Tuesday Catchup

Our last and final day had a lot of excitement.  The boys and I had another early surf out at Langosta.  Alex was really dragging today after yesterday's surf adventure, plus he's been on Benedril for his bug bites and it's sapping all his energy.  We came in for breakfast and decided what we were going to do for our last day.  The kids decided to go back to Playa Conchal and go jetskiing again with all of us.  Alex decided to stay home and rest.  As we were leaving, Christina saw the howler monkeys right outside the door in the trees. We had been hearing them and their kind of eerie, deep howls early the past couple of mornings.  When we saw them earlier in the week down in the ravine they were pretty far away, not close enough to get a good picture.  But this time there were like 30 ft away from us and just resting in the trees.  There must have been at least a dozen of them.  We sat there and watched them for about 1/2 an hour before we decided we better get on with our day.

We spent a couple of hours at the beach and Smally and I went out on the Waverunner with me driving.  We were going good when we took a sharp turn that sent us both flying off the ski.  We got back on and it wouldn't start back up so we had to wave to shore for a rescue.  They towed it back in but couldn't get it started back up so they refunded our money and we got one of the other ski operators to rent us one.  They said the snorkerling at shell beach was good, but it was pretty murky, like a rough day on the Sunset reef.

We came back to town and finished up our souvenir shopping and got back to the house around 4.  Christina wanted to go out surfing one last time so Aaron, Christina and I went to Tamarindo Beach.  I had to go exchange a T shirt at one of the surf shops so I dropped them off and told them I'd meet them at the beach.  I was driving back to the beach and I see them walking on the road.  I asked why they were done so quickly and they said they paddled out a saw a crocodile just a few feet from them.  A big one!  Aaron told one of the surf school dudes and he confirmed the sighting and pulled his kids out, but there were still a lot of people in the water.  I guess it's a somewhat normal occurance, but still... It's a good thing it was our last day, not our first day that we had a croc encounter.

Last dinner was steaks from the local meat market at Adam's suggestion, and a couple of pizza's from a place we had been to earlier that had bomb pizza.

Oh yeah, we stopped and took the board back to Adam's brother and he was telling us about the development that he and Adam have money invested in.  It's right out at the Tamarindo rivermouth and will eventually include a beach club, private villas and a hotel on the hillside.  He invited us to go look around the villa sites which are about to undergo construction.  The panoramic view from the hillside was nothing short of spectacular.

One last early morning surf on Wednesday morning at Langosta.  We're really going to miss the warm water.  We almost cut our departure too close, but we made it and so did our luggage.  Being unaccustomed to int'l travel, we didn't know you had to pick up and recheck your luggage after you clear customs.  We almost didn't do it until I figured it out at the last moment.  That, and we saw our board bag going round the carousel.

Our Houston to LAX leg was an hour late and when we got to LAX we found that our board bag didn't make the trip.  They tracked it for me and it was on the next flight in that was scheduled for a 10:10 arrival.  We had gotten in around 9 so we had to wait til 10:20 before the bag showed up.  Needless to say we pulled in late last night at almost midnight.

All in all we had a great trip to Costa Rica.  A huge shout out to my buddy Adam for his generosity and for making our trip possible.  I may never be able to give you enough strawberries to repay you!

That's it from Costa Rica.  Hope you enjoyed following our adventures as much as we had living them!

Back Home

As you probably heard, our internet was down our entire last day, so no post for that day.  We're home now after a long day of travel yesterday.  I'll fill you in on the last day's excitement after we get settled here and we go pick up our Kimi girl.

Monday

Short post tonite, but no pics.  Too tired to download my camera.  We had a lot of fun today, but unfortunately, we didn't get text book Witches Rock like we had hoped.  We still surfed alot, but it just didn't turn out to be the epic session we were looking for.  We left early, at 5:30 and had an hour drive to a beach north of here called Coco's.  There we caught the boat for a 40 min ride to Witches.  Water was glassy so Alex didn't have any problems.  There were a couple of boats already there when we got there so we jumped right in.  There turned out to be about 20 people in the lineup but after a while everyone kind of spread out and found their spot.  We surfed 3-5 foot waves for a couple hours, then headed back to the boat for a rest.  Our original plan was to also go to Ollie's, another break about 35 more mins north.  Our capt told us that we could either go to Ollie's or stay at Witches.  He said that Ollie's probably wouldn't be any better.  We decided to stay at Witches, but all the other boats left.  We jumped back into the water and had Witches all to ourselves.  We surfed for a couple more hours and called it a trip.  At least now we can say we surfed Witches Rock!

Meanwhile, Bon and her crew took the Waverunners out for a couple of hours.  They said it was a lot of fun.  They beat us home and walked into town to finish up Christina's souvenir shopping for all the people back home.

We stayed in for dinner tonite as we all had late lunches and everyone is lagging just a bit today.

Well, it's our last day full day tomorrow.  A couple more surfs and whatever the kids wanna do.

Ok, cutting it short tonite.  Didn't want to disappoint my peeps though!  Final post tomorrow!

Sunday

And on the seventh day they rested...well, not really, but we did only go out for one surf session this morning.  Me and the 2 boys got up early to get some good Playa Grande.  We heard from one of Adam's friends that Grande was gonna be good.  Didn't disappoint.  Probably the biggest surf we've seen so far and we caught it under good conditions.  Looked kinda heavy when we first saw it but once we were out there, it wasn't too bad at all.  A good warmup for our trip to Witches Rock tomorrow.  We're very excited about that.  Bon and her charges decided to do the Waverunner thing tomorrow.  They'll be transported to a beach north of here called Playa Conchal which they say is made up of mostly shells, hence the name.  And since it is shelly, they say the snorkeling is good there too.  From what the guy said they have a large area where they run the Waverunners.  Sounds like fun.

We really did take it kinda easy today.  Morning surf, breakfast and then we took Christina and Smally out front for a surf.  Grocery shopped and then came home and showered and rested.  We had an early dinner at a place Adam recommended.  It is actually up the river on the other bank, so you have to take a water taxi.  It was a really good dinner and we were treated to a lightning show on the way back down the river, that was pretty spectacular.

Early nite for everyone I think.  Not many pics to post today, but here's a few...

 Today's critter report... 1 Raccoon

1 Toad...

  

4 Monkeys

Ok, FYI, might be a no post day tomorrow.  I have a feeling we're gonna be pretty beat.

Saturday

Yawn.  Everyone is running a little low on gas tonite so gonna try to keep it short today.

I was able to borrow a long board from Adams brother who lives nearby yesterday, so we took the whole crew out to the Tamarindo rivermouth this morning.  As you can see from the video, they did really well and had fun!

After another beachside lunch, we kicked around some of the surf shops around town and we booked our trip to Witches Rock for Monday.  From everything we gathered, we decided it's just going to be me and the 2 boys on the trip.  If you're not surfing, there's pretty much nothing to do on the trip and you'd be stuck on the boat all day.  Bon and her crew art thinking of maybe doing an ATV or Waverunner thing.

Had a pretty good late surf today before dark at Langosta.  Size was probably some of the biggest we've seen so far.

Ohh, and we saw monkeys today!  A family of spider monkeys swinging from the trees right by the house.

They have some nice sunsets here too!  I'll have to go down to the beach and get some good ones before we go...

On that note, I'll see you tomorrow...

Friday

Well today marks the halfway point of our trip.  We seem to be getting alot done in the time we've been here.  Today's adventure was taking a zipline tour thru the canopy.  There seems to be zipline tours all over the country, but this one was real close and convenient for us.  It was really fun and the kids had a blast.  You actually zip through the canopy from tree to tree onto platforms built onto the trees.  Here's some pics...

This morning we went out for our morning surf at a break called Playa Grande.  You'll see it on the map that I posted before we came.  Known as a local break, we proceeded with some caution, but when we got there, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, save for a couple of others out.  It wasn't breaking that good this morning though so that's probably why.  It had some size but it was kinda mixed up and the wind wasn't right.  There were some fun drop ins but the rides were mostly short.  We haven't quite connected on a favorable tide, good wind and enough swell size.  Seems like one ingredient is always missing.  We're not complaining though.  Surfing in our boardies is really a treat!

We've pretty much been staying in at nite.  While Tamarindo is known for it's nightlife, the kids aren't much in to going out once we settle down for the evening.  Aaron is pleased just to be drinking his beer at home and Christina hasn't even touched a drop.

Ok, getting late...gotta surf in the morning!

Later Gators

Thursday

Lots of excitement around the house this morning.  We were getting ready to leave for our morning surf this morning when we found a tarantula kinda hiding out by the front door.  If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out.  We didn't want to leave it there cuz it was right by the door and we for sure didn't want it in the house.  So we got a broomstick and we were trying to coax it back into the jungle.  In the video, you can see it making its way to the stairs and then its not too far to the bushes.  Well, it's going down the stairs and we hear a rustling sound in the trees and see a green lizard coming down.  If you haven't guessed yet, he was coming to eat the tarantula.  I tried to shoo it off, cuz I felt kinda bad that I had exposed it from it's hiding place.  Well long story short is that the lizard had it's way with the spider.  Pretty much just tore the abdomen, the fat juicy part, right off and downed it.  Man, it was like NatGeo live on our doorstep!

Ok, so today consisted of another morning surf at Langosta.  Wasn't quite as good as yesterday but still plenty fun and got our share of waves.  We came home and we packed for a day trip to another beach called Avellanas, about a 1/2 hour from here.  You could proabably make the trip in 15 minutes, but some portions of the road are so potholed that you gotta crawl.  Anyway, we made it and there is this nice little place to eat right on the beach called Lola's.

Lola's is named after a pig that lives here.  I think the original Lola died some time ago, but apparantly there is a new Lola...

Not everyday you see a pig at the beach...well, not this kind.

So after lunch we waited for the tide to come up and we hit the surf again.  Unfortunately, the wind wasn't really cooperating and the surf was only so-so, but it was fun anyway.  The tidal swings here are huge.  In 6 hours it can go from a 0 to 10 ft. tide which can affect the surf conditions dramatically.  Breaks can turn on and off in a couple of hours.  

We spent most of the afternoon at Avellanes.  It was a beautiful day today, sunny all day.  Mostly it's been sunny in the mornings and cloudy in the afternoons, but aside from our first night, it's hardly rained.  Dinner was at a beachside place called Nogui's that came highly recommended from Adam and he was spot on.  

I think we might go on a zipline tour tomorrow after our morning surf.  So far we're holding up pretty well.  Little bit of chest rash and skinned knees from rubbing on the back of our boards.  Mosquitos are pretty much having their way with us.  

Well, that's it for today I guess.  

Wednesday

Ok, everyone seems to be clamoring for pics and video, so lemme see what I can do..

The video on the right was taken yesterday on our first walk down to the beach in the early morning.  Just a panorama from north to south. This is the main beach at Tamarindo.  Probably about a mile long.  At the northern end is the rivermouth and theres a little point on the southern end.

Check back in a little while and hopefully I'll have some pics up...

Ok, we just got back from dinner.  These kids eat constantly as you know from our NS trips.  We had a good day today surfwise.  We got up early and drove south a few minutes to Langosta.  We had the place to ourselves for the first hour or so but then it got a little crowded.  It was high tidey at first but the 2nd hour really picked up and the surf got nice and peaky.  I'd call it 4 to 5, with some head high sets.  I kid you not, Aaron must caught about 50 waves.  He's a paddling machine.  Alex and I didn't catch that many between the 2 of us, but we got our share and were pretty tired after 2 hours.  Adam says Langosta is one of his favorite breaks and I can see why.  We'll probably go there for our early session again tomorrow.

The rest of our group got tired of waiting for us, so the walked the couple of blocks to town and shopped around a little.  Then we went out for late breakfast/early lunch at one of the beachside eateries.  Shopped around just a little and then came home.  We rested a bit and then all of us headed to the beach at Tamarindo.  Surfing wasn't great, too much water on the high tide, so we didn't stay that long.  Better to save our arms for better things.

We went to eat dinner at a little Mexican place called Gil's close to the house.  Owner was a friendly guy who sat down with us and asked us where we were from etc.  Turns out he used to live in Ventura and ran the old surf taco place at the Ventura marina some 16 years ago!

Ok, here's a couple of pics from the last 2 days...




















One of the bigger critters we've seen...

Low tide at Tamarindo

Christmas '11??

Hasta Manana....

Tuesday:

Well, we made it to the house in one piece.  Long tiring day yesterday.  It was about 10:30 when we got in last nite.  2nd leg of flight was on time.  Drive to the house was kinda sketchy being unfamiliar with the territory and it's pitch black out and it was raining all the way. 

Got up early today and walked down to the beach but didn't get in.  Everyone was starving this morning cuz we got in late and didn't have a chance to stop and eat.  Our last meal had been at Houston airport.  So instead of an early surf we went out to breakfast and got some groceries and cruised town since we couldn't see jack last nite.  Finally made it to the water about 11:30.  Surfed near the rivermouth at main Tamarindo beach.  Was kinda bumpy by the time we got to it and it looked small from the beach, but when we got out we found it was bigger than it looked.  Had a pretty good surf but we are expecting better things in our future.  Water here is soooo warm.  Musta been near mid 80's today.  I had on a 1mm long sleeve jacket and I was hot, but I need the protection for my chest rash.  

Lots of critters here.  Bon is freaking out about bugs in house, but what are you gonna do.  We are pretty much in the jungle.  We've seen a few iguanas around but no monkeys yet.  

Ok, that's it for today.  Check back later for more....

Vacation Eve

All packed up a ready to roll.  We seem to be packed very lightly, maybe even moreso than HI.  The board bag is packed to make it look like there's one board in there if someone opens it to check.  It weighed in at 45 pounds with 3 boards in it and probably 25-30 of it is the bag itself.  Everyone is excited and the surf forecast looks favorable for the whole week.  Can't wait to walk down to the beach on Tuesday morning for our first surf check!

First post from CR probably won't be until sometime Tuesday as we get in late tomorrow.  And if you don't hear from me at all, don't worry.  It'll just mean I'm too tired from doing 3 a-day sessions!

Hasta luego!

BTW, if you get bored waiting for my next post, play some blackjack at the bottom of the page....

Pre-Trip Prep

Hola y bienvenido a mi blog de Costa Rica.


I guess I'll have to skip the pidgin in this years blog.  I'm just trying out and relearning my blogging skills.  We'll be airborne in one week.  Everyone is getting excited.  Kinda weird getting ready for a non-HI vacation.


We are taking surfboards with us since we hope that surfing will be one of our major endeavors while we're there.  I've been checking the long range forecast and it's looking more and more like we might get lucky and hit some good surf.  We may even take a short boat trip to Witches Rock which is accessible only by boat.  WR was made famous when it was featured in Endless Summer 2.  Of course a boat trip with Alex and Christina may be an adventure unto itself.


Ok, just checking things out.  Remember the rules...you read, you post a comment!  Oh btw, not sure how often the updates will come.  I'm not taking a computer, just my iPad, but I think Christina is taking hers so she can Skype home.


Here's a surf map for future reference...

And here's Witch's Rock...