Costa Rica, Day 2

We all woke up late. Well, not too late. I woke at 6:00, looked at the clock, and said to myself, “Oh no no no no." I rolled over and went back to sleep. Kent woke at 7:00, and Izzy was already up. I got up about 8:00. 

There was no food in the house, and I knew everybody would be hungry. There is a small supermarket at the bottom of the hill, so Kent, Izzy and I went down to get some things for breakfast. The power had gone out sometime during the night and was still out. I was worried we would not be able to pay for groceries at the market, but although the lights were out in the store, the computer to pay still functioned. We wandered around the market looking for things for breakfast, and came away with shelf-stable milk and three boxes of cereal. Also water. 

One of my clients, Dave, owns the place where we are staying. It is a large house with three floors. Each floor is its own separate apartment. There are three bedrooms, just the right number, and a fully stocked kitchen (though not with food). On the roof is a small pool, a place to barbecue, and deck chairs where you can sit out in the sun. The view is amazing. It looks out over the town below and the sea beyond. It is a short four-minute walk to the beach. When I was looking at the house online to see if we might stay, Izzy saw it and was thrilled to think that we might be going. She said, "I claim the room with the balcony." The room with the balcony is the master suite, but she claimed that room and it was fine. We all have our own space. Dave has been incredibly generous and is allowing us to stay for only the cost of utilities, about $60 a night. That makes the accommodation portion of the trip ridiculously inexpensive. Now that we are here and can see what the house is really like, he is incredibly generous. 

The resident iguana that hung around all week.

We had no plans for today. After we ate, I told everybody to get their suits on, we got some boogie boards from the house, and we walked down to the beach. The tide was out so there was a long beach, but the waves were still terrific and Brandt, Izzy, and I did boogie boarding. It was wonderful to be on the beach, and in the water. We could go out really far and still touch, but the waves were big, quite excellent for boogie boarding. 

In addition to playing in the waves, we dug around in the sand. Izzy found some shells, we made sand towers, and just sat in the sand and let the edge of the surf roll over our legs and feet. Kent sat under a tree in the shade and snoozed and read, watching our stuff. After a bit, Brandt joined him. He found a coconut on the ground which he whacked open using a rock. So primitive! He was able to get through the tough outer coating and to the actual coconut. Then using the rock, he broke it open. He and Kent drank some of the milk inside and ate some of the flesh. 

A man came by pushing a cart and selling snow cones. It is hot and humid here, and a snow cone sounded delicious. We enjoyed the cool, sweet treat as we watched the ocean waves. 

We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours, then walked back to the house. We all had sand in places we did not want it and showered off outside. Apart from Kent, we all had a shower to clean up and wash off the sand. 

While I tried to figure out what we would do for the rest of the week, everyone else had a little nap. Eventually, we went to get some lunner. Dave made a couple of suggestions about places to eat, and we tried one. Los Almendros Restaurant was delicious. 

I suggested we drive up to Jaco, a larger town up the coast about half an hour. We drove through it last night but saw nothing as it was dark and most of the town is off the main road. There is a larger grocery store there, and I figured we could wander around town, get a treat, and buy some groceries. 

Izzy didn't want to go in the heat of the day, although I pointed out that there is no non-heat of the day while you are in Costa Rica, a place where it is always humid. We dawdled, and by the time we actually got up to go, it was nearly dark. Izzy decided to stay home, so Kent, Brandt, and I got into the car to try and navigate again in the dark to someplace we didn't know. The navigation system was not working for us very well because Brandt was not entirely sure where we should be going.

After several times backtracking and driving around to places we did not need to go, we found the grocery store. While avoiding a large truck that was coming out of the parking area we were trying to go into, Kent scraped the car into a post. Good thing we got that extra insurance. 

We purchased foodstuffs for breakfasts and lunch, and figured we would have dinner out. We did not walk around the city at all, and no pictures were taken. We returned to the house and unloaded groceries. Then we each sat quietly doing our own thing. I finished reading the book I started on the plane yesterday, Kent read his book, Brandt played on his phone, and Izzy did the same. The power went out again about 9:00pm, so everyone went to bed. 

There are leaf cutter ants by where we park our car.

They were exceptionally busy today.

We've seen other wild creatures too.