It's the start of the fruit season: mango, watermelon, passion fruit, papaya, and pineapple. They all taste considerably better when they all grown within a few kilometers, rather than half way around the world. The flavours are amazing.
I'm not sure whats more entertaining, the howler monkeys in the trees eating mangos or the Canadians gone wild over fresh watermelon. Both are pretty messy! Don't stand under the mango tree when they are feeding as they drop the ones they don't like.
Boy it's hot - 35 C. The beach was nice, a couple of kilometers long, great for swimming and not very many people. By noon most people are off the beach and in their swimming pools because it's cooler. We lucked out with this place as it has a pool, a full kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a deck.
There was a group of howler monkeys across the street from us who started calling around 5 am. They are noisier than the roosters.
We discovered the newest thing if you want to invest into a condo. It's called "fractional ownership ". Not time sharing. They are quick to point this out, but really it's very similar. I guess they figured out most people who got sucked into the time sharing thing are not very happy. Anyways we go a free lunch, a bottle of wine, and three free nights in a nice resort in Mexico (if we go there on our own within the next year. Who knows) in return for their promotion for an hour and a half. And no we did not buy in. They figured out that we wouldn't sign on in the first 10 minutes as they first ask you how much you spent on our last three vacations. Let's see, Nicaragua cost us $40/day for both of us, before that we camped in Haines for $10 , and before that we camped in Angoon Alaska for free. They agreed that we weren't high rollers like many of the folks they take to.
Feb 18. Sheila and I are now in San Jose for a couple of nights, just to break up our bus ride from northern CR to the southern part of the country. Unfortunately we had to leave Catherine and John yesterday as they had other plans that involved repeating some of the things we did together with Johns mom when she arrives next week.
San Jose is a big city. McDonalds is big here. Literally, there is a big M in every two blocks. They are all two stories high and very busy. We like them because they have clean bathrooms. Theses are all good travel hints if your planning a trip.
