Tag Archives: Jaco

Taking Things For Granted…

Posted on January 7, 2007 | Leave a comment

Pict1918-1So there are somethings we really take for granted but it just isn’t the same everywhere else. For instance:

  • Medicine – While I was at the farmicia (drug store) I saw a family come in to get a single (1) Allegra tablet (the are actually individually wrapped). Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see how much one was. With my insurance, which I’m very thankful for, I get a three month supply for only $2 (via mail-order). I don’t have any idea what they paid, but I’m sure it was more than two-and-a-half cents, but maybe not, you never know. I’m assuming they cost enough to where you don’t keep a jar of them at home.
  • Coleman cooler – Here’s what we would consider to be a normal sized Coleman cooler (one of the larger ones, not the small ones that just hold a 5 pack). It’s about $63, that’s a lot of money here. We talked to a waiter last night (at a the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to in Costa Rica) and he makes about $30 a day including tips, now remember things cost less here but that’s still two days wages here. At minimum wage it’s probably a 1/2 days wages, and remember that’s minimum wage.
  • Health care – so many of the places are remote it can be hours to a hospital, and that’s only if you have a way to get transportation to where you are when you need the help. I don’t think there’s even one here in Jaco, you probably have to go to Punteranes or San Jose (about 2 hours, maybe a little less).

    I’m sure I’ll add to this list as I think of more…

    • Leave a comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , , , , , ,

    Montezuma, Costa Rica

    Posted on January 7, 2007 | 2 comments

    Cr Montezuma Big MapSo we really liked Montezuma, I’ve never been in that peninsula in Costa Rica and I’ve always wanted to go there (I think it’s called the Nicoloyia Nicoya Peninsula). We just kept extending our stay a day here and there and ended up staying four nights. We’re really glad we stayed an extra day or we would have missed the island of Tortuga (more on this later). It’s a very small town, just a few streets but it’s very laid back and I’ll definitely go back!

    Seems like a bit of a surfer town, but we saw very little surfing, even though there were lots of places to rent/buy surfing supplies. The water seemed very clear but part of that may have just been because the sand is so dark in Jaco. Speaking of Jaco, it seems like it’s a bit mini-Jaco before it grew, maybe if you could roll it back 30-40 years.

    Here is a street map of Montezuma. You can see all the busineeses on this map. If there is nothing listed it’s probably just trees or sand. Size-wise most of the hotels only have 10-15 rooms so they don’t take up much room. Most of it is concentrated in the top have of the map with Chico’s Bar (#14) at the center o the town, we stayed at El Sano Banano (#9) which is really close to the center. Continue reading →

    2 Comments

    Posted in holidays + events, reviews

    Tagged , , , ,

    Leaving Jaco

    Posted on January 2, 2007 | 1 comment

    So we needed to stay another night at the Hotel Balcon del Mar and we had to transfer to another room. That was a little trickier than we thought it would be. Checkout is at Noon and checkin is at 2, no one seemed to have the ability to make sure the room we were transferring to was cleaned first and our old room cleaned after we moved. It finally worked out, we just didn’t bother to checkout so when the room was ready we moved. (It worked for us at least).

    Cr Montezuma Jaco BoatSo we got moved from the new wing of the hotel to the old wing. (Just to give you some perspective on the hotel there is probably only 50-60 rooms in the whole place and it’s shaped like an “L”) The old wing definitely needs to be renovated. It’s not awful it’s just not as shiny as the new wing. But I’ll come back, the location and setup works well for me.

    So in a few minutes we’re off to taxi a “Taxi Boat” up the coast to Montezuma, which is on the peninsula on the north pacific side of Costa Rica. I’ve wanted to go to this area for a while now! See the image on how we’ll cut across the ocean to get there. The boat is an hour instead of the many (treacherous) hours driving up the coast, and probably more scenic :)

    1 Comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , , , , ,

    So tired…

    Posted on December 30, 2006 | Leave a comment

    Walked about a million miles today. Ate and drank lots too. It was a great day! It was actually a bit cloudy so it really cut down on the sun beating down on you, it was still pretty hot though.

    The time I came to Jaco on the last day we rented scooters/mopeds for a few hours and it was pretty cheap and it was nice and cool to have the breeze of driving them around. The plan was to do that a lot this trip, but no one seems to do that any more. A few places have them but it’s lot more per hour (it seems like last time we thought it was incredibly cheap). One of the car rental places has some and it’s only $39 for the whole day, which might not seem like much but when you consider a car is only $55-$65 a day it’s a bit (especially since we need two). So the plan for tomorrow is to get them for the whole day and travel all around.

    I promise to take lots of pictures tomorrow and post them sometime in the next few days! I just haven’t seen that much that I haven’t seen before so I don’t think to snap any.

    Leave a comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , ,

    The Hotel Balcon del Mar in Jaco, Costa Rica

    Posted on December 30, 2006 | Leave a comment

    Cr1902Cr1900So here’s a few shots from the balcony of our hotel, the wet stuff in the background is the Pacific (click the thumbnails for a larger photo). I really like the Hotel Balcon del Mar, it’s got everything I need. We’ve actually got a two bedroom apartment so there’s lots of room and I like that. The pocket camerea I used for these photos wasn’t wide-angle enough to photograph the room, I’ll try the other camera later.

    Well, it’s not perfect, it could have WiFi (wireless internet), an elevator (Mark says there are 63 steps to our floor) and a better English speaking person. I can make it pretty difficult for people with all the questions I like to ask, imagine if they don’t speak English?!? On a side note, I was a little disappointed about the included breakfast this trip, it used to be made to order but now it’s a buffet (not made my way).

    Today I was trying to figure out where to go when we leave here, I thought since I like the hotel I’d try to figure out where the people who own it might have other hotels. That conversation didn’t get me very far. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a list of other hotels that they have in there “chain”? They could keep it in the hotel room for you to look at and think “hey, maybe I’ll stay there some time…”, but of course no such list exists. If I tell them where I’m going the can tell me what’s close though :)

    Continue reading →

    Leave a comment

    Posted in holidays + events, reviews

    Tagged , , ,

    We Made It!!!

    Posted on December 29, 2006 | 1 comment

    We’re here, were safe and everything is great! We tried to rent a car but nothing available that we could drop off in Jaco (well, there was a $325 SUV, but I wanted a $60 car) so we took a two hour cab ride. Got dropped off at the hotel and just caught the sunset and then we checked in.

    Hit an ATM (although we panicked for a second when the first bank didn’t like either of our cards but the next banco was fine) and got 100,000.00 colones from the machine (about $190.00). Got some dinner and stuff (soda, juice, water, gatorade) for the hotel room . On the way back we saw some internet places so I’m heading out to see if I can connect my computer (to post this messages) and stop at a pay phone to call Mom to say I’m alive!

    Continue reading →

    1 Comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , , ,

    Almost there!

    Posted on December 29, 2006 | Leave a comment

    So while our seats were a little tight for the trip to the layover (in Charlotte, NC) the seats from there to Costa Rica are great! We got emergency row with awesome leg room, I can’t even reach the seats in front of us. Plus, there was were only room for two seats so there wasn’t even anyone next to us on the four hour flight.

    I’m really, really tired though. Had to get up around 4 AM to get to the airport by 6 for a 7 AM flight. Wasn’t able to sleep at all on the flight but I’ll bet I’ll sleep well tonight.

    We’re spending the first few days in Jaco but not sure for the rest of the trip. Anyone have any suggestions?

    We should be landing in about 25 minutes…

    Leave a comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , ,

    Living Abroad in Costa Rica

    Posted on December 26, 2006 | Leave a comment

    So in preparation for my trip I picked up Living Abroad in Costa Rica by Erin Van Rheenen. I’ve said many times I wouldn’t mind living there someday so I thought this might be a good read.

    I bought it a month ago and I planned to read it then or else I would have asked Santa for it. It looks like a good book and mentions some of the smaller towns like Jaco so I’m still looking forward to reading it (eventually).

    Leave a comment

    Posted in holidays + events

    Tagged , ,