Day 6, 12/26/2010

Today, we woke up before 6AM to catch our fishing charter out of the beach just south of us at 7AM. It was windy, and there was clearly some wind chop in the swell, but it seemed pretty calm. We boarded the boat and head out to sea, only to find that it was much much windier outside of the port. We immediately turned around. My dad's friend came with us, so we drove him back to his place that's about 45 minutes north of where we were. The house his family rents sits high on top of a mountain overlooking the pacific and the beach. It was BEAUTIFUL. They have grasshoppers there the size of small dogs. You could even put a leash on one and keep it as a pet (just kidding, but they're probably about 8" long...which is crazy). The wind didn't die down at all during the afternoon, evening, or night; and it's still blowing hard. It was so hard, we couldn't even go to the beach. Too much sand blowing and the waves were trash. We rescheduled our trip for Tuesday afternoon, so hopefully the wind will cool down by then. Someone turn off that damn wind machine!

Day 5, 12/25/2010

Christmas day was full of surfing and relaxing. Nothing out of the usual. My brother and I ate lunch with one of our local tico buddies, Luigui. Dinner was at one of our favorite restaurants down here that's really downgraded over the last year. That's not to say we were disappointed with the meal, it just wasn't as great as we remembered.

Day 4, 12/24/2010

Today was a typical beach day. Woke up at 7, made coffee, checked out the waves, walked to breakfast with my parents and brother, then went surfing. Still strong off-shore winds this morning, but they shifted on-shore by noon or 1 o'clock. The waves also picked up a little bit. There were some nice chest to head-high sets, but still mostly in the waist to stomach hight.

As I was walking off the beach, a guy had gotten stung on the toe by a stingray. When my brother and I were at lunch, he walked in to the restaurant to soak his foot in hot water which is really the only remedy for the stings down there. He sat down with Sam and I and we got to talking. Nick (that's his name) is from Finland but now lives in the US. He's here on vacation with his girlfriend, and today was his first time surfing. What a story he has now. He took the sting very well. We've seen 6'2" 200 pound guys crying on the beach from getting stung. Our waitress brought him out a shot of tequila and said "The water's the first part of the medicine, here's the second!" Nick was a good sport, and he and his friends thought my reaction to his sting while we were on the beach (which was a sympathetic, "Hey did you get stung by a ray? That sucks.") was hilarious. Fortunately in the 6 vacations we've been here, none of us have gotten stung. I stepped on a ray the other day though (it's unmistakable when you feel it wiggle out from under your foot) but didn't get stung.

Day 3, 12/23/2010

The surf was small again this morning with 10-15 MPH offshore winds keeping them down until around noon. It was hard to paddle into anything because the wind would push me right back down and then I'd get sprayed right in the eyes from the break. I did have some pretty nice rides though. The new board proved to be successful. But with great success comes great failure...or injury in my case. At the end of one of my rides, I jumped off my board and landed hard on my right side. The force of the fall pushed a ton of water in my ear. Later in the afternoon after having a lot of discomfort, I stopped in at the local clinic to get my ear checked; and it's a good thing I did. As the doctor so well put it, the good news is that my eardrum did not get punctured or torn in any way. The bad news is that I did have some swelling and a build up of blood on the inside of my eardrum, which lead to a diagnosis of a hematoma (or simply put: a bruised eardrum). No worries though - it's not too serious and I can still surf and play in the water for the rest of my trip. I can't ask for anything more than that. WOOHOO!!!

Day 2, 12/22/10

Just a normal day on the beach. The waves here, which are usually about 5-6 ft. high long curling barrels were 2-3 ft. at best, soft breaking, and very hard to judge. Strong off-shore winds caused waves to form, then die, then break. I let up a few potentially awesome rides because I thought the wave was going to break on top of me. The wind would then blow, diminish the break, and then the wave would break about 20 feet in front of me. Even on a 7'0" board (which for people who don't surf is not quite a long board, but not quite a short board...basically just a versatile fun board really) it was tough to catch anything. I only got one ride and just took it in to shore for the time I was out there. I up'd my board to an 8'0", which is at the small end of a long board. A couple people I was out with were on 9'0" boards and said "I could even use another foot on this for waves like these," but I think I'll be fine with the 8'0". If not, there's always longer boards I can pick up. Sunset was beautiful as always, and very relaxing. My dad, brother, and I went back out to the beach around 5PM with chairs and beers. ¡Perfecto!

Day/Night 1, PHL -> ATL -> LIB (12/21/10)

Woke up at 4:15 AM, hopped in the shower really quickly to wake up, threw on my clothes, and off we were. As my family was pulling up to the airport in Philly, we realized we don't have a camera. $#*!. At this point, it's 5:05 AM, our flight to connect through Atlanta is at 6:30. We turn around and head back to Pine St. and run through the house to get our camera. We got back to the airport a few minutes before 5:30 AM. It takes us until about 5:50 AM to get through security and another couple minutes to get to our terminal, which is conveniently located at the furthest possible terminal in gate D in at PHL. The plane is already boarding zone 3, and we only have carry on items. Personally, I have my guitar and my suitcase. As I approach the gate, my passport is new and needs to be verified, and they tell me I have to check my guitar. For those of you who don't know, I REFUSE to check my guitar. I've heard and read horror stories about peoples guitars coming out of the checked luggage area and literally being in pieces - necks snapped, bodies cracked in two, due to not properly being stored in a pressurized cabin like where dogs would be put during a flight. Luckily, my dad had taken it when he got on the plane, so the Delta employee just said "Oh...whatever." Our plane arrived in Atlanta 30 minutes early, and we were able to pull right in to the gate (FTW!). We still only had a few minutes before our next flight, which was awesomely in the same terminal (but a much further away gate), so the plane being early was just perfect. On the way to Costa Rica, the ride was slightly bumpy, but it eventually calmed down with the wind dying off. We watched a great (sort of chick-flicky) movie called "Going The Distance." One of the main characters played a music scout (A&R Rep) for a label, so I liked that part. We landed early (again!) in Costa Rica, where it, for once, was not blistering hot - but warm and breezy. It was delightful. Got through immigration, picked up or rental car, and drove to our super secret spot on the west coast, somewhere between the northern and southern tip of the country, possibly on the Nicoya Peninsula, possibly not. Nothing too exciting on the trip...we stopped to pick up booze but that's really it. The locals thought we only owed them $30 USD for a small bottle of Johnny Walker, two 6 packs, and two bottles of wine. It came to 29,300 Colones, which is about $60 USD (liquor is expensive there due to importation...last year the bottle of JW that we picked up was 50,000 Colones by itself). We we're nice and paid them the right amount, even though the little girl that was there was saying "We're only asking for $30 USD, they want to give us $60...just take it!" And if we're wrong, then they get an extra $30 and are reallyhappy. Stupid Americans....

We got in to town just in time to unpack and watch the sunset. It was awesome.

At night we met up with my dad's work friend and his family at a local restaurant where I had coordinated to jam with the band that was playing that night. I first met the band leader when I was 12, the first year we came down here, and I've been playing with him mostly every year since then that we've come. He know's I'm a good player, so about 2 weeks before he said "Hey Dave, shoot me down the tracks you want to play, and I'll write a bass part. We'll take it from there." He went to Berklee College of Music and he really kicks ass.

Glory Days by none other than Bruce Springsteen was the first track we did. Somehow, the drummer had never heard the song and couldn't find a beat, no matter how many times I counted him in. He eventually started tapping the hi-hat off tempo, but Bill (the bass player) and I were able to meet him somewhere in the middle to create an in-time tempo so the drummer was able to pick up from there. After that, it was smooth sailing. Next was Flake by Jack Johnson. Again, the drummer was a little bit unfamiliar about when to come in, but he was able to keep a nice beat and we had a lot of fun with that song. After Flake was Bob Marley's Stir It Up. That was PERFECT. Great drawn out track, lots of solo's and jamming. What I Got by Sublime followed that up. I censored the first f-word, but the second one I kept in there. I couldn't avoid it, and let's face it, I've always hated censorship of creative writing. We then did a spontaneous rendition of Jackie Wilson's Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher). What a great jam that was. I started it off how Jackie Wilson does, but the drummer improved this awesome reggae beat, so we all kept that going. All in all, it was friggen awesome. There's nothing better than a good meal, a couple of cold cerveza's, and a great jam session. Great first day!