Day 3 - Dec. 1
Since El Chorro was presumably still too high to run with any degree of sanity, we opted for a beach day down at Dominical. It's a long rivermouth sandy beach backed by jungle and a few businesses, nothing too touristy.
I've been running up and down energy-wise every other day. Today was a down day, and when we parked I noticed that the surf was less than stellar, so I plunked down my towel under a palm tree and tried to nap. The tide was low, the wind was sideshore and the waves were inconsistent, not holding much shape. Most of the crew went for a swim but I decided to wait.
When the tide started to turn I got ready to bodyboard and realized I forgot my lycra pants. I just had a two-piece and long sleeve rashguard top. I slathered on the sunscreen and hoped the rest would stay covered.
Another hour later the surf actually started to improve, and Josh came out with the GoPro video camera. My face was feeling really hot. I'd tried to buy a surf hat in LA but everyone was sold out. My two piece was not doing a very good job of staying up and on, even under the rash guard. I got some new tan lines from this session. My face was beet red; so was everyone's. The best waves were only in the 3-4 foot range and offered about a 6 second ride. But it was still fun to be out in warm water.
We grabbed some lunch at Chapy's, a place that has delicious, fresh and natural wraps and smoothies. Only, their blender was broken, so we had pepe, or young coconuts instead. After lunch, instead of simply discarding the coconut shells, we played trash can hoops. They're heavy and hard to aim. Josh's mom got one in; I tried once and decided it was futile. We obstructed traffic and amused ourselves for about 20 minutes with this silly game, destroying most of the coconuts in the process.
A dip in the ionized pool (read: no chlorine or bromide) was refreshing afterwards. Even the dogs joined in the fun. We were all so sunburnt in spite of really high SPF.
We ate some casserole thanks to Josh's mom, and about 6:00 we started our commute over the mountains to Turrialba to go and run the rivers in the area. Ariel and Peter decided to stay behind, so it was just Alicia, Peter C, Josh and I. Josh had recently acquired an older Range Rover. As large as it is, we still had to strap one of the boards to the roof.
Radio had to suffice as I'd forgotten the cable to my mp3 player that will make it work with a cassette deck. It turns out that was not the only thing I forgot. They are really into their 70s and 80s music here. Up at about 11,000 feet all the windows were down and the sunroof was open. Peter's board was dripping on me and the air was in the 40s. I had one small sweatshirt and a knit hat; luckily the floorboards were hot so my feet stayed warm, at least on the bottoms. As much as I whined about being cold, no one believed how cold I was til they saw me with my knit hat and hoodie pulled up over it. I found out later that the engine blows hot air into the front seats; it's no wonder they couldn't figure out why I was so frozen since I was in the back.
We ended up in the same room we had last year. They had nicer bedding; batik-style covers instead of those quilted polyester things. They also had internet and breakfast. And three dogs that would mess up the floor just as fast as the help cleaned it.
Day 4
I've been running up and down energy-wise every other day. Today was a down day, and when we parked I noticed that the surf was less than stellar, so I plunked down my towel under a palm tree and tried to nap. The tide was low, the wind was sideshore and the waves were inconsistent, not holding much shape. Most of the crew went for a swim but I decided to wait.
When the tide started to turn I got ready to bodyboard and realized I forgot my lycra pants. I just had a two-piece and long sleeve rashguard top. I slathered on the sunscreen and hoped the rest would stay covered.
Another hour later the surf actually started to improve, and Josh came out with the GoPro video camera. My face was feeling really hot. I'd tried to buy a surf hat in LA but everyone was sold out. My two piece was not doing a very good job of staying up and on, even under the rash guard. I got some new tan lines from this session. My face was beet red; so was everyone's. The best waves were only in the 3-4 foot range and offered about a 6 second ride. But it was still fun to be out in warm water.
We grabbed some lunch at Chapy's, a place that has delicious, fresh and natural wraps and smoothies. Only, their blender was broken, so we had pepe, or young coconuts instead. After lunch, instead of simply discarding the coconut shells, we played trash can hoops. They're heavy and hard to aim. Josh's mom got one in; I tried once and decided it was futile. We obstructed traffic and amused ourselves for about 20 minutes with this silly game, destroying most of the coconuts in the process.A dip in the ionized pool (read: no chlorine or bromide) was refreshing afterwards. Even the dogs joined in the fun. We were all so sunburnt in spite of really high SPF.
We ate some casserole thanks to Josh's mom, and about 6:00 we started our commute over the mountains to Turrialba to go and run the rivers in the area. Ariel and Peter decided to stay behind, so it was just Alicia, Peter C, Josh and I. Josh had recently acquired an older Range Rover. As large as it is, we still had to strap one of the boards to the roof.
Radio had to suffice as I'd forgotten the cable to my mp3 player that will make it work with a cassette deck. It turns out that was not the only thing I forgot. They are really into their 70s and 80s music here. Up at about 11,000 feet all the windows were down and the sunroof was open. Peter's board was dripping on me and the air was in the 40s. I had one small sweatshirt and a knit hat; luckily the floorboards were hot so my feet stayed warm, at least on the bottoms. As much as I whined about being cold, no one believed how cold I was til they saw me with my knit hat and hoodie pulled up over it. I found out later that the engine blows hot air into the front seats; it's no wonder they couldn't figure out why I was so frozen since I was in the back.
We ended up in the same room we had last year. They had nicer bedding; batik-style covers instead of those quilted polyester things. They also had internet and breakfast. And three dogs that would mess up the floor just as fast as the help cleaned it.
Day 4
posted by Rochelle at 6:16 AM
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