Hola from Jaco

Charlie and I arrived in the lovely San Jose, Costa Rica around 2 pm this afternoon.

(road sign: imagine how cool it was seeing a sign for Panama, only 350 kilometers away)

After picking up our rental car, sans GPS, we set off to explore the captiol city.

Charlie did a great job driving us around and adapted well to the "cultural driving" experience.

Actual lanes do exist but are pretty much ignored. 

Basically if your vehicle can fit through a little gap between two other cars and you can manage to get there first,  then it's all yours.

Charlie had researched the best restaurants in the capitol city and decided we had to try La Esquina de Buenos Aires, an Argentine steakhouse in downtown San Jose.

We knew they closed at 3pm so we were trying our darndest to get there in time.

And the effort was totally worth it!

The food was so delicious and we had the coolest waiter.

From the moment we walked in the door Walter made us feel right at home.

We arrived 15 minutes before they were going to close but he never rushed us.

In fact he encouraged us to explore the restaurant and take as many pictures as we wanted.

The first time we tried to take the above pic the top wasn't screwed on the bottle well and alot of the liqour

poured out all over my shirt.  It was pretty funny but I was stanky!

{quit the small talk and feed me already}

Charlie got the Churrasco steak and I got the salmon with veggies.

It was one of the best meals of my life and it filled me up for the entire day!

As we were eating and visiting I kept noticing these two sweet puppies sleeping across the street

from the restaurant in the rain.
Well the sight was so heart-wrenching and they were both pulling off their
 "I am pitiful and need steak" look like pros that I totally caved.

I asked Walter if they were of the friendly sort who would appreciate scraps of steak.

Without hesitation, Walter walked me outside and introduced me to the two pups.

He joking commented they would only dine on the finest tenderloin but they may

concede to eat Charlie's left over steak lunch just this once.

Then I proceed to do two things my dad always told me not too...

approach strange dogs and then feed them.

He was such a sweet little guy but Walter was right…the pup didn’t even bother standing up to

eat his tasty morsels I brought him and even seemed to hesitate before devouring the treats.

The other dog in question ran the other way like a scalded...well, dog (forgive the expression).

I guess they weren't in the terrible shape I thought they were...life is good for a stray in C.R.

After we bid farewell to Walter we proceeded to try and get out of downtown San Jose and

on the road to Jaco beach.

We saw some interesting sights along the way as exiting the city turned out to be
a bigger feat than Charlie and I were planning for.
It took us a good two hours to finally get our bearings.

But this is a plus side for not being on a schedule. 
We got to explore the city, talk to lots of people in our quest for directions,
and I even got to peak in a church where they were having adoration! So cool!

Finally we got ourselves out of downtown which turned out to be even more confusing

than downtown Houston.

Before we got to the condo at Bahia Azul we stopped by AutoMecado grocery store to get some

grub for breakfasts and lunches.

I think we could totally subsist on coke/diet coke and fruit for…quite along time.

maybe not forever but as you can see we won’t be going hungry any time soon!

The condo is beautiful and we even went for an evening swim at the pool just to kick off this quickie vacation.

In an attempt to save a frog from drowning in the pool, Charlie grabbed a small table near by
to scoop up the floundering reptile.  As he tilted the table over the teracotta plate fell out of it's base
and broke all over the sidewalk...poor Charlie...no good deed goes unpunished!

The cherry on top of the whole night was when we turned on the TV
and saw they were showing the A&M and UT game on ESPN/EN VIVO!

We caught the tail end of the game. The Ag's were up by one touchdown and t.u. was threatening to put some points on the board and tie it up. But with about 15 yards out from putting the ball in the endzone the t.u. quarterback tossed a pass which was tipped by a lineman and then intercepted by the one and only Von Miller! Aggies win!!!

Imagine our delight as we cheered the Aggies on to beat the Longhorns all the way from Central America.

WHOOP!