Thought I'd share a few more vacation pics with you. As we were driving from the Arenal volcano area to the Pacific coast, we spotted all these coati mundis (did I spell that right?) by the side of the road. They look just like a bunch of cats, don't they, with their tails straight up because they're so excited about being fed.

It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. Suddenly I started seeing signs for German bakeries and Swiss restaurants. Apparently this looked a lot like home to the Germans, Swiss and Austrians. We just had to stop and have apple strudel a la mode (yeah, yeah, forget about those pants I can't fit into any more.) Next door to the bakery was a house with this planted next to it:

Recognize it? It's a poinsettia!

The road through the mountains was fair. There are lots of industrial-sized potholes, but quite a bit of the road had been recently paved. Then we got to the Pan-American Highway, you know, the main route through Central America. It is narrower than my driveway, full of incredible potholes, and crawling with traffic -- and I do mean crawling, because there are a lot of trucks trying to make it up the hills. Everyone is passing on hills and curves -- it's a real test of nerve if you're a chicken like me. But then we took the road to Tamarindo. Most of it washed away in the last rainy season. It was a mixture of dirt and gravel, but mostly dust, since it is still dry season. People swerve all over the road to avoid the potholes. Periodically, there is a stretch of more-or-less intact pavement, which happens to be about a foot higher than the roadbed. It took us 4 hours to go 70 miles. Then the rent car started overheating (the fan wasn't turning) but fortunately we found a service station and got some water in the radiator. I took a picture of the sunset from the gas station driveway.

The Professor had to drive the last few miles in the dark (streetlights? what are they?), dodging potholes and people on unlighted bicycles, cars with no headlights, even cows with no headlights. When we got into Tamarindo, they had the streets torn up. Prof. was hungry, never a cheerful condition for him, and really unhappy with the whole town. I was watching for a decent-looking hotel on the beach. Could I help it if that turned out to be the most expensive one in town?

The Professor cheered up a lot once we checked in and went to have dinner under a huge banyan tree, with the Pacific just a few feet away, a new moon rising, and the Southern Cross in the sky.

This was the view from our room. Tamarindo turns out to be the surfing mecca of Costa Rica. We did a little body surfing and had fun watching all the surfers. We found some wonderful shells, and I actually lay still and did nothing (except read) for at least 30 minutes. This is an accomplishment for me! Here are some more pictures of the hotel and beach:






This iguana begged food from us. I tried tossing him some fruit; he wasn't interested. He liked bread, french fries, and cheesecake. Who knew?