Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Back to Vista Guapa...Parte Dos

Memorial Day, Monday, May 25:
Breakfast was once again most delicious consisting of tostada Franceas, queso frito, y heuvos revuelots con queso y jamon. ( Eric is now practicing this for tomorrow’s breakfast.)

Back to the pool with my trusty “jukebox.”


Two “visitors” showed up at the pool.




Two cows have been added to the Vista Guapa family. :)

Eric decides this is a perfect opportunity for him to practice his pool handstands (aka party tricks). Our friends from yesterday left so we have the pool (and camp for that matter) to ourselves and so now we can be as stupid as we wanna. :) (did I mention that I have the most awesome underwater camera)








Day 2 of Surfing…better than the first for sure. Durby paddled out with me and Eric rocked the white water with Alberto. Today’s session included: 1 surfboard in the head, 1 gash on the ankle from a fin, 1 lost light brown contact and 2 bruise shins from the board…and yet we’re still smiling. :)

Back to Taco Bar for our post-surf snack…where I lost my most favorite hat :( …I hope whoever “found” it enjoys it as much as I did.

As we walked down the street something funny happen. This chick asked (what I thought was us, but now know was aimed toward Eric) “What time is it?” and the when he didn’t answer she said “Que hora es?” When Eric still didn’t answer I told her and then I got the LOOK OF DEATH from this chick. Apparently she wasn’t thrilled that I was with Eric. I think she was looking for her next client. I found this all to be hilarious as we continued to walk down the street. Eric was glad that I was there to “protect” him. lol

Another slightly weird incident followed right after this. We went into this (fairly nice) surf shop (the plan was to take in some A/C) and seemed to be followed by the sales clerk. We promptly left…we must have looked suspicious. lol

We headed to another surf shop where Eric picked up some goggles…no A/C in this one though…more like a sauna.

Back to camp for more poolage and pool tricks…Eric has new goggles…check ‘em out!








The rain started coming down as we headed back up and down the hill for dinner.


Alberto took us to Rioasis where we had pizza and strawberry margaritas, while watching Lakers vs Nuggets.




Another good day.


Tuesday, May 26:

Did you know the sun comes up at 5am here?

After breakfast we decided to go on a canopy zipline tour. This was tons of fun and super sweaty.






The view was amazing and we even saw poisonous frogs. lol





I went upside down a couple of times (sooo awesome) but the trick was not to lose my sunglasses, camera or wallet. Good times :)



Chilled on the porch with the dogs before it was time to surf.

We got to the beach where Eric finally found his boat!! lol



…he even did a little blowfish “fishing.”



The waves were good today but few and far between. Eric rode quite a few today. Whoo Hoo! :)





Back to camp where there was a wheelbarrel full of fresh mangos from the tree by the pool.



Then more chillin’ in the hammock with cerverza y agua



…of course with a doggie companion.



Meet Noe... Alvaro's son. One of two super cool kids that live at Vista Guapa.


Dinner with Alberto at Rey Marino. For starters we had fried plantains with black beans (soooo good). Then for the main course we had the “Especial Grande” that was huge and had absolutely everything on it!



So full, so tired.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Back to Vista Guapa ...Part I

So…I’ve been informed (by a little bird) that it has been over a month since I last posted. It’s not that I haven’t done anything since the last (in fact I’ve done quite a bit) it’s just hasn’t been a top priority (read Carolina’s been lazy). So here we go with Costa Rica 2009 !

This is my 4th time to return to Vista Guapa Surf Camp in lovely Jaco, Costa Rica. This is the 1st time that I have brought someone along. I hope Eric (my traveling buddy) enjoys (his first time) surfing as much as I do.


Friday, May 22:

Our adventure began the night before we were supposed to leave. I went see Fiddler on the Roof with Momma and I received a text from Eric asking what time I was coming to pick him up. I told him. He replied “That’s early! Ok.” Well that seemed weird so I called him and said you know I meant 3:15 PM right. He thought I meant AM! So glad I called, or I’m sure he would’ve been waking me up wondering where I was. Lol


Saturday, May 23:

I think Costa Rica knew I was coming. I say this because as the (super full) plane was landing I looked out the window and saw fireworks going off. :)

We got our luggage and got through customs and immediately I spot Edwin (mi amigo/driver) and we were off to Vista Guapa! It was pretty late by the time we arrived at camp, even though Edwin got us there super quick (think Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at DisneyWorld), so we crashed pretty early.


Sunday, May 24th:

We headed down (the infamous) hill to breakfast where we were greeted by 3 new puppies and DURBY!! At the breakfast table we also met Deanna from Cleveland and Gig from NYC. Both seem very cool.


After an amazing breakfast of blackberry whole-wheat pancakes,


eggs, queso frito,



fresh fruit, etc. we headed to the pool. The water is sooo refreshing...yeah we were already sweating at 10 am.



Alberto arrives and begins to show Eric how to “pop up”.




We have about 2 hours until the first surf lesson/session. I am excited and slightly nervous for Eric…



Woah! So yeah, the first time for Eric was a bit rough (to say the least). At one point I was truly scared for my friend. The wonderful lady we know as Mother Nature can most definitely knock you down when she wants to…and fill your mouth with salt water. But in the end, we both got up on our boards. I call this slightly successful. Eric got a pep talk from Gig that seemed to relax and pump him up at the same time. I’m sure tomorrow will be better…


After the “workout,” I knew we needed food. So I got the guys to drop us off at Taco Bar (oh how I’ve longed for you since last Labor Day). The Freezing Lemonada



and shrimp tacos



(Eric had Tropical Iced Tea and Mahi Mahi tacos) hit the spot.




Mas x Menos (a grocery store) was our next stop, where we picked up some liquid essentials (redbull, Gatorade, water, Imperial and Smirnoff Ice (in a can)).



Taxied back to camp and back for some more poolage with afore mentioned liquid refreshment. :)


A couple hours passed so we headed back up the hill to relax






and get cleaned up and ready for dinner. Tonight we went to the Jungle Surf Café with Durby where the coconut crusted Mahi Mahi, accompanied by mashed potatoes, was absolute goodness!



The dinner conversation centered around the question: “What 3 People would you like to have dinner with?”…interesting to say the least. But the craziest story of the night took place in the van on the way back to camp. Deanna told us her story about her being in the Tsunami the day after Christmas back in 2004. I can’t imagine!


The NBA Playoffs are going on and we tried to go watch Cleveland vs Orlando tonight…but because it’s raining…the satellite at the bar we were going to is knocked out. We decided on Plan B where we sat on the porch of our room and watched the lightening storm.



Good Plan. Good Day. Goodnight.