Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012
Buenas tardes,
Life continues pretty much as usual down here near the equator. When Michael and I went down to the beach for sunset last Tuesday there was a wedding just wrapping up with pictures on the sand. It was Valentine’s Day afterall. We walked down the beach and around the point to Playa Pelada for dinner at La Luna. It was fresh, Mediterranean style food, and delicious. We saw both my surf instructors arrive with their gringo girlfriends for dinner as we were leaving. Also, the bridal couple came to occupy the big couch-bed on the sand in the bar area which was reserved for them, so I guess we made a good pick! On the walk home along the beach the stars were amazing and there was a lot of bio-luminescence in the water. The waves were glowing when they broke and there were sparkles in the water when they washed up on the beach. Very pretty!
Last week we made some plans for our trip to Monteverde this week. We made a reservation at a B&B and managed to confirm our car rental. This all proved more complicated than you would think since I kept having to go somewhere else to do any internet research and it took several tries to get it all sorted out. We are grateful to the property manager here, Kembry, who made a phone call for us to the car rental people. She is a lovely Costa Rican woman who is here most days at least some of the time. We also finally procured some real laundry soap. What we had before, we discovered, was really spot remover. It’s amazing how difficult it can be to decipher the packaging on common goods when it is in a foreign language! Since most people here speak English and there are so many Americans, we really haven’t been practicing our Spanish the way we ought to. We discovered some great laundry lines in the gardens at our complex and took advantage of them to get some laundry done.
We have been dealing with some potential water shutoffs in the evening as they do some work on the water systems in the town. It doesn’t always seem to happen, but we’re prepared with extra water for the overnight. I also traded my surfboard in for a smaller one to try something a little different. On Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market and found a cheese man and a sausage man, though not much in the way of fruits and vegetables. I guess that’s mostly on Tuesdays. The cheese man is German I think, and probably the sausage man is too. Anyway, the cheese was far superior to any I’ve had here and I had to indulge in some cheddar and some feta cubes in herbed oil. Yummy!
Kembry had booked us a horseback riding tour for Sunday afternoon, but the horse man called to say that his horses had got out and he had to go find them! We rescheduled for Monday, which was probably just as well because I suddenly didn’t feel so great. I guess I got some 24hour stomach-ish bug. Monday morning the surf had gotten really small, which was just what I wanted to try catching green waves, but I had no energy. I saved it all up for the horseback riding tour and it was worth it. We were picked up and taken to a property over by the Nosara River and a little inland. Nano was our guide. He and his wife run Playa Ponies, which also does snorkel tours and just about anything else they can come up with. Nano is Tico and his wife is American and expecting their first child, a girl, in about two weeks. When we got to their property there were a couple of younger Tico boys who helped get the horses. We guessed that perhaps they were Nano’s brothers. There were dogs running around and a wee filly wandering in the yard. She was quite skinny and Nano said her mother wasn’t producing milk. I think she's only 2 1/2 months old!
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| Baby! |
Michael was given Rambo and I got Sebastian. They were both very well behaved. Our ride took us along the Nosara River where we saw an alligator lurking in the water. We also rode through some of the Reserva Biológica Nosara where there were huge mangroves stretching high overhead and lots of birds. We came out by the river mouth where Michael and I had hiked to one day. It was gorgeous with black sand and lots of water birds again.
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| Michael & Rambo at the river mouth |
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| Playa Pelada |
Then we rode over to Playa Pelada along the trail we had walked before. Nano very kindly took a picture of us on the beach. Then we got to ride on the beach all the way back to our neighborhood.
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| Caballeros! |
There were two dogs that came with us the whole way. They thoroughly enjoyed the excursion and after we dismounted and said goodbye to Nano at our condo, one of the dogs stuck around. We went in and changed back to shorts to go to the beach for sunset, and when we came out, there she was waiting for us! We thought she belonged to Nano, but maybe not. She didn’t go with us to the beach, but when we returned, she was lying contentedly on our porch. She is very sweet and friendly. There are quite a few dogs here that just wander from friend to friend. We gave her some water and Michael gave her a little piece of tuna. She wandered off for a bit later on, but was back before morning when we found her lying on our porch again. She stayed around and went to the beach with us when we went to surf. Now she has moved on, but who knows, we may see her again. I called her Foxy because of her foxy looking face.
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| Foxy |
This morning the conditions were perfect for me to surf. The waves were small, the tide pretty low, and the winds offshore. The smaller board I had rented proved not as good for catching green waves, so Michael traded me for the longboard he’d rented. The water felt warm this morning and it was another beautiful day. I finally caught a real wave from the outside all by myself! Yay! I even rode the shoulder all the way in. What a feeling! It is so not easy to get the timing right, but for once I did, AND managed to get up and stay up. It was very gratifying. We are staying close by the Corky Carroll surf school which does an all-inclusive surf camp. I’ve been watching their instructors and students in the water and on the beach since we are often surfing near them. I think I might be guilty of a little instructor envy! They really do a great job and they are probably the best surf camp here. They have a lot of repeat guests. The advantage to a surf camp is you get instruction and encouragement all the time. You surf twice a day and they even videotape you so you can go back over it later. Of course it can be intense, but they try to make it fun too. I’ve enjoyed the leisurely pace of our time here and am glad I got to try out surfing without any pressure. However I can see that if you really wanted to improve your skills, a surf camp could be a great way to go.
Well, that’s all for now. We leave for Monteverde on Thursday morning.
Pura Vida
Sojourner Sarah
Addendum: Wed. Feb. 22, 2012
Well I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, so here it is today. This morning Kembry got a call that Nano and his wife were looking for their dog. I guess she did belong to them after all! Anyway, we hadn't seen here since yesterday morning, which we told Kembry. Then when Michael went to the Frog Pad to return a movie, he saw her hanging around. He tried to get her to follow him back to the condo but she wasn't really interested. She looked a little lost. So he scooped her up in his arms and rode back to the condo on his bike that way. Only Michael could accomplish this! He's a master at carrying things on a bicycle; surfboards, luggage, dogs. Kembry called Nano to say we found the dog and he came over and got her. She was happy to see him.
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