Took off on an adventure, planning to go to Montezuma around 9:00am. Headed to Santa Cruz by way of the back road. We cut through going to the JW Marriott to get pictures of the beach....it is on the outskirts of Tamarando. Beautiful place with hugh swimming pool, but small beach. We wondered over the lava rock that reached out into the Pacific Ocean and talked with a couple from Ohio. They had been on a 10 day tour trip and were heading back to San Jose to fly home tomorrow. We watched three men fishing in the surf and not having any luck. The beach, the surf, the sun....What an amazing view!
Headed back to the car and continued on to Santa Cruz. Ended up on a gravel/dirt road for about half an hour. On this road we saw tractor trailers, buses, dump trucks, tourismo vans, and lots of cars going to where we had just been and crusing past us. Finally hit a nice pavement and stopped to get gas. We road through the town of Santa Cruz. Nice size town...two large groceries... a big drug store...lots of businesses...the town was buzzing. Stopped to get some fruit. Lots of people in the store. It was fun to look at the different kinds of produce. Apples and pears are here but not the normal item to buy since they are all shipped in. We went for the bananas, pappyas, mangos, pineapple, watermelons, and cantaloupes. The fruit here is so tasty because it is allowed to ripen on the vine. Anything that is shipped out of here is picked green.
Headed on to Nicoya and decided to by pass it to go onto Carmona. Stopped to have a picnic lunch and then journeyed on. The land started to get hillier and greener in some places. We had noticed all day that there were many groves of trees that had been planted years ago neatly in rows. The government is very wise in forestry replenishment. We saw lots of beef cattle munching on really dry grass. After driving up the side of a few hills, we could see the Gulf of Nicoya, a large body of water that has a port at the entrance of it at Puntarenas. We passed through two police road blocks, but did not have to stop. We were flagged on. We had been warned that this could occur. Larry was prepared with his international driver's license.
Carmona was a nice country town. Lots of people were walking along the side of the road. Many were riding bicycles. There was a hugh pink church on the edge of the park. Many people were sitting on benches under the shade trees just enjoying an afternoon chat. This small town took a short time to drive through and the road turned to dirt/gravel. We turned around and headed back to Sta. Rita and took a sharp right heading south. Also along the way we passed many, many bus stops. Often there were people waiting for the bus to come. Costa Rica does have a very active bus system that links the whole country from city to city. You can pass these buses when they are being loaded or unloaded....a strange feeling to do this. We noticed that school children sometimes are riding them.
We also noticed that students go home for lunch. Each community seems to have their own school. The kids all wear uniforms. Boy wear black pants and blue shirts. Girls wear white shirts and black pants or a plaid skirt. This seems to be the attire for older and younger students in all the areas that we have traveled.
Anyway we got to Jacaral, another small town with a huge church in the center of town beside the park. Lots of people of all ages out walking the road and riding their bicycles. We continued on and the road turned to dirt/gravel so we stopped to ask how long it would take to get to Montezuma, a small fishing village. We were told 2 and 1/2 hours. It was around 3:00 so we said ......2 and 1/2 hours on a dirt/gravel road.....Not today! The sad thing is that it was probably only 25-30 miles to Montezumz.We headed back the same way we came because there was not another road to journey down and drove through Nicoya. The town was large and it had an open air Burger King. HA! Along the way we passed lots of "Sodas", small family owned restaurants. Lots of counter type "sodas" existed in the towns where there were four or five stools to sit on up next to a counter. Restaurant style "sodas", open air style with many tables were along the main road. We also passed a bar set up along side the road. It was just a bar style counter with stools bellied up to it and liquor sitting on the bar out in the open on the side of the road. It was an unusual sight. Anyway the town of Nicoya was bustling. We drove over a Rio Grande River and into Nicoya's narrow one way streets and then headed back down the same road out of all the traffic. This town was really, really packed tight with narrow streets and lots of cars. I was glad to get back on the main road.
Our rental car, a five speed yaris...it's been years since we have driven a stick.
Just a swinging, Larry joined me for a siesta.
Lava rocks that lead to the Pacific
Actually the sign should say, Pottery Farm, but what would you think?
A unique bike in Santa Cruz
Farmers plant trees for fence post all along the roads.They actually saw off
the tops and they grow back into a tree.
Beef cattle
When Larry was taking the picture of the cows,
he looked down into the top of one of the fence posts and saw this bird nest.
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