Shipping Out Of Boston
In honor of this trip, I’m trying out a temporary tattoo by this company called Inkbox. It’s supposed to last for 2 weeks. There are a bunch of pre-made designs you can purchase or you can buy the ink and free hand. This pre-made one is called Wabi-Sabi. I’ll review how well it holds up! Perhaps the new trend of vacation tattoo is in order?
We got up early to dig out the cars since it had snowed overnight. Nadia’s and my car got out without a problem, but Kelli’s was stuck! Nadia graciously let Kelli borrow her car to drive me to the airport (I would have offered mine, but it’s a standard transmission…). Thanks, Kelli and Nadia! You’re the best! This isn’t from the early morning dig out – it was from the other snow 2 days before – but you get the idea. Roommate shovel power!
Once we were out of our street the drive was easy. This was my first use of my brand spankin’ new TSA Pre-Check. The verdict is: I love Pre-Check. I still hate TSA. With a passion. I will spare you all my TSA rant. I got through security and found that the flight was delayed, which was not surprising. We finally got moving and ended up waiting about an hour and a half for de-icing. Honestly, I’ll happily wait for that if I have to. Safety first! I emailed Witch’s Rock and kept them posted, on arrival time for the driver. Plus, we had in-flight WiFi (I love JetBlue), so there were no issues with a delayed arrival.
To make a 5 hour DIRECT flight even better, I have the JetBlue credit card. That means 50% off all in-flight purchases, to include booze and food. Best deal in travel – $3.50 for beers and liquors, up to $4.50 for wine, and $3.50 for the JetBlue food “boxes.” My favorite is box #4, the “Pump Up” box which is the protein-packed one. TSA Pre-Check, JetBlue card and in-flight WiFi for the win!
I Made It To Costa Rica!
We had a bumpy, windy landing in Liberia and de-planed rather quickly. I picked up a SIM card in the airport after baggage claim and before customs. $30 “tourist SIM” with 120 international calling minutes, local calling, 3GB of data, etc. I didn’t NEED it, but it was nice to have! I walked out and was met by the driver. We only had to wait a few minutes to collect everyone. We had Ben from New Hampshire, Rebecca from NYC by way of LA, and a kid whose name I did not remember from Austin, TX who was just hitching a ride. Ben and Rebecca turned out to be two of my new good Witch’s Rock buddies! After about 10 minutes we stopped for some road beers – thanks, Ben! – then made the rest of the windy, slow journey of about an hour. Check in was easy, and they have changed it so that you now have a tab card for any food & booze purchases on site. I checked into my single female traveler’s room and my other two roommates were out. I got the small twin bed, but it really was not a big deal. The room was clean and the shower was actually nicer than I remembered.
They had even upgraded the outlets to use US plugs. We’re spoiled! I met up with Rebecca, Ben and Ben’s friends Felipe & Silvia for dinner. This is the greatest story – Felipe is from Ecuador and was an exchange student at Ben’s house in high school for a year. They hadn’t seen each other since. As it turns out, Felipe lives in San Jose, CR, so he popped over to Tamarindo with his girlfriend, Silvia, to catch up with Ben. How great is that? After dinner we stopped at La Oveja Negra (The Black Sheep) for drinks. The food looked good, so we decided that was a plan for our future dinners!
The First Day of Surf Lessons
Sunday morning I had my first 8am surf lesson with my roommate, Sara, and our instructor, Jonathan. Sara and I were kind of on the same page – we had both been to Witch’s Rock and surfed before, but we didn’t surf often enough to know if we should be beginner or intermediate. I surf regular and snowboard goofy (no idea why, I just do), so the first wave I stood straight up and couldn’t decide which foot to put forward. Ha! And down I went. After the first one my body sorted itself out and I caught a few good waves on day 1. Then we had breakfast. The breakfasts at Eat At Joe's (on site at Witch's and including in surf camp tuition) are AMAZING and enormous. More on that later. After breakfast I took a walk around town to reacquaint myself with the area. We had a 1pm Paddle seminar in the pool with Flaco, one of the intermediate instructors who is an awesome surfer.
I went out for an afternoon surf and it was really crowded. At one point some guy was surfing right at me as I was trying to get back out so I did what I learned in the seminar and turtled over. The guy ran right over my board! Fortunately he didn’t hit my fingers (or my head), so all was good. I decided it was a bit too crowded for me and went back in and had a beer on the beach at Volcano Brewing Co.
I met this really nice Aussie couple that was telling me very causally about how they surf in Australia with Great White Sharks nearby. Yikes! Met up with Rebecca. Girls dinner at La Oveja Negra with Rebecca, Sara and our third roommate, Yulia from Poland/Ukraine.
Sleep was much needed after the first day of surfing. All of our arms felt like jello.
Monday my surf lesson was at 4pm (!!!!), so I spent most of the morning after the lesson reading on the beach and strolling around town. Not a bad view:
Nogui's Coconut Pie
I had breakfast with Ben, Sara and Julia. The breakfasts at Eat at Joe’s (the restaurant at surf camp where breakfast is included with the camp fee) are ENORMOUS! I had the huevos rancheros no fewer than 4 times. By this time I realized I had made an amateur move and only brought one of my small pack towels. I shelled out $31US to pick up a new Turkish Towel at WRSC’s shop. It ended up being worth it, and now I have a spare that wasn’t a gift from a friend in Lebanon, so I won’t feel as bad about taking it to the beach. I also spent $11US on some Zinc face sunscreen called War Paint. That stuff is really the best when on the water, even though it looks like bad stage makeup! I spent some more time reading Sara’s Washingtonian Magazine since I had finished my book, and I ventured over to Nogui’s to see if the coconut pie was as amazing as I remembered. It was.
Robert August of Endless Summer Fame
At 1pm I went to the History of Surfing seminar with Robert August (yep, of the movie Endless Summer). It was a little bit of surf history from Robert August’s perspective and talked a lot about the movie he was in, but it was still really interesting. He has lived quite the life!
I got some pictures of my new Canadian friend, Jeff, too, since he didn’t have his phone on him.
I had my 4pm surf lesson with Jonathan, and I surfed pretty well. High tide was around 5:30pm so we had some great waves and little wind. Afterward we had some beers at Volcano Brewing Co. to prep for the surf video analysis.
We very quickly realized they confused me with Katie a lot in the videos – we both were wearing our dark brown hair back in a ponytail, had short sleeve black rash guards, and bikini bottoms. Twins in the water!
After the analysis we went for pizza and sangria at Nari, which was right down the street from Witch’s Rock. We were all exhausted so we went back to Volcano for a more beers (Imperial, the Costa Rican beer, is super light and only like 4.3% alcohol) and an early night in.
On our way back to our rooms, the power went out! Fortunately I had my little super bright keychain flashlight. Another $8 on Amazon vacation gadget that is totally worth having. Tuesday started with another lazy beach morning…
Another Day In Paradise
I wandered down to the super market with Stef, one of my new Canadian friends. We hit up Nogui’s and split a coconut pie and each had a coffee. Lunch of champions! I had another afternoon surf session with Jonathan at 2pm. Check out the outdoor shower -->
After I cleaned up I bought some beers for the instructors and got to practice my Spanish for a bit. At 6pm was the surfing etiquette seminar, which was just okay. I think that one needs a little work. Afterward the group went to dinner down the beach at El Chiringuito, which was delicious! I had a tuna poke bowl, and other people had ceviche and the salmon poke bowl. So. Good. And great atmosphere!
After dinner everyone decided to see what this amazing coconut pie at Nogui’s was all about. Fortunately, it didn’t disappoint!
Rejected!
I had tried to join intermediate with Sara, but she got the only available spot. Darn! On the bright side, it meant I now had private lessons with Jonathan. And finally an early morning session!
That afternoon was the Robert August board shaping session. It takes quite some time to custom shape a board, but if you like woodworking, you’d like board shaping!
Afterward Ben, Bill and I walked around town in search of a good smoothie and some coffee. Bill and I got acai smoothies… so good! We found the hipsters at this cute coffee shop called Nordico. The hipster coffee was good…
Next back to the beach for some beers… can you sense a theme?
We had another video analysis, which was helpful despite them thinking Katie and I were the same person again. Our ever-growing group went off to Green Papaya for dinner with swings! I had a really delicious ceviche and the fish tacos were enormous.
The next morning was another early surf session, and there were some pretty large waves for Tamarindo. Hence, I was exhausted and had both some afternoon beach time and a nap. I also met Hotel Annie, who had just arrived. Somehow she managed to escape a photo… That night another large group went to dinner at Nogui’s, which did not disappoint. My instructor, Jonathan, was eating next to us so you know the food must be good if the locals eat there. Here’s me with Jeff on the beach:
And another beautiful Tamarindo sunset, because, why not?
Playa Grande
Friday morning was the surf trip for the beginners to Playa Grande. We were up early to load up the boards.
I needed coffee and sustenance so I finally ventured over to Dawn Patrol Coffee and Bakery, which is also on site at Witch's Rock. It’s small but cute, and the coffee and baked goods are delicious.
After we arrived, we walked through a little trail to get to Playa Grande only to see HUGE (for us) waves. It was “cranking,” as they say. Huge meaning overhead waves and the sets coming in fast. Fortunately for us, Playa Grande is a beach break. It was a rough paddle out and a lot of people got caught inside. Half the group initially just turned around and waited out the set. Some people only went out for a few minutes. Once I got out and recovered from being afraid I was going to drown for a minute there, I had a blast!
One from when I was surfing without my hair tie. The first wave I got caught in blew it out and when I surfaced my face was covered with my hair. When I tried to take a breath, I got nothing and then got crushed by another wave. This is when I thought I was going to drown! And then there was Steph… this crazy Canadian actually got up for one wave in jeans and a sweater!
Also, one of the Canadian kids, Jarl Jr., had his board snap in half!
We all survived! Here’s my “twin,” Katie!
My instructor, Jonathan.
My New England buddy, Ben.
Jonathan must not have done his best job putting the boards on because shortly after we had to stop and he had to hop up there and fix them. I cannot imagine that getting that many boards to stay put is easy.
Surf Camp Graduation Night
After we recovered from our near-drowning, epic surf experience, I caught up with Sara. We went for a walk around town and found another cute coffee shop where I got “la bomba,” which was coffee, peanut butter, a banana, and maybe something else. It was delicious, but heavy. We also stopped at the supermercado so I could get some coffee to take home with me. A lazy afternoon after an awesome, exhausting morning!
I just needed one more shot of the board cage – I didn’t get a photo of MaxiWaxi, the boardmaster!
One of Steph’s friends accidentally left her sunglasses with him and then had already departed back to her home country. So I got some new shades
Steph and Jeff had to move rooms for Friday night, and they ended up with an upgrade to the penthouse with the porch! So we watched the sunset from there, brought some Imperial and nachos up with us, and enjoyed a new perspective of the beach.
Everyone loved this giant grasshopper thing.
It was time for surf graduation. Again, they thought Katie and I were the same person so there weren’t very many videos of me.
After graduation Rafa gave us the tip to go to Dragonfly for dinner. I think that was the best meal of the trip, and we had some really fantastic meals! Somehow they accommodated our large group quickly, too.
One Last Session
Saturday morning there was a 6am surf session for me and Ben. Most everyone else either had to leave for the airport or slept in and skipped their session. We had a 10am departure for the airport, so that was plenty of time. The waves were small but long, so you could get a nice, long ride. I had another private lesson with Jonathan and Ben had his lesson with Manrique. After surfing I showered, packed, and met Ben and Annie for breakfast. My airport transit crew was Ben and Matt. I switched my seat BACK 9 ROWS to sit with Ben (that’s how much I like you, Ben!). The three of us had crappy, overpriced food at Players since it’s the only place to eat at the airport. We did have the VIP seats in the back corner of the restaurant, so that was a plus. Seriously – there is nothing to do in the Liberia airport. Nothing. Eventually Matt had to leave and we said our goodbyes Ben and I boarded our flight and had a row to ourselves with the empty middle seat to spread out into. It was nice to fly home together so we could delay the inevitable for as long as possible. After we got off the plane I flew through security and customs with Global Entry and before I knew it, I hadn’t hugged Ben goodbye. Biggest mistake of the trip, by far! Kelli graciously picked me up at the airport and the fun was over. Now it’s time to move to DC.
Let’s back up to the vacation tattoo. Up until about Thursday everyone thought it was real. I loved it! It held up fairly well to the abuse of a lot of salt water, sunscreen, and sun. I forgot to get an after photo of it, but it still looked pretty darn good. I think this will be a new thing – the vacation tattoo. Thanks, Inkbox!
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