Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Scouting Out Costa Rica
Leslie and Angella reunite after what seemed like ages. Leslie has been traveling outside of the country for the past several weeks while Angella is on the west coast in Oregon supporting the relocation of her youngest son. It seems like this young man is well on his way to adulting- lucrative new job in his chosen field, great first apartment overlooking the Columbia River and his eyes set on a beautiful new muscle car (taking after his Dodge-loving Mom).
Leslie, on the other hand, has returned all tanned and (somewhat) relaxed from two weeks in Costa Rica. She went out on a recognizance mission of sorts in search of possible relocation venues while Ange frequently interjected, reminding her to make sure to include her in any future plans. The Costa Rica trip took Leslie and friends from the northwestern Guanacaste region, through the more central Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, further to the capitol in San Jose, then to the rainforest in Tortuguera.
The experience in the rainforest was certainly unforgettable. Soaking rainstorms, howling monkeys, clothing that never dries, beautiful birds and animals, and bugs and beetles that were truly terrifying. Leslie described the boat rides required to get to their lodging and her experience staying in a screened treehouse during her stay.
Leslie’s favorite, and less frightening, venue was in Costa Rica’s southeastern region of Limon in the town of Puerto Viejo. There she was able to relax and commune with the region's Caribbean food and flair.
The episode ends with Leslie reassuring her bestie that wherever she may decide to relocate to, she’ll be sure to make it a trip for two.
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one, two, three ha, ha ha.
Speaker 2:Hey Ants, hey Les, how are you?
Speaker 1:it's been such a long time, pal, it's like we start out crying. They're going to be like what the heck? Is this a comedy routine? Hot cha cha Hot cha cha Showtime.
Speaker 2:Jazz hands.
Speaker 1:Welcome to another episode of Black Boomer. Besties from Brooklyn. Brooklyn, you're kind of giddy. Where you at, where you at, ange.
Speaker 2:I am in Oregon, oregon, oregon, oregon, oregon, I think it's think I asked someone today and she said it was Oregon.
Speaker 1:Oregon so it's not Oregon it is not it's Oregon like origin, but Oregon yes, and that's just one person.
Speaker 2:I may ask a few others.
Speaker 1:I think you should because I don't want to go around saying Oregon, I think you would say others. I think you should Because I don't want to go around saying Oregon.
Speaker 2:I think you would say it wrong.
Speaker 1:I would say Oregon. What's up, hallie, what you doing on the West Coast of these here United States?
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, working like a serf, came out here with my youngin.
Speaker 1:The youngestin, you mean the one that graduated magna cum laude.
Speaker 2:That one exactly, and so he moved out here. You know, this is the thing. Like, I have three children, as you all know, and each of them have different needs, and so I've been telling them from the beginning it's about equity, it's not equal, it's about equity. So I give each one what they need, so they have different needs. And if they're trying to, you know I usually don't get that. I very rarely get that kind of you do this and you don't do that kind of shtick. But maybe it's because I tell them from the get it's like, you may need this, you may have different likes, you have different dislikes, anyway, so what I'm doing for this one is oh, I'm in a lounge at his apartment and the ice maker just stopped making that.
Speaker 1:Oh good, it sounded like a dog barking or like a dog fight outside, but good.
Speaker 2:It was something, yeah, yeah. So anyway I am here with him in Portland and he's gotten a really nice big studio apartment. It looks like a one bedroom but the wall doesn't go all the way up, kind of thing. Nice view of the Columbia River. And if you guys, you may have seen on my live on YouTube. I gave a little tour of where I am. I'm in the lounge right now because he does not yet have internet. It's going to take a few days for him to get it. So I come down here and work in between.
Speaker 1:The work, the real work, real work.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm a Facebook marketplace gal, I'm a Craigslist gal, I'm a thrifting gal. I know how to find bargains, good quality stuff that people are selling. I also sell on these platforms and I found some really nice stuff for my son and we have rented trucks and gone to and fro. He kind of navigates like the path there and back and whatever, um, and so we've been doing that. It's been a lot of fun hanging with him and getting his place set up.
Speaker 1:Um, his colors are black, gray, beige well, he's a young man, I mean, and those colors are kind of in so so. So let me ask you this any pushback like I don't like that that's too fancy, or ma, let me do this or I don't like that, you know not really because I'm going into it, kind of what I do.
Speaker 1:I send him a bunch of stuff and I was like just thumbs up or thumbs down, or give me a heart that's good that's good so we've been doing that and he could say he likes everything and just toss it when you walk out the door, when you go into the west coast again, you won't know he listen.
Speaker 2:He said we had such a hard time. The love seat wasn't so bad but we got a love seat and sofa, really nice um leather stuff and I I almost gave up with the getting the couch wow it was, and it was actually in a hilly. We got it from like a hilly part of town, and so we had to take it up like a, it felt like a hill, it was wait, wait.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? You were walking with this on your back. What are you talking about?
Speaker 2:I had to take it up we parked the truck in front of the house and they didn't mention this in the in the post, but we had to go down. It was in their basement and so there there was outside access to their basement oh, you had to get it, yeah, so we had to lift the stuff up the hill. I'm like do you know how old I am? Do you know how old I am?
Speaker 1:I'm a boomer.
Speaker 2:Everybody in the world does know I'm a boomer, but I'm a strong boomer. So we got it. But getting it In the truck wasn't the hard part. The hard part was getting it into the apartment where we wanted it to rest. But anyway, so I've been just recognizing how much my body has served me. It continues to serve me. I need to treat it with the honor and gratitude that it deserves.
Speaker 2:That's true the honor and gratitude that it deserves. That's true. I'm gonna really, um, keep that to heart and take good care of it, because it's really, it, really, it really like I was shocked. And then he decides he wants a king-size bed and I'm like king-size bed. Wait a minute but he's tall and so that ain't why he wants a king size bed. Listen, could you rather not? Some people like to think about, you know, like to intervene whatever with their children and their partners or whatever. Why do I want to think about?
Speaker 1:what my kids are doing. You don't have to. I'm thinking it. Get him a twin bed. I'll buy you a twin bed. None of that hanky-panky.
Speaker 2:Isn't there going to be a lot more hanky-panky in a?
Speaker 1:twin bed than in a king.
Speaker 2:They can go to each corner on the king, but anyway his bedroom can definitely accommodate it with two nightstands. So we got a nice size Anyway. So that has been. Oh, that's not. Is that ting in there?
Speaker 1:No, it's just water. The party's over for me. What a world we're in.
Speaker 2:Anyway. So that's's what, and hopefully he'll get his new car tomorrow. I don't need this, god willing, if it's for him, it will be his. Um. So, just uh, tired, but grateful, and one of the reasons why I'm here. The other reason is because somebody else, somebody else has been away and I needed something to occupy my time, because this was hard, liz. I mean, we did talk, but not the five times a day it was like maybe every three days.
Speaker 1:That's true, I suffered. I just came back from two glorious, busy, crazy weeks in Costa Rica.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy for you.
Speaker 1:I know that's your happy face.
Speaker 2:I'm happy, I'm looking forward to when we go together, but yeah, so all about it.
Speaker 1:Don't leave out any details into my life and she's a big proponent actually on traveling to and from Costa Rica. I've never been. I've been as far. I've never been, uh, the furthest, furthest south I've traveled was to, uh, central America and Guatemala, but um, yes, very different different experience, but costa rica is two countries down below that. It sits in between nicaragua and panama okay, panama yeah, so I went with some friends and I did tell you.
Speaker 2:I have family there, did I tell you.
Speaker 1:I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I mean, like my grandfather's whole family is in Panama, Like that side of the family, my middle name?
Speaker 1:Oh, panama, I thought you said in.
Speaker 2:Costa Rica, I'm sorry, costa Rica, in Costa Rica.
Speaker 1:I might have recalled something like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mother gave us, gave both my sister and I her aunt Minette, whose family is in Costa Rica. She's not alive anymore.
Speaker 1:Do you know what?
Speaker 2:part. I don't know, but my sister has letters from my mother, corresponding with them their generations after my grandfather, was the only one who was born in Jamaica.
Speaker 1:All the rest of his siblings are Costa Rican.
Speaker 2:Costa Rican, yeah, wow. So anyway, he married a Panamanian. One of his brothers married a Panamanian. That's probably how you heard me talking about it, yeah yeah, my mother has traveled there to visit her.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I digress, go ahead, you're going all the way around, but much like what I did in Costa Rica. Oh yeah, so we were there for about 14 days.
Speaker 2:That is incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was such a whirlwind. We started on the northwestern corner in the Guanacaste region, which is probably the most familiar to tourists. We were in Tamarindo.
Speaker 2:Ooh Tambrin, as we say in.
Speaker 1:Jamaica, beautiful resort. We did a lot of walking, it was very hot, the beaches were beautiful and the people were very friendly, but it was a typical busy tourist area, which was nice. But we had plans, because we had plans to go and visit many regions in the country, to go and visit many regions in the country, okay. So we stayed a few days at a resort in Tamarindo and then we traveled to. One thing I'll say about Costa Rica that I've learned is that it's very rich in natural resources, okay, and they are very conservation conscious, gotcha, the entire country, and tourism being their main source of income. They have this tourism thing down on lock. From the 70s they really started conservation efforts and the biodiversity is just amazing, the combination and the variety of birds and other wildlife and creatures and fauna, flora. It's just really, really, and you see a different thing depending on every region, different regions.
Speaker 2:So Costa Rica Eco-tourism is really big there.
Speaker 1:Very, very. Yeah, so we started out there. I was going to say something else, but I lost my train of thought real quick. But oh, this is what I was going to talk about the climate. Okay, so it's rainy season right now. Rainy season in costa rica is from may to december perhaps.
Speaker 1:Um so obviously it rains it's a long rainy season it's a rainforest, I guess is that well, there are rainforest, but not all of it is rainforest. But where the beaches are, you know rain and then sun, and we did not get a lot of rain there, which was great, but then it's also rich in volcanoes, really. So it is said that you really got to go see they're not active volcanoes. I don't remember when they were last active, right, but from Tamarindo we took a three-hour ride to A three-hour tour.
Speaker 2:It felt like that.
Speaker 1:The weather started getting rough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a tiny ship was tossed.
Speaker 2:If not for the courage of the fearless screw, the minnow would be lost.
Speaker 1:But we weren't lost. So you're aging yourself, but anyway, gulligan I could care less anyway, gulligan um gulligan, gilligan, gilligan, it's the culligan man and Gilligan's Island. So anyway, so we went to La Fortuna next to see the volcano Arenal.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Beautiful.
Speaker 2:Can you say the word again, the place again? I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:La Fortuna.
Speaker 2:La Fortuna Like fortune La.
Speaker 1:Fortuna, yes, and volcano Arenal, arenal. Speaking of La Fortuna, you would have been so proud of me. I would say I spoke 75% Spanish. While I was there and forced myself to get menus in Spanish, they had the nerve to look at me and say would you like an English language menu? No gracias, quiero en espanol solamente. Then, when their back was turned, I would go to Google. Translate and I would go to Google Translate. Actually, that's not true, because I really had no internet access for almost two weeks, which was glorious, glorious Very limited, okay.
Speaker 1:So anyway, but you were with me in spirit, darling. So we stayed there a few days and then from there we took another three hour plus trip into the capital city of san jose. And I really wanted to see san jose because I wanted to get a sense of what the city was like. Okay, um, and it really is a typical city coast no, that's in a that's centrally located.
Speaker 2:Gotcha Okay.
Speaker 1:There's two international airports and many local municipal airports, but we flew into Liberia, which is in the northwest, closest to Tamarindo, and then there's another one in San Jose. But anyway, I'm making a two a two-week story, two weeks long. So from San Jose we stayed there a couple days, where I might want to spend a couple of months a year or something like that. So I wanted to get a sense of what the city was like and looked at real estate, not necessarily in depth, but different houses or apartments or condos or things like that. From there we headed to the rainforest.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember that phone call.
Speaker 1:It's an experience. It's something that I said. It reminded me of going to the road to Hanna in Maui. Okay, it's something that you want to experience, but you never, ever, ever, ever have to do it again.
Speaker 2:So remember.
Speaker 1:I just said that there are two climates in Costa Rica, in the rainforest, there's two climates as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, Rain and more well Okay.
Speaker 1:Rain.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And more rain.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, rain and torrents, okay, and.
Speaker 1:Wow, it almost seemed there was All right, so we stayed essentially in a tree house.
Speaker 2:Okay, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:With a bathroom and running water, but there were no windows. It was all just screens around the sides. No glass, no glass.
Speaker 2:But you can look out, okay.
Speaker 1:You can look out.
Speaker 2:I can't. Imagine.
Speaker 1:I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't. Imagine.
Speaker 1:I just kept saying like, first of all, it was so loud at night because the monkeys would drop and throw things onto the roofs, oh my gosh. And then I mean you would hear like, you know, like what is that? What is that? How close, what is that? What is that how close? And then when it rained, it rained so hard that it it felt, it felt like a movie set. Wow. And you know, you can't really carry two weeks worth of clothing with you, you know, if you're moving around so much. So we intended to, you know, wash our things and let them dry, or whatever. Things don't dry in the rainforest. Wow, oh no, there will be no drying in the rainforest. You can wet them if you'd like, but you will not have any dry clothes.
Speaker 2:They will remain so.
Speaker 1:I mean they're just I'm wondering, like, what do people do? I don't think that they have dryers necessarily everywhere. I just I can't imagine what people do.
Speaker 2:They adapt, we're used to having dryers, they adapt, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:So you had to get there only by boat. Oh my gosh. So if you there's no running to the local supermarket or I need a snack at 10 pm, let me run. There'll be no running.
Speaker 2:Go get some Cheetos.
Speaker 1:And you don't want to keep any food in your sleeping quarters because you might have some company looking for your food. Oh no, I've never experienced anything like it. Some company looking for your food? No, I've never experienced anything like it.
Speaker 2:If you snack, we all snack.
Speaker 1:We all snack. And then one night in the rainforest the guide said don't turn on your outside lights because we have maybugs. Remember the cicadas at your place when we were there? The volume of these maybugs may be three times that much what I was and they were huge Black beetles, right Many of them what I was and they were huge Black Beatles, right, many of them.
Speaker 1:I mean, they were just hitting things Like Ang. You know how I am, I do. Let me just tell you, I was so afraid I didn't get the picture of the people sweeping up mounds of them in the morning. The mounds were about a foot tall, mounds of dead ones. They were not, I swear to God, no, it was a mound. My friend said to me, turn around and look, and I said why would you show me that? So I couldn't look again. And I was so frightened because there was a light by where I was sleeping. So they were everywhere. They were everywhere, right, right, and I had sandals on so I had to cross them to get there. It was like the gauntlet. You know how like I felt, like I was being hazed. So when I got inside and closed the door, I just started crying. It's like I made it, I was just crying, I was so. It was horrible, it was awful, awful. I'll never go there again.
Speaker 2:I said, I just saw two spiders.
Speaker 1:Night of the Living Dead Outside.
Speaker 2:No, he saw two spiders outside and he was talking about how big, and I'm like you know. Oh, he should have seen the spiders Every time she sees a spider, she says look, it's as big as my head. Oh my gosh, it was so frightening.
Speaker 1:I couldn't eat and I was just like, like moving my legs so nothing would land. It was awful, it was really, really something. And obviously the mosquitoes were just eating us alive. Right right boat rides to look at nature, I saw crocodiles, I saw heron, which you know heron are not my friend because they ate up my koi, your poor koi. And it was just, it was just. It was such a surreal. I felt like is it Attenborough, Richard Attenborough, the nature guy? How about Jane Goodall?
Speaker 2:Jane Goodall is gorillas.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. But, so from the rainforest in Tortuguero I went to my favorite Actually, the rainforest was my favorite part, believe it or not, because it was so otherworldly, you know. But then I went to where I could definitely see myself not only living, but returning several times.
Speaker 2:With me this time. Could you just say that You're not saying that enough, because it's implied. It's implied, you know I got you.
Speaker 1:I got you. Okay. So I was in Puertoerto viejo, which is puerto viejo, that's in limon area. So that's south east, that's on the caribbean side. The other places they would say is on the um pacific side, got it? So this is by the car Caribbean Sea, so there's more Caribbean flavor. It's 45 minutes from Panama and it's just such a different vibe. The people are browner, they have hair like mine. They offered me weed as soon as I got there. Now, why would they? I don't understand. Do I look like a pothead? You?
Speaker 2:do not.
Speaker 1:Who told you? I said, no, thank you, I know you did, but yeah, we really had a nice time in that area. So let me just, before I close, let me just go through. So we stayed in six different sleeping areas or hotels, okay, different types, from a few resort styles with all the amenities to to a tree house to regular down in the city. It was just Wow. So let me tell you the transportation that I was on in the last two weeks. Okay, so I was on a jet plane.
Speaker 2:I'm leaving on a jet plane. All right I was on a 12 seater plane. Okay, I don't have a song for that one, okay.
Speaker 1:We took a bus like a Greyhound bus at one point.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't have a song for that one.
Speaker 1:We took a van like a 15 seater van at one point. Okay, we were in a car because we were in Uber. A couple of times we took a van like a 15-seater van at one point. Okay, we were in a car because we were in Uber. A couple of times I told you we were in a boat several boats, yes, because we were in a place only accessible by boat. So to get to a store, to look at whatever, you had to get on a boat.
Speaker 2:What kind of boat? Could you describe the boat?
Speaker 1:Well, there were a couple, and I don't really know what they're called, but I guess they're like these tour boats, not a yacht, but a little more rustic than that. Not in rowing, no, not in a canoe, no, no, but it was one of those. I guess you call it maybe a 20-seat boat. Oh, I see, Okay yeah yeah, and then every time I don't really know what a catamaran is, but anyway, every time you had to get on, you had to sit with your life vest on. Right of course, and that's how.
Speaker 2:I sat.
Speaker 1:I sat like this, but in one of the tours we were on, we're in a rainforest. It's pouring raining, so here I am sitting in a poncho in the stoking wet rain. Look at that. Look at you. Double thumbs up. That's not what rain looks like.
Speaker 1:That's not what rain, but I'll take it. So, sitting in a poncho, covered in a poncho, looking at the stuff. But I'll tell you this next time, if you go into the rainforest for obvious reasons into the rainforest for obvious reasons, take a poncho. Umbrellas aren't really necessary, but, um, waterproof clothing would be helpful. And you want to take binoculars? You want to take binoculars? The birds are just beautiful. Um, that's where you see god's diversity. Yeah, yeah, the reptiles, like I said, I saw crocodiles, from large ones to little ones, and it's like, as long as he stays over there, he's all right. You know, because you have issues with lizards.
Speaker 1:So I know, yeah, you know I'm used to the geckos in Florida, but these were not little geckos. I'll put some pictures on. I'll put some pictures on. And then from Puerto Viejo, we stayed there a couple days and then took the little. Let me tell you about the 12-seater plane experience real quick. They told us that you strictly could not bring more than 40 pounds, 40 kilograms of luggage. So when I heard that, I'm like'm like oh my gosh, because you know me, I like to buy souvenirs and already I'm busting out and all of this, I'm like uh, turns out I had 46 kilograms but they let me on, right. So, okay, fine, got that, didn't? So I had my that bag and I had a carry-on, didn't I have to get on the scale with my carry-on? After he weighed the bag, he's like okay, now you get on. I'm like what I looked around like in public.
Speaker 2:Nobody mentioned that.
Speaker 1:No, and I'm like I guess I understand why they need to see. You don't want it to go down, but I'm like of all the indignities. But I'm like of all the indignities I had to get with my bag over and step on the scale. I'm like the bag is heavy.
Speaker 2:The bag is very heavy. I got some volcanic rock in the bag.
Speaker 1:That was something else I'm like oh my goodness, and then going up and I got pictures from there and it was just what a trip that's beautiful yeah, and then we flew back, so I've been back about five days now.
Speaker 2:Oh, man and.
Speaker 1:I'd go again. I can't wait to show you the pictures and share. But Costa Rica, it's definitely on the list. It's on the list, so next place on the list I could see myself taking a look at. Maybe you can come with me when I go to Panama. Or I want to explore Portugal also. I hear Portugal is very expat, Black woman friendly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I want to try Senegal too. I want to see what that's like Jess has been exploring that.
Speaker 1:I see, I see, yeah, so I got to keep reading about these places and all, but I definitely could see myself slowing down at work and you know I had a call to. I was on call two days ago and I worked probably 24 hours straight with like an hour and a half break in between, and I'm like I am not made for this anymore. This is for those young people, you know, no thank you yeah yeah, it was pretty intense yeah wow, wow.
Speaker 2:Well, you don't look worse for the wear, thank you.
Speaker 1:I didn't lose my teeth, I don't have them in my mouth but I didn't lose my teeth while I was there.
Speaker 2:Excellent, okay, very good. I don't know why you call them your teeth. You're so nuts.
Speaker 1:What else do people take in and out of their mouth? You know Invisalign, yeah, but you know it's too much to say Invisalign. It's like my teeth, when are your teeth? My friends were saying where's your teeth? You got your teeth, you know. So all hands on deck.
Speaker 2:All right, excellent so.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to be back, happy to see you, my pal.
Speaker 2:Yes, on the regular you got to make up for lost time, so I want 10 calls a day, just like what you doing, what you doing now, how?
Speaker 1:you doing? Yeah, did you do what you said you were going to do. And you're back in a couple days, back on the East Coast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I decided. I don't know if I told you this, but I decided. I'm going to go to LA. No, I'm going to go to LA From there and spend some time with my other son before I fly back.
Speaker 1:Oh, so he wanted me to.
Speaker 2:He wanted to have some family.
Speaker 1:That's nice. So you're going there on Sunday. I am Nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think I'm going to be there three or four days.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay, my next trip I'm going to Florida next week. Oh See, mom, very good, you know Very good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, racking up those frequent flyer miles. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, All right Les.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I've got to get going because it is well. It's much later your time than it's my time. It certainly is, I'm still kind of in this jet lag situation. Really, Really really.
Speaker 1:Because you know we've been working so hard. We sure, sure, yeah, rest a little bit, and then it throws off my anyway and you are, and you are old, so you know people need a little more time happily old and old and wise, old and wise, old and wise. There you go. All right, my dear, this has been another episode of. This has been the vacation mode episode of Black Rumor Besties from Brooklyn, brooklyn.
