Noisy for her size. On my deck. It rained from 5pm Thur until 11am Fri. While blogging on Friday morning I was listened to Apple Jazz radio and somehow they snuck in Willie.. I love his music but hard to classify him as jazz.
It’s 5:30 am on Saturday, Leo is driving me to the airport at 8 where I will meet my tour guide Inez and head to the Poas Volcano National Park. It seems like it will be rainy most of the day so may have zero visibility at top but still worth the trip for me. I can download some photos from the internet. Goal is to finish this blog and shower and dress and pack by 7am, then breakfast and get ready to leave Paradise.
Hard to tell in this still photo but it is pouring. I hadn’t seen one of these plastic chain “drains” before but Anand said it carries most of the rain from the short roof spout to a drain on the ground. I went with the waffles today. I went down at 7:30 for breakfast and Bill was already there on his laptop. I had brought my Kindle because doubted anyone else would be awake this early as we didn’t have anything scheduled until Yoga at 11. I had a 9am Massage/Facial. We chatted for a few minutes but then I read my Kindle and enjoyed my food and coffee.View of jungle out my room door.My massage room today. The Lazy Sloth. The others are the Chilling Monkey, Mystic Morpho and Laughing Toucan.I had an hour long deep tissue massage which I really needed. After Thursday my hips and quads VERY tight and sore. And I didn’t realize how tight my shoulders were until the pain of getting the knots worked out. The rain sounds and bird calls from jungle through the open window/door were amazing.
The facial was included as part of the “surfer pack” I had ordered. One massage included with room but I got the pack also so ended up with 3 during week. The massage was a full hour and then a 15 minute facial but I actually dozed off during it as it was the ultimate relaxation. Various lotions, scrubs, gels were involved.
Am i glowing?I saw this landscaper doing weeding with a sharp machete in the rain. The jungle never stops encroaching on the plants around the lodge. They have to work in rain or would not work at all in the rainy season.I was expecting another 30 minute mellow relaxing stretching session with Irina but then Jose appeared and let us 5 (I think 3 at massages) through a more challenging 45 minutes of Yoga moves specifically tailored to surfing, especially the pop up. Things I can definitely work on back home. Last one was lying on mat like a surfboard with eyes closed and then doing a pop up and while standing (still with eyes closed) visualizing ones position and then opening eyes and seeing if everything is correct.
At the end I asked for help with my difficulties getting my front foot forward enough due to my stiff hips. Jose suggested I only put my foot as forward as I can while keeping midline and then can take a short second step with it as soon as up. Made a big difference in water later.
At video review session they had some drone footage. It went out after I was done on Thursday.Not me 🙂Pierre and Jennie from Quebec, such a cute surfing couple. They were here a few years ago and have done a few other surf vacations and are avid snowboarders, they seemed to move from being beginner to intermediate surfers this trip, still using long boards. There was some great drone footage of Jennie that I said would make her 5 and 8 year old kids say “you are so AWESOME, mom”. They are ER and Infections disease docs.I was surprised they had any decent footage of me from Thursday but I guess I did have some fair pop ups and short rides.The blue line is to show that my knees need to more bent and pointed inward, standing tall is unstable. I do have good arm position and am looking forward though!Tasty looking bruschetta was out during video session but it was only an hour until lunch so i just had a banana.But I couldn’t pass up the offer some very fresh coconut milk.Lunch was chicken tortilla soup, soooooo good.
The rain had stopped by 11 so it was just overcast when we headed to beach at 2pm for our last surf session. Waves at Dominicalito were a little smaller than the day before so few good big ones for the better surfers but perfect for me. The white water was mellow enough that I could paddle out with just one or two turtle rolls. I started in the whitewater (wearing my go pro) and did a few pop up fails, then had one good one and headed out to the lineup to find a green wave. I was a little too forward on the board and nosedived, which should be exciting on GoPro footage. I then paddled back in and put away camera and headed back out to whitewater. I wanted to take my time, use Jose’s advice and do 3 good pop ups in whitewater before going far out again. I actually did 2 in a row!
This is from my Garmin watch. I actually forgot to start the app until after I had been out for 10 minutes because of distraction of GoPro probably. I caught one excellent biggish green wave and had good pop up and ride. And everyone saw it and said it was my RIDE of THE WEEK. I stayed out for almost an hour and a half before heading in for a break and saw that everyone except for Courtney and Aaron were already in. They made us CR style snow cones by shaving a huge chunk of ice and adding the syrup AND powdered milk, AWESOME.Fury loves to tear the husk off the coconuts. Cy alone went out to catch a few more waves and I put on goggles and followed him while swimming all the way out past the breakers to the lineup. It is so much easier for me duck dive under a wave and then do one breaststroke just above sand then to struggle with the surfboard. I only swam for 10 minutes but so enjoyable in the 80 degree water, I body surfed a few waves on way back in. That smile says it was a great week of surfing.Rash guards are not perfect, everyone had these to some degree. Souvenirs of trip, I will see how long they take to heal up.
Before our last dinner all the surf instructors were there for hugs and goodbyes and thanks.
I won a t-shirt for the most @KalonSurf mentions on Instagram.Last meal together, several people leaving at 2 or 3 am to catch early flights at airport which is a 3-4 hour drive. I get picked up at 8am so get one last breakfast.Cy had picked this up at duty free on way in and said we had to finish it, I had stuck to just 2 glasses of red wine at dinner but had some tonight.
It was emotional saying goodbye to everyone. The 8 of us had spent a huge amount of time together over 7 days. The 4 Californians (Aaron SD, Bill Santa Cruz, Cy and Courtney in or near SF) made plans to stay in touch and get together for surfing out there. Now that I know one can get a board for $200 at Costco I just need to make sure I can store it in my uncles garage in Boca Raton…..
I have some notes i need to review and will add another post about this week at some point but time to move onto next adventure.
I recommend both these books. The Theroux one is fiction, the second a Memoir by a New Yorker writer who is also a big wave surfer.
