506 TicoPost

Brian’s Journal Posted: 07 Jan 2009 10:34 PM CST Day 3:  R&R for the whole day? Don't even think about it!! I look off the condo deck and the view of the jungle out to the ocean is awesome. We head out early to have breakfast at Tango Mar. They have a big buffet and we get a seat with an ocean view. Time to load up on the American food We are headed back to Dan's place. His daughter's boyfriend (Rolo) is a local fisherman and wants to take us on a guided tour of a waterfall, river and secluded beach and will cook fresh fish on the beach for lunch. But wait!!! There is time to meet Dave's friend Bill at his million dollar house on his own beach. This place is really neat…lush jungle, white sand beach and a swimming area off the rocks where you can fish and catch fresh lobster. But like all good things there is one problem . Monkey poop!! Around the house and in the pool. But Bill tells me the problem was solved the day before by cutting back some of the jungle canopy and he has not seen a monkey since. David teases him about ruining the monkey habitat and Dan adds his sentiment, but Bill is overjoyed buy his success and has already begun to fill the pool. David hands me a piece of local fruit to sample but forgets to tell me to only drink the juice! Took me an hour to quit chocking!! (That's a good one Dave) The rest of the trip I ask questions before doing anything but David keeps on trying. It's time for our trip to the waterfall but we only get to the end of the road where we find a dirt floor hut where squatters have opened a bar and are serving hot beers over ice, so we have a few to help the economy!! After sippin' beers with the chickens we leave the cars and Dan and start our hike through the monkey jungle to the 200 foot waterfall where we could walk on the rocks right where the water went over the edge then we crawled down the side of a cliff (no wimps allowed) and finally a walk along the beach to the river. I see why Dan stayed behind. That was a tough hike! Yep, we are back in Costa Rica unplugged!! Yet another deserted beach not on the tourist information guide. Our lunch is prepared and we eat then we swim in the ocean and the river and lay on the beach for hours… maybe too many hours!! Dan has come looking for us and informs us the tide has come in and cut us off from the normal path. We will now have to time the tide surge and the cliff climb and do it on the run! WOW! We made it; I am soaking wet with sweat and trying to catch my breath when David says to get my camera for a picture of the howler monkeys. OH NO! Where is my camera?? Well, where else, it fell in the ocean. During my run and cliff climb it fell out of my quick draw camera case (we had been praising the convenience of this case for days and now I wanted to throw it in the ocean too!!) Well as they say in Costa Rica "no problems" just have a few more beers with the chickens to ease the pain of the loss of three days vacation and 120 pictures and carry on. Irene was not ready to give up yet!! She went back and risked the waves, to climb the cliff; to rescue the camera that Brian dropped (is that the way the song goes??) Anyway days later the SD card dried out and I recovered the pictures. The camera? History! Hey let's not blubber and carry on, this day is not over, we are on David's time and the adventure is just getting started. At least we had an unplugged adventure where the river met the ocean and it was all ours to enjoy. Nightfall Day 3: We are still on the Nicoya Peninsula, Brian and David are about to pull an all nighter (David has planned every detail of this trip). It's about 9:00 P.M. and we are eating dinner at a café not far from the ferry terminal that will take us back to the main land. After we eat we drive to the terminal and wait. David is going to catch some zzz's in the car and sends me to hang with the locals waiting for ferry tickets (should have worked on my Spanish more with John Paul) I just smile and nod and remember "cash is king". WOW! That was more socializing than I needed but I have the tickets in my hand and we are headed to Jaco. Let's get this party started!! It's 10:30 P.M. and David says we have 1 hour on the ferry and 2 hours on the road to Jaco so we need to get some more zzzs. I can't sleep so I go on deck and watch the lights of the cities across the bay. It is not long and we are at the terminal at Puntarenus. It's 1:30 A.M. when we get to Jaco Beach where the Americans come to party!! We have a beer at a beach front bar but it closes and we are off to see the night life on Main Street. We end up having drinks, eating tortilla chips and watching the hookers, drug dealers, and partiers dancing in the clubs until I am so pie eyed I can't see straight. At 4:30 A.M. we finally decide to sleep in the car in the parking lot of the police station facing the ocean and when the sun rises over the waves we say good bye to Jaco Beach. by Brian.

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