Hola From Jaco!

I took more pictures of our apartment and the town today, so you could kinda get a feel for what it's like to live here in Jaco.  These pictures are terrible, so you'll probably get more of a sense of what it's like to live in my finger.

So we woke up late and decided to hit some shops and the beach.  I'm all set in my bathing suit:

I'm not really this skinny, I just know how to angle a camera.  Quite a useful skill!  However, I have not yet mastered the skill of giving a shit enough to put on makeup.  That will never happen, sorry!

Here's the view from our apartment:

Insane, huh??  Here's the view of the pool again:

One of the palm trees has some sort of fruit (coconuts?):

We have a table outside for dinners watching the sunset:

Yup, that's a random computer chair!  I like our front door:

It looks like the sun (not that I need to be reminded of it).  Here's the view of our place from the outside:

Go up those stairs and we're the first door on the left.  Every house around here has a gate:

And a barbed-wire fence:

That cage on a stick is a garbage!  Every house has one of those too.  To the people of Costa Rica: there's a better way!  Garbage doesn't need to be on display.  Trust me, folks.

We walked around the corner to the ATM and pulled out cash:

These are Colones.  The easy way to convert in your head is to multiply by 2 and remove the zeros.  So, 1,000 Colones is $2, 2,000 Colones is $4 and 5,000 is $10 (well, that's basically the idea..actual conversion would be 2,000 Colones = $3.74, but it's easier to round up).  

Then we went to a nearby Soda and had brunch.  I got a casado with steak:

No idea what that green veggie is, but it was really yummy!  My steak was a little tough though.  Aaron got casado with chicken:

It came with this tomato based sauce with veggies.  So bomb!  Each casado was 2,500 Colones ($5), so not a bad deal at all.  After filling our bellies, we strolled to the beach for a swim (kinda backwards to swim AFTER you eat, but what can I say, we're rebels).  Then we decided to pick up some groceries.  While walking to Mas X Menos (grocery store), we stopped by a pretty park:

Not one person was there!  It's gorgeous, with trees creating a shady oasis and perfectly cut grass, yet there is no seating and there are no people.  Confusing.  It reminded me of a cemetery, but with no graves.  Hmm...I'm stumped.

We got more snacks at the store.  one thing we didn't get was this:

EWW!  This looks so grody!  Who would buy this??  Nasty.

I snapped more pictures of downtown, while on our cab ride home (only costs $2):

 There's a gorgeous, technicolor field with lots of grazing cows:

I realize these pictures suck, but it's just a cow field.  Nothing to write home about.

We came home, relaxed and I read:

I got it at the store and it was filled with hotel, restaurant and shopping info, as well as maps and coupons.  When traveling, try to collect local info guides like these.  You'll find lots of tourist info and get some free maps in the process (usually with all the restaurants labeled).  Handy!

Then we had dinner out on our front porch and watched the sun set:

I took both of these after the sun set...oops!  Timing has never been my thing.  For dinner I made chicken seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper, as well as some veggies (gotta make sure my baby eats veggies):

The chicken here is so fresh and tasty, it doesn't need much to be awesome!  It's just so tender, like no chicken I've had at home.  Even I couldn't mess it up.

Since it was still early and for once we weren't completely wiped out, we figured we'd have a night on the town.  We hit up a couple bars and a couple discotecs, but I think we were pretty early (10pm) because they were pretty dead.

It's a happy accident you can't see our faces because they were dripping with sweat.  Yuck!  We got a few drinks and danced a little though.  We're dancing queens!  We hit up a rooftop club and I took pictures from the top:

We came home around 12:30, which is relatively early, but not too many people were out tonight.  We'll try again tomorrow!  Ciao!