Costa Rica

We've had a great time enjoying various ports of Costa Rica! This country has such a feeling of rural Hawaii in certain areas, with a lot more flora, fauna and wild animals. All in all, a natural beauty in all its glory.

Kevin & Brad chatting it out as we are underway...

The marina in Los Sueños was great! I've never seen so many fishing boats (also known as "fish killers") in one location at once. There's tremendous sport fishing about 20 miles offshore and oodles of HUGE boats to support this. 

We haven't had any wifi in the marina as we were told there had been a "situation" which the marina was tight lipped about... Which only makes me more curious, however we were too busy having fun to find out. 

We did find a fabulous "provisioning" gourmet grocer at the marina and the owner Jimmy T was a wealth of information!! From secret cove locations for our 2 year trip to restaurant recommendations, he had it all. We must have gone to his store 4 times in one day as we knew this was probably our last chance to "stock" up with good food for the next few months. We should be able to find things in Panama, however for meats, veggies, etc we bought it all from Jimmy as those quality items are harder to come by further south.

Here's the late afternoon black clouds that come to visit everyday...

We went into "town" last night (the city of Jaco) and as par for the course here in Costa Rica.. It POURED!!! 

It generally rains here in the early evening and the huge gutters everywhere should have been a hint. Ha! We were soaked!! We found a great place called "Lemon Zest" that Jimmy T had recommended. (Jimmy had been a chef on a large yacht for many years, so we assumed he knew his "foodie" picks.) The food at this place was superb and we loved every second of it. We sat outside (under a roof that is) enjoying some very fresh pineapple margaritas (yum! It's pineapple season here) and had a ball watching the hustle and bustle of the streets on a Friday night. We met the chef/owner and he had previously lived in Del Rey Beach, FL where he had a successful restaurant there. Floridas loss was a gain for C.R!

Today we left Los Sueños and cruised about 3 hours south to Quepos, Costa Rica. It was a gorgeous cruise along the  coast...

We caught a couple of Mahi Mahis en route (Stacy & Mike had their turns reeling these beauties in) and pulled into Quepos marina. 

Mike with his catch...

Stacy modeling her fish fighting belt just before her BIG one jumped on the line. 

Danny slicing & dicing...

Mr Mahi is ready for his close up!

The marina here is much much smaller than the one at Los Sueños and is still under construction. 

We walked into town after we arrived and learned it was very "colorfull!"

The local bus station was bustling...

A local shoe store with sweet dogs out front to greet us.. Can't get this ambience in the states!

Seriously.. This is a stop sign in town! 

After our "walkabout", we headed back to the marina and went to their new restaurant "Runaway Grill" (otherwise known as "civilization!") to enjoy some cocktails and watch the sunset. This is where all the "gringos" are...

The gorgeous sunset!

Tomorrow we trek into Manuel Antonio Park (the star attraction here!) to check out the natives. Stay tuned for those pix as we should snap some "wild animal nuggets" along the way!