Living in Tamarindo
Off to Surf Mecca! Santa Teresa Costa Rica
So back in late February 3 of my good friends from Ocean City, MD decided to pay us a visit down here. Dave Hooks, Rob Lewis, and Tom Harvey decided to break away from the freezing cold and enjoy some fun in the sun.
They came down for a week flying into San Jose. They had a bit of crazy trip getting here. I believe they left Baltimore at something like 6am got to somewhere in Panama at 12pm. Had a 6 hour layover there. Flew into San Jose around 9pm and then drove 5 hours over night to get to Tamarindo. I think it was fair to say they were troopers.
It was really great to have them because not only did it give me an opportunity to hang out with some close friends it also gave me an opportunity to take off some time from work and travel a bit.
I’ve been in Costa Rica for about 6 months now and really haven’t had an opportunity to take off some time from work and travel the country a little bit.
For the first part of the week we took them to all the surf spots in the surrounding area: Avellanas, Tamarindo, Playa Grande, Playa Langosta. We got excellent waves all week. The very best was saved for the last part of the week.
The plan was to take off to Mal Pais for the last part of the week. Unfortunately, Kristina had to work on Wednesday so they took off a head of us. Kristina and I had a decision to make. Take off on Thursday morning and miss a full day of surfing or leave in the middle of the night and get their early in the morning. Its about a four hour drive through some of the countries worst roads. Pot holes form out of no where and practically 50% of the road is unpaved. There are ridiculous hills with 200 ft cliffs of to the side. Hopefully you see where I’m going with this in that if you get stuck or your tire blows in the middle of the night you are screwed. Here’s a map to give you an idea of the trek that laid ahead of us.
So we decided to gamble. We went to bed at around 10pm on Wednesday and got up 1:30am Thursday morning to start our trek. We made with the normal morning pleasantries… coffee, some breakfast, gassy farts the usual. If all went as planned we’d get there in time for sunrise and a morning surf session.
The drive was going excellent. Flying through the bad roads, dodging the pot holes. We did hit a little rough patch though in the hills. My car stalled out 7 or 8 times in a matter of 10 minutes. I was getting pretty scared at that point.
At any rate we were about an 1 hour away from Mal Pais when I missed a turned. At this point it was about 4:30am. We began driving down what appear to be a your typical screwed up Costa Rican road. What we didn’t realize was the road we were traveling down was beginning to bottle neck into the jungle. After about 5 minutes on this road we were brought to the entrance of what looked the like the jungle. The path of the road was a little wider than my car with overhanging trees and over grown grass in the middle of the road. THIS DEFINITELY DID NOT SEEM RIGHT. After some discussion we decided to proceed. After traversing two ravens we decided that we were in the wrong place. So we flipped around and decided to head back.
We ended up taking another wrong turn and traversing two more ravens. After the two ravens we were presented with what looked like a massive speed bump. As soon as we got to the top of this thing the whole car immediately sunk. I was able to drive out of it but we were immediately presented with a massive river 20 ft ahead of us. Realize that this path we are on is as wide as the car. We now have quick sand behind us and a massive river in front us. It’s now close to 5am. I pulled what I like to call an Austin Powers three point turn (pictured below) to get the car around to take the quick sand head on.
So after burning out my clutch and waking up every living creature in the jungle I finally got the car completely turned around. I dropped the car into 4 wheel drive. I revved up the engine and plowed head long into the mud. We sunk immediately! After spinning my wheels for about 30 minutes we gave up. It was now about 5:15. Dawn was upon us. I was a little scared. We were lost in Costa Rica, in the jungle, with our car stuck in mud up to the chassy. Would you be scared? I sure as hell was. Below is shot of our car stuck in the mud.
After about 15 minutes of spinning our wheels some more a little Tico had appeared out of the woods. His name was Johnny. He and his family lived up on a little hill to the left of where we were stuck. What a saint this guy was. He was about 5′2. He was wearing nothing but cut off jeans.
After some friendly chit chat in bad Espanol he immediately got behind our car and started to push. I couldn’t believe it. How would you behave if some silly ass Latin Americans got stuck outside your house at 5:30 in the morning. Waking you from a good night rest. Yeah exactly I’d doubt you be pushing them out in your cut off jeans, no shirt or shoes. After two attempts of trying to pull my car out with rope we decided to resort to other tactics.
Remember we only did all this so we could get to Mal Pais by morning so we could surf. We had basically resided to the fact that we were completely screwed and we’d be lucky to make it back to Tamarindo let alone the first true vacation I’d had in this country down to Mal Pais.
I was really distraught at this point. It was around 5:45 am. I asked Johnny if he knew of any surronding towns that may have a tow truck. I couldn’t really understand what he was saying but I knew enough that he wanted me to get into the car with him and see what his neighbors could do. So we piled in his car and made off on our way. We pulled up to one of his friends house a few minutes later and EUREKA! This guy had a old school tractor for farming with metal chains.
He ended up following us back into the jungle and in two seconds yanked us right out. Below if shot of him hooking up his chains.
Man let me tell you! As soon as we were out the green backs were a flying. I gave $40 to the tow guy and $50 to Johnny. We got out in just about an hour from something that could have easily marooned us for days! Thank GOD.
(By the way the town we got stuck in was San Rafeal, Costa Rica. Made 100% out of the kindest people on the planet.)
Kristina and I hit the road in full speed. At this point we were dying to get to Mal Pais. We had been on such an emotional roller coaster and behind the wheel for too long. After about another hour we had arrived. It turns out that Dave and the guys had booked a nice little Cabina in the neighboring town Santa Teresa.
We unpacked and immediately hit the beach. The surf was absolutely epic. Head high waves all day and for the majority of the remaining week. I’m extremely happy we got there on Thursday vs. Friday because it was THE best day of my short surfing career I’ve ever had. It was wave after wave head high & 30 second rides. O yeah and the line up was completely empty. I’ve been rambling for far too long so I’ll just end with my usual. A butt load of pictures from the trip with stupid comments. Enjoy:
ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICS FROM THE TRIP
THE BEST SUNSET TO DATE THAT I’VE EXPERIENCED IN THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
I am looking outside right now and all I can see is snow and grey – Your blog brings back real good memories.