February is a great month. There is a long weekend, though nowadays, I have very long weekends. M made this day a special one. Starting off with freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning and wrapping up the
evening with this custom ordered carrot cake with pineapple made by Umberto, I had a birthday to remember. (I'm a little late posting this event as we have the painters here. They started on February 10 and are wrapping up in the next couple of days. They are great guys, very professional, clean and go the extra mile. M and I try to find a quiet corner and stay out of their way. All the same, it is hard for me to focus on my online work with so much activity. We go to the beach in the morning if the surf is good. Then sit on the other side of the garage by the chicken coop where "the girls" can roam around while we watch for predators. The girls are still to small to be left outside on their own.)
For dinner, M took me to La Piña, an Italian restaurant between Pavones and Punto Banco. On the way, we picked up the cake from Umberto's house. Since there are no street addresses in Costa Rica finding someone's house for the first time is like a treasure hunt. Your friend gives you landmarks and distances as information and you have to navigate to your goal. We only had to stop once to ask a neighbor if they knew Umberto's house. It was reasonably easy.
We were the first diners to arrive at La Piña and just a short time after our friends Sloan and Elli arrived. It was Elli's birthday too. A few days before M was out in the water surfing with Sloan and they talked about where to go to dinner. Sloan said that he always brings Elli to La Piña for her birthday. They live in Playa Zancudo which is about 20 km from La Piña. They have an ATV (as many people do here) and use it to travel around the area mostly along the beach if the tide is right. As the sun was setting, M and I chose a table near the entrance.
The restaurant is across the road from the beach and we watched the sun set behind the Osa Peninsula where Corcovado National Park is located. Corcovado is considered one the the most diverse biospheres in the world.
La Piña has delicious thin crust pizzas baked in a wood-fired oven. On that night, they also offered giant shrimp in a garlic sauce. As I described in an earlier posting the local shrimp are irresistible. At the end of the evening, we joined Sloan and Elli at their table and the owner brought out 2 servings of tiramisu with a giant sparkler candle in each and served us a shot of limoncello. After a delightful chat over dessert with Elli and Sloan, we were home to enjoy a slice of my birthday cake.
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