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Published: August 2nd 2009
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Friday is usually my most favorite and least favorite day of our vacations. Since I am the resident over-planner, we've usually spent all of our money, gone on lots of adventures and started thinking about the trip home by then. That's why MY tradition (which has become the de facto family tradition) is to leave Friday as a wide-open day. We can chill, do something we've missed or forgotten or repeat a truly remarkable experience, depending on the weather and our mood.
This trip was no exception. After everyone crashed and burned on Thursday night, we were all up fairly early. The only thing on tap were massages for the girls later in the day--we earned them! And, Freddy had tipped us off that there was really good jet-skiing at Playa Panama, the next beach over from Playa Hermosa. Our mission was to research both the price and the desirability of the beach.
A trip to Playa Coco was in order, both for cash and to prowl the shops for souvenirs (yes, cross-purposes, I know). Nora stayed back at the house (in the pool) and Mike, Kate and I headed out after breakfast. The road to Coco is much
more easily navigated during the day, but still full of hairpin turns and steep grades. Mike was on a mission to buy envelopes, get cash, and find some type of cigarettes for me. In the meantime, Kate and I wandered around looking at pottery, ticky-tacky shops, and some really unique crafts. We bought a few things, and Mike found one-stop shopping at the AutoMercado (cigarettes were 850 colones, about $1.50).
Next up: a quick trip to Playa Panama to scout out the jet skiing possibilities. Lo and behold, we stumbled upon the gem of the trip--the Casa Conde del Mar resort. We pulled into the parking lot of the first truly top-drawer property we had seen. Where had this been hiding? Beautiful grounds, a lovely black-sand beach, and Norberto (Freddy's friend/cousin/whatever), who was more than happy to arrange for the girls to do a half-hour jet-ski on the calm, gorgeous Panama Bay. And to boot, there was an open-air restaurant with an innovative and relatively inexpensive menu, our salvation for our last night's dinner in Costa Rica. All within 5 minutes of the house, down roads that were actually lit (at least part of the way). We would be
back for both dinner and the jet-skiing on Saturday morning.
And then the rains came...not softly, but torrential. Sitting on the porch, waiting for the massage people, we all agreed that we made the right decision not to have massages on the beach (for $30 less total), but at the house. In a stroke of good fortune, the phone rang and we were asked if we would be willing to pick up the massage therapists on the beach and bring them to the house for a discount of $20...SOLD! They set up two tables, one inside and one out on the porch, and all three of us received the best massages ever. The kinks in my neck and shoulders (caused by the activities of the previous day) were finally abated.
Dinner at the Casa Conde was wonderful--first decent beef of the trip, greek salads, and NO rice and beans. 😊
A bit of packing was followed by another relatively early night in preparation for our last morning of fun and our day of travel. All in all, a very rewarding and calm day.
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