Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Costa Rica - Cuarto Dia

Finally I am caught up with the blog!

Today we started the day in our typical way, breakfast at the hotel and our surf lesson.

Surfers Log - Tercer Dia
When we were arriving at Coconut Harry's from the jungle path we heard and saw a howler monkey! He was hanging on a tree branch over the road. We were literally only ten feet away from him. It was totally awesome. Today we got real surfboards! And by real, I mean the kind that don't have a foam top. Score! Double score that I could actually carry the board all by myself (those foam boards are HEAVY). Oscar took us out into some rough water so that we could get comfortable in various conditions. He taught us how to turtle roll, which is my new favorite maneuver. You grab the board with your feet and forearms and roll over so the bottom of the board faces up, perpendicular to the wave so it washes right over you. This is much easier for me than pushing up on the board, but that's my weak upper body strength at work (or not). We practiced everything we've been working on; popping up, catching our own white water, and turning with the "real" surfboard which was so fun. At the end of the lesson Oscar told us we were good students. I told him he was a good teacher. We agreed to compromise that we were both good in our respective roles. Only two more surf lessons left. :(

After the surf lesson we came back to the hotel and went to the beach via the jungle path for an hour of relaxing. Then it was off to lunch at Beach Dog Cafe, right next to Coconut Harry's. The prices here were a bit high for lunch ($30 for two sandwiches and two smoothies) but their location is right off a beach path and the food is really ridiculously delicious. I ordered the chili lime steak sandwich and Mike ordered the sweet chili chicken sandwich with slaw, so that we could both have a half of each sandwich. Unfortunately, our waitress got the order wrong and brought two chicken sandwiches. Though they were delicious, we were disappointed that we didn't get to the the steak sandwich.

To vary up our routine, we decided to do an adventure activity today! We signed up for the the afternoon zip line with Miss Sky. We did a zip line last year in Monteverde which was super fun, but it was raining when we went so we got very muddy and lots of rain pelts in the face, no so pleasant. This time our zip line was sunny and hot. The participants and guides ride in the back of a truck (like a hayride) up to the location of the first zip line from the office. We then took 13 zip lines over valleys and a river. The guides were jokesters and pranksters but they did make sure we were safe and having a good time. On the drive back down to the office we saw two howler monkey families! SO COOL! This would be the third time we saw monkeys on our trip (the first was on our first day walking to Coconut Harry's). 

All Geared Up!

The view from the drop off point, a little overcast but you can see the water.

Me getting ready to go!

Two of our hilarious guides.

One of the howlers.

A family of howlers.

When we got back to the hotel we had a snack of chips and salsa and enjoyed a refreshing dip by the pool. Now we are showered and clean and ready to go to dinner at Harbor Reef. I will let you know how it is!

Before we head to dinner, in matching and very trendy cobalt blue.

Until then...

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