Road to Retiring- Day 3

2/10

We get up at 6:30 AM and make the short drive to Manzanillo where the fishing boats are.  We meet Romello who says it'll be a bit before they haul the fish in and we start a lively dialogue with him in broken Spanish and broken English.  He is 54 and owns all 10 of the fishing boats here in Manzanillo plus 7 more in Puntarenas.  We talk about how quiet and crime free Manzanillo is compared to even Santa Teresa, which suffers from the surf tourism that brings elements of crime and carelessness, as does Jaco and Puntarenas.  He is a funny and kind man, quick to laugh.  He likes it when I suggest John will work for him on the fishing boats when we move here.  The boys bring up the crates of fish which are weighed and the fish thrown onto ice on the truck. 

We buy an enormous red snapper for dinner to share with Lincoln and Scarlett- $14 and he throws in another fish- a mackerel about 2 lbs.

Back to the house where John cleans the fish and stores the fillets in plastic bags with some milk- a trick to cut down on the fishy taste. Scarlett's kitty, Popeye, eats his weight in raw fish.  He's probably only 10 weeks old and showed up there with a sister kitty a few weeks back, starving.  Sister kitty unfortunately was stung by a scorpion and was so small it killed her, though the scorpions here are not very poisonous.

Lincoln begs off surf until tomorrow as they have some business to attend to in buying their own property so we head down the bumpy road to Hermosa at around 9 AM.  Another beautiful day of swell and warm water.  Solid head high sets, clean, no wind but a light off shore, the swell still had 14 sec period with 2-4 foot SWS diminishing.  

We surf 2 1/2 hours and go back for some eggs with veggies, and a short rest.  The kitchen has everything one needs excepting an oven. 

After our rest we head to town to check with the real estate agents.  Janouel at CRProperties is the one Lincoln and Scarlett are using to purchase 9 acres that has an ocean view, right next to Giselle's property.  We talk to Diego, her assistant and he rings Jaoule for John to speak to.  She takes some info, has Diego get our contact info and we will try and connect later.  Another office- the 506 and handsome Sebastian from Quebec does the same info gather. We also meet Trent, the proprietor of Soleil y Cielo.  He's been here 12 years, and  he was probably a little more negative in his view of our move. We get the feeling he enjoys tapping into folk with great means and pensionados aren't his thing.  He warns us of how awful June- September are- hot, humid.  I tell him we live in South Florida where June to September are equally hot, humid and NO waves.   We also talk for a while with Sandy at ST CR- a fun t-shirt and art shop.  She gives me some good art intel about the area, including their Facebook Santa Teresa Art, and I share with her the fact that the Art Depot in Escazu will send stuff on the turismo buses.  It's difficult to get art supplies here and spendy! Visitors to Casa Haas, once we live here, will have a list of USA stuff to bring and we will pay for it and the baggage cost. Anyway, her boyfriend's art is very rat fink-esque pop art, she more Art Deco.   

Back at the house we fire up the grill for the fish coated with a garlic, basil butter and wrapped in foil.  I also cut up some watermelon and Scarlett has made cole slaw and potato salad.  We drink beer, box wine and eat the amazing fish along with grilled onion and peppers by the pool.  Off to bed and another full day of surf tomorrow.  God we love this peninsula! 

Pargo (red snapper) on the grill.