From Jacó to Monteverde

It's Thursday morning and I'm sitting jittery in an internet cafe, awaiting the start of the NCAA tournament (no, I don't count the play-in game with the 64th and 65th best teams). I think in about 25 minutes when Maryland takes on Davidson in Buffalo. My Zags play tonight in Sacramento against Indiana (rematch from last year's tournament), and I hope to God that I can find somewhere with CBS so I can watch the game. If not I'll be on the internet for a solid two hours screaming at the computer.

Before I go off on how wonderfully amazing NCAA basketball is, and how heartbroken I am to be missing the first round, and how jealous I am of the 50-100 million Americans who will be watching it, I should catch up to date. I left of on Monday after we lost all of the snorkeling gear...

Monday night

We headed back up the hill to the Banana Tree to shower and get ready for the night. We decided to take it a lot easier. Emily and I headed next door around 5 to the Gato Negro (Black Cat). You can check out what it looks like from the road in the link below. The highest part of the building, the little canopy on the roof, was the bar.

http://www.casitaseclipse.org/restaurant.htm

With 2 x 1 drink specials, it wasn't that bad of a deal. We got a table right up front and enjoyed the last few minutes of the sunset along the Pacific. There was also a distant lightning storm on the opposite side that was faded by clouds. Very, very beautiful area. After Happy Hour Emily and I went to dinner across the street at El Avion, or "The Airplane." It features an actual C-123 airplane that ran its missions out of Spokane's own Fairchild Air Force Base! I think that is pretty sweet. Anyway, this particular plane has history dating back to the Contra War. It's worth checking out the link below to El Avion's website, because it explains how they got a military aircraft to this remote beach town in Costa Rica. Check it out:

http://www.costaverde.com/avion01.htm

We sat up on the higher of two floors and had a great dinner, including desert. They brought us the wrong bill, which literally didn't have a single thing we ordered on it, including two Diet Cokes, a pack of Marlboros, and a tunafish salad. Since I figured the bill was less than what ours would have been, we immediately walked up to pay it. The waiter noticed that our chocolate cake wasn't on the bill, so we thought we were toast. He just charged us another 1000 colones (instead of the 2300 is cost) and we made it. Probably saved about $8 or so. Good work on our end. We played cards after that and called it an early night. Too much partying the day before.

Tuesday

Headed out on a bus to Jacó today after a morning of shopping. I can't remember if I mentioned that Monday's in Manuel Antonio are very low-key since the park is always closed. So we couldn't do any shopping yesterday. I got a couple Imperial T-shirts that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I like to go to the same stands a couple different times, because they have different people working. They will usually tell you different prices if you ask different people. I saved $4 on two shirts by leaving and coming back 20 minutes later, which felt like a victory. Anyways around noon we caught a but to Jacó for only 750 colones each (remember $1 is 518 colones). About a 90 minute ride. We cabbed it the the Blue Palms, the same hotel that Morgan stayed at a couple of months ago when he was here. A little far but great rooms and really inexpensive. The guys hit the beach after checking out surf rentals, and Emily went window shopping. We had a miscommunication and I though Emily was supposed to meet us, so I looked for her for almost an hour up and down the beach. She was, of course, shopping, just like the surf instructor I talked to assured me.

On a hilaroius note, I got stung by a jelly fish right in the middle of my foot while looking for Emily. It hurt a little at first, then gradually worse and worse. The next several minutes involved these events:

1. Me screaming that I got stung (conveniently 300 yards from our meeting spot, while walking the opposite direction).
2. Me waddling back to the restaurant and meeting spot.
3. Me running into Emily on the way back.
4. Her looking confused at my cadence.
5. Me asking her to pee on my foot.
6. Her asking why.
7. Us both going into a men's public restroom with lots of people watching us.
8. Her peeing on my foot.
9. My foot immediately feeling better (within two seconds).
10. Us having to leave the public bathroom with two managers staring at us.

It was pretty funny. More later, since we're leaving Jacó now to catch a bus to Monteverde Cloud Forests. Going from the beach to the mountains.