Monday March 15th in Costa Rica

On Monday we had a beach day, but the weather was stinkingly hot and humid, they took us by bus to Jaco on the Pacific Coast, we went to the Best Western Jaco hotel there, where we had lockers to put our clothes in so we could swim either in their pool or at the beach.

There was a high surf full of beach sand, and big rollers, if you wanted you could swim in the warm warm water but be careful for the undertow. We chose the pool and it was only 3 ft 5 inches deep, but we went in anyway, with Dave and Wendy, we were all so hot and sticky.

A lunch was laid on for us, in their pool bar, very nice open air covered place, we were all quite hot but lunch was good. The bus left at 2:30 PM or so, and we staggered back into the hotel when we got home, pretty bashed up by the heat.

Forgot to say that on the way there we stopped at the Tarcoles River and stared down from a busy bridge at tons of huge crocodiles, up to 12 or 15 feet long, they seem to be covered by rows of plates almost like armour, very prehistoric looking. They looked a bit like dark grey logs, just lurking around the edges of the river on both sides.

Due to the intense sun and the shallow pool both Lary and I got very sunburned, so we bought a bottle of aloe jelly and smeared it on, Lary's face was very burnt, and later peeled. We of course were in the pool for quite a long time, and it was really in the heat of the day. It was too hot to sit on the chairs in the sun, and very little shade available. There were 2 iguanas doing bug collecting duty on the hot tiles of the pool deck, quite interesting to watch.

Went out for dinner across the road from the hotel, it was called the Latin American Restaurant, La Gallera, and the food was delicious. Dave and Wendy came with us, and both ladies had only salads, and dessert which was yummy. We had had a big lunch with fish and meat so we didn't want that all over again.

There was a large group of young people there, and their noise was nearly deafening. Restaurant theme was roosters everywhere, very pretty china or clay plates with roosters on them, and lovely large paintings on the walls, with huge colorfully painted roosters, in swirls of color.

The Costa Ricans seem to make clay wall murals, with pieces of interlocking tile pottery forming beautiful bright paintings on the walls. Very pretty and an intriguing art form.