hot tea and good craic

Yesterday was a good day :). After a delicious breakfast, Maire's brothers and brothers friend (James, Sean and Patrick...yes they are irish) came by with the car we rented. It's a white suzuki with seats for 8. We packed it full with our backpacks and started out on what we thought would be a 2 hour drive to Jaco. The GPS helped us get out of the city, but somehow, in the afueras, we kept going in circles. The GPS lady failed to note which streets were 1 way, and we found many dead ends. The mood in the car was light, and we stopped at a petrol station for directions and general snacks. We then had to stop again for directions, and were finally on our way. The drive was pretty, but slow going as it was through the mountains. 4 hours and some later, we arrived in Jaco to cloudy skies. We got to our house (which is really 3 houses). We even have our own pool and poolside bar area. It's actually really nice. Sean and Patrick have the pool house, Maire, James and I have the main house and Maire's sister and Boyfriend (Mairead and Trevor) have the back house. It is a nice set up. Just about when we got here, it started raining, torential downpour style. We made it to get food and then to the market. The fact that it gets dark at 6 still messes me up, and I get tired early. Mairead and Trevor were taking a shuttle as their plane got in at 7pm. After the market, we came back and watched tv, and I went to bed at 8:30...yes I know. I woke up at 10 when we accidently set the alarm off at the house (it's really loud) and then there was a blackout. No electricity in the entire town. Mairead and Trevor had yet to arrive, we were slightly worried, just because of the blackout, the storms, and the windy mountain roads. Around 10:30, their shuttle driver called, and I got to feel useful as he spoke no english, and I'm the only one that speaks spanish. We managed to meet up with him, despite the lack of marked roads in town. As a side note- thanks mom for the flash lights, they came in handy. This morning, the electricity was back and we had a delightful early breakfast. Right before going to the beach, the handyman came by as there was a leak in our bathroom. In order to fix the leak, he had to climb up into the attic from maire and i's room. When he took the panel down to climb up, sitting in the panel was a large piece of excrement, larger than any mouse or rat 'mierda' than I have seen. Our man assured us that it was from an iguana or similar type lizard, but he was long gone. Needless to say, I won't be surprised to hear scratching from the ceiling tonight. We went into town and rented surf boards, and spent the day at the beach. Then we came back and rested, as laying at the beach can take a lot out of a person. I think there are plans to go out tonight, but I'm not sure. Thus far on the trip, we've had a lot of good craic and many cups of Barry's tea. Did I mention I'm drinking the water here? I hope that's ok...