Leaving Paradise

I am back in San Jose after a week traveling around paradise. I have been looking at properties here and have found some beautiful places, even in the lousy weather that is October in CR.

First there was the bar, restaurant and cabinas that is the Oceano Cabinas in Zanduco in the far south of the country. This is a delightful place that starts on the only road in the town and stretches to the beach. A long narrow establishment.

The bar at the OC

The rear entrance to the bar

After a couple of days staying with Mark and Steph there I moved on to Dominical about 3 hours drive up the coast. I was shown many properties and other interesting places by Mike Wilson of the real estate company Bargain Costa Rica Real Estates. Saw some very nice places but the best was left for last. Unfortunatly it was pissing down as we arrived at the house in the afternoon so I had to imagine the views of the central valley overlooking San Isidro De General.

If I cannot land the bar in Zancudo then the house in the hills overlooking San Isidro will hopefully be my next home.

Watch this space.

Costa Rica....

Thursday I travelled down to Playa Zancudo. Hell of a trip. Started off with being told that my computer bag was too big for carry on luggage and had to be checked. Needed to hand carry the laptop and retrieve andvaluables and send it off. Then asked how much I weighed, which I thought was odd, until I saw the plane. A tiny 12 seater with 4 rows of seats immediatly behing the pilots. I was in row two in a double seat and instead of the usual lapstrap there was an extra shouldef strap that clipped onto the lapstrap. Like in a car. I could watch the pilots and the instruments all the way. FYI San Jose is at 3,000 feet and we climbed to 9,500, the single nose prop was at max revs all the way and the other dials I had no idea what they did. Landing at Golfito was a bit like landing at the old Hong Kong airport. We came in off the ocean and headed straight for the tree covered mountain. At the last minute, which with the winds almost seemed too late, we veered to the left fley in over the town and landed on a tarmac strip carved out of the rainforest. Plane pulled up by the gate, literally the gate in the fence, off-loaded the bags which were collected for me by a very friendly taxi driver and walked off of the airport. No arrivals hall although there was a building there which I guess is for departures, I'll find out next week.

Stage two was the taxi ride down the middle of the road, dodging pot holes and oncoming traffic to the 'docks' where I picked up a private ferry to Zancudo.

Golfito Dock

Andrew and his water taxi

On arrival in Zancudo, after a 30 minute trip, I was transferred to an old short wheel base landrover that had seen better days and taken to the Oceano Cabinas. A truly delightful bar, restaurant and cabinas in the heart of the sand spit that is Zancudo. (More of which later)

Wandered up and down the only road in the dark and had dinner in a little soda (Tico cafe) which consisted of the world wide staple of rice and chicken. It seems like everywhere I have travelled I have eaten a version of rice and chicken, or chicken and rice, sometimes both options are on the menu. Ended up in Bar Sussy chatting to the Spanish owner Manolo and an Argentinian who of course as soon as he found out I was English steered the conversation around to 'the hand of god'.


Walked back along the beach in the dark, dodging the trees and other flotsam left behind by the retreating tide, good job I took a torch. Fell asleep to the booming music from another bar a few yards up the street, will have to check it out tonight.

Fiesta day 8 and beyond....

Saturday day 8. Another mass assencion from the field, another 4am start. Today Keith took his daughter Kim and Dennis the weatherman flying and managed to put the balloon down in the Rio Grande and drift downriver for around half a mile before flying off to Corales. Landed in a back garden and gave the homeowners kids a ride while we pulled the balloon out of the rough prickly stuff and laid out on their back lawn. Good PR for the balloonists and great fun for the kids. For a flavour of the mass accencion take a look here.

After flying we all went to Wecks for breakfast where myself, Ray and his lady Karen took our leave and headed back to Illinois.

Arrived back around 3:30pm Sunday after a long tiring drive. Managed to wash some clothes which included my credit cards, driving licence and 90 dollars. I'll say one thing for the yank money, it cannot be destroyed by a washing machine and tumble drier.

Tuesday I left Peoria and headed to Chicago on the Peoria Charter Coach to Midway for a Wed morning flight to San Jose, Costa Rica (another 4am start). Had to spend Wednesday in San Jose as I did not make the connection for the flight down to Golfito and will take the morning one.

Had an amazing meal at a Brazilian resaurant. You can spend hours there eating at your leisure from meat carved off large skewers brought to your table. Very good food.

Fiesta day 7...

Still going strong... have not had a decent nights sleep since leaving home last Tuesday, 10 days and counting. Having too much bloody fun.

Yesterday (Day six) was the first day of 'special shapes' where they flew from the field and all the regular baloons had to fly from off field. 'Sky Angel' had a companion for the day, 'Salida del Sol@ piloted by Scott Esposito. As Scott had no crew we helped launch and land his balloon as well as 'Sky Angel'. As they landed at different times it gave us plenty of time to do both.

Some of the special shapes are pretty interesting.

There was the Brandenburg Gate

A Shamrock called Paddy

Darth Vader

And some bees kissing

Today (day seven of 4am starts) was again special shapes only there was a competition for the regular shapes. They had to fly from off field and drop a 'baggie' onto a target on the balloon field. Due to the odd winds and the 'Alberquerque box' Keith, the pilot for Sky Angel' took of south of the field, flew north, climbed and then went east, dropped lower and headed west to get himself positioned for a run south across the field. He hit just inside the first target and with his second baggie landed about a foot off the center of the big X. Scored some points, will have to wait for briefing tomorrow morning to find out how well he did.

There were some more special shapes today that did not fly yesterday including...

An American Eagle

The Orient Express

The Space Shuttle

After flying it was back to the field for another tailgate party. Someone turned up with a box of stuff called Tarantula, this was a blue Tequila drink that was bloody nice. Haveing just toooooo much fun here, I am sure I will pay for it somewhere along the line.

Fiesta day 5.

Wednesday Day 5 of Fiesta.

Went flying yesterday, Tuesday. Due to the fatality on Monday and the cancellation of all further flights, the 'brains trust' that runs fiesta decided that ALL pilots who wanted to compete for the days competition would leave the field and fly back to score on the field. This would mean 600 balloons trying to find a launch space to the north of the field, probably in the gravel pit there. Keith decided to just fly for fun, so we left from the north end of the field and flew south. We dropped low over the old field so the emmets there could take pictures and then dropped into the flood spillway and finally landed on a vacant lot.

Sky Angel

Yesterday afternoon I bought a new camera, the newest model from Cannon the SX100 IS. Checked on the internet for prices back home and found that here in the states it retails at $299 where in the UK it retails at £299. Brits are paying double the price........

Today was flags of the nations day. This means that all the international balloons could fly the flags from their home countries. Darth Vader was flying today along with some other neat balloons.

This afternoon was the Zoo party. The Alberquerque closes for the day and the balloonists take over for the afternoon. Fiesta lay on free food and drink supplied by the sponsors, Warsteiner and Admiral Nelson rum. Good excuse to have even more fun and get to meet other balloonists from all over the place. Talking to these people I get the feeling that the Fiesta days are numbered as many are concerned by the lack of landing sites due to the rapid growth of the city as well as the bumbling incompetence and down right comercialisation of the whole event. Examples of the weather predictions constantly stating low winds and good flying conditions when the pilots can see the flags around the field are standing out stiffly.

Another fun day was had by all.

Day 3 at Fiesta.

Sunday the wind was too strong to fly, although quite a few balloons did take off Keith our very experienced pilot, along with most of the other local pilots, decided that it was too wingy to fly.

Went to breakfast instead, spent the rest of the day getting ready for Monday's tailgate party. Went shopping and made lots of jelly shots while drinking beer.

Monday was competition day we were due to fly from the field and had to fly over a target site and drop a bag to score points. Again it was a bit windy but today Keith decided to fly and took a couple of crew as passengers. Wind was starting to pick up a bit but he had a landing site in mind and reached it with little bother although there were many others at the landing site where he nearly crashed into a couple of chase vehicles. Due to the wind and the Monday morning rush hour traffic, he beat us in the chase vehicle to the land site.

While we were packing up the balloon we started getting reports of a fatality. It seems that a balloon got caught on a power pole which ripped out the side of the basket and one of the paying passengers fell out. Cannot really speculate on what happened as there will be a full investigation.

This news put a bit of a dampener on the tailgate party but it went ahead anyway. Was windy to start with but by midday the sun was beating down and all jackets were shed and sunburn was kicking in. We had a 50/50 draw that turned into an impromptu raffle with many gifts donated on the spur of the moment. The profits went to the 'Balloon Historical Society' based in Taos, New Mexico. They are initially trying to protect the Stratobowl site in South Dakota where the early balloon exploration of space was carried out.
George Yost

George Yost, son of Ed Yost the father of modern ballooning, drew out the initial 50/50 tickets. The imptomptu raffle was then conducted by the pilot of Sky Angel, Keith ReevesKeith the raffle king and a lucky winner.

Fiesta time.

Left home last Tuesday morning and nearly missed the bus to the station, not sure if it was early or I was late but had to run the last 100 yards with suitcase. Got to London and went to see Millwall play Northampton in a league match, We won 2-0 and did not look too bad.

Wednesday was London to Peoria, Illinois via Detroit. No problems with getting into the US this time and even arrived in Peoria 15 minutes early.

Left Peoria early Thursday and drove to Alberquerque with an overnight stop in Elk City, Oaklahoma. Arrived Friday evening not sure what day or time it was.

Fiesta started today so we were up at 04:00 to get down to the balloon field. Wind was looking to be a problem but luckily it held off long enough to fly at 07:30. Was part of the mass assencion where up to 700 balloons took off in 3 waves.

Mass Assencion

This afternoon we went down to the Trinity site which has 2 open days per year. Trinity site is where the first atom bomb was set off. It is in a very empty part of New Mexico. All there is now is a n obelisk made of lava rock.

Trinity Site

Offer accepted

I have finally received an acceptable offer on the house. After ten months of not very much interest I finally switched estate agents and had a deluge of viewings. Eventually 3 different people were bidding against each other which helped push the price to an acceptable level.

All I have to do now is get the soon to be ex-missus to sign the forms and we can finally get divorced. I don't know why she has been sitting on the divorce papers for the last year and it is difficult to find out when all she comes out with is 'I'll have to get advice from my lawyer'. Very frustrating.

Off on holiday this week. Going ballooning in Alberquerque, New Mexico amongst other things.