La Casa de Edwin

We made it!!!!!! Sunday was QUITE the journey!

Sunday was a gorgeous day in Newfoundland as Cavelle mentioned, it was a wonderful send off, both from friends and the island itself. Little sleep was had Sunday night, up at 2:30am to pack, a quick finish clean of the house, and got to the airport at 4:30am.

We were anxious about our getting all on luggage and Pica on the plane,but in hindsight it all went VERY smoothly. We saw Pica briefly on the tarmac in Toronto, (albeit from a distance via a window), and she was standing up in her crate looking about. I was heartened by this, to see her so alert and not cowering in the back of her crate was good to see. We had an hour to transfer to the San Jose flight. The plane was very full, and announcements were saying luggage was an issue, but they made it work and we arrived 1/2 an hour ahead of schedule!

I found Pica very quickly, she was hot and anxious but had been watered en route and settled as soon as she saw me. Our luggage took a while, but customs and immigration were friendly and helpful and getting through with Pica was not a problem,thank you CBS Animal Hospital for the time and effort put into all that paperwork!!!!!!.

We found our driver who was not who we expected, the one who was supposed to come was sick, so Wilbur was filling in last minute. No one had warmed him about the amount of luggage we had, poor guy, he looked so shocked! It took us so long to pack his small SUV, we had to strap Pica’s crate to the roof! I never travel without duck tape and rope, you just never know when you are going to need it 🙂 . The car park meter card ran out because the packing took so long, and would not let us out! Wilbur had to back out and go back in and pay again! He was very patient, though I am sure he was not best pleased!! This was the only hiccup the entire journey.

The trip to Santa Elena was about 2 1/2 hours but the last hour was on gravel road winding up the mountain. It is not a long way, but you have to travel at about 20km an hour the road is so bad, we had been told about this, but even so it was still a shock. I am not exaggerating! We met some Aussies yesterday who stopped and asked for directions, they were barely coherent. They had come in on the road not knowing anything about it, the 3 of them were so traumatized from the experience, and had no idea where they were! We reassured them that civilization was just ahead, and sent them straight off for a beer, the look of relief on their faces said it all 🙂

Despite the road the views are absolutely incredible, none of the photos I have seen do it justice, it is truly an amazing sight!

We arrived at La Casita de Edwin, at 5:30pm local time, to find Edwin and his family waiting for us. They gave us such a lovely welcome, the details of which are a bit blurred for us all. We were so sleep deprived by then, that I am quite sure the first impression of us was not great! Dinia (Edwin’s daughter) who’s English is impeccable, interpreted, as Edwin does not speak English and Jaynor ,(Dinia boyfriend), is just learning. Dinia and Jaynor live next to us, and Edwin has his carpentry shop there as well, but he lives up the road a bit. Dinia seeing us so exhausted, suggested she and Jaynor take us into town to get supper and breakfast, so off Rich and Luca went, while I made up the beds and let Pica adjust to the surroundings.

We were all in bed and asleep before 9pm, so so happy to be in our new home La Casita de Edwin….

Thank you all for your for you lovely comments to my posts! It has been great to log on and see them all xx