the april cocktail hour: easter, sunsets with friends & our last (sad) trip to nicaragua

April 30, 2026: Welcome to our April cocktail hour. Let’s have a nice spring cocktail like a Basil Cucumber Gin Cooler, or a frisky glass of Prosecco. We can finally venture outdoors as the weather has been beautiful, warm, sunny and breezy. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see rainbows or the Pink Moon. If you like suffering, you can even come along vicariously on our last trip to Ometepe, Nicaragua, where we took Adam a carload of stuff from our Costa Rica home. We had hoped to visit the family but instead supported our son after his wife moved out with all four children. After our difficult visit, we brought Adam to Costa Rica with us for a change of scenery and a bit of relaxation time. Sunset is now at around 5:52 every night and we can mingle on the balcony and sip our drinks while watching painterly skies at sunset.

I have a variety of soda, seltzer water, or bebida de aloe for those of you who don’t drink. Mike can also whip up some excellent smoothies. Thanks for joining us in our escape into a peaceful corner of the world.

April marked our eleventh month in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Luckily, we finally experienced some wonderful weather, and even though it was quiet, it was still lovely just to enjoy our temporary home for our next-to-the-last month in the country.

Homebody stuff

We caught a glimpse of the not-so-pink Pink Moon on April Fool’s Day. We spent much of the month with me finishing up my Guatemala posts, Mike completing our tax returns, and me starting to plot out and book our Scandinavian trip. We booked our return tickets to and from Copenhagen, an onward flight to Helsinki, and a flight from Helsinki to Bergen, Norway. We also booked our Denmark stays: a week in Copenhagen and a week in Aarhus, as well as a week in Helsinki. We went to the eye doctor here, Dra. Ana María Álvarez at Optical Murano, to get eye exams and order glasses, which are much cheaper here than in the U.S. We played Scrabble three times and Mike won twice. We also played Scrabble against Adam when he came to visit, and each of us trounced him.

I finished 7 books in April bringing my total to 21/48. I especially enjoyed The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil, Deacon King Kong by James McBride, Delirium by Laura Restrepo and Lab Girl: A Memoir by Hope Jahren. We watched six movies: Is This Thing On?; The Sunlit Night (Norway); The Best You Can; Off Track 2 (ute och cyklar) – a Swedish movie; The Threesome, and Sonunda Sen (Love at Last – Turkish). We started watching a couple of new series or new seasons of old series: Love Life (S1), Paradise (S2), Wallander, Big Mistakes, Made with Love, and To Love, To Lose (Ayrilik da Sevdaya Dahil) (Turkish). We finished watching Ripple (S1), Leanne (S1), Ponies (S1), Shrinking (S3), and Entre tierras (Between Lands), which I loved. We continued watching Virgin River (S7), The Lincoln Lawyer (S4), Grantchester (S4), Finding Ola (S1), and The New Adventures of Old Christine (S1).

Celebrating Easter

On Easter Sunday, we made a beeline for Chafi’s Restaurante to eat lunch. Mike had grilled chicken with jalapeño sauce and I had camarones con arroz (shrimp with rice). Their servings are gargantuan, so we only ate half our meals and took the rest home. After lunch, we took a Sunday drive up to La Piedra del Indio Waterfalls, where we had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

Dining Out

In early April, we tried out the delicious Ginger Indian Restaurant in Nuevo Arenal on April Fool’s Day. The restaurant is cutely decorated with colorful hanging umbrellas and other Indian decor and the menu was unusual in that it offers many items without tomato-based sauces. I enjoyed my dish of Paneer Do Pyaza (paneer cubes, onion, chopped masala, yellow gravy, Indian spices). Mike had Murgh Korma: chicken, brown onion, cashew pesto cream, garlic, onion and green cardamom. After lunch, we went to Tinajas and enjoyed mellow tunes, sweeping views of the lake, and glasses of wine. On the 3rd, we went to Cevichera la Pasadita, where they messed up my order and gave me a mixed shrimp and fish ceviche (I hated the texture of the fish and left that half behind). We sipped on beers and chatted with Anne and Jack on their last night in Costa Rica as they headed off to Spain for at least 3 months; we won’t see them again unless we run into them somewhere in the world.

I had on my Spring BINGO card to enjoy a “spring-themed” cocktail, so we went to DrinKing at Paseo del Viento on the 9th where I found the closest thing I could find: a mojito frutos rojos. I thought it would be a strawberry drink, but it was only a mojito with a sickly sweet red fruit syrup. Oh well, the night was lovely, we saw a sunset and we ate some huge hamburgers because the sushi restaurant was closed.

We enjoyed sunsets and pizzas with Darrell and Farida on the 14th, ate at Restaurant Guacamole in Liberia after Mike visited Dr. Ugalde to follow up on his carpal tunnel surgery, and then had pizza with Carol at Restaurante Cielo’s Pizza after enjoying a sunset and wine from her front porch near Quebrada Grande.

Drives, walks and local explorations

We took two 3-mile walks up near Sabalito and on the Saturday before Easter, we walked up near the pickleball courts where we found they’ve created a new gravel road, which we explored. We found some beautiful views there. On Good Friday, it finally looked warm enough to swim in the cove, so Mike and I both swam. I swam further than I’ve swum before in open water; I still get nervous doing it, so I did one lap about 2/3 of the way across the cove and back; while Mike did 2 1/2 laps. On the 17th, we enjoyed another calm lake day by swimming again; this time I made it all the way across the cove and back (713 yards in 27 minutes). I stop a lot to rest and to see where I’m going, and I also change strokes often – from freestyle to breaststroke to backstroke. Mike swam further and faster as always. We walked one day on Peninsula 1 in Tronadora, and one day at Parcelas, on the ridge near the wind turbines.

Our last trip to Ometepe, Nicaragua to visit the family while in Costa Rica

On Friday the 17th, we got a call from Adam telling us that Maria was moving out of his house with all the children. They had had a huge falling out with all of Maria’s family involved. So we were heartbroken and didn’t know what to expect on our upcoming final trip to Nicaragua. We had to go to drop off our household goods from Costa Rica with Adam and we also saw it as an opportunity to support our son through a difficult time, even though we had no idea if we would even see our grandchildren.

Wednesday, April 22: We crossed the border into Nicaragua with a car full of household items we’d bought in Costa Rica. This time we had to pay a handler $60 to avoid waiting in a 3-hour line with an endless line of trucks to have our car scanned. After crossing the border, we spent a night in San Juan del Sur since it is difficult to make a reservation on the car ferry without knowing how long the border crossing will be. We stayed in a new place for us, Villas de Palermo Hotel & Resort, where we spent a lovely afternoon lounging by the pool and having a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant. This was our first and last pleasant day in Nicaragua.

Thursday, April 23: We took the 10:30 ferry to Ometepe. We had lunch with Adam at Pan de Mama, where Adam filled us in on the whole story. The details are in my Costa Rica blog post (see the link below). Adam had fully expected the police to be called but at that point they hadn’t shown up. We had a nice lunch but we could see Adam was devastated. We took the household goods and dropped them at his hollowed-out house. Adam came to our hotel and chatted more with us on our porch and then he and Mike took a dip in the lake. Later Mike and I ate dinner on our own at Xalli, serenaded by a playlist of Jack Johnson songs and topped off with a brownie and ice cream.

Later in the night, the power went out on the entire island. With no air-conditioning, no fan, and no breezes at all, we slept fitfully and were drenched in sweat. Adam had experienced the same in his house and on top of that was hit with horrible stomach pains, possibly due to stress.

Friday, April 24: We woke up to a miserable, humid and heavy atmosphere; there was still no power on the island and now we were deluged with swarms of chayules, tiny non-biting midges. It was like a plague of biblical proportions. I told Mike, “This place is a hellhole. How am I going to survive five more days of this?” Once the power came on, I stayed in the air-conditioned room much of the day, reading and doom-scrolling and thinking we were in the world’s final days. I was so depressed by the whole family situation, the poverty of Ometepe, and the travails of the world at large.

Because Adam was sick and exhausted, we ate lunch on our own at Bûstavö and then, after some stress-reducing massages at 3:30, we went to Café Campestre for dinner.

Saturday, April 25: It was still hot and humid but Mike and I took a walk on the beach. I immediately stepped on a dead branch covered in thorns, puncturing my heel. I continued to walk to the end of the beach and back and by this time was hobbling. Adam came by the hotel to hang out and then we went to Totoco for lunch and a dip in their pool.

Adam and Maria had set up a meeting to talk with their friends Manja and Horacio but while at the pool Manja called Adam with a double dose of bad news. First, Maria had cancelled the meeting and second, the police were looking for Adam. Adam was hit hard by this news, and we immediately drove him to Manja’s house. Manja agreed to come with Adam to the police station in Altagracia, so Mike drove them all after dropping me at the hotel. It turned out that when Mike stepped out of the car to go into the police station, he was bitten by one of the police dogs. The police shrugged as if it was no concern of theirs. Mike went next door to a a clinic where Freddy Espinoza gave him a tetanus shot, iodine, bandages and antibiotics. The police said the dogs were required to be vaccinated against rabies yearly. Manja and Adam said they’d never heard of rabies on the island.

Adam made a statement to the police that he never laid a hand on anyone during the family altercation. They seemed satisfied but they asked that both Adam and Maria come back to the station on Sunday to talk to the police together.

Adam felt good that he had been proactive with the police and we talked a while at Xalli and then went to dinner together at Pizza Mediterranea, where we shared two pizzas between the three of us.

Sunday, April 26: Mike went to help Adam clean up his kitchen which had been left a mess when Maria left. Then Adam came by the hotel and we had lunch together there. Then Mike drove Adam to the police in Altagracia while Manja came with Maria and they all met at the police station. Mike gave Maria a hug when she arrived. They had to wait a good hour to see the police, and then they gave their statements to the sergeant. Maria reamed out Adam for mentioning that the only people throwing punches during the altercation were Maria’s adult son Johnny and her brother Dennis, who had both punched Adam in the face (he said they punched like little girls and he never punched them back). Dennis had been arrested before so the police were familiar with him.

Adam and Mike came back to Xalli where we talked some more and then we all went back to dinner again at Pizza Mediterranea, where this time we shared two pastas.

Monday, April 27: Mike went to Adam’s to finish cleaning the kitchen and despite my misery at being in Ometepe, I got an affirmation in my inbox: “I am right where I am supposed to be.” Adam came by and we had lunch together at Bûstavö; later, we all played several games of pool at Xalli. Adam had decided to come back with us on Tuesday to Costa Rica for a change of scenery and to clear his head. He went to the house to coordinate the care of the animals with a neighbor and to hand over the balance of cash he owed to the person he’s buying land from; he wanted to avoid leaving any cash in the house.

Maria and the kids came down the street to meet us briefly at Adam’s request, so we got to see the grandchildren briefly. We gave Maria and all the girls hugs, but Mikey was clinging to Maria and wouldn’t really interact with us. We then took Adam for one last dinner at Café Campestre and I ate the green chicken curry, which did affect my stomach the following morning.

Tuesday, April 28: We got to see Maria and Mikey when we picked up Adam from his house. Then we drove to the port in Moyogalpa, took the ferry to San Jorge, and crossed the border in a record time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. Back home in Costa Rica, we ate a roasted chicken and relaxed in our condo.

Adam comes to Costa Rica

Wednesday, April 29: Adam stayed with us in Costa Rica for four nights. On Wednesday, we took him to Monster Gym where he overexerted himself with the kettle bells and paid dearly for it the next three days. We took him to Liz’s goat farm; we have been buying her goat yogurt every Friday since we arrived in Costa Rica. Liz speaks a rapid-fire Spanish that I can’t understand, but Adam with his fluid Spanish was able to ask her a million questions about her operation and understand most everything she said. She was happy to have someone so interested and Adam was thrilled to have the experience of seeing a fully functioning goat farm.

After visiting the goat farm and showering, we went to Soda La Macha for lunch. We were able to enjoy the almost-Flower Moon two days before the actual full moon.

Thursday, April 30: When Adam left the U.S. in 2020 just before the world came to a grinding halt due to COVID, he landed first in Costa Rica and stayed in hostels in La Fortuna. Ultimately he found Costa Rica too expensive and crossed the border into Nicaragua with a new group of friends. He has been in Nicaragua ever since, six years now.

I had suggested we could go to La Fortuna together to soak in some thermal pools and he remembered a rope swing he had loved there called El Salto (the jump). We found it and he spent an hour swinging on the rope swing while Mike hung out with him and took pictures. I went into La Fortuna to my favorite store, Wandering, where I had fun shopping without anyone looking over my shoulder.

We all met at Kappa Sushi at noon, and enjoyed sushi rolls together.

Then we went to Relax Termalitas Hot Springs to hang out in the thermal pools. It was a less expensive place than others we’ve been to but it had a nice jungle setting. Mostly Costa Ricans were there. It was just the kind of place Adam loves, nothing fancy with a more natural setting. Some of the pools were very hot; one marked at 38C (100 F) seemed a lot hotter than the posted temperature. We had fun going from pool to pool and soaking and chatting. At the end, we sipped beers in one of the cooler pools.

My Spring BINGO card

I checked off a few things on my Spring BINGO card in April:

• Got a lilac pedicure ✓
• Easter Celebration (of sorts) ✓
• Tried Ginger Indian Restaurant in Nuevo Arenal as the 2nd of 3 new Costa Rican restaurants ✓
• Visit Nicaragua family ✓
• Eye doctor in Costa Rica ✓
• Enjoy a spring-themed cocktail ✓
• Make a strawberry recipe: strawberry shortcake ✓
• Booked plane tickets to Scandinavia: round trip tickets to Copenhagen, Denmark; onward ticket to Helsinki, and another onward ticket to Bergen, Norway ✓
• Book Denmark: Copenhagen and Aarhus ✓
• Book Finland: Helsinki ✓
• Read 7 books: Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman; Delirium by Laura Restrepo; Deacon King Kong by James McBride; The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist in Yemen by Jennifer Steil; The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen; Lab Girl: A Memoir by Hope Jahren; and Lonely Planet Sweden by Anna Kaminski. ✓

Family Happenings

We got a few pictures of Allie this month. I also took some screenshots of pictures Maria posted since we didn’t get to see much of our grandchildren in Nicaragua.

On my Costa Rica blog, you can find my weekly recaps of our lives in Costa Rica for the month of April:

• semana santa (easter week) in costa rica {week 44/52}
• bewildering april days {week 45/52}
• pizza & sunsets with friends & a trip to liberia {week 46/52}
• drama (& trauma) in nicaragua: on palm-greasing, thorns, police & dog bites {week 47/52}

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I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the spring.

How did your April go? Did you have any special family gatherings? Have you welcomed any new additions to your family?  Did you celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries? Have you read any good books that can inform your worldview, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any winter or holiday getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Have you gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you created a Winter Bingo Card or dream list? Have you made any new friends? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests? Have you been battered, or alternately, uplifted by any news?

Please share your April with me by giving me the plot below, or a link to a post in your blog that tells about your month.