Acting Like Tourists

We took the day off yesterday and drove 1.5 hours North to Jaco beach, a popular beach town and surfing destination. The waves aren't much right now so it wasn't overrun with surfers as far as we could tell. To get there you pass through Quepos then a typical Costa Rican town called Parrita. I spyed this babe on the street in Parrita and couldn't resist taking here photo. The hair really sets off the colors in her blouse don't you think?

We walked around Jaco for a while looking in shops. We drove to the beach and decided it was simply too hot to go in the ocean, though the beach in Jaco is lovely. Then we drove a little further to visit the resort community and marina of Los Suenos. Los Suenos is probably one of the most expensive areas in Costa Rica at least on the Pacific side. They have a golf course, restaurants, a prive beach club. You get the idea I am sure. Here are some shots.

Golf course just beyond the road with large homes and condos beyond.

Very high tech lift pulling this boat out of storage. I wonder if they drag them in and out daily as requested? There are so many all stacked like books on a shelf.

Mike and some gringos walking along the boardwalk.

Los Suenos is situationed in a bit of a sheltered cove rather that sitting on the straight edge of coastine open to the sea directly. Most of the beaches here are just straight without shelter. Since it is lunchtime we decided to head back to Jaco for fish tacos. About 4 years a go signs for a fish taco restaurant started appearing everywhere. The signs put the idea in our heads so of course we have to go.

 

Jacobar turns out to have great tacos and an all you can eat salad bar to go with it. My favorite part is the seating. Notice that I ams sitting on a swing with my feet resting on a bar. The breeze was blowing, we were in the shade and cool. Ahh..

Road Trip to Jaco

We are heading up the coast for a vacation from projects day today. Jaco is a beach town North of us and this is our destination. Ricardo does not have a vacation day however so he is already hard at work sanding our metal security shutters and preparing to paint them the color of a red roof.

Mike thought we needed a more complete recording of our project work here so here are more photos. He especially wanted to include his upper screened in windows since they have been somuch work. Only 4 more left for the next trip!

 

If you think you look ok from the front always look at yourself from the back and you will see that you need to completely give up bread in your life. Painting an interior wall for a change, in this case, the great room which includes the ktichen.

 

 

And lastly a beautiful clean floor around the outside pila (sink). The paint repels water and should make it easier to keep the mold down in this area.  I don't like the color though so I am painting it again. It is incredibly hot and dry right now and therefore the best time to get outside painting done.

 

 

Time to check out of here and get on the road. I'll take some pictures of Jaco.

 

Projects

We have about 2 and a half weeks remaining here. We are pleased to report that we have finished at least 3/4 of the projects we planned for this trip and are looking forward to kicking back and just being on vacation for at least some of the time remaining. Mike's big projects were to redo 5 upper story windows (sand, paint bars, varnish frame and install new screen) and to replace the hand rails along the bridge. He has finished the windows and the hand rails are well along the way. Our friends Scott and Joyce provided the teak from their teak plantation. Ricardo is sanding the post after stripping off the bark.

My project is always painting. I have nearly finished the whole house and the little wall behind the house. Only one house wall remaining. Here are some before and after shots.

 

This little wall gets a final coat of paint after the primer but I don't have a picture.

The rebar is sticking out of this side of the house so we could tie into it when we were ready to add another room. It isn't going to happen though. It might be nice to have a roof that created a shaded open outdoor room, but then how would we get up to those upper windows to repair them and paint the next time??

And the reward or a job well done, macarron cookies with a bit of chocolate.

 

 

 

Origami Moth

Half of what I think are dead leaves are actually moths, like this one here. Mike is sacrificing his finger so you can see the size. With her wings folded she looks like a study in origami. Actually she is just trying to avoid detection by pretending to be an old leaf, not very tasty to predators. I nicknamed her Origami Leaf Moth.

While we are sort of on the subject of leaves, I picked up this beautiful red one on our walk down the mountain a few days ago. I gave it a position of honor in our display niches in the kitchen/dining room area.  I have to admit that we have been working first thing rather than walking first thing. it is a bit of a choice since it becomes too hot to do anything after 11 am. Depending upon where you are planning to work, you have to chase ahead of the sun. We'll get back to walking this week after tomorrow when I still have a sun location project do complete.

Super Bowl Sunday

Yes, I know that SB was last Sunday. I'm a little tardy posting to this blog.

 

We dropped in at our friends Betty and Eddie's place on the beach. We didn't get there early enough to be in the front row with all the old gringos as you can see from the photo. We ate a hamburger and checked out the game. I guess we didn't stay long enough to get to the interesting part.

Betty and Eddie have had this place forever. Since Costa Rica now tax bars and little restaurants a crazy high tax every month just to be in business, they have gone bootleg. So all of us are just friends who they like to cook for.

Palm Oil Plantation

Big "farms" raise palms and extract palm oil from them. It is a major industry in this part of Costa Rica. The workers live in company housing and get goods from company stores. It has always seemed to me that this is a colonial holdover from days gone by. Still, they continue here and the palms seem to be marching south getting closer and closer to our little town. I wonder if the holding company will begin buying or leasing land in our little pueblo?

This is an example of the company housing that has been used for some time, but it is now going out of fashion in favor single story structures.

Typically the houses are painting bright colors. Here one is blue and the one on the right that you can barely see is green. They are built around a soccer field which is one recreation in which everyone can take part. Little equipment is required.

Water Park, Fiberglass Furniture and Pigs

I bet that you are thinking these three topics are unusual companions. Well, they are, but not here. On the way to Rafiki we stopped to see Walter who makes custom ordered fiberglass furniture. It is really very nice stuff, as long as you don't opt for a color like green. Gitti and Bob are thinking of buyig some. Here there are checking out come completed pieces.

It turns out that Walter also has some good looking pigs right next to his mini factory. Jordan and I greeted the pig moma, and her 3 offspring, two smallish and one medium sized.

 

 

Walter is quite the entrepreneur. Furniture and pigs are not enough. He also has built and extensive water park. He has large tanks where he raises talapia. You can fish out one and he will prepare it for you in his restaurant. Or you can just enjoy the pool or play soccer in the field. He has a camping area. He told me that the week of Semana Santa he has more than 200 people a day entering the water park. Below is a picture of one of the fish pools, followed by the swimming pond. The water is fresh from the mountain, not treated in any way.