Playa Avellanas - Day 21 - Patience

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.

Playa Avellanas - Day 15 - Life in the slowww lane :)

We are now two weeks into our stay in Avellanas and we feel settled in now...we have it pretty dialed in here in terms of the surf and the best hang out spot and the same people we run into every day and exchange surf stories with.  The latest is that we just discovered a ping pong table at Las Olas.  I am so excited about it!  We get a few beers while playing ping pong before the sunset and it is awesome!  They also have darts and foosball, but we are so enamored with the ping pong at the moment we haven't ventured to the other games yet.

This place is so magical, especially at sunrise and sunset.  For the first time we made it out to surf before the sun came up and it was magnificent to see the sun come up over the trees.  There wasn't anyone out surfing yet and everything was so beautiful...it was definately a moment...one of those moments...

The sunset a couple nights ago was another one of those moments too...there were many clouds in the sky, making for a beautiful sunset, as well as dark rainy looking clouds coming from inland.  Then, I saw it, a rainbow over the trees!  Over the ocean, sunset...over the trees, rainbow!  We felt like we were in some kind of fairy tale and that surely any moment fairies would come flying around. 

The original Lola The Pig died and this is the new one.

Later that night, while we were making dinner, it actually rained for about 10 minutes.  Diego says it never rains in February...never...This has been some of the strangest weather people living here in Costa Rica have ever seen.  All the clouds and ocassional rain is unheard of for this time of year as well as all of the South swells we have gotten and hardly any North swells which is completely opposite.

A couple nights ago, in exchange for washing Diego's dishes (he can't because of his cast) he taught me how to make real Italian tomato sauce from scratch.  I think he enjoyed that more than I did :)...but he provided all of the authentic Italian ingrediants including pasta from his home town in Italy.  It was really yummy...Now Diego and I have this trade on a regular basis, me doing dishes and he buys us food.  For example, the cleaning lady also makes amazing tamales, so he bought us some for dinner...also, the bakery truck came by while we were at the beach so he bought us 3 loaves of really good bread.  I also help him with other little things that are difficult like washing lettuce and cutting it up for his salad (which I did last night).  He said I am the second person in his 12 years of running these Cabinas that he has taught how to make his Italian tomato sauce.  He says that Ben will thank him because he is making me into a good wife ha!  He says this jokingly because Ben does most of the cooking here.  A few nights ago while Ben was cooking he told him that if he was a woman he would marry him!

Yesterday we went on a little adventure to Playa Negra which is about 3 km away.  We caught the bus which passes by two times a day, which Diego said would take us to Playa Negra.  Instead it took us about .5km and dropped us off.  The bus driver told us that another bus would come to pick us up and that we should wait there.  We started wondering what we were getting ourselves into, especially as the minutes ticked by, we were super hungry for lunch, and it was very hot.  But, 45 minutes later, we still had hope and it paid off because another bus came and took us to Playa Negra.  We were under the impression that Playa Negra was a much bigger town than Avellanas because they had a few surf shops and more restaurants.  However, we almost passed by the town without getting off because it is so little.  We got off, and went into a surf shop to ask about where Pablo Picassa's was because Ben wanted one of their famous hamburgers "as big as your head!"  We got directions, found our way there, but it was closed.  It seemed like an odd time to be closed, and we were by now starving, so we walked down the road to the point break at Playa Negra to were there is also a fancy hotel with really cool looking cabinas and a restaurant and bar overlooking the surf break.  We ate there, Ben got his hamburger, although it wasn't as big as his head, and I got the fish sandwich as well as fresh watermelon juice!  Food never tasted so good!  We hung out at the beach for a little, watching the surfers.  The waves were huge and it was a small day!  Its an advanced spot because it picks up the most swell and there are a bunch of rocks in the water you have to watch out for.  We won't be surfing there ourselves, but it was fun to watch.  Then we went to the surf shop to look for sunglasses because I somehow lost mine 2 days ago at the beach.  Good thing I brought my cheapies.  Anyway, in this surf shop they had an entire two sided display of $12 sunglasses...Yureeka!  I found some almost just like the ones I lost and am super stoked about it! 

Click the picture and Zoom in to see Tracey shreddin' at the Rivermouth!

Our plan was to walk home, 3 km...but it was still hot at 4:30pm and we weren't sure if we would make it back before dark, we did have our head lamp though.  We stopped at the mini super and got some tortillas (cuz the store in Avellanas rarely has any).  We also got some ice cream bars that were the best vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate with nuts we ever had...well, the best ice cream we have had since being in Costa Rica.  All of the ice cream we have had before was kind of icey ice cream.  This was creamy ice cream...Dos Pinos...I think we have that kind in the states.  Well, we ate our ice cream as we started our long walk back.  About 20 minutes into our walk, an old school bus (one of the public buses) came rambling by and picked us up, and took us back to Avellanas for about 40 cents apiece.  We made it back just in time for the sunset on the beach.  What a perfect adventure...especially finding new sunglasses (cuz its awfully bright here) and getting picked up by the bus home!

(Although, now we are turning into cookie monsters because we discovered butter cookies filled with butter cream...mmmmmm...)

Today we woke up at 4:30am to go surfing.  We were out by 5am...our path lit by the full moon with first light approaching...we passed by one surfer just coming out of the water who surfed just by the light of the full moon.  It was another magical moment here...We were the only ones out at the river mouth, the full moon shining brightly over the ocean and opposite, the sky over the trees was begining to brighen...We were out for maybe an hour before we saw the sun come up over the trees...all the while the sky was beautifully painted with pastel colors reflecting off the clouds and the sea...ahhh...

As beautiful as it is here, don't worry my friends and family, thanks to all the bugs that bite Ben, we won't ever (never say never-writes Ben :) )  be moving down here permanently :).  (You can quote Ben on that one!)

We have also just rediscovered our love for the game "Shit Head" which I learned from Orion and his friends in Scotland...we even made our own shit head hat! :P Ben actually likes this game because it is the only one he can beat me at sometimes :).  (or most off the time actually. :-(

Playa Avellanas - Day 8 - The REAL Costa Rica

It's funny, everyone here hates Tamarindo and embraces the more laid back friendly vibe here in Avellanas.  We really like it here :)  We are paying $400 for a room with private bathroom and shared kitchen.  The owner, Diego got in a motorcycle accident 2 days before we got here and he broke his arm and scraped up his whole leg and foot.  It's really difficult for him because he is the only one running his hotel/restaurant, but now he can't cook.  He really wants to make some authentic Italian food for us but he says maybe in two weeks he will be able to.  He is super friendly and quite a talker. 

The walk to the beach is a short 50 meters on a dirt road and then through a marshy area that we cross on a boardwalk, which is literally a board-walk.  About 6 feet above the mud is the board-walk, like a deck four feet wide with 1.5 foot wide boards. It is surrounded by some kind of trees.  If you go to the Las Olas Avellanas website you will see what I mean, and where I am sitting right now (at the bar). 

There is one little store about 8 minutes walk down the dirt road from where we are staying, but we pretty much bought them out yesterday with two basket fulls of food...well, not quite, but they really only have bare bones necessities like beans, rice, eggs, spaghetti, sausage, pineapple, avocado, and beer.  It works for us though cuz that's what we've been eating for the last month anyway.  Hopefully they will get some bananas in cuz that's usually what we have for breakfast before surfing.  In Tamarindo bananas were 40 colones apiece which means about 10 cents apiece!  For the most flavorful fresh bananas!

Okay, we'll let you know how our first week goes here.  We'll check in next week.


That email was a continuation from last week that I wrote, but didn't send in time before the wind cut out our internet connection.  So, we have been here for one week now which has flown by, but also seems like a week.  Time here is funny that way.  It probably would seem faster if we were only here for a week or two, but because we have a month here we can really settle in and not feel like our time is rushed.  We just got back from our second surf session of the day and it is only 1pm.  We went super early this morning because we finally got a swell after a few days of very small waves.  Because of the swell people come from all around, but luckily, when we get out early, we can beat a lot of the crowd.
The water is just a bit cooler than Santa Teresa, but still warm and full of life.  There are lots and lots and lots of fish here.  Its really cool when the sun hits the wave just right and walls up in front of you, you can see schools of fish in the wave.  There are also crabs and jelly fish here.  Ben got a bad sting from a jelly fish on his neck and arm, it looks like welts.  Whenever I get stung it never leaves any marks (knock on wood :) Although, I do get stung almost every time I go out. 
The waves are much different here.  They break much closer to shore which takes some special care.  We catch the waves in water deeper than we can touch, but ride them into only a couple feet of water.  However, its different at the river mouth where its a bit deeper over rocks instead of sand and the wave is more like a bowl (think sewer's in Pleasure Point).  Ben caught some of the best waves of our trip there this afternoon.  It is an advanced surf spot because there is a rock submerged right by the main take off zone, but when you know where it is, like we do, we just sit to the outside and don't get all crazy going over it. 
Diego, the Italian who owns the place where we are staying has an infection in his foot now and it is very yellown where the scrape is and very swollen.  He went back to the doctor two days ago and got some antibiotics.  Hopefully that will help.  I can't imagine having to take care of myself and a business in the state he is in.  Luckily, he has a woman who helps him and does all the cleaning. 
The weather here is really wonderful.  Because it is a dryer climate there isn't much humidity at all so it doesn't feel as hot as Santa Teresa.  Also, the vibe is way mellow here.  Everyone is very down to earth and very friendly.  This is a very small place and we run into the same few people every day which is kind of fun.  There's this one guy who is a surfer from Texas.  We say he looks just like a grown up, tan, surfer version of Adam.  It's pretty amazing.  
Some think Avellanas is the next place to go up in value (land that is) It already is.  Diego, bought the land here 12 years ago for pennies, and now an investor is offering $300,000 but he says he's holding out for $500,000.  Almost all of the land around here is for sale.  Just for fun we are going to see how much the land is going for.  I wouldn't want to live here year round, but it would be a fun yearly trip!  Diego is lucky because when he bought the land he put down 10% with a stipulation that he could drill for water and if he found water he would pay the rest and if he didn't he could walk away foregoing the 10%.  Lucky for him he found water and has a well with fresh drinking water.  He says students from the University come every year and test the water and it has always been pure enough to drink.  He says it always comes back with A+ rating.  We have been drinking it for a week now.  We stopped taking our mulit vitamin just to be sure we don't get too many minerals.  It saves us a lot of money to be able to drink and cook with the well water.  We keep talking about how we spent half our budget in Santa Teresa, but we are definately making up for it here.  We love this place!

Here are some pictures we took with our new camera we bought just outside of Tamarindo.  It was one of two options.  It was $100 for a 10.1 megapixel, no zoom, no focus, pretty crappy camera.  The thing I am most disappointed about it is that it doesn't take sunset pictures like our other one.  That one had a sun setting and would focus on the sun, this one doesn't know what to do with sun pictures so the color gets all off.  (It doen'st focus which is really weird, but it takes pictures instantly because it doesn't focus first.) Oh well, at least it will record the memories...  Hope you enjoy!

Love,
Tracey

http://www.avellanassurfphotos.com/details.php?gid=194&pid=6940

follow this link to see a picture of me surfing yesterday!  There is a guy who takes pictures every day out there!

 

The trail to the beach, boardwalk through the mangroves.

 

Sunset in Avellanas from Lola's.

 

This is Lola's, such a cool hang out spot to watch the sunset.  The food is super expensive, and the beers are $3 apiece, but these wooden chairs are the best.  The sunset pictures are taken from here.

 

Here's Ben running to the water right after a bird pooped on his chest!  There were tons and tons of birds in the palm trees over head. Hah!

Check back in a week for another update from this peaceful haven called Avellanas!