July 30, 2009   10:00a.m.    Hey guess what? It’s raining. Some lightning and thunder around 3 am and rained off and on till 7:00 and then it has been raining hard since. I did put the boat in the water by 5:30 and Tony and I did get some fishing in……until we were fully soaked but by 7:30 we came home for breakfast. I am still hopeful that she will clear up for the afternoon and maybe get some river fishing in. We fished the river mouth this am.  I was going to get some pictures but it was to wet.

11:00a.m.  It is trying to clear off . I’m just hanging out and see what happens.

5:35  p.m.  Nice afternoon  ….. went out with Tony again and caught some snook……going to have a fish fry tonight. It looks like we might have a great evening ….. it is nice and cool and looks like it might be a perfect evening to fry up some snook.

I am showing some pics of the boys from Colorado. They were going home after a road trip. After talking to them for a bit I was going to take their picture and that’s when the “rodeo” started. Take note of the one fellow “sleeping” in the middle. “Boy will be boys”

July 27, 2009  Came into San Jose this morning and got a phlebotomy. A little dizzy this afternoon so I am taking it pretty cool for the rest of the day.  The technician that takes my blood thinks maybe we should do some blood tests and see where we are at. I agree. I think things are cool but it is time to make sure. I don’t want to get to dizzy/light headed while I’m out in the boat. See how I feel in the morning. Hopefully I can make the morning bus back to Tortuguero. I have felt better this week than I have since I started this circus. Hopefully tomorrow will be good. If I have to I will drop a week and heal up. Take it as it comes.

Good day today ……Still haven’t got up to Moyas. Instead I went with the Captain and Coco down to Parismina and watched some football. Had a blast. We did some fishing before the game and again the Captain has the touch. He caught 3 snook , one was a good size. We stopped in at “rest stop/diner” that is just north of parismina and got the good folks there to cook us up the two smaller snook. Man was that a good feed. Some gallo pinto and some fried plantains and you got a feed fit for a king. Snook is as good as any eating fish. The only fish that I have had  that is maybe as good is a pickrell from northern lakes.

Here is a few pictures of the soccer.

July 25, 2009  Saturday morning …… Went out fishing yesterday and caught 1 sea bass. It rained off and on most of the morning. Cleared off and was sunny and hot for the afternoon. Going to go out and fish for a while this morning again and hopefully catch a snook. I could really use a good feed of snook. If the weather is good I hope to run up to Moyas and get some more of my stuff. Then maybe go up and fill fuel in Colorado.  I only get fuel in Tortuguero when I have no other options. It is more expensive and there barrels have “rust” in them. I’m not sure how you get rust from a plastic barrel but they do. I filled there once last year and there was a cup full of crud in the bottom of the pail. This would have been in my tank if I hadn’t stopped him and took over the “filling” process. Just had a feeling and I was right. One of my fears is to be stranded in a back canal approaching dark. This is another good reason to stay on the bigger canals/river when it gets on in the day.

Update 6:00 putting in time till 7 and then will try skpe and talk with Marina. They were out of fuel in Tortuguero so if there is no rain I am off to Colorado and fill my fuel cans and fish Barradda and Samai on the way back. Coco is going with me to interpret and maybe can get some visiting with Moya.

It is hard to explain how incredibly beautiful the canals are.  As long as your not caught out in a downpour and even then you just get wet, this land is beyond beauty. There is not great fishing a lot of the time but it is always beautiful.

Been up since 5 this morning ,wanting to get a good start on a day of fishing. The fellow where I have my boat stored has been on a 3 day drunk and is not around. It is now 9 and no sign of him. So is life.

I had some sad news this morning. While waiting for my buddy I was visiting with a fellow that I have seen from Colorado and he asked if I had heard about another buddy. Apparently he was fishing from shore at Samai ( this is a river port between Tortuguero and Colorado)with his family and went into the river for some reason and just went under. They found his body washed up the next day.  Just another reminder how frail life can be.

I am going to try and go back to Tortuguero this morning. I spent yesterday resting and I seem to be felling fairly well ……..at least so far. I get tired very easily but other than that I feel pretty good.  The weather sounds pretty good for the next few days and if I can muster up the energy I plan on getting the boat out for some fishing.  Maybe a good feed of fresh snook will get me going. The water should be cleaning up after the heavy rains from last week. The fishing should pick up.   

Travel Advisory

When travelling to Tortuguero thru Pavona be aware that you do not need to pre buy your boat ticket. Yesterday July 15th I took the 9:00A.M. bus from San Jose to Cariairi and then the local bus on to Pavona to catch the boat to Tortuguero.

Before the San Jose bus departed there was a gentleman that boarded and was going to the tourist trying to sell them tickets for the boat portion of the trip To Tortuguero. He was implying/saying that you had to buy from him and that he was cheaper ect. This was/is not true.  

When buying my ticket for the Cariairi to Pavona bus I was pressured to buy my boat ticket as well. I had to insist on bus only fare.

Upon arriving in Pavona and as soon as I departed the bus I was aggressively set upon by several people selling tickets for the boat. I was able to bypass these and while walking to the ferry landing a fellow approached me and I told him I was taking the CKIK CLIK boat and would not be buying a pre sold ticket. I should mention CLIC CLIK collect on the boat and do not pre sell tkts. He then told me that the CLIC CLIC boat had mechanical problems and would not be going and I should quickly buy my ticket from the “other” company while they still had room. This was a lie. And it made me mad. I got on the Clic Clic boat and made the trip into Tortuguero in a new boat with a 100HP+ 4 stroke motor while the rest of my fellow travelers (that I met on the bus) went with “other” company in a leaky overloaded boat with a 40HP 2 stroke motor.

I have been coming to Tortuguero for 3 years now and have watched this company go from “aggressive marketing” to straight out lying. I feel obligated to tell my fellow tourist/travelers that you do not and IMO should not pre buy the boat tkt. If you do you will pay more and be on an older/slower and probably leaky boat.

The reason that I post this is that I do not want people’s first impression of this absolute piece of paradise to be tarnished by a “questionable” operator. I have deliberately not mentioned there name because I don’t want to give them even negative publicity.

If anyone tells you that you have to pre buy the boat portion of the trip they are lying to you.

Here is the Tortuguero Village web site and there is some very good info on getting to Tortuguero …..As well other neat stuff.  And remember it is now Turtle season.  www.tortuguerovillage.com

 This is a post that I made to my support group that I  have not been going to since last year. Since writing this I have thought about it a lot and have realized that another and probably the biggest reason for not going to the support meeting is that I gained weight since I saw the group last. It is really hard to admit that I failed at this “last chance”at being a normal weight. Well…..I have not given up and I continue the fight.

 Thanks for asking about me.  I am back in Costa Rica ….. San Jose till tomorrow when I will go into the jungle. I came down last Saturday.

I have not kept in touch with the group because I came to the conclusion that I was not a good influence to my fellow bandsters.  I do think that the band works for a lot of people but it did not help me with my obesity problems. I will try and explain. The reason I am obese is because I am hungry….. Simple as that. The band does not control hunger , it controls the intake of food.  To control my obesity I need hunger control not volume control. We (Drs and I) tried to control my hunger by going tighter and tighter with my band. Twice till I couldn’t “swallow spit” ( Dr. Ds words). The “problems” that I was expressing to the group were from trying to make the band do what it was no designed to do. If your band is too tight you will have problems …… guaranteed. I was fortunate that I did not do serious damage to my stomach.

I need to mention that I have been diagnosed with Hemochromatosis. This is a hereditary blood disorder that affects the iron levels in your body.   My body does not “flush” the excess iron that I take in; instead it stores the iron in my organs. If untreated this is fatal. The treatment is simple enough ….. Draw a pint (500cc) of blood a week till the levels of iron get down to normal. Unfortunately this might take a year or two.  I have arranged for this weekly procedure to be done in a hospital in San Jose while I’m in Costa Rica. First one today in Costa Rica; 6^th overall. The medical term for this procedure is phlebotomy. This is just a fancy word for giving blood.

But this is a WLS forum not a HH (Hereditary Hemochromatosis) forum. I can only hope each and every one of the group is in good health and are having a great summer.

P.S I have started a blog that I will try to update regularly. The primary function of this blog is to try and share the feelings that I have for the jungle.  I have a section in my blog about my WLS but I have not written much. Maybe I should try and share my defeat with WLS.  The address is www.airdriecomputer.com   My blog is not fancy ….. Come to think of it, it is pretty poor but my expertise is with hardware not web design. There are some decent videos of the jungle (crocs and monkeys) that I took last winter if anyone is interested.

Left my hotel and took a 5 minute cab ride to the hospital.  Was able to walk right into the International billing dept and talk to my rep. She took me over to admitting and got me signed up for my treatments and I could of had a phlebotomy right then. I chose to go in tomorrow morning as it will be a week Wednesday since my last treatment. Don’t want to push things. Was back to my room in less than hour total time. I hope tomorrow goes as well.

Well …. I am back in San Jose and am going to the Clinica Biblica Hospital in the morning to line up my treatments.  Will try for a phlebotomy (blood letting) for latter in the week. My last one in Calgary was on Wednesday and I don’t want to get much under a week apart. I feel pretty good ……much better than a few days ago. I’m a little tired but that is to be expected.

San Jose seems to be a little quiet compared to when I was down here before. I think school is out for a couple of weeks and it is the weekend. There doesn’t seem to be as many Gringos around either. I guess it is off season.

I will post again when I find out more about my treatments.