COSTA RICA: day 1

My vacation began with a red eye flight from Denver to San Jose, Costa Rica. My traveling companion was my friend Emily from high school. We arrived at 5:30 am and was met by Shawna, who has been living in Costa Rica for the past year, and we began our journey to Jaco.
After driving for a little over an hour we stopped at a bridge. Shawna told us this is a great place to stop and see crocodiles. Sure enough we looked down and there were a few crocs laying in the mud, sunning themselves. After a few photos we got back in the car and continued on to Jaco. Before we did much site seeing we stopped off at a small restaurant and got some breakfast. We all enjoyed our meal with a yummy fruit smoothie. The owner of the restaurant, who was from Boston, Massachusetts, made small talk with us and informed us of some places we should check out while we were in the area. Once we paid our bill, our next stop with the Feria (farmer's market) There were many merchants selling fruits and veggies, baked good, chicken, herbs, flowers...fun place to walk around and just take it all in.
One of the first things Shawna found to share with us, she called a "monkey brain fruit". On the outside it looked kind of like an orange, but once you opened it I have to admit it did remind me of a brain. She then said we need to suck the fruit out. I gave it a try. It was pretty good, once you got past the weird look of it.

We also enjoyed the fresh herbs. I know this sounds silly, but I thought all the herbs smelt better and stronger than I have ever been exposed to. I'm not sure if it was actually a "better" herb or I was just so excited to be in Costa Rica smelling herbs.
So many pineapples, mangos, papayas, watermelon, bananas. We did make a few purchases to eat as we traveled during the up coming days.

Once we had purchased enough goodies to get us through the weekend, we dropped our bags off at the car and then did a little souvenir shopping.
There was a cute guy named Eric, who was quite the charmer to make a sale. We all purchased some baubles and nick knacks from Eric. I even bought a cute chess set for Zack.

Before hitting the road, we stopped by a man with a cart selling what looked like snow cones. He was making shaved ice, but in between two layers of the ice he would put powdered milk. Then he would add the flavoring (I got grape and Em had orange). It was not done at that point...he would then pour a little sweetened condensed milk on top of that. It was actually quite good, but SWEET!!!
We dropped our bags off at Shawna's sister in law, Rusti's , house and changed into bathing suit. Next stop was the lack sands of Playa Hermosa. It was beautiful. The waves were quite large, which seemed to be no surprise to the many surfers that were there catching as many of them as they could.

We spent some time just taking it all in. The birds flying over head, the sound of the crashing waves, the look of the jungle meeting the beach. It was all breathtaking.
Before the sun set, we made another wardrobe change at Rusti's before driving up the winding road to the highest point on the coast. It was there we order virgin pina coladas and appetizers as we watched the sunset into the ocean. We sat there for a hour or so listening to the music and trying to get caught up on the last 15 years. I did have a few moments of missing Steve. It seemed like such a romantic locale...it seemed a little sad to not be sharing it with him.
It was definitely an awesome ending to a wonderful 1st day in Costa Rica.