Costa Rica DxPedition

Costa Rica 2002

Alajuela | Accomodations | TI9 tropo QSO | Contest Station | Butterfly Farm

Getting There	Pass the chocolate sauce, please. Mouse over image to change image.	Getting to San Jose was supposed to be a simple 9-hour affair with flights on American Airlines through Dallas Ft Worth and on to San Jose the same day with a 10 PM arrival. No such luck, as our plane sat on the runway at DFW just long enough for us to miss our connection. We were rebooked through Miami the next morning but did get bumped up to first class for the Miami-San Jose leg. Not bad duty. We arrived about 1 PM Wed. Feb 20, (without luggage) but fortunately Carlos was waiting for us at the airport.
TI5KD's Residence	Mouse over image to see guest cabana.	Carlos (Keko) and his family live in a lovely contemporary home on the outskirts of the community of Alajuela, about 15 miles from San Jose. There are two guest cabanas on the property, one with a fully equipped station and access to the multiple antennas for HF. Click to see the station equipment list at Keko's website.
TI5KD's Residence	Mouse over image to see the Diez family.	Here's the entrance to Keko's property, lined with bouganvillia in bloom. During the dry season, the Central Valley is pleasant on most of days, with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s.
Alajuela Scenes		Keko takes us on a local tour of Alajuela, a city of 40,000 residents north of San Jose. This beautiful church dominates the landscape of the town square. More about Alajuela.
Butterfly Farm Tour	Slide show in progress...image changes every few seconds....	On Saturday, Feb. 23, we toured one of the region's main attractions, the Butterfly Farm, which is about 2.4 km from the Diez residence, easily accessed on foot. We thoroughly enjoyed this interesting tour of the spot where thousands of species of butterfly are bred for other institutions around the world. the pupae are shipped live by DHL. More on Butterfly Farm.
TI9M Contact on 6M Tropo		Our trip coincided with the Cocos Island Dx-Pedition with a team operating TI9M. Cocos is a protected environment by the Costa Rican government and uninhabited except for botanical and scientific expeditions. Keko was anxious to make a 6M SSB contact and had set up a schedule for 7:30 AM one of the days we were there. We traveled south near the town of Colon and set up his portable quad made from copper wire and interlocking PVC pipe. Click here for more about TI9M contact.
Trip to New Contest Station	Click here to hear some operation.	Keko and Eric (TI2RC) have turned Eric's home in the mountains into an emerging contest site that sleeps 6-8 operators and has a fantastic open shot into Europe being near the Continental Divide. We had opportunity to go with Keko on an overnight trip to check out the station. Conditions were great, and I put 325 QSOs in the log in the 16 or so hours we were there. Click here for complete story.
San Jose		We took a sightseeing and shopping trip to San Jose the day before departing. We went to the Costa Rica Museum of Culture which featured some wonderful historical exhibits. We also shopped in the open marketplace near the museum and the shops along Avenue Central.
Around La Guacima and the TI5KD Residence		We spent the last two days around TI5KD's residence and I got some fantastic runs going on the hgh bands and one good late night run on 160. (see log summary, coming soon) More pictures of the local scenery.