Drake Bay

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Just got done traveling for the past few days, decided that I have had enough of living in the middle of nowhere where it rains all of the time. I had a great time working on the river and getting in the water every day, but work slowed down tremendously and it was hard to find anything to do. One of the other guides that lived with me there in the cabin told me about a place down in the southern part of the country where he could get me some work, so I packed up all of my things and started the long adventure. Tuesday morning, Valentine´s Day, we got up super early and took a truck into Siquirres to catch the first bus. It was a 2 hour ride to San Jose, where we got a taxi through downtown to a different bus terminal, and took a 3 hour ride up and over the mountains to San Isidro de General. The view was amazing, you go from 3000 feet at San Jose to above 10,000 over Cerro de la Muerte (mountain of death!) then descend through a steep river valley down into San Isidro. One more taxi over to the small town of Sierpe, the jumping off point for the Peninsula de Osa. We stayed there overnight, hanging out with some local girls we met and chilling at the only open place in town. We called it an early night, then woke around 6:30 for hour long boat ride. An hour later, after zipping through mangrove-lined canals teeming with crocodiles, we got to the mouth of the river, where it took an additional 15 minutes to navigate the waves and get past the breakers to real ocean. The murky brown of the river soon yielded to spectacular aquamarine, and a few minutes later, we were dropped off in waist-deep water at our private beach. The house we are staying at has its own little beach, and it is perched on a small hill overlooking the breathtaking bay. The bay is fairly large, but sparcely populated, as the only way in is by bush plane or small boat. Yesterday, I trained for my new job, a zip line tour guide. We call them canopy tours, but it is not much of a sightseeing trip, more of an adrenaline rush. The first line is about 450 feet long and 215 feet high, definitely high for someone like me who is afraid of heights. No time for that, there is work to do and things to learn. We do 6 lines all through the jungle, most around 100 or 150 feet off of the ground. It is actually pretty easy work, I am just a little shaky up there. Surfed all afternoon yesterday, right until the sun went down. Waves were small, but it was awesome to be in the water. I got up early this morning, did another canopy tour, then surfed all afternoon. I just did a 4k run into town, rewarding myself with a few Imperials. Back to the house to surf until sunset....

PS- here is the webpage for the hotel we work for, should be some decent photos if you browse around the site.

http://www.costaricadiving.com/drakeindex.htm

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Comments

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Killer
Sounds like its been a great week for you. I absolutely can't wait to get down there. Is it pretty hot right now? I watched a show this week on the discovery channel called Survivorman. It was pretty cool. It was this guy who got dropped off at the beach on the Osa Peninsula and had to survive for 7 days with no supplies. He caught his own food, made fire and shelter and all that. It was really cool but he had a hard time there. He traveled into the jungle and it was wild. Bugs and tarantulas and what not. Just got me more fired up about heading that way. Keep having fun. Drop a guaro bomb for me one of these days. I will continue to hold it down here at my desk in the bland office in the US. LATE.