So we get to Puntarenas, which wasn't exactly glorified in our guide books as a place a tourist should check out, (it looked like a run down beach town from the 1950s) and were strongly advised to stay some place out of town. So we hopped on the next ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula across the water.

Ferry from Puntarenas to Paquera

We end up in Paquera, the first town after getting off the ferry, which turned out to be filled with lots of bars and a private nature preserve nearby. We had all these plans to go to the reserve, swim, snorkel, etc - then it started raining. Day 5 and our trip was finally hindered by rain. We couldn't complain. Beth and I did some exploring around town, checking out the school where a group of kids were holding band practice. We said "Ole" to a couple girls who were walking by and they giggled and said "Hello" back to us in English. After that, we just hung out at the restaurant that was adjacent to our hotel and ate ate ate ate and ate. Reba discovered natural smoothies. We read, talked and flirted with the waiter, who we named Rico Suave. He was very impressed with our Spanish. I asked for chips and salsa and he made me homemade tortilla chips and a sort of ketchup-y type of salsa. Side note: ALL the tico men were flirts. And very cute. Luscious.

Left: The view from our room - you are looking at the restaurant that is adjacent to the hotel. Right: The view of the one of the two streets through Paquera.

This was Tuesday night. But because we had to go back Puntarenas to catch a bus to San Jose to catch a flight to the southern part of the country for the second half of the trip on Wednesday afternoon, (I know that didn't make any sense and it was just as insane as it sounds), we had to take a 4:30 a.m. ferry Wednesday morning. So we were up at 3:30 a.m. and amazingly, the taxi we had arranged the day before showed up at 4 a.m. and took us to the ferry. Then on a nice, comfy, tour bus for the two hour ride back to San Jose.

off to Pavones.....