Guy Fawkes at Jaco Beach

A Guy Fawkes fire code violation

Poor Guy!

Remember, remember, the 5th of November; so say the British who have annually celebrated, since 1605, the foiling of the "Gunpowder Plot" and the execution of its leader, Guy Fawkes.  If you really want to know about this contemporary of Shakespeare, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes
      But in this bloggers opinion, here in Costa Rica, celebrating the burning of Guy in effigy is a good excuse for some drinking, playing in the surf and failing miserably at darts.

We got together with a gaggle of Europeans and North Americans at the Hotel Club del Mar in Jaco, and started the day with an intense game of rounders; which as far as I can tell is a lot like baseball, but much muddier.  Steve and I celebrated our victory with  rum and cokes, which ingeniously come in a can around here.  Overhead, groups of Macaws flew by, like a scene from "Rio".

Later in the day, Steve was paired with one of our students and they were the power team to beat for much of the darts tournament (which lasted 3.5 hours, but seemed like a lot less when you're drinking.)

That evening, before Guy was lit up, the fireworks exploded overhead like fiery missiles, but closer.   Glowing balls of still-hot powder poured down on us, singeing our eyebrows. Marina hid under the small awning the hotel set up, while Benji and Steve dodged flaming pyroclasts, raining down like streamers.   Steve's comment was "My eyes hurt!" and another party-goer declared, "If we were in the US, we'd all be arrested right now!"

Most enjoyable, we all agreed, was the thrilling and exhausting new sport we've discovered:  boogie boarding.  Although we've all boarded before, with these waves, and with some new techniques (observed by carefully studying the smooth moves of a particularly skilled group of 7 year-olds) we skidded and skimmed along the waves with jet-like propulsion.   What a hoot!