Costa Rica - Post 1

On Wednesday, we (the 'rents, Hotrod and moi) headed to Jaco (say huh-co) and Quepos (say capos) which is the Pacific shore of CR. Check out that bridge. Can you say bumpy and scary? I knew you could. Hotrod drove the whole day and did a fabulous job. Those years he lived in Boston really paid off! The Ticos drive like it's a competition sport. Passing on a double line on a narrow two lane highway on a curve is nothing to them. Seriously.

It was about a 3 - 4 hour drive each way due to the road conditions and the heavy traffic in some spots. Our main goal was to hit Manuel Antonio National Park and see some monkeys, with a stop a El Gran Escape in Quepos for lunch. El Gran Escape is nice enough to provide a roving selection of dogs (at least five) in their outdoor restaurant so anything you drop is instantly cleaned up. Genius! Hotrod made good friends with one named Snoopy who proceeded to lay at his feet and paw him when the scratching stopped. (Yes, I made him use Purell before he ate.)

That's El Gran Escape on the corner. The food was good and plentiful. I had chicken rice, which was like a CR version of fried rice, but with black beans and plantains. Is it any wonder I need to diet?

Of course, by the time we ate lunch and got to the park it was almost 3 and the park closed at 4. A young American couple told us that if we walked around on the beach, we'd come to a couple of guys in boats who would ferry us to the back side of the park for a couple of bucks - instead of paying $10 each to go through the front. Whatever. We were game.

The "boat" turned out to be a large sieve that held off water long enough to cross the narrow but deep inlet dividing the beach from the park's backside. I think my dad gave the kid $4 America for the ride. That photo is after our return trip. By then the water had receeded with the tide quite a bit and was at least half the width it was originally.

Apparently, this boat crossing is illegal but completely ignored. This seems to be a unwritten rule for Costa Rica.

Tomorrow I'll show you some of the wildlife we saw. Including one thing that not even the locals really seemed to know about.