July 9, 2015

In the night, I noticed poor Ethan on the floor in the bathroom.  He told me the next morning he had been sick but felt a little better. I awoke to the knocking of the housekeeper and knew we had missed free breakfast which ended at 10…still, I got dressed and headed off, able to grab a plate of food which I brought back to the room.  Delicious rice and beans (gallo pinto, a Costa Rican dish) and a meat stew composed a traditional breakfast, plus fruit.  I also drank the delicious coffee.  I soon woke the kids to share the plate.  They had slept 13.5 hours, and I had slept about the same.  We were certainly rested.

Unfortunately the surf was said to be far too high and turbulent for diving and we later noticed the PADI center agreed with this (they had a sign posted on the closed shop).   Fingers crossed that it changes soon.  We wanted to go exploring, so we headed off on foot towards Puerto Viejo.  We saw numerous points of interest – much nature.  The kids were not thrilled with the temperature/humidity, however, and my stories of cold swimming and “be the water” mindset (accept it as it is) didn’t help the situation much.  I was concerned about Ethan, still, so we went into a grocery store where I bought chilled water and we sat on the beach in the cool breeze and drank it.  We walked a bit more and then decided to try to rent bikes.  They wanted $150 down (per bike) and needed my passport  number, which I (thankfully) didn’t have, so we walked to  the next rental place where a cool lady from Australia named Ellie rented us bikes for the week and held my driver’s license as insurance.  She was so sweet!  

We loved riding around on bikes and headed back to the hotel to grab our swim gear and headed back to the same spot as it started to sprinkle.  Bikes were locked onto a palm tree and gear put into the snorkel bag –then Ethan and I brought it over the beached barge, with plans to store it on top.  He initially threw the towel with keys, shoes, sunglasses on the barge and it fell right through – there was a rusted hole in the spot he had thrown it which he couldn’t see.  He panicked, with tears in his eyes and struggled to get everything.  Poor kid.  It wasn’t a big deal – I helped him climb up and manage to get into the hole to grab everything.  It sure scared him, though.

We had fun snorkeling around the area.  We couldn’t see a thing, visibility sucked by the black-sanded beach, but I managed to first find a live sand-dollar, then another, and another.  The kids soon did, too.  We body surfed a bit and son high-tide began to get stronger, so we exited and rode back to the hotel in the rain, wet from the ocean with smiles on our faces.

We showered and headed in for dinner.  I spoke to the man at the front desk  about the surf and diving – he said it was getting better – and we made reservations for zip lining tomorrow.  A delicious dinner, where my accent was again mistaken that I was fluent in Spanish.  It seems I somehow understand enough and can respond sufficiently, which is nice, but when the response is at a million miles an hour I have to admit I only comprende Español un piqueno (if that's even right).    I also taught Mags how to say a few things.  After dinner, we played pool, then ping pong, the Farkel in our room.  Tomorrow morning we will be up with the alarm so we don’t sleep through breakfast again. The fact that it is dark here by 6 helps a ton.

Pictures: A home for sale on the way to the village; Scenery in Puerto Viejo; The barge where we put out things and swam near; A village man getting coconuts; Dinner at Luna Y Sol - the resort restaurant