Sunday Aug 6

Woke up just before 6am local time (8am EST). The sun was already up (I think it rises around 5:30) and life was buzzing all around us.

After slowly getting up and organizing/ unpacking our things, we went out for a morning stroll and to check out the local shopping options. We were also hoping to find a coffee shop. It was a beautiful morning, sunny, hot but not horribly humid. We walked along the dirt road which was full of potholes of all sizes. We passed by lots of beautiful tropical plants, colorful flowers, butterflies, birds, coconut trees, horses… It was a really pleasant walk. Of course it would have been more enjoyable if it was a touch less hot.

We met locals passing by and most people were friendly and waved or said hello. Early on our walk  a little black panther bounded across the road in front of us! A local who also saw it confirmed that it was indeed a panther and that they are dangerous. Hah and we were walking this exact path in the dark the night before. We also came across a large black iguana aka garrobo in Tico Spanish

We walked and walked, past the “gringo supermarket”, that according to our pirate taxi driver had higher prices, past the not yet open hipster looking coffee shop “Blue Window”, until we reached the town of Paraiso. I’m not sure town is the quite the right word for it, but it was a little hub of a few markets, sodas/restaurants, homes, and a very well maintained football pitch along a paved road.

We went into the larger of the two mini-markets and bought some coffee, aloe drink, hot sauce (Salsa Caribeño Santa Cruz), avocado, black beans, brown rice, eggs, onion, melon, tomatoes, ginger and pineapple. The total was a whopping 40 dollars! I’m not sure if we got scammed or if things are just really expensive.. 500 colones is about 1 dollar.  The market itself had sufficient florescent lighting, was clean and organized enough but I would not describe it as pristine or polished. It had mostly packaged products and not much in terms of fresh food. The produce selection was fairly minimal and the meat was limited to a few frozen options. They had a nice selection of Costa Rican produced coffee though.

The walk back was hot, sweaty and long. I did pick up a road mango so that was a highlight.  Finally we got back. I sliced up the pineapple, brewed coffee, and got the rice and beans started. I also made a sort of chunky guacamole with the road mango. The road mango was tasty! 

James and I sat outside and appreciated the gorgeous day. Now that we weren’t walking in the sun and heat it was actually very pleasant with a good breeze that came and went.

It was so peaceful, no human/city sounds at all. Just birds, and the wind rustling through the palms. We saw some very cool lizards! They were small with long tails, long black stripes running down the entire length of their bodies, and bright yellow and blue coloring that was only brightly visible when they moved in the sunlight. They didn’t really dart and scurry around like other lizards but rather slinked and slithered like snakes through the grass. Later research uncovered that they were common Central American Whiptails (ameiva festiva).

For brunch we ate beans and rice. I cooked them with some tomato and onion, cracked some eggs over top at the end, and finished with some mango guac and hot sauce. We also ate the entire pineapple.

After eating and clearing up, we went to the beach. It was about a 10 minute walk past houses and horses. We ended up accidentally taking a private entrance to the beach behind someone’s home.. oh well.

The beach we came to was wild with black volcanic stone everywhere, crashing waves, dramatic palm trees on hills and zero people. Walking on the rocks we saw millions and millions of little crabs. My favorites were the hermit crabs.

There were also some funny tadpole/salamander-like fish that seemed to jump from little pools of water to the next. We saw one local guy collecting some sort of seafood, probably shellfish of some sort. There were lots of mussel shells. 

We kept walking along the shore to another beach. We passed by so many brightly colored shells and so many crabs. We got to a swimming beach where it wasn’t so rocky and the waves seemed a little calmer. There were a few people here but the beach was not crowded by any means. There were a few daschunds too, happily running around.

We found shade like everyone else did under one of the trees on the upper slope of the beach. The tree was home to red ants, hermit crabs, and butterflies. We set up our towels and made the decision that this was a safe place to leave our belongings behind, unwatched. We went into the ocean for a swim.

The water was cool, refreshing but not too cold. We had our goggles so we could see everything in the crystal clear water. The waves were present but didn’t stop us from snorkeling around. We saw so many tropical fish and plant life! There were fish in the shape of the Dory fish, but silver and yellow with black stripes. There were other striped fish, some interesting grassy green fish that actually resembled bits of sea grass. There were some dark black and brown fish, larger silver fish… so many types. The ocean was full of life and it was easy to see fish swimming around and nibbling on plants. 

On my second swim, I saw 5 large puffer fish! They were so cute- completely just floating with the current, only showing off their swimming ability when I approached too closely. I also saw some larger oval shaped silver fish with lime/yellow stripes and some tetra looking guppies/minnows. Now the waves were really starting to pick up- at times I realized I was completely at the mercy of the ocean. I would be swimming against the current but not moving until the ocean decided to let up and push me back to shore with a wave. 

Sun drenched, heat worn and sandy in all the wrong places, we decided to head back. We got to the Airbnb, met another neighborhood dog (gave this thirsty pup some water!) and showered. Refreshed, we went out again, this time to the main beach of Junquillal where a turtle sanctuary is located. It was a long 20-25 minute walk but we got there after seeing lots of chatty parrots/birds and some smashed road crabs. We talked to a German volunteer at the turtle rescue about when the next hatching might be. Then we hung around a bit and watched the sunset.

On our way back we stopped for dinner a restaurant called La Ventana del Surfista. It’s not really a formal restaurant, but a “soda”- very casual, all outdoors, similar to beachside food shacks in Thailand. We shared ceviche with tostones and fried chicken with “salad” (shredded cabbage with mayo and ketchup) and tortilla chips. Everything was delicious though I was not really a fan of the salad. James loved his fried chicken. The meat was very lean and cleanly trimmed and the batter was light and crisp. The ceviche was fresh and sliced perfectly! Oftentimes, even in higher end restaurants, I get annoyed with tough bits of fish that aren’t sliced against the grain so you end up chewing on little bits of knotty flesh- that was not the case here. All in all, I was very impressed with this little soda. Of course it helped that we were pretty hungry. This plus a glass bottle of coke set us back 9300 colones and I left a few US dollars for tip. 

After a satisfying dinner, we walked back to our airbnb where the same dog greeted me again (the one I gave water too). I assume it has an owner, it looks decently clean and cared for . But it drank so much water before! And it was so skinny. So I gave it some rice and beans which it ate.

A lizard snuck into our airbnb but tonight it will stay with us since I don’t want to open the door to shoo it out and let in bugs.