It's Feb 23, in a month I will be 29!!! I can't believe how fast time flies by and it just seems to go faster and faster! This is our third day of no real waves to speak of...we surfed in the water. Yesterday was the first day we didn't surf at all here. Today, we are waiting to see what the afternoon brings...supposed to be a swell coming tomorrow, so tomorrow morning should be good. It is nice to have these couple days to let our bodies relax and recoop, but it is also a bit monotonous...we have been playing a lot of cards...I also got stung by a wasp 2 days ago in the morning on my left pinky. It hurt super bad and it is still swollen and very itchy :-(...ice makes it feel better as does resting with it up on top of my head...after playing ping pong and paddle ball this afternoon it was throbbing and swelled up like crazy! I just put some ice on it and some salve and it feels better. The worst thing about it is that now wasps are attracted to me and won't leave me alone. Diego said that for the first few minutes after being stung there is a chemical that is sent out from the wasp that sacrificed its life by stinging me and ripping its stomach out (which its guts were left on my finger as well as the stinger) to tell all the other wasps in the area to come and get me, the enemy. Ohh Great! Well, it seems like even after 2 days, there is still some message being sent out because the wasps won't leave me alone. I also have a bug bite welt the size of a quarter on my thigh, which also itches like crazy and who knows what kind of bug gave me that one, maybe a spider?!
I just saw Diego in the kitchen as I was getting some ice for my finger and he asked me how I was doing...I said, great except for my finger...He said in his Italian accent, that's nothing, half of my face has swollen up for days from a wisp (he calls wasps, wisps in English) as if this has happened multiple times to him.
The trials and tribulations of traveling in a tropical climate...there isn't just one kind of wasp either...there are a bunch of different kinds!!!
Oh ya, and just the other day we saw our first scorpion...on the wall in our room!!! It was only 2.5 inches long though which is about how big they are here. Ben caught it in a glass and relocated it out on the road. He is our designated bug catcher which I really appreciate!
Anyway, here are some pictures of Cabinas El Leon, where we are staying...The rasta painted building is Diego's house, and the other pictures (the ones without me or Ben in them, are taken from our front porch). The pictures of Ben with the Bob Marley photos is located just to the right of the kitchen and is where we eat our meals. Diego is the biggest Bob Marley fan we have ever met. He recites Bob Marley lyrics like they are scripture.
Yesterday was easily my worst day here in Avellanas, which ended with me getting stung in the face by a jellyfish while duck diving my first wave of the afternoon session, so I quickly turned around and rode the next wave into shore and waited for Ben there. The water was full of jellyfish...Ben came out with welts all over his arms and feet! To top it off, I started to feel kind of dizzy when I stood up to walk home...turned out I was dehydrated and felt very disoriented for a couple hours, but after drinking an Emergen-C and lots of water, and resting in bed while Ben made dinner...I felt a lot better by the time dinner was ready. Since dehydration has the same feelings as the flu, it is always a little scary not knowing exactly what is causing it...its always a relief when water does the trick.
Today I wasn't expecting much because of my terrible no good very bad day yesterday in addition to sleeping terribly because my finger woke me up in the middle of the night itching so bad it was like it was on fire! I couldn't sleep for hours...finally the itch subsided and I fell back asleep...we woke up at 6am to surf...again my expectations were low because if there were jellyfish in the water we weren't going to go...But to my very pleasant surprise, I had one of the best surf sessions this morning! We started in front of Lola's because the tide was high and I caught the best left I have this whole trip! (I've been working on going backside (lefts) because in Cali they are mostly rights.) Today, it just felt like something finally clicked for me with my shortboard...when going left, I have only been able to ride it by letting the wave be in control...today I finally figured out how to generate my own speed, which is not an easy task going backside! I was also standing up super fast and making steep drops with ease. Don't ask me why, but I was in the zone! We ended our morning session at "Dead Tree" with two big steep rights all the way into the sand.
Febuarty 25th now, maybe I'll get a chance to post this today. It was a feeding frenzy out in the water today! The little fish in schools were being chased by bigger fish in schools and then I saw something silver and about 3 feet long shoot under my feet as fast as a bullet chasing the bigger fish in schools. There were also lots of birds that would dive bomb into the water to eat the fish that had been chased to the surface of the water. Not to scare anyone, but we just found out that there are lots of sharks here...although, there has never been an attack on a human (anywhere on the Pacific in Costa Rica) "knock" on wood. Diego told us that a little while back the Discovery Channel came to Avellanas to do a documentary on the tiger sharks that live in a cave at the end of the beach. As for me, I liked being ignorant to this fact more than knowing about it. Diego also said that there are so many fish in the water that the sharks are never hungry and seem to prefer the taste of fish to well, you know, us.
Today was another awesome surf session. We got out early this morning like 6am and the water was glassy, which hasn't happened since we got here, cuz the wind is usually offshore in the morning (which is great too). But it was nice to have no wind for once. I caught some amazing waves, luckily, whatever clicked yesterday with my shortboard also clicked today and it was awesome. I was even beating out other surfers for waves! But that was when I accidentally drifted down to the crowded spot, cuz where Ben and I were surfing there wasn't anyone else, but 50 yards to either side of us were huge crowds. Don't ask me why, its some kind of phenomenon here, that most people here will gravitate to where the crowd is thinking that must be the best spot to surf, when 50 yards away there is no one, and the waves are just as good, maybe a little smaller, but hey, you can't beat no crowd! Check out Avellanasurfphotos.com February 25th because one of the people who take pictures for that came up to us after our session and told us that she got some shots of us that she will put on the web tonight. We aren't sure when she started taking pictures of us cuz the waves were the best when we first went out, but she probably got the tail end of our session. Anyway, it will be fun to see what she got!
We are now planning the final month of our journey. Since we decided not to go to Nicaragua we have about 2.5 weeks to go where ever we want before ending our trip in Esterillos. Ben really wants to go to Pavones, the 2nd longest left in the world, which is also in the most southern part of Costa Rica. It is right across the bay from Matapolo, which is where I would love to go because they have a right hand point break called Pan Dulce. Not to mention, that this area, the Osa Peninsula is known as one of if not the most beautiful places in Costa Rica. "National Geographic says it is one of the most ecologically diverse places in the world!" Today, if we can get internet, we are going to check out how we can get down there. The bus is an option, but not a very fun one, since we have to drive down the entire country. We are looking into a private shuttle...
FYI: my finger is finally getting better!!!!
An excerpt from Ben's journal (actually his first journal entry this whole trip!-so memorable :)
Today, this morning, we surfed and I did my first bonafide floater! Easily a second and a half long and I dropped back down and landed it! I have Tracey to thank as she let me have that wave to begin with, but for some reason we did a role-reversal today and she was my surfing coach. Today she was on it! (Yesterday too.) Finally she appears to really be gettin' the shortboarding thing and has stopped telling me how much she misses longboarding. She has even grown slightly fond of going backside. I don't mind, but it means I have to give up some of my Left's, which had previously gone unchallenged. To be fair, I probably take more than my share of "her" rights anyway. Yes, each of us can be a little possesive about waves, maybe even slightly competative, but still not nearly as bad as we get when playing cards or ping pong where she always tries to beat me to a pulp, she says I can blame her dad for that and that it all started with tee-ball.
Anyway, we have only a week left in Avellanas...it is very nice here, the surf is great (at times), the sea is rich with life (today I was surrounded by a huge school of fish) and the people are friendly and genuinely seem to be enjoying life. It's all Pura Vida...todo bien! in Avellanas.
