Wen.17th Sept.

We got up early, had a Tipico breakfast down the street (minus a haunting by the Colones ghosts) then head further south to where we hoped the tree farm was. All we had were sketchy directions so we figured the sooner we got there the more time we would have to find the place before our 9am appointment. We had no trouble at all even though it was waaay back in no-where. We found a small village, school, and Banana plant but nothing else, and still we had to keep going. We found a shack of plywood and plastic, with the cutest little big eared black dog, we tried to get his pic but he would run ahead and wait for us to catch up, we finally got the pic and went on to the roads' end, where we found an old wood building and probably older man, he turned out to be watchman who lived there, and while he spoke no English, he got on his cell phone and called the manager who showed up 15 min. later. He was very friendly but spoke no English either, but knew where to take us, so off we walked. It wasn't far, but it was back in the trees a ways, the mosquitoes were pretty bad. We took a few pics, of the trees that are only 2 years old but still probably 20 ft. tall. We got all this done by about 8:00am so headed back to Dominical and try to find our hotel.

Dominical is a surfer town, down on the ocean, mostly bars/restaurants, surf shops, and trinket stores. The road is rough, but its a fun place to be for a few days. We had trouble finding the hotel and asked a couple local Policia, they knew where it was and asked if they could ride with us to there. We ain't gonna argue with the Policia so we said sure. Kevin also liked the looks of the female cop so this gave him more time to talk to her. They got us to Villas Rios Mar, which had no signs, and was located outside of town. On the way out I'm thinking, 'They could be taking us out here to rob' they didn't but I was already 'robbed' by them guys once so was sorta gun shy.

Villas Rios Mar is an amazing place! You should go there. They have 4 unit cabins that are very roomy, largest bathrooms we had seen here. OH! side note I have been meaning to tell you about the bathrooms here, almost every single one, private or public is tiled, floor and walls all the way up to the ceilings. Ok, back to the story, 2 king size beds, cable tv, but to me the best part was the front porch, it had a sink and fridge, table w/ 4 stools, a small couch and an easy chair and lamp, with mosquito netting hanging over all the openings. Large pool and open-air cafe' etc.. They have a web site, so take a look.

We got settled in then went to town for lunch. Found a restaurant/Internet Cafe/Grocery store and decided to try it. We ordered Pizza just for kicks (it wasn't bad) was we sat there waiting for our food it started to rain, softly then it wasn't long before it was pouring. We sat at the edge of the restaurant and ate watching it pour, there was a drainage ditch next to me that 20 minutes before had been bone dry, it was now full and rushing like a river. We continued to eat. Life went on, buses and cars passed by as well as people walking. After a while it let up and we toured the town. Went to the beach and looked around then back to the hotel to just relax...and try to write to you.

That night we went into town to a local bar that was suppose to be Ladies Night, we got there about 7 only to find it didn't start till 10:00. That's another thing here, they do a lot of things late, most don't go out to bars etc. till 10:00 and most don't eat dinner until 8:00pm at least. We stayed till about 11:00 thinking Kevin's lady cop might show as she had indicated but she was a no show as was most other people, of course it was and had been pouring rain again so that might have had something to do to with it.

We called it a night.