February 26, 1998 - Thursday

Everybody got up early today to leave for two separate destinations. We dropped Elizabeth off in Jaco so she can stay at the Best Western there. The Best Western Jaco Beach was surprisingly modern, clean, and airy with a large circular outdoor pool and various stores, bars, and restaurants scattered around the grounds. Various tropical foliage and palm trees adorned the walkways.

We left for Quepos and Manuel Antonio National Park after that. It was the same route we took as last year, except instead of the pothole filled roads we drove on dirt roads. We actually saw some construction trucks working there too. Apparently, after the government awarded construction contracts to a particular contractor, the other ones will sue for the unfair award, and therefore stalls all the construction projects around the country. It looked like the finally started awarding sections of the road to different contractors to avoid being sued. We traveled through the palm grove lined road and then navigated around Quepos before arriving at our hotel.

My Eyes!

We arrived just in time to view the eclipse and a group of people was already gathered on the deck to view it. There was not much to see of the 80% eclipse. The skies dimmed and the air got noticeably cooler. Everything was darker, as if somebody played with the color knob on a TV and turned down all the vibrant colors. We then left for a restaurant next to the hotel called Barbara Roja. The food was OK. The service was horrible though, the waiter seemed like he didn't wanted to be there. It took a while when we finally got our food and drinks and after eating, we got changed and head down to the beach.

We ran into a problem as we were leaving - we had a flat tire. Fabio and John put on the spare tire and took the car into Quepos to get it patched while I waited at the hotel. It took about 40 minutes and I went swimming in the pool for a little bit. There were 3 guys and a girl there. I found out that they were all from Canada on a long vacation - one or two months I think. I couldn't figure out what they did to have such a long vacation, but they said they were consultants. We chatted for a while before I was summoned away to the beach.

The tide was high due to the eclipse. We waited for a little bit, deciding whether or not to cross the dangerous outcrop or not, but we started seeing some people crossing the rocks to get back to our side. I thought to myself that if these tourists can cross those rocks without any problem, I shouldn't either. It turned out that the crossing was pretty easy - my shorts barely got wet. When I got to the other side, not too many people were there and some were packing up already, getting ready to leave. The surf was really strong and rough and I stayed in the shallows while my body was pounded mercilessly by the waves. John and Fabio showed up a while later and only John really went into the water to swim, and got some pretty bad scrapes on his chest.

We left after a while, waited for John and Fabio to change, and went to a restaurant called Dulu's. It was the same restaurant that Fabio and I went to last year. Again, I was not impressed with the food at all - it was the worse place I've eaten while in Costa Rica so far. We then went back to the hotel, and walked to a bar from there. The bar was really small, outdoors mostly with just the bar area under a roof, but the atmosphere was pretty nice and laid back. We ordered some drinks and chatted on the balcony for a while and returned to the hotel. John and Fabio turned in earlier and I sat on the balcony area and watched the stars for about an hour before turning myself in for bed.