Arrived in Costa Rica

The area we are staying in, Nosara, Costa Rica, is a surfing paradise.  Everyone on our van in from the airport in Liberia was either carrying a surfboard or planning to rent one.  The area of our hotel and where Jessica's wedding is going to be is very lush.  Although this is Central America and not Polynesia I keep expecting Paul Gauguin to pop out from behind a palm tree, paint brush and palette in hand to paint a beautiful dark haired maiden dressed in shades of vermilion, teal and goldenrod.

The country is an eco-tourist magnet and contains beautiful rain forests.  The Pacific Ocean is multiple shades of green, blue and grey, changing as the ambient light changes during the day.  The air is perfumed with plumeria and bougainvilla.
The country is one of the most stable in this area and exports bananas, coffee, beef and sugar.  There is also some high tech exports, chips and the like.  However, on our way here (on the two and a half hour trip from the airport we went through areas that seemed very impoverished.  It's the dry season here so a lot of the fields looked bare and fallow.  I assume during the rainy season there are a lot of crops growing.  Not many Costa Rican's migrate to the US, but a lot of Nicaraguans come to Costa Rica to work.

We ate breakfast around the pool this morning and took a walk to the beach.  We've got wedding party stuff later in the day.