The Chronicles of Motherhood .....: Costa Rica - Day 5 & 6

Our drive out of Arenal to Jaco looked like an easy backtrack down the mountain....lesson learned stayed on the "yellow" roads on the GPS. The GPS rerouted us through a residential area. Still having a hard time dealing with psychotic driving habits of the locals I was more than happy to take the "less traveled" tour.

Our paved road soon turned to gravel and gravel quickly disappeared and before we knew it our Yaris was navigating a one-lane dirt path with gigantic boulders and no place to turn around. I'm pretty confident this road was last on the maintenance list in the 1930's. The inclines were so steep that I could not see the road at the peaks and as we wound the mountain there were no guard rails. We stopped at a "bridge" and (the only vehicle we saw) was a truck from the 1940's. As it passed they all pointed and laughed. We drove through villages who haven't been touched by the modern world. Stunning views but we hardly took photos. White knuckled, both of us were trying to figure out how we would most likely soon have to tell our credit card why we had a 2wd car 1. at this location and 2. how we totaled it. At any rate we did pretty good navigating , came out with four wheels intact and left the local Ticos good dinner conversation about crazy lost gringos in a blue Yaris.

Have no idea where we are...


Still lost....

Part way to Jaco we stopped at the Tarcoles bridge to see the crocodiles. There was a guy with raw chicken that would feed the crocs for $10.00. Lucky for us the guy next to us was your typical American tourist who laid down double the money to see the performance. There were around 18 gigantic crocs just hanging out.....waiting....we declined the boat tour, we wanted to live to see the ocean.

Jared has always wanted to take surf lessons. Me, eh, the water up the nose and/or shark scenario never really appealed to me. But we were there and I too decided it was a once in a lifetime chance. We decided on going to Jaco on the pacific side because in was en-route to our next destination. Jaco is known for its party-hardy atmosphere (where we questioned if this was a good idea as we checked into surf camp and rule #2 was no prostitutes). That being said we stayed on the south side of the beach in the more residential area and ended up staying an extra day because we loved the area.

We stayed at Hotel Perico Azul. which also housed the Tortuga Surf Camp. Celine (from France) ran the hotel and her boyfriend Mike ran the surf camp. It was like staying with family. They would sit down and swap stories and had so much information about the area.

Wednesday morning we got out of bed at 5:30am to hit the morning tide. Mike fitted us with rash guards and quickly named us "Team Landlock" Within ten minutes we were in the water learning to paddle, turn, and roll (where you roll underneath your board under the water as a large wave thrashed over you) and get up and ride the wave. I have a new found respect for surfers. By the end of two hours I felt that I could hold my own without killing myself and even got a few good runs in. Jared picked it up really well. But by 8am the only thing we wanted to do was crawl back into bed. It was absolutely exhausting, a muscle group you normally don't use. Mike thought Team Landlock did pretty good.

We hit the local bakery headed out to do some hiking. Celine told us of a trail on the south edge of town. Thirty minutes up the mountain we came across this derelict structure, a series of porches standing in ruins and covered in graffiti. The view was unbelievable. When we returned I asked Celine about it and she said a developer came in to build a B&B and started without a permit and was shut down. He then died and the structure stood there. Jaco fights hard to keep the big resorts out. We saw alot of half finished resorts that were an eyesore in these beautiful areas.

Wall that ran the mountain road

View from the first porch

Half completed B&B on the mountain side

Wednesday evening we sat on the beach watching the sunset and then headed over the to Taco Bar. We'll admit we ate here three times. It may even be better than Freebirds. Costa Rician food is eh at best. But this place was great. AND it had swings as seats. AND it had really good passion fruit juice drinks, which Jared spent a paycheck on alone. We were always in by 8pm but we saw the softer side of Jaco and would stay there again in a heartbeat.