeys were descending from the trees above and dropping down onto the roof of the bathroom. One large monkey climbed onto a tree in front of the bathroom, near us, gave us a long study, and then began to descend the tree to get closer to us. I think he wanted a banana – but we backed off as we have been warned that the monkeys in Taiwan are not exactly “tame” – compared to, say, the monkeys we saw while tromping through Monkey Forest in Bali, Indonesia. Those monkeys were so tame it was almost ridiculous!

But in any event – we saw monkeys in Taiwan for the first time! This trail we were on (simply labeled by the Taiwanese as “Dakeng Trail 4″) is supposed to have monkeys in the vicinity, but I and others who have been on this trail in the past have never seen them. Today Debbie and I were given a treat – the monkeys came out to say good morning to us!

Monkeys in Taiwan!

As for Clean, we are off and running. What is Clean? It is sort of a “gentle” 21-day detoxification program that I discovered through a friend and then read about in the book by the same name. I read the entire thing during our volunteer farming adventure in New Zealand; Debbie read about half of it and synthesized the “how” (she’s the cook so that was important). We both were quite excited by the concept and decided to do it. I ordered a few supplements online, which just arrived, Debbie organized a shopping lists based on various recipes, and we began on Wednesday (July 13). The program consists of two liquid meals a day – and nothing weird like other detox programs with cayenne pepper or other such insanity – just normal blended/juiced fruits and veggies – and then one solid meal a day (lunch). We have to achieve 1200 calories a day. So this morning, after the hike, we had one of Debbie’s delicious shakes – with a few “extra” ingredients from the previous day to up our calorie intake, as we discovered through a bit of calorie counting yesterday that we weren’t even achieving 1000 calories total in a day. I don’t plan to do calorie counting the whole time, but I wanted to analyze things a bit here at the beginning to make sure we get off to a good start.

Summer vacation in Taiwan is here!

Earth Bricks, a Winter Garden, and an AvaLANCE!!!

Debbie and I are having an amazing  time here at Earthstead! The Osmond family has been wonderful and we have truly learned a lot about sustainable living. And we’ve definitely gotten more exercise than we would lazing the summer away in hot Taiwan! We teach at an international school in Taiwan and spending our time wwoofing at Earthstead here in New Zealand has been the perfect summer – (well, winter!) – getaway.

Hauling Earth Bricks

In our second week at Earthstead, two young men from France arrived (Alexandre and Sylvan) and we all got started on a week-long project moving Earth Bricks. Earthstead contains two luxury accommodations – the Cob Cottage and the Earthouse, which have been built and designed by the Osmonds with help from other wwoofers through the years. Both of these houses have been built using sustainable, ecologically friendly building materials and practices. There are plans for future building projects at Earthstead, and so there are 8,000 Earth Bricks in storage. With direction from the rangatiras (the Osmond team “chieftains” – Dave and Alistair) we undertook the task of moving three long rows of Earth Bricks from an outside location to a more sheltered location under the shed roof.

A large set of bricks was positioned on wooden pallets outside, and each time we cleared a pallet and relocated the resident bricks to the growing tower in the shed we definitely felt a sense of achievement!

Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, the large truck we were using to transport the bricks the short distance from the outside pallets to the interior shed got stuck in the mud – due to the recent rainy weather and also due to the heavy bricks weighing the truck down even more. No problem! We simply paused in our brick hauling and got behind the truck – and with Dave at the wheel, we pushed that large beast of a truck out of the muck and sent it on its way.

Let me tell you, moving those bricks is an AWESOME workout – my muscles were definitely tired but happy at the end of each day and I slept like a log. Debbie is using this week of heavy brick lifting to condition and prepare herself for her big Arm Wrestling Extravaganza with Alistair coming up on Monday of next week…stay tuned!

Winter Gardening

In the afternoons, Debbie and I have spent a bit of time with Suzie planting a winter garden. This has involved weeding, hoeing, and clearing the remnants of the old garden away – during which I was excited to find several lovely and reasonably large potatoes hidden beneath the Earth – which we had for dinner on Thursday. This week, with the earth freshly turned over, we began the task of planting the new garden. This involved (of course) planting seeds and young sprouts, but also setting up little net “barriers” to keep the pesky pukekos away from the new garden arrivals.

Here’s Debbie, planting some garlic in the garden, with the green “pukeko proof” netting that she carefully wove together to protect some sort of green leafy vegetables:

Debbie and I picked through several large garlic bulbs that had been hanging out to dry, and from these bulbs we managed to extricate 50 well-formed, quite large garlic cloves, which were promptly planted in the ground by Suzie and Debbie.

Avalance!!

Late Friday afternoon, Suzie and I took off down to the woods on the Osmond property near the small creek that borders their land. We lugged along a wheelbarrow containing  two young Nikau Palm trees.

The Nikau Palm is the only palm species native to New Zealand, so this holds special significance as the Osmonds are doing an amazing job populating their property with many native species of plants and trees. There is a section of their woods that contains only native trees, so we headed to this section and spent some time scoping out a good location for these two Nikaus. I loved it in these woods, as it reminded me of tromping through the woods as a youth in Alabama. New Zealand is a gorgeous, idyllic paradise – but most of it is rolling green hills with well-maintained farmland. It was wonderful being in some wild, unruly woods again, surrounded by native New Zealand trees. I dug in the dirt a bit, clearing away some determined blackberry bushes, and then I began digging holes for the palm trees.

Unfortunately, I got a little overzealous in my digging – I got so wrapped up in shoveling out the dirt that I starting tossing large clods of dirt down the hill, where Suzie was busy transplanting some ferns. She politely and amusedly alerted me to my “avalanche” of dirt that was toppling down on top of her, and I felt mortified, apologized, and quickly adjusted my shoveling in a more controlled manner. My nickname is now “AvaLANCE!”

Memories to Last a Lifetime

Life on the Earthstead farm has been an incredibly rewarding experience. In our days working outside I feel I’ve established a rhythm that is definitely not the same as my regular day job. It is a deep, almost primal connection that is immensely fulfilling. Just as important – our evenings with the Osmond family and fellow wwoofers have been filled with laughter, intelligent conversations, and a growing camaraderie and ease that is uniquely special. This is an experience that will resonate with Debbie and me for years to come. Thank you Osmond Team! Best of luck in your future projects and may your Earthstead dreams become reality.

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

A great day at Earthstead

Today Debbie and I awoke at 6 am per our usual routine here on the farm at Earthstead. The previous afternoon the weather had turned very blustery, with a cold front moving in. The winds died by yesterday evening, the remnant clouds moved off at sunset, and we awoke to a still, clear, very chilly morning. The second frost of the winter had settled on the valley around Cambridge, New Zealand.

We dressed quickly in the chilly air of the Cob Cottage, and Debbie fried up a couple eggs and brewed herself a small pot of tea to start the day (I had a Red Bull). We were incredibly lucky to be given the Cob Cottage as our wwoof “shelter” for our second week on the farm. It is much more than a shelter – it is a high-end luxury accommodation designed and built by the Osmond family with help from resident wwoofers. I believe they charge around $150 USD per night for this house, and we have been given it as our wwoof house for this week which is frankly unbelievable. We have a nice big king bed to sleep in, and I’ve tried (mostly successfully) to start a fire in the fireplace/woodstove each night.

With a small bit of food in us, we put our shoes on and headed across the small yard to the main house. We enjoy this part of the morning – the quiet moment before everyone else has awakened. Around 7:15 the two new wwoofers – two young men from France named Alexandre and Sylvan – arrived. Poor Sylvan was still hopping on just one foot, as he stepped on a nail yesterday while working and it penetrated the bottom of his foot.

Around 7:30 everyone else began to arrive – Alistair, Dave, and Jess with their adorable 6-month old baby. Alistair prepared the porridge (or as I call it – oatmeal) and within a few minutes we were all sitting down to a nice breakfast together.

At 8:15 I washed my bowl and headed out to do morning chores. The first item of the day was to tend to the chooks (chickens). At first Alexandre helped me, but he was soon called away to help Dave with building a cattle run. And so it was just me and the chooks. Today was Thursday – so it was the day to clean all the chook’s nesting/roosting stalls out, give them fresh wood shavings, and to also rake out their coop and pen of any scraps and poop. This Thursday job was a big one today, because late last week Debbie and I had thrown a lot of weeds from the garden into the chook pen to let them scratch through it. The pen was muddy after several days of rain, so it took me nearly an hour and a half to complete all the chook chores this morning. One little black chicken had gone “clucky” and wouldn’t get off her egg for me to give her fresh wood shavings. I literally had to pick her up and remove her. As soon as I had cleaned her area and given her fresh shavings, she climbed back in the coop and plopped down on the egg – although I tricked her and switched her warm egg with a different one, which I have been instructed to do. Not sure what that does, but apparently it somehow encourages the hens to lay more eggs. On the plus side – we had SIX new eggs today – the most eggs the chickens have laid since we got here.

Finally at around 9:30 I finished with the chooks. I left them digging busily into the ground, as I had significantly stirred up the earth with all my raking and removal of old scraps. They were very happy, digging around in the fresh muck, turning up worms as I left.

I spent a bit of time with more morning chores – sweeping the front driveway and walkways. Soon it was nearing 10:30 and I knew I needed to get started with the mowing or I would never finish by noon. Today, as is the case with all Tuesdays and Thursdays for wwoofers at Earthstead, was only a half-day of work. We have the afternoon off. Alistair came by as I was finishing the sweeping and refilled the lawnmower with gas. Shortly thereafter I finished my sweeping and got started mowing. I had started the mowing on Monday afternoon – but then it has been raining more or less constantly since then. Today started cold, but clear. By 10:30 it was sort of starting to warm up, and it was staying dry, though there was a still a heavy dew on the grass which had earlier been frost. All in all it was a very beautiful day.

I mowed the large and various yards of the Osmond farm, starting in their main backyard and then moving on to the yards for the Cob Cottage and the Earth House. I then mowed the long driveway that leads down to the main house from the highway. I had a good time mowing today – I’ve always enjoyed mowing – and eventually I actually took off my jacket and was mowing just in short sleeves. Finally, at 12:30 pm, I finished mowing – and finished work for the day. I took a shower, as I was filthy (cleaning up the chook pen had been particularly dirty work). Then I headed into the main house and did a few chores to help prepare for lunch. I brewed two pots of coffee, I emptied the dishwasher, I cut up a bunch of cheese, and set the table (but forgot the silverware; woops). Debbie sliced and then toasted a bunch of freshly baked bread, and around 1:30 everyone finally came inside for lunch. We had a nice lunch with great conversation and laughs, as has been the routine here.

With that, our half day was over. Debbie and I relaxed for the afternoon and I built another fire in the Cob Cottage. Dusk has approached and soon it will be dinner time. Another great day at Earthstead!

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 48 – Crazy Tracy Returns

At one point in that first month back to school, Tracy abruptly showed up again. I had very nearly forgotten about her. I was in my room finishing up after school one Thursday when I received a message that someone was at the front gate for me. I walked up to the front of the campus and standing by the office was Crazy Tracy, holding a black puppy. I nervously said high, wondering what in the world she was doing at Lincoln and with a dog. After I finished my work, we went back to my apartment as I eyed the sickly looking puppy suspiciously. I think she had found the dog somewhere. She filled me in on her latest adventures; I believe part of her journeys had included some sort of dangerous trip into Nicaragua. The next night we met at the discotheque; she wasn’t late and it was actually sort of fun.

Check out my next “Costa Rica Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 47 – Bernard in Jaco

Bernard and I sat down at a restaurant, got some cokes, and talked for a while. He had finished his work near Puerto Limon and this was his last little trip before heading back to Holland. He had actually been at the discotheque the night before, but he thought he had probably gotten there after I left. He had an intriguing story to tell about some Tica he had met at the discotheque the night before, and I listened with amusement as he told the story with typical detached, dry wit. Bernard suggested that I stay in Jaco for one more night, and I was strongly tempted, but I decided in the end that I needed to get back to San Jose. As is typical with teaching, I felt I had a bit of work to do on Sunday in order to be ready for the craziness of Monday morning. So I said goodbye to Bernard again, found my way to the bus stop, and returned to San Jose.

Check out my next “Costa Rica Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 46 – Jaco by myself

A few weeks into the return to school, in early August, I decided to travel by myself for the weekend to Jaco. I had of course been there several times, but not yet by myself. So one Friday afternoon after school I went Coca Cola and was soon on my way. Upon arriving, I checked into a hotel and sat outside my hotel room that evening, enjoying being away from the city. At some point a middle-aged man in a wheel chair came out of the room next to mine. We started talking. He was an American, a Vietnam veteran. He had lost both his legs in the war. He had long hair, and a friendly, easy-going style, but he also had a sad look in his eyes. Apparently he had been in Jaco for some time, because the workers at the hotel seemed to know him, as well as many of the American surfers (a fixture in Jaco) who would stop by and talk to him for a while. I think he had run out of money somewhere in Florida and had somehow made his way to Jaco.

That night I headed to La Central, that discotheque where I had first really gotten introduced to Costa Rica. I stayed for a while, but got somewhat bored by myself, and so returned early to my hotel room. I woke up the next morning, and decided I would return to San Jose. I checked out of my hotel and was walking down the street toward the bus stop when I astonishingly ran into Bernard. He grinned widely.

Check out my next “Costa Rica Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 45 – Veranito Concludes

As we talked, Elisa mingled her way through the crowds. Elisa was very intelligent, had sharp social skills, and could carry on educated conversations on a number of topics, but she also had a bit of fake charm to her. It had begun to get on my nerves. She used her charm that night, however, to get us a free ride back to our hotel. Around midnight, a couple exceedingly obnoxious guys who claimed to be MBA students at UCLA’s business school happily loaded us into their rented luxury SUV and drove us back to our hotel.

The next morning I decided I had accomplished a thorough enough tour of Manuel Antonio and surroundings, so I bid farewell to my travel companions and headed back to San Jose. They were also leaving, but heading on to different parts of Costa Rica. They were interesting people, and I had enjoyed meeting them.

A few days later, the veranito was over and it was time to return to school. It always took me a while to get back into school after time off, but this was the easiest adjustment yet, probably because I knew I was leaving in a few months. Although I was very attached to Costa Rica and indeed glad I had decided to stay for this year, I had already decided some months earlier that I would moving on at the end of the year. I had also already told Joe of my decision. It was still a hard decision to make, but this time I was sure.

Check out my next “Costa Rica Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 44 – Manuel Antonio

The next morning the three of us headed into the park. It was a very beautiful place, living up to the praise people from Lincoln had given it. That afternoon I spent time on the beach by myself, truly enjoying my vacation. The next morning the three of us decided to go on a rafting trip down the Naranjo River. We were taken in a mini-bus upriver and commenced our journey. The water wasn’t as high or swift as my trip down the Pacuare, but there were many rocks rising out of the water, which made it rather dangerous in spots. It was a fun trip.

That night the three of us took a taxi down to Quepos to survey the town’s nightlife. We visited a few bars here and there, one bizarre place featuring a game where people stacked and removed pieces of wood from a growing tower. That establishment seemed to have a very Americanized yuppie feel to it, and I was quickly irritated. We moved on to the more popular local discotheque, and stayed there for some time. I spent some time talking to Bernard as he surveyed the crowd. He was an interesting fellow, a successful, yet laid back European with a dry sense of humor and an avid interest in Costa Rican women. If I recall correctly, he was on a “working vacation,” doing some sort of follow-up research for a Holland magazine. I believe it involved a joint Holland/Costa Rican agricultural project somewhere between Braulio Carillo and Puerto Limon.

Check out my next “Costa Rica Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.

Costa Rica Travel Journal, Part 43 – Manuel Antonio

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

I woke up a day after returning from Guatemala and realized I was bored. After the intense, nearly two weeks of adventurous travel, I didn’t know what to do with myself. And I still had a full week of vacation remaining. So I decided to go to Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio was known as a beautiful national park in Costa Rica, with protected jungle growing right up to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. I had never been there. I pulled out my guidebook, made a cursory plan, and the next morning I was at Coca Cola ready to depart. I boarded the bus and sat down. A woman got on the bus just before it left (after it was completely full) and sat on the floor next to me. She started talking. Her name was Elisa and she was a medical student going to school in San Francisco. Eventually someone got off the bus somewhere along the way and Elisa was able to sit in a nearby seat. She also struck up a conversation with a journalist from Holland named Bernard, and soon all three of us were chatting. Several hours later we arrived in the area outside Manuel Antonio, and decided to check into the same hotel. I spent most of the remainder of that day relaxing by the pool.

Check out my next “Guatemala Travel Journal,” written in 1998, coming up soon…

Lance Riley is a writer, teacher, husband, and world traveler. Read all his adventures, past and present, in his travel blog, Lance Gallivants. Lance can be reached at lance@lancegallivants.com.