Costa Rica - Fruit Trees

Another of Costa Rica's marvels are its abundant fruit farms and orchards. The first day of our trip, we saw palm groves that stretched for miles. By the end of the trip we had seen coconut, banana, avocado, mango and many more fruit farms. Coconut, banana and papaya trees randomly grow on the sides of roads and dot the countryside and yards of neighborhoods. And while most locals live in very modest structures which are little more than open air shanties, their yards in contrast are lush and fertile, usually consisting of several fruit trees such as coconut, mango, banana and avocado. There was an avocado tree in front of our house in Pavones the size of an oak tree!

Costa Rica - Pavones

This is the house where we stayed. It had a lanai, a pool and really great amenities. And it was situated on a hill at the edge of a minimally developed area. We saw lots of wildlife within the house's property. A dirt pathway about 200 yards long, bordered on either side by shanties and small farms led straight down to the beach.

A local resident (there are lots of them and they are generally friendly) befriended us and humbly begged for food donations.

My sketchbook fell in the Rio Claro when Jasmine and I took a guided riverwalk (we didn’t actually think we would be walking IN the river!).

Our last full day at Pavones, we went to the internet cafe in town. In addition to internet you could purchase pastries and huge smoothies. The proprietor was serving us until he became distracted by a really good wave. He promptly grabbed his surfboard and disappeared into the beach. While my brother-in-law surfed, Jasmine surfed the web and I drew the surfers at the cafe. Later, I told Michael that I made a drawing of a "salty dog" at the cafe that may have seen one too many waves. He was wearing a baseball cap, had a very tanned complexion and was typing away on his laptop while watching the surf. He told me that he is a surfing champion who now owns a surf business. Imagine that!