A Trip to Orotina and A Fair

The last blog we were heading off to Manuel Antonio.  Well that never happened.  Phil and Liz came over for dinner; and then Phil and I took on Mike and Victoria in a game of euchre.  We ended up playing later than planned; and the idea of getting up at 4:30 to catch a bus for 5:40 am didn’t really appeal to any of us. 

We also learned early last week that Victoria’s parents, Catherine and David are going to come and join us for a week… so that was also part of us postponing the Manuel Antonio trip.  We'll go with them when they arrive a week from this Sunday.

So on Friday we caught a bus to a typical Costa Rica town called Orotina.  It was about an hour and a half bus ride, but we got to see lots more of the beautiful country here.

Shortly upon arriving, we found our way to a restaurant, and enjoyed a meal at a soda. 

We then started looking around.  I noticed that we were getting lots of stares, especially in the beginning.  Orotina doesn’t usually get a lot of tourists, and we stood out.

At one point we were lured into a bakery by the delicious smells coming from it.  Asked the owner what he recommended, and a huge piece of sweet bread filled with soft cheese and strawberries soon found its way into our bellies.  Boy was it ever good!

I was really impressed with Orotina.  Very clean with a very busy downtown core.  Don’t remember seeing an empty store front.  And of course all of the stores here are totally independent.

Saturday night, we headed off to our favorite burger joint, Papas & Burgers, stopped in to say hi to Joey/Eida and then off to the fair we went.  There were the “typical” fair rides… The Pirate, a roller coaster, bumper cars… etc.  And lots and lots of people.  Seemed like most of Jaco was there.

We didn’t go on any rides, as I have a little trust in the carnies that set those rides up at “home”, never mind here.  So we just walked around, watched and took pictures.

On Sunday, we road our bikes all the way to Los Suenos.  The round trip was approximately 15 kilometres and thankfully there weren't any real hills that we had to deal with.  Once arriving at the Marina, we parked our bikes and walked around. 

Then we drove our bikes back out to the main road, down to the beach for a bit; and then back home.  I can’t remember when was the last time I went on that long of a bike ride, but surprisingly, didn’t feel too sore the next day.

Our complex is being painted right now; and we treated a couple of the workers to some red liquorice.  Neither of them had ever had anything like it before, but there was lots of “good, good” and mmm coming out of their mouths.

And the other night, we had Phil and Vanessa (his daughter), and our new neighbour Jason over for lasagne.  And after dinner, Mike and I took on Victoria and Jason in euchre. 

Again, a good time is being had by all.  Please click here to look at our pictures.