Housing in Jaco

Gail and I thought we would take our bicycles and ride through some of the neighborhoods in Jaco and try to get a feel for the type of housing they have here.  

There are a great many large condominium complexes in Jaco. These are not for the locals but more for the tourist and investor.  A condominium on the beach will cost a minimum of $300,000.

Jaco Beach

The local people live in apartments, houses, and small complexes that I would describe as a kind of patio home arrangement.
This is a view of the back of one of the apartment "rows" with a new high rise condo complex in the background.  You will note that although the apartments do not look very high class, they do all have air conditioning.

Apartment Row

Some of these apartments can, in fact, be a little disturbing but that is probably true of every city in he world.

Apartments

As we rode we found, at least in the neighborhoods we were in, that the houses were very nice.  Some were obviously more expensive.

Unique House

Two Story House

The majority, however, were more modest but very clean and well kept.

Very Nice House

Two things all of the houses had in common were that they all were surrounded by some sort of fence and they all had outdoor space, some more than others.

Big Yard

The "patio homes" were in a row each having a common wall with it's neighbor.

Patio Homes

These generally appeared to be small and always "protected".

Patio Homes 2

The apartments we saw that were more in a neighborhood were in a complex with common area in the middle, generally including a pool.

Apartment Complex

Jaco is the largest town in the area so they will have the largest variety of housing options.  But, we saw some very nice houses and it seems there is a very large percentage of the population that is living very well.

CHURCH

On Sunday our friends Gus and Carol MacDonald invited us to go to church with them.  It is a non-denominational, bilingual church called Calvary Chapel Jaco.  

Calvary Chapel Jaco

This is unique for two reasons.  First, a church that is bilingual is very hard to find.  Secondly, it is hard to find a non-denominational church because the vast majority of residents here are Catholic. There are quite a number of very nice catholic churches here.  This is one just around the corner from our condo complex.  

Catholic Church

The Calvary Chapel congregation meets in some donated office space belonging to the local movie theater.  There are generally about twenty five to thirty people in attendance although the church was planted here about five years ago.  I believe this limited growth is a direct result of the high percentage of Catholics living in Jaco.   
The service consisted of singing a lot of songs in both English and Spanish.  The words were projected on a screen but Gail and I don't speak Spanish that well so we sang along as best we could.  As the Bible says "make a joyful noise" and that is about all we were doing.
The pastor is a young man from Florida with a wife and four young children.  Before he begins the service he makes some remarks to the congregation about things in general in the church.  There is a local gentleman sitting up front also who immediately translates everything into Spanish.

Translator

After these remarks, there is a potluck meal served .  Everyone brings food and places it at the front of the church.   All of the congregation then goes to the front of the church and fills their plates with food.  They eat while the preacher preaches and even go up and get seconds if they want while the preacher continues to preach.

Preaching and eating

The sermon consists of the preacher saying something in English and then the local gentleman translating that into Spanish.  So a thirty minute sermon turns into an hour.  Plus, I figured out that the preacher has time to think while his remarks are being translated so he thinks of more to say.  His thirty minute prepared sermon turns into forty minutes which then turns into an hour and twenty minutes.   Services are supposed to start at 9:30, but they rarely do, and usually last about three hours.

Preaching, eating, translating

I found it very difficult to stay focused since there was always a pause after a couple sentences while the translation was being done.

Last Sunday was special in that two ladies were baptized.  After the service was over, the congregation moved out to the beach.  

The ladies were baptized in the surf.  

You may notice the lady starts with a dress on and finishes with jeans on; and starts with hair combed down and ends with it in a pony tail.  That could be explained by either:
two different ladies or, the power of the cleansing process.

Thursday Night Dinner

On Thursday evening Gail and I went downtown for a bite to eat. We heard they had a two-for-one special of fish and chips at Surf Dogs that sounded really good.

Surf Dogs

We got downtown a little early and decided to watch the sunset before eating dinner.  We turned down one of the side streets that headed to the beach.  At the end of the street was the Bohio Beach Bar where many young people gather on the top level to watch the sunset and have a drink.

Bohio

The sunset was unusual in that there were a lot of high clouds.

Sunset from Bohio

After the sun had set we headed back down to Surf Dogs.  Most of the tables at Surf Dogs are shaped like surf boards,

Surf Dogs Tables

there are painted surf boards on the ceilings,

Painted Surfboard

Surfboard Ceiling

and there menus are even shaped like surf boards.
There is a wall that is lined with dispensers for their frozen drinks.

Wall of Drinks

Our fish and chips were very good ($9 for the two meals) although Gail thought there was more breading than fish.  The fries were made from yuca instead of potatoes, but were still very good especially with lots of ketchup.

On the way home we decided to take some pictures to show what Jaco looks like at night.  

There is one main street with many small streets off the ocean side, each about a block long, that lead to the beach.  The streets on the other side of the main street head toward the mountains. There are only a couple of these and they go for about a mile and then hit the main north/south highway.

The main street, in fact the whole town, is for tourists. 

There are probably thirty to forty restaurants including everything from sushi, to Italian, to Costa Rican.  

Chinese

Japanese

Mexican

Some have their tables right on the sidewalk,

Sidewalk Restaurant

others cook their food right by the sidewalk,

Grilling on the Street

and some are inside with white tablecloths.

White Table Cloths

There is an ice cream shop,

Ice Cream Parlor

a couple cigar stores, drug stores, several banks, mom and pop grocery stores, along with the main grocery store called Mas X Menos, that is owned by WalMart.

And, dozens of souvenir and surf shops that all look pretty much the same.

Surf Shop

Souvenir Shop

There are several casinos and a multitude of bars--like this one dedicated to the Beatles.

The Beatles Bar

And, mixed in with all of this, are the ladies of the night. Prostitution is legal here and the girls roam the streets, bars, and hotels freely. They are required to get a monthly checkup to keep their licenses current.  We have not been downtown after ten o'clock at night but we have been told it turns into a totally different world. 

Ladies of the Night

There is a gentleman's club where much of this kind of activity reportedly takes place, but Gail wouldn't let me get close enough to take a picture.

I like the daytime better.

http://jacobeachbar.com

There is a small bar and grill that is so close to our condo complex it seems like it is attached.  They have wonderful food--their french fries are real potatoes and are fresh cut.  They have American style breakfast with bacon and eggs toast and hash browns.
It is called The Point.

The Point

 It is certainly not "fancy".

The Point interior

The two ladies doing the cooking are literally right in the middle of the restaurant.

The Point cooks

The one really great thing they have is a web cam (they call it the "surf cam") that is aimed at the beach and is turned on 24 hours a day.  Last night I watched the sunset from our room and I saw Gail and our friend Carol on the beach.
If you go to their web site:  http://jacobeachbar.com --you will see a link to the surf cam.  Just click on the link and then scroll down the page a little bit.
If you log into the surf cam around 5:30 Bella Vista time you will see the sunset here in Jaco.  The colors are not as vibrant as real life but you will get the idea.  And, if you let us know when you are going to do this, Gail and I will try to get out on the beach and wave hello.
Give it a try:
http://jacobeachbar.com

Iguanas

If you have seen the movie Jurassic Park, you will no doubt remember the little gecko looking creatures that were cute but deadly.

Jurassic park

There are similar little creatures that are quite prevalent around here and are seen every day.

They are definitely cute and I understand they are not a threat to humans unless you are cooked by the sun and covered with Coppertone.
There are larger iguanas all over the place as well.  This one shows up every day at about 4:00 in the tree right outside our condo.  

Iguana in the Trees

They can be found in the grass also.

Iguanas in the grass

And there is one that is at the pool every day.

Our pool buddy

There are basically two categories of iguanas--green and black. These two were sunning themselves on the roof of the shed below our condo.

Black and Green Iguanas

The main difference between the two types is that the green iguanas are vegetarians while the black iguanas will eat most anything. There is a papaya tree next to the pool.  When the papayas get ripe, the iguanas have a feast.  (This picture was taken by our friends the MacDonalds.)

Iguana eating papaya

It is interesting to note in this picture how they have changed their color on the part of the body that is closest to the orange part of the papaya.  They really do get into eating these papayas.

Closeup eating the papaya

Ahhh, one contented iguana.

Iguana after eating papaya

If you get right down to it---they really are quite ugly!

NEO FAUNA SNAKES

Our guide, Josymar, knows about snakes.  In fact, he is one of the leading experts in the area.  While giving us the tour, he was called on the phone to come help identify a snake that had bitten someone.  He could not leave so they emailed him a picture of the snake for him to identify.
He told us that if a snake is shiny it is not poisonous.  But, if looks dull it is definitely poisonous--the only exception is the Coral snake. Of the 139 species of snakes in Costa Rica, 22 are poisonous.  

He had quite an array of snakes to show us.  He goes out at night and catches these snakes.

Non-Poisonous Shiny Snake

As you can see, this snake is not poisonous because it is shiny. Snakes can barely see or hear and use their tongue to detect heat from their prey.  This snake uses the black portion at the end of it's tail while in a tree to look like a worm.  When a bird comes to get the worm, the snake gets the bird.  
Gail boldly got close--within ten or twelve feet.

Gail and the snake

Josymar then told us that although non poisonous, this snake has a very painful bite because its fangs are hook shaped and he hangs on when he bites and tears the skin.

Hooked shaped fangs

There were quite a number of poisonous snakes as well.  This somewhat small snake can kill a cow in about thirty minutes.

Very Lethal

This is a colorful green tree snake.

Green Tree Snake

It is very difficult to see but is quite colorful.

Colorful Green Tree Snake

There was a very large snake in a glass cage.  Josymar walked by the cage and opened the door.  He continued on and began talking about something else.  I decided to look in the open door and take a picture of this snake.  As I walked by the front of the cage towards the open door, all of a sudden there was a loud "BOOM".  The snaked had struck at me and hit the glass partition of the cage.  It sounded like someone had thrown a baseball against the cage and it surprised the heck out of me  (I could use a different phrase here).

Surprise, surprise

It was a Boa Constrictor.  
I am not sure why he left the door open but I decided, from that point on, to stay a little closer to Josymar.