Us and the Nicaraguan contra affair
Fairchild restaurant
Costa Rica throws up some surprises every so often. This evening, we had dinner in a restaurant called ‘The Airplane’. Nothing odd about a restaurant called the airplane. Plenty odd, though, about a bar and nightclub which are housed inside a Fairchild C123 which looks to all intents and purposes like it crash landed into the side of the cliffs here.
Rather boringly, and disappointingly, it turns out that the plane made its way here in bits by boat having been purchased for $3,000 and was reassembled here on site, with restaurant being built around it and bar and night club built inside it. Actually, it almost made it here by railroad, but the fuselage was 10 inches too wide for the bridges.
Far less dull is the plane’s history. When Ronald Reagan was mired in the unsavoury contras scandal (the US in subversive deals to divert the course of politics of other nations? Surely fiction?), there was a secret airfield in. Costa Rica used to take munitions across into Nicaragua, and 4 planes were based in this airfield. One was shot down and the pilot captured in southern Nicaragua. And one was abandoned, and now houses a bar and nightclub in Manuel Antonio with a stunning beach view backing a natural reserve.
We weren’t expecting that as we ordered 4 portions of chicken fingers and chips for the kids. As luck would have it, the food was pretty outstanding too.
