So in mid-February I went to a small town called Santa Teresa with some friends visiting from the States: Dave, Rob, and Tommy. They went down a day in advance, I had to work so we followed, leaving at 1:30 in the morning. Its about a 4 hour car ride, mind you, had it been paved and not mountainous, with steep drop offs, it may have taken about an hour and a half.
Dave had told me the previous evening, while Patrick and I were packing, that the road turns into what looks like a driveway, this is what happens when you take instructions too literally and make a wrong turn, at 4:30 in the morning...
Then after waking up a local Tico and his entire family, wife, son, mother, father, a guy by the name of Johny came outside, barefoot and shirtless to help us get out of the mud. He was amazing. Eventually, they got a neighbor to pull us out. This took us an hour in a small town called San Rafael, which would have taken about 3 hours anywhere else. Amazing!
We made it to Santa Teresa, it was gorgeous. Compared to Tamarindo it was incredible green and trash free. The mountains came right off the beach. We stayed in a little cabina (cabin) that was about $20 per night per person, it had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. Cheap huh?!
As soon as we got there we surfed for a few hours then went for breakfast, I love having breakfast in a bathing suit, that is, having it in a bathing suit and no one caring.
We surfed about 18 hours in about a 3 day period, I was sore needless to say. The waves were amazing.
The second day we spent the entire day on the beach, from before breakfast all the way through dinner. We even started a fire and cook a pretty spectacular meal. Great end to an amazing trip. I'll be back for sure!
Patrick and I went to our first fiesta. Each town has one, to celebrate their saint. Usually they begin on Thursday with a big dance, then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, they have all kinds of foods, clothes, and the main even being bull riding. Its incredible, you'll see in the pictures, there are about 30 Ticos, and maybe a few Gringos in the ring. Notice that most of them wear flipflops.
This next picture was taken just before he got gored and thrown 10 feet in the air. Oh, and when someone gets hurt they have a little 2 x 2 foot hole in the fence where they throw the person to a doctor. Pretty funny, in a sick kind of way.
The only other exciting or semi-exciting thing I've done is gone to Nicaragua for my visa (non residence can reside in CR for 90 days then have to leave for 72 hours). So we went to one of the most poor cities in all of Latin America, Granada. I can say that it was gorgeous, right next to Lake Nicaragua, with all the different color buildings. The big yellow building in the main church in the center of town. I took many pictures just because of the vibrant colors, enjoy!
Just a local bus, I couldn't give you any details, but it does say Hospital and Market on it...go figure?
Guess what they're playing? Thats right...BASEBALL! Apparently, its the favorite pasttime of Nicos.
This was by far the worst part of the town I had seen. Flys everywhere, the water was 10x worse than what is looks like. The animals were just feeding on the greens near it too. Notice the shacks in the background.
View of the city, walking from the more poor section to the center.
Kids playing soccer in center city.
The local market. Its really smelly and they have raw meets sitting outside for sale. Rainboots for $8, watch repair, and anything else you can think of, for really really cheap, cents, in fact.
I can't manage to find a picture, but they're still using horse a buggy for transporting goods. Almost all the cars in town were due to the tourism. Despite all this, we had some amazing food, stayed at an amazing hotel (Patrick got a room with a hottub, and private pool)...
The skyline of Granada. In the background you can see a dormant volcano, Mombacho. Great trip over all, quite the learning experience. Its good to be home in Tamarindo though.
Not too much going on here. Same old same old. I'm tired now, so I'll be keeping up with my blogging, because this is exhausting. Hope you're well, take care, and thanks for reading...I MISS YOU ALL!
