The Big Q - Quartzsite

It was the end of a long driving day when I arrived in Quartzsite.  Surprisingly, traffic was quite heavy.  Everyone was bailing out of California in droves.  Can't say as I blame them.  I was pretty shocked as I drove down the hill into town and saw maybe 4 rigs off to the right.  

Tyson Wells was in the process of construction with quite a few RV's setting up their sales tents.  Past that however, it was a ghost town.  The RV parks were not even half full.  

The first order of business was fuel.  The Arco station on Riggles Road is my go to.  Diesel was $2.43 a gallon, cheaper than I have found it anywhere in Arizona.  

 The kids and I relaxed after getting our spot at Park Place RV Park.  The going wintertime rate is $50 a night, but I paid only $14.  Merry Christmas!!

Yes we are still playing with the Cooper ball in spite of it's bad ending.  He just can't seem to let this one go.

You all will recognize this ... a gorgeous Quartzsite morning.  We were off again with a view of nothing but desert.  The rest of the way to the mountains had maybe ten rigs total on both sides of the road.  It's either really early and everyone stayed home for Christmas, or no one is coming to the Grand Ball at all this year.

Back to the volcanos of Costa Rica (that's one in the distance) ..... we stopped at this lake for a little boat ride into the depths of the jungle.  Did I mention it rained most of the time we were there?  This looks ominous and it was in more ways than one.

 Pretty soon we were cruising down a river with more birds than I've ever seen.  Macaws fly above the tree tops in flocks. 

 Soon we came to this sign.  If someone would like to interpret it, I would appreciate knowing exactly what it really said.  What they TOLD us is that we just crossed the border into Nicaragua, a place no one was allowed to go.  During this time there was a lot of fighting and guerilla warfare going on.

To make it worse, they just kept going a little farther until we all knew we were going to see gun-wielding guerillas coming out of the jungle to kill us.  I kid you not, this was a little scary.

 They even made a point to tell us that no one could take anything from the river.  No catching birds or critters of any kind, including NO fishing.  Yet here we see a couple of local women catching dinner with a stick and a piece of line.

At long last we returned to the dock and were shuttled off to our hotel.  That's when the heavens opened up and lightning began to strike WAY too close with the biggest booms I've ever heard. 
 

There was one other stop at a famous restaurant, the name of which I have forgotten.  This place was iguana central.  There were hundreds of them laying around everywhere.   Apparently they were pests at first, until the owner decided to feed them, resulting in everyone coming in from the jungle.  So many that it became a big tourist attraction and now his restaurant is always busy.  Smart guy!!

 At this point in time, everyone else in our group of adventurers left to go home.  Patty and I couldn't figure out why we were the only ones who added on the special 4 day adventure.  We were told to pack VERY light because there wouldn't be a lot of room.  We should NOT have listened.  We ended up on a bus in the middle of San Jose before being driven across the country.  We REALLY should have gone to those meetings.

Bananas are a big product here and we were treated to an example of how they are transported on steel cables across the fields to processing.  The bags are placed on the bunches in the field to keep out bugs and help the bananas grow.  Notice all the water on the lovely dirt road?

 At last we were dropped off here (more rain and mud), another of those out in the middle of nowhere spots, where the NEW guides were laughing about how they were going to deal with the new gringos.  It's HOT and it's probably 100% humidity, which remained for the rest of the trip.

And THIS would be our new transportation.  Interesting note here, Patty and I had one very small bag each.  Everyone else who got off the bus and onto these boats had huge suitcases full of clothes.  That will come into play a little later.

 Now the REAL adventure begins!!!  If you thought it was some adventure this far, wait until you hear about the rest of the trip!!

In the meantime, it's a lovely 70 degrees here in Tucson as the puppies enjoy roaming the back yard.  No snakes to worry about as they are hibernating (at least I HOPE they are) and no scorpions!!  YAY!!!

More importantly, it's almost CHRISTMAS!!!  Do you have all your shopping done?  I had it easy this year ... Cooper is getting a new bag of balls to chew up and Jessie gets food.  It's all she asked for, more FOOD!!!