Advertisement
Published: July 10th 2008
The day started with breakfast at Congo Coffee while we waited for the surfboard rental place to open. An hour later we had our boards and booked a ride with Indian Face - which was basically a commuter truck with no suspension, hard wood benches for seats, and a distinct possibility that we'd crack our head open on the roof or break our tailbones before we actually arrived.
We spent the day at Maderas beach, where we used our surf and boogie boards in the cooler than expected surf until the wind picked up enough that we couldn't handle it anymore. The beach was great - remote, not too overpacked considering the time of year, but the facilities were less than spectacular. Bugs everywhere, non-existent flushing, and bees guarding the water basin you need to use for actual flushing.
Lunch was a jamon y queso at the next beach over, a tiny shack serving sandwiches out of a cooler. If I had it to do over again I might have just skipped lunch - the queso and my stomach did NOT agree with each other. After a full afternoon of playing in the surf the Indian Face truck came
Indian Face "Death Truck"
Seriously. You try riding this and then let me know how much pain you're in...back for a ride that was bumpy enough for me to hit my head and break my sunglasses.
We checked out the Moon Guidebook recommendation of Big Wave Dave's, one of the few restaurants open during a power outage that was starting to feel routine.
In the morning we had booked a turtle tour through Rebecca, and we were not surprised to discover that once again we were traveling with Indian Face tours. The ride out was incredible - stars through the trees and not another person in sight. In fact, it was so secluded that we actually feared for our lives, convinced that either our driver was driving us to the Costa Rican border to kill us, or that he'd drive so fast we'd crash and be killed. Fortunately, the fast driving simply brought us to our destination earlier than most of the other tour groups, which meant that we got a good look at the turtles without having to share with dozens of other tourists.
The turtles were amazing. These huge creatures would wash onto shore and then slowly make their way up the beach. Once they were significantly far from the ocean, they spent
a long time digging a very deep hole, then stood over the whole and laid dozens of eggs. Our guide was great, forcing me to practice my Spanish and act as interpreter between him and Wes. We learned all about the process of laying eggs and the hatching, and how the government actually patrols the beach to ensure that no one is digging up turtle eggs, which are a delicacy here.
The ride home was equally hair-raising, but this time we were content and convinced that we would arrive in one piece. Bed was very welcome at the end of the ride.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 17; qc: 78; dbt: 0.0754s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
