Jaco Schools

While Gail and I were riding our bikes around town we saw a group of preschool children cleaning up the street around their school.

Clean Up Day

What a great teaching/learning opportunity.  They are being taught lessons in work ethics, responsibility, cleanliness, team work, health and safety habits, pride in their school and their community, recycling, and probably a few more.

Costa Rica does not have an army and has, therefore, been able to make education a very high national priority.  In fact, over the last thirty years the Costa Rica government has invested annually nearly thirty percent of the national budget on education.  The literacy rate is 96% in residents age 15 and older, and the country has more teachers than policemen.  

There are no school buses.  It is the responsibility of the parents to make sure the children get to school.  The parents can drive them or, the kids can walk, ride bicycles, or take a taxi or public bus, both at discounted student rates.  (The public buses here are extremely nice.  They are new, clean, and air conditioned.)

Public Bus

All students are required to wear a uniform to lessen the economic distinctions among classmates.  I am not sure what the ratio of boys to girls is but, if this picture is any indication it is two girls for every boy.

Two to One

Education is free up to the university level.  Everyone is required to attend six years of elementary school and three years of secondary school.  Through the secondary school they teach five basic subjects--Spanish, math, civics, economics, and physical education. 

The public schools teach English as a second language and there are also a large number of private schools that emphasize English.

After finishing the secondary school they then have the option to continue for two or three more years at the high school level (they call it technical school).  The amount of time is dependent on the curriculum they choose.

Jaco Technical School

An advanced diploma from the technical school is required to enter a university.  

The schools/class rooms are very basic.  This is the elementary school.

Jaco Elementary School

This is the inside courtyard of the school.

Jaco Elementary School

This is the Secondary school.

Jaco Secondary School

This is their athletic facility (we did see a second building at a different location in addition to this one).

Athletic Facility

The technical school is just down the road from the secondary school.  The CTP stands for College of Technical Professionals.

CTP

And, at the intersection of the road for all of these schools, is this---

Police Station

Costa Rica is working on a program right now to keep more of their students in school longer, to graduate from the Technical School, and go on to a university.  Even with the average financial aid package, student loans and possible scholarships, most students will spend $11,000-$21,000 per year at the university, and will graduate $10,000-$22,000 in debt.   This is a major detriment to continuing education, just as it is in the US.  They have a lot of financial resources dedicated to education here and hopefully will come up with a solution soon.

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