October 7th

We decided to stay in Peurto Jimenez today. we bought bread at the bakery around the corner in the morning and walked to the water. turns out the bread had some ham in it, so grant was the only one who ate it. One the way to the water we were followed by a dog, who kept us company probably because of the bread. a woman came along (Dominic), looking for Blankie (the dog). she sat and talked with us; she is from Belgium, but she lived in the US for a number of years, and she moved to Costa Rica about 6 months ago. She said she decided she is not going to leave Costa Rica. She walked with us to show us a path near the airport that would lead us to a beautiful beach, playa preciosa. she also showed us her favorite soda (small restaurant, generally very well priced). she is a very talkative woman; she is a teacher at the local private school, and she teaches the montessori method for children pre-kindergarten to about middle school. we parted ways at our cabina, and grant and I made eggs, banana, oranges and milk for breakfast. then we adventured to the Banco national on the main road to test our ATM cards on their machines. We pulled out roughly $20 (10,000 colones) after we deciphered the restrictions on the teller machine. It took us a while because you had to do certain increments within a low and high amount. the hard part was that the comma they use was not in the same place from screen to screen, so we kept getting confused. we eventually resorted to just trying different numbers. luckily, we only pulled out a small amount, rather than a ton of money...

we went back to the cabina and packed up our backpack so we could try to find the playa that dominic told us about. on our way to the road, we came across her again, and she decided on a whim to come with us to the playa. we walked along Gringo Londia (named Gringo land because many wealthy gringos build houses there). it was about 4km distance, and we saw many dogs, some cows and many beautiful houses.

We also walked by a coconut tree just as it dropped a coconut, so we stopped and drank the water from inside it. it was so good fresh! Nothing like those awful coconut waters you can buy in a can in the US. At the playa, we stoped at Iguana Lodge where Dominic knew the owner, Laura. the house was huge and beautiful. the bartender gave us each a glass of ice water (very helpful because the walk was hot and humid) and we wandered through the lodge to see the amazing outdoor yoga studio on the property:

When we were done admiring the beautiful lodge, we walked to the beach. the surf was a little rough so neither Dominic nor I got in the water, but Grant dove right in. the water was blue and warm, and the salt was sticky. Grant found another fresh coconut on the beach, so he hammered it open:

fresh coconut made the tropical setting that much more desirable:

the low season is great -no tourists means the beach is empty!

the clouds kind of looked like rain, so we headed back. Along the way we saw our first Blue Morpho butterfly:

On our way back, Dominic's friend Marcus was sitting on his porch so we stopped and sat with him for a while. His ex-wife, who he shares the house with, makes ice cream so he sold us two pints for $3. We ate one of them (the peanut butter one) right there, and saved the coconut one for later. he also showed us the puppies that his dog had given birth to 4 days ago:

I was in puppy heaven, and I would have taken one in a heartbeat if they weren't so young and I had a place to keep it. When we got back to town, we put our backpack down and went to meet her and her friend who is from Puerto Jimenez so that he could show us the Caymens (like crocodiles, they live in a swamp between the town and the ocean). We were a little late so we missed the initial trip during the day time. But we waited long enough that when Dominic came out of the swamp, she found us and had her friend take us back. This time we had to use a headlamp (only had one) and it was totally dark when we made it the 1/4 mile to the swamp. when you shine the head lamp on the water, you can see their eyes reflecting back at you. Dominic's friend called to them, and 3 climbed out of the water and sat on the bank below us, waiting for us to feed them. The rest were waiting in the swamp, motionless. there were about 12 total that we could see, and probably several more that were just far enough away that we couldn't see them.

when we got back to the cabina, we made yucca with onion and rice with carrots for dinner. Showered (cold), ate the coconut ice cream we bought from Marcus while swinging in the hammocks, then went to bed.