The Pacific Coast

On Thursday I went to the Gold Museum, which is built under an open plaza area. It is very cool, the building is an inverted pyramid.  Inside the museum they have exhibits on the Costa Rican money, indigenous traditions around gold and their cultural life.  I learned a lot about Costa Rican history.
Then on Friday we went to the pacific coast.  It's amazing how small Costa Rica is that you can easily go to either side of the country.  Our first stop was a fruit stand so that we could fill up with delicious Costa Rican fruit.  Then we stopped at a bridge to look at crocodiles.  I guess there are always crocodiles at this spot on the river.

I counted at least 25, but there were probably more below the water that I couldn't see.

We were worried this bird was going to become lunch.

All of these crocodiles were staring at it.

Then we went to Tarcoles which is a fishing town.  There were 3 people from my program who lived in this area for their research projects.  We got a tour of the fishing co-op.  It is so interesting, everyone in the fishing co-op lives in the town and everyone has a different job.  There are the fishermen, women who untangle the lines, people who work preparing the fish after the fisherman bring it in etc.

Nets and anchors 

Our tour guide who was missing a few teeth, had lived there his entire life, worked as a fisherman and is still helping as much as he can.  We met another of his children working there also.

We might have played with the sharks for longer than necessary

After the tour of the co-op we went to Punta Leona which is a sustainable resort.  Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after we arrived at the beach, but that didn't stop everyone from going swimming.

This macaw is getting ready to fly away for the first time.

Right before it started raining

Then we had lunch in the restaurant there and these animals called coatimundis came right passed the restaurant and some even came in to look for food.  My camera was in the bus so I couldn't take pictures, but this is what they look like.

They are related to raccoons.