Travelling to Costa Rica -- Day 4

27 de Marzo
Playa Grande, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

We went on our first excursion today. Well, kind of. We left the house at 7:00 AM, and kind Alvaro, our local tour guide, drove us to the boat dock where our sailing boat and snorkeling tour was planned to depart from. We arrived way too early for our 8:30 scheduled time, and needed to wait 50 minutes. The wait was not a problem however, we hung out and talked, it is vacation. We utilized that time to apply generous amounts of sunscreen. The beach there was surprising ordinary for Costa Rica even though it was the beach of a sheltered bay for docking boats. This bay had a white sands beach, lined with palm and mango trees.

Once the tour was about to begin, we realized that we had reserved for next Tuesday, not today Tuesday. It is very astonishing when you are told that your plans are incorrect, and now you are on a boat dock in a different country, and you have no idea what you are going to do. We were scrambling, the worker there continued to apologize to us over, and over again, he was helpful but it was too much. As a group, we just decided to return to the house, and figure it out there. Alvaro, however, did not want to take us to the house, and to our surprise brought us to Shell Beach. I could sense that the group was not very happy about this diversion, but it was a perfect recovery and it ending up being exactly what we wanted. The beach’s namesake is the millions of shells instead of sand, causing the ground to be a little more abrasive, but a unique experience. After a couple of minutes we warmed up to this beach, and we purchased one of the canopies set up on the beach for some shade. In addition, we purchased coconuts from a seller who cut off the tops in front of us, and poured some pineapple juice into them and handed the ready coconut to us with straws. There were many competing entities at selling the canopies and the coconuts, but since we arrived so early, around 9:00 we were able to avoid a lot of the commotion. The person we bought our coconuts from returned to us regularly, and every time we supported him or he would cut them in half so we could eat the coconut inside; the coconuts were good.

The chance at snorkeling also prevailed, snorkels were provided from buying the canopy. Out in the light blue, warm water, the rock formations laid home for thousands of fish and sea urchins. In every crack, a sea urchin thrived, and along every moss-covered rock, a fish feasted. The bright blue fish were enamored by the protection of the rocks, while the tan ones enjoyed the camouflage of the sands. Hiding behind one of the rocks, I even saw a vibrant blue sea star. This snorkeling was incredible and much cheaper than on the boat, everything ended up perfectly.

In search of adventure, we rented a jet ski. My sister and I sped around on the protected beach, almost falling off of the various times. The problem with jet skis is that there are no handles for the person not driving, so the person driving has to hold on tight enough to support the momentum of both people in a sharp turn. There was not anywhere to go, but it was fun to just cruise around in the ocean, or more like race around--the jet skis are fast. When my sister had the chance to drive, Casey on the shore yelled, “I want to see some turns with power,” and my sister did not disappoint.

I am glad that we missed the planned excursion, the trip to the beach, in my opinion, seemed more enjoyable than a boat ride. I guess this is why people believe in fate.

Eating lunch back by the house at Los Malinches, back by the house, was delicious, and I once again ordered casados. The owner talked to us for a while, he is from Santa Barbara and just acquired the restaurant from a hostile previous owner, there must be a good story behind that! All he would tell us is that the previous owner, who he also bought a liquor license from, called the police and revoked the liquor license.

After we returned to the house and relaxed for a little bit, we realized that we needed to hurry up and do whatever we wanted to do before the sunset. We attempted to go kayaking in the estuary, but we realized that we had to reserve the kayaks from Los Malinches, but by the time we walked there, it was too late. We decided to walk on the beach instead and bring down surfboards in the case of good conditions. However, it was too windy and the surf was small, so we just walked. When the group decided to turn around, I ran the length of the beach and really close to the time I reached the end, the sunset. A lot of people stay at the hotel north us, everybody was out to watch the golden red sunset into the warm ocean when I ran by them. The tide was much lower than the last time, so the distance was probably also shorter since I ran barefoot along the edge of the ocean. It was a hot day again today, so after my run, I jumped into the ocean to cool down. The hot weather dried me off by the time I completed the walk to the house.

After eating a spaghetti dinner and platanos dulces that I made for dessert with inspiration from the meals I ate. As I was doing the dishes, I heard a honking of a horn outside, and Zoe ran outside. The panaderia Alemania, the German bakers, were here. We went outside and purchased delicious pastries for breakfast the following days. It is time for bed now, hopefully, our zip lining tomorrow happens as planned! (I forgot my phone in the room so I wasn't able to get pictures).