Last night we were all kind of wiped out from our big day at La Paz. Jill made some pico de gallo late in the afternoon and we had happy hour on the upper deck and watched the sun set.
After happy hour we had leftovers (Nana’s tacos and pizza from Pizzeria La Finca) for dinner and all went to sleep by about 8PM.
We decided we were going to take a day trip to Jaco today to give Stephanie an opportunity to get her toes wet before she heads home tomorrow. We had a leisurely morning of coffee and omelettes, but still managed to be on the road by 8:15. When you get up at 5:30 it’s amazing how early you can be ready to roll.
We stopped at the bridge on the Tarcoles river so Stephanie could see the cocodrilos (crocodiles). We gave the man in the yellow vest some coins for helping us park and then set off across the bridge.
After 10 minutes of crocodiles everyone was ready to move on to Jaco. The man in the yellow vest held cross traffic for us and we were off to Jaco. I have really come to appreciate the men in the yellow vests. Some people complain that it feels like a shakedown, but I’ve found that they’re more than worth the spare change we give them.
When we got to Jaco we went straight to the Jaco sign to get the obigatory picture.
When we pulled up to the Jaco sign we could see splashing down in the water like some big fish were hitting bait. Upon further inspection it was a huge school of rays flying out of the water! I’ve never seen anything like it.
We watched the rays for a while as they moseyed up the coast line. They were close enough that we could hear them splash back into the water. As we piled into the car to head to the beach a pair of scarlet macaws flew over. Macaws are horrible to listen to but beautiful to look at. Stephanie got the royal treatment!
We managed to get a prime parking spot along the beach and set out for a 90 minute stroll. The Jaco beach is super shallow so when the tide is out the waves break and come in about 40 yards at about ankle deep.
We decided to dine at El Malecon, where Jill and I had lunch last time we were in Jaco. The view is terrific and the food is really good. We thought about going to Ohana’s again, but Ohana’s is a couple of blocks inland and probably a little steamy at lunch time, plus we knew the breeze would be nice at El Malecon.
We ordered in Spanish with no difficulty. The girls got fresa (strawberry) mojitos and hamburguesas de pescado (fish burgers). I got a regular mojito and a burrito de pollo (chicken burrito). The food and cocktails were delicious. After lunch we hit the souvenir circuit where I spent the requisite time sweltering and trying not to knock things over while Stephanie found exactly the right items to take home to the kids.
Since afternoon coffee was going to be hard to come by for Jill we stopped into a pulperia (convenience store) and got a couple of cokes. Sufficiently sweaty from wandering around a couple of blocks inland where there was no sea breeze, we headed back for our car which was nice and hot from sitting in the sun. Fortunately the air conditioner in the CR-V is fuerte (strong) and we were cooled down in no time for our relatively brief drive back to HQ.
We’ve had a leisure afternoon with the girls napping and reading and me working on today’s blog entry.
Tonight we are going to get Stephanie one more fix of pupusas and empanadas before she makes the turn for home at around noon tomorrow.
It’s been a lot of fun seeing Jill and Stephanie together for 4 days. Their relationship is on solid ground.
Jill and Todd in Costa Rica 