Flora y Fauna Tres: Jaco

 

Pano of the palm tree grove

An interesting row of seed pods

This tree is covered in thick spikes

Sprouting coconuts!!

Gigantic leaves!

These leaves are a vibrant neon green!

A stand of very high bamboo stalks.

Adventures of the Week Jan. 27-Jan. 31

 This is technically my 3rd week in Costa Rica and my second week as a student of Academia Tica. 

A couple new fruits we tried:

Caimeta (star apple or milk fruit). There is a milk-like liquid in this and when it's cut the other direction the pattern of the flesh and seeds appear like a star.

Dragon fruit

Eating experiences (non-sequential):

Beef tacos with my own taco seasoning since I can't find it yet ANYWHERE. (No picture)

Tico style tacos: like taquitos with different types of sauce and cabbage. This one has a sweet red and white sauce. Maybe the white sauce is queso?

No bake cookies (a hit with our Tico friends)

A green "orange" that is really a "limon" (lee-mone), which is lemon to USA.

Lasagna cooked on the stove top in a POT! The family loved this despite the slight differences in ingredients. For example, the cottage cheese is LARGE curd and watery, mozzarella is drier here, and the noodles are thinner which I appreciated.

My first chifrio at a local soda in Coronado.

Creepy things...Costa Rica beats Texas on bug size...

Salamanders under a sign near the Argentinian cafe, Jaco

Spider in the garage. The body is small (according to my Spanish teacher Santiago), but the leg spread is about the palm of my hand.

A HUGE black wasp. Its body was almost the size of my thumb!

Observed on my walk: (Flora y Fauna) This is here in case you want to skip...HA! These aren't in chronological order...

I observed a marshmallow looking seed pod in a tree...

The seed up close on the ground (found another day in a different spot).

A lily

In the school garden. I see something new every day probably because of alternating blooming times.

A type of 3 petal flower related to a lily?

This river I cross each day is the border of Coronado and San Isidro. It runs right under a busy street bridge. The water is very clear, and it sounds musical. I love the sound of running water and fountains!

Weekend Excursion #2: Jaco Part 2

The next morning, Rose and I slept in a bit then walked to a nearby panaderia (bakery) where she selected a Costa Rican style cinnamon roll. There is dulce de leche in the spiral. I wanted to try a local "soda" (small family cafe) for breakfast and there was one near to the bakery. We both ordered gallo and discovered that is a form of taco, the tortilla being corn. Mine with scrambled eggs and hers with grilled chicken. We made a few "friends" as we waited for our food and maybe Rose shared a little snack after. 

Our breakfast buddies!

I think she has done well learning the "begging" look from the cats...

We went back to the apartment where I debated about whether we should find an adventure OR stay in and chill. I voted for adventure. I chose to drive us down to Playa Hermosa where there is wildlife refuge along the beach. Not only was this my first driving time in CR, but I also wasn't sure what I was getting into about how to sight see in the refuge area. 

Welcome to Hermosa!

Hermosa beach!

We ended up parking where the pavement ended and walked maybe 2 miles down the beach then turned inland where we ran into some fishermen. We soon discovered why. There was a river just over the embankment in proximity to the beach! Unfortunately, our 2-mile walk got us to the start of the refuge. Oops. I was supposed to drive to the end of the DIRT road and then walk down the beach 2 miles. The goal was to look for scarlet macaws. There a few nesting pairs in the area of the refuge. We didn't see them, but we did see some other interesting birds, fish, and a lizard. 

Resting and putting the shoes back on for a lookie-see over "the rise". I wanted to know what was on the other side!

SURPRISE!! A river!!

A pano of the riverbank. To the right is the dune going down to the beach. The river and beach are divided by a small rise...from the beach you wouldn't know there was a river there!

View of the river. Up close, the water was mostly clear.

Look closely to see the white dots in the water...those are actually glowing fisheyes! The fish looked like a kind of large minnow (maybe not large for being by the ocean).

A type of sea hawk we haven't identified. There were several of the same.

A type of black bird with a parrot-like beak.

A lizard we saw on the road.

There was also some unique foliage. You can check that out on the flora y fauna post if you're interested.

We ended up walking back by the dirt road and decided we needed to grab lunch. I had seen a sign for sushi and thought since we were close to the beach, the rolls might be good. It was rated pretty well. Rose had a smoothie to cool off. It was HOT out there. We were red-faced, sweaty, and dirty from the sand and dust. 

Happy for a cold refreshing smoothie after a hot, dusty walk.

If you like maki then YUM. From top: Tico veggie roll, tempura Cali, and Hawaiin.

After lunch, we stopped at this look out point for Jaco. Playa Jaco is in the distance. 

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped off at Pequeno Mundo to grab a few items. Rosabel said here she heard more English spoken without being spoken to since we left the USA, and I have to agree. There did seem to be a higher percentage of people, even Ticos, speaking English first. We definitely saw many more people from the USA.  A Tico boy I helped even thanked me directly in English as if it was his primary language, not Spanish. He said it automatically. 

I had my first real CR traffic challenge...crossing an intersection with a yellow light for north/south bound and a blinking red light for east/westbound traffic. I had the red light. Since the north/south bound is the HIGHWAY, you could sit there A LONG TIME. We watched the other cars sort of take turns, more like a 4 way stop, but with multiple cars going from one direction. I waited a few rounds and then just had to get out in the intersection. I ended up stopped in the middle waiting on other people to pass and after a few cars, I got by. My mantra in my head is simply "none of us want an accident" so people will generally put on the brakes. Clark says just use common sense.

We cooled off and cleaned up at the apartment, the guys got back, and we went back towards Jaco for dinner. We chose an Argentinian cafe. It was less than 10 miles from the apartment, and we got there in about that much time, but the way back took us a good 40 minutes. CRAZY! 

Some pics from the fishing and dinner...

7-foot sailfish

Argentinian grilled cheese (literally) and tomatoes.

An appetizer of eggplant, hummus, and white beans with crispy yet tender toast.

A type of Argentinian sausage served with carrot salad.

The next morning being Sunday, we chose to head to church at a congregation on the way towards San Jose. We spoke with our first tourists from the USA and there were other US'ers who live in the area (near Atenas). 

There was a nice little rain shower after we returned to San Isidro/Coronado. Side note: I learned at school this week our house is in San Isidro but only by two blocks! Haha!

Because we were gone all weekend, there wasn't any food in the house, so we went out to a soda for dinner. I had my first chifrio, the kids got burgers, and Clark had a chorizo burger. When Clark asked the waiter what kind of meat the sausage was, vaca or cerdo, the guy said "meat". Funny stuff. 

Next weekend, we intend to take a day long excursion. We are heading out to Poas Volcan and then to La Paz, a waterfall with a refuge area. Crossing our fingers for clear weather so we get a clear view of the blue crater at the volcano! 

Weekend Excursion #2: Jaco Part 1

 Our second weekend was spent near the closest beach to San Jose: Playa Jaco (hah-KO). We chose to stay a little north of Jaco in Herradura because the fishing charters go out of the bay there. Clark desired to deep sea fish for large species such as sailfish, tuna, and the big kahuna, marlin. Staying in Herradura enabled us to get to the fishing appointment quickly at an early hour in the morning and I could keep the car for Rose and I to take our own adventure.

We left our home for Herradura on Friday afternoon. As always, the drive was packed with traffic, taking quite a bit longer for similar mileage in the United States. BUT the trade-off is the beauty of the scenery. The vibrancy of the mountains is incredible! 

(Insert pic)

Our first stop was at the "crocodile bridge". This is near a place called Tarcoles and the river is Rio Tarcoles. There is a line of shops there including a fruit stand, convenience type store, and soda. There are police on patrol and men in the parking area to watch the cars for thieves. The river is the northern border of Carrara National Park. Carrara is known for its approximately 200 scarlet macaw parrots. Not only did we see crocodiles but there was a couple sizeable iguanas sunning on a log.

Looking down from the bridge.

This guy needed to collect more heat by opening his jaws.

Upon arriving in Herradura our priority was getting down to Playa Herradura (the beach)! The timing of our arriving was much the same as in Puntarenes; we had the pleasure to enjoy another sunset at the beach. Like Cadera beach, the sand is considered "gray" (not black as I stated earlier); still different than any beach in the USA to my knowledge. 

At our AirBnb! The apartment was VERY nice and had HOT water! Yay!

The toilet is decorated with toilet paper. I think the host is an artist based on other details of the apartment.

As we walked down the beach I noticed where some people walked, the top layer of sand looked like a layer of skin peeling away. We found a hermit crab friend and these interesting "shelves" of rock that seemed like petrified sand. 

This "rock" is actually hardened sand.

There were a few restaurants right on the beach and we chose one for dinner. It was a little "fancy" but we wanted to eat seafood since we were on the coast; its freshest there. We ordered a ceviche of shrimp, tuna, and octopus. Ceviche is an interesting dish in that it uses the acid of citrus fruits to "cook" the fish. It is delicious, at least for me. Craig had a giant tuna steak burger, Clark at seabass, Rose had shrimp penne, and I had shrimp in garlic sauce. For dessert Clark wanted to try banana flambe and we went for creme brulé with passion fruit garnish.  

Street along the beach in Herradura at sunset.

View of the beach from the restaurant.

Pano of the street from inside the restaurant.

Happy for another beach adventure!

Ceviche

Garlic shrimp

Sea bass.

Tuna steak burger. We all agreed Craig got the dinner award (again). He said, "I'm good at this game". Haha!

Using a torch to melt the cheese on the pasta.

Finished product: shrimp penne.

Creme Brule with passion fruit.

Banana Flambe show.

TO BE CONTINUED in part 2...