A Family visit!

Our mom and Matt flew into San Jose from Hawaii for 9 days of seeing Costa Rica. It was nice having them for many more reasons than the obvious free hotel stays and great company. We stayed one night in San Jose, then headed up the hills to Monteverde so we could all do the zip lines and walk on some super high suspension bridges...

The zip lines were damn fun; flying through clouds and under trees on a cable is pretty cool. The wind was pretty wild and the whole take-off platforms were swaying around quite a bit...

Who that lady on the right is, where she came from, and what she is doing in our family photo I may never know...

We drove from Monteverde all the way to Playa Guiones (Playa Guiones) and stayed two nights there; Alex and I surfed and it rained and everyone looked at monkeys. We forgot to take pictures. Next was Puerto Viejo, and a long drive to the Caribbean side where we enjoyed another two night stay. We swam, walked about, drank good coffee, drank some micheladas, and relaxed. Mom and Matt bought a hammock. Alex and I went out one night and stayed out until about three in the morning. There was reggae everywhere which makes me think about how much all my friends back home would LOVE this place....
Once we were finished with the place, we forgot to take pictures and drove off to san Jose for our last night in a hotel and their last night in Central America. Luckies took off for Hawaii about 5am. It was greta having you Mom and Matt; thank you so much for everything; we are lucky sons. Alex and I woke up late and ate the free hotel breakfast before dragging our asses out to the truck to start another (exciting) leg of our trip...
GB

Dominical 2

Drove back in to Dominical to kill some time. Swell was strong enough, but shape was just okay. Some lucky few caught rare barrels. Not us.
One afternoon, a wild downpour came through just as we got outside. Between the crashing of waves, thunder and lightening broke out everywhere. Visibility got bad, and it was a bit sketchy making it out past a few big outsiders.
The rain was super heavy as was mistification, creating a surreal and eerie atmosphere.
We finally returned to camp to find everything underwater. Lots of our stuff floated away, my tent was partially submerged, and Camper was wet and extremely pissed off.
Sooni and Emily showed up yesterday, so we drank beers and hung out.
We drove up to the other Matapalo, but there was no ping pong table, so we came right back to Dominical.
According to Garen, his "spirit has been broken" at the mere flicker of my magic forehand paddle, which has decimated all competition at the bar (so far, just Garen).
We are leaving tomorrow morning.
Maybe I should go take some pictures

A

Matapalo and the Osa Peninsula

First and Foremost, CONGRATS CHRIS AND ANNE!!!!!!!!!

We decided to make a good push south to the Osa and ran into Sooni and Shanti, friends from SC on the way in Puerto Jiminez; which came as a very nice surprise. They've been living in the jungle in Southern Costa for a few months and were happy to put us up in their house and show us around a bit. Matapalo is about an hour's drive from Puerto Jiminez in our slow truck, and there's not too much out there. There is one restaurant/ bar and a small community of whities shacked up near there in the jungle.
There are three spots to surf and tons and tons of wildlife to see... Camp almost got bit!

The surf wasn't huge while we were there but we had some good waves regardless, and we surfed almost every day.

There's a fast, bigger spot, a mellow right hander called Backwash, and a longboard wave (unless it's big) within walking distance of the house. We surfed backwash the most and it was there that I was attacked by a ruthless huge Jellyfish.

If you look closely here you can see my new third nipple.
Other time was spent reading, eating, and relaxing around the little compound in the jungle. This guy was there...

We went into town a few times and were POUNDED by a storm there one day, so we holed up soaking wet in a bar for a bit while the storm subsided....

Emily lives there too...

This was the most beautiful scenery we've seen in this country and we had an absolutely wonderful time with our company from the states. There were less people here than anywhere in CR we've been and it made for a relaxed, mellow week in the jungle; which was absolutely needed. Thanks again Sooni, Shanti, Emily and Mel for your hospitality... See you back in SC!!
Time to get closer to San Jose for airport swing-by and family visit!!!!!!
GB

Dominical for a spell...

We arrived in Dominical on the opening day of a weeklong festival they were having. It's similar to a small county fair and there are food booths, artisian garbage, a little casino booth, and best of all, a rodeo. We immediately found a camping spot in a big fenced field and set up tents; it's hot as can be again. Camper likes the field as there aren't any obstacles to get in her way...

The waves were just okay so we didn't surf; just walked about and met people from Kentucky, Switzerland, Tahoe CA, Humboldt, and a host of other spots. They have a little camp set up right on the beach where they play guitar and skimboard games and pretty much just lay about and drink beer.

This guy Jonathan trounces everyone at ping pong every night in 6-8 person tourneys. One older guy even brings his own paddle and throws it around in anger when he loses!
One night there was a rodeo, which we payed $6 to get into. After what seemed like hours, they put the first guy on a bull and he came out of the chute and went straight his face in the dirt just before getting mashed into the ground HARD by the bull. We were ready for one hell of a night but it turned out that the rest of the guys knew what they were doing and there weren't any more really good spills.

Alex chose to wear a red shirt so the bulls (which, by the way, pale in comparison to America's rodeo bulls) kept coming over to the fence and either giving us the stinkeye for a bit or ramming it, sending everybody jumping back...
We didn't do much besides eat and relax as the waves weren't all that great and it was either hot or raining or both.

This ceviche gets a C+.
The festival kept things fun at night and loud during the day, and made it pretty easy to waste a few days away just hanging out.

Hanging out gets old, so it's off to the Osa peninsula for fewer people and more waves...

GB

Manuel Antonio - Quepos

We stopped in Jaco for lunch, and at Hermosa and Esterillos to check waves. Nothing happening, we hauled down to Manuel Antonio. This area is probably the prettiest jungle/beach region of the trip. Many shades of green meet white sand and clear blue water.

We surfed at the north end of the beach, which is near a point, and called a point break, but looked and felt more like a regular shorebreak to us. Direction is everything I guess. The waves were fun, but fast and a bit tricky due to lots of rip and constantly shifting. We camped steps from the sand in a small meadow surrounded by noisy monkeys (who drive Camper nuts), and sing songy birds. We cooked all of our meals because the prices everywhere are outrageous. Somehow, we have found room in the budget for beers at night.

who would like to read a story?
THE RISE AND FALL OF TARP CITY
Let me start by saying one thing. It is damned hot, wet and muggy here. There is no dry place, and the humidity makes camping very challenging. Clothes remain sweaty, and tents become steam saunas.
The first night we had a short period of light rain accompanied by sporadic thunder and lightening. The flys went up on the tents, and both Beckers roasted inside like potatoes in the oven.
My sleeping pad had a perfect chalk-stlye outline of sweat, like you might see at a crime scene. Uncomfortable?... yes. Disgusting?.... yes also. Add two direct hits from falling mangos, near suffocation, a late night fly removal, then subsequent brief rainshower. Not much sleep that night.
As it happens, Garen meanwhile suffered many of the same issues so we decided to erect TARP CITY. The idea was to create a large waterproof tarp structure that both tents would fit under. This way, we could remove the flys and experience what is called ventilation, without worry of getting soaked. Quite impressive, really.

We built another tarp house behind the truck for drinking under.
All went smoothly until the evening of the second night when the Perfect Storm came through. As luck would have it, we were at a bar ten minutes away when loud booming occurred and white flashes leaped across the sky. The rain was heavy enough to render us totally waterlogged within 30 seconds of leaving the cantina. Garen, Camper and I raced down a muddy road back to TARP CITY, falling into knee deep mud holes, and sloshing around in the dark.
We finally staggered into camp,where rivers ran under our tents and collected in pools everywhere. We dug moats and built trenches in an effort to save the camp from being washed away completely. Hours later the torrential rains ceased, but the damage had been done. TARP CITY was a failure.
A