Friends Arrive!

February 25, 2016 · by Dano · in Costa Rica

One of the best things about traveling is sharing the adventure with others. It’s even better when friends can join you on the adventure and have their own memories they can share. Dave and Jody Lennon, good friends from way back, joined us for a week of R&R here in Costa Rica. As first timers here in CR, there was lots to consider when it came to adventures. Costa Rica has a lot to offer tourists, beautiful beaches, nature reserves; activities like horseback riding and ATV riding or just driving around and looking for monkeys, so it can be difficult to really get some R&R with all the things you can do. Lots of pool time and an occasional road trip and some real R&R was the plan.

After a couple of days of hangin by the pool, we decided to take a road trip to Curu Nature Reserve and beach. This site was written up as a “nice place to see toucans, monkeys and an occasional iguana, and a beautiful beach with a restaurant”. What more could you want? So when we got there and had to pay 24,000.00C or $45.00USD, it seemed acceptable. We drove back to check out the beach and restaurant before deciding to relax or go find monkeys. Unfortunately, the restaurant proved to be little more than a snack counter at the snorkeling hut selling chips and granola bars, not the cervezas we expected. And as expected, panic set in. What the hell are we going to do with no cervezas? Fortunately Collette remembered Mal Pais surf beach where they did have a restaurant and cervezas so back on the road. Still, not a bad beach and the reserve looked nice from what we saw, just don’t go there thinking beers, instead plan to kayak, trail hike or hug a tree.

The road to Mal Pais is less than smooth and is a bit of a challenge. Most of the driver’s time is spent trying to keep the car from dancing off the wash-boarded ruts into the jungle. Dave is a pretty accomplished driver so we made it with minor scares and only used the AED once, could have happened to anyone, really wasn’t his fault.

Mal Pais was exactly as we remembered it, clean beaches, surf, open-air restaurant and cervezas. Good to see that not much has changed in a week. We hit the restaurant for lunch before doing a little Pacific surf time. This was the same restaurant, Pizzaria Playa Carmen, that we wrote about earlier and yep, same hateful waiter was there, only this time we chose to sit in a different area. The waitress was wonderful! She spoke English and tolerated / helped us with our Spanglish, very pleasant woman who gets top marks from us. Pizza was the same, could have been a little warmer, not such a heavy cheese and this time, not so many uncooked onions! Beer was cold, they had decent daiquiris, so we were happy. Chowed down, fueled up, now hit the beach. The kids played in the water while Collette and I sat in the shade and did a little people watching.

Enough play time at the beach so back to the homestead to relax, play cards and shoot the proverbial breeze. It’s amazing, somewhere around 11pm and a bottle of vodka later, we actually came up with a cure for world hunger. Wish the hell I could remember what that was.

We’re told that no trip to Costa Rica is complete without an evening watching bull riding. Just so happened that the little town of Lepanto (pronounced “Lay Pon Toe) had a fund raiser for the local school that included bull riding, carnival rides and games, food and an unexpected pleasure, karaoke! My friends, you haven’t lived until you’ve been in the middle of a CR karaoke contest. These people can sing, and no one was afraid to try, although some should have been. No I didn’t try it and no I couldn’t shame Dave into trying it. Came close though. It’s not that the singers are any better or worse than those Elvis wanna-be’s in the States, it’s the volume! Man, can’t believe this is the second time on this trip I’ve said the music was too loud. Must be older than I think! The other unexpected surprise was the pellet gun shoot. Kids of all ages had a chance to shoot little plastic Army men off a box and win anything from a stuffed animal to a bottle of Jack Daniels. Maybe they only let the big kids win the Jack, not sure. Anyway, once again it’s time to eat!

Food was prepared by volunteers and the proceeds went to the town while all proceeds from the other events went to the school. Great idea! We went to the food tent just behind the karaoke competition and ordered our pollo y arroz con ensalada, chicken and rice with salad.

Yeah I know, but it tasted pretty good!

Now on to the bull riding! We bought our tickets and went into the arena to find a good seat not knowing how quickly the event would start. Looking back, we could have waited a bit. After sitting on a wooden bench for the better part of an hour, the show finally began. Opening with a fireworks display and awards ceremony, this was quite an event for this small town. The stands filled up and the show got underway. We noticed a couple of things about the crowd. First, no one was smoking, no one! Kind of refreshing after everyone in Malta smoked! Next was that everyone was dressed nicely, even the kids. I expected more of a “blue collar” crowd with tee shirts and blue jeans. I did see blue jeans, but they were newer blue jeans, and mostly western style shirts. The women were dressed equally as nice. Obviously, this was an important social event for this town.