Crocodiles and Surf

We settled in well to Dominical, a small surfing town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica and quickly got into our daily routine.  It has been a luxury having our host Mom, Nury, make breakfast and coffee for us every morning (out of a beautiful, hand carved wooden coffee maker that holds a cloth filter and drips Costa Rican ground coffee into a container below).  Gallo pinto—the mix of rice and black beans with the national salsa, Lizano—seems to be a staple present at every meal-- breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once a day suffices for me but it is Harlan’s daily grist. Practicing Spanish with Nury and her daughter and longtime boyfriend over meals has been wonderful, a window into the local culture and traditions. They are kind and generous.  In the evenings we sit out on the porch, where it is much cooler, and  Lusijah, Ella, and I read our daily scene from MacBeth--(for Ella's 7th grade English). It is incongruous but somehow wonderful to read Shakespeare's Old English in the tropics. Witches and the supernatural do not seem out of place among the insects and many night sounds here. Sometimes Harlan and Ella play with Nury's nieces and nephews in the yard.

Kendall, Nury's nephew plays Ella's guitar

Every morning, we walk from our homestay on a bumpy dirt road along a beautiful river into town to start Spanish school at 9 am—by which time it is already quite hot. The walk takes Lusijah, Harlan and I 25 minutes but Ella cruises ahead, not a fan of the heat—and makes it in 15. On our first full day in town, not yet used to the heat and unrelenting sun, we went for a swim in the river across from Nury's house during the afternoon.  The water of the river is cool, clear, and shallow—with a lovely pebble beach—just calm and shallow enough that I am not too worried about Harlan, who can swim but not well enough to fight a river current.  Lusijah and Harlan passed hours sitting in the cool water, filling a hollowed out coconut shell with pebbles, rating each one in terms of beauty and shape, and seeing how many could fit in the coconut before it tipped over.

Bexabet and Ella at our homestay

I mention the river because, the next day after our first day of Spanish school as we sat at lunch at the local little organic café, Harlan announced, “Guess what, Mama?  Daniel (Harlan’s teacher) and I saw a crocodile in the river today!”  Lusijah, Ella, and I looked at each other.  Was this one of Harlan’s tall tales?  It turns out that no, they had seen a croc, from Harlan’s classroom on the second floor of the school that looks over the river near where it empties into the ocean.  I asked the school’s wonderful driver and ad hoc tour guide, Javier, who seems to know about such things, if this were possible. “Oh, yes, there are some alligators in the river, but they are mostly down here by the ocean—and I have never heard of them bothering anyone.”  We had been swimming back up the river closer to our house—and I told myself that crocs would never make it that far. We had seen locals swimming in the river and they didn’t seem to mind, so we went back on other days to swim and enjoy the gorgeous water…but I have to admit to kept a bit of an eye out after that.

Not the Croc Harlan saw :)
This one is a Black Ctenosaur, about 2 feet long

Smoothies and Rat-a-Tat-Cat

Our daily lunch is at Café Mono Congo (howler monkey) which has amazing organic food and plenty of naturally sweetened fruit smoothies. Our favorite is the passion fruit, pineapple mint.  We try to do an outing in the afternoons to keep cool…or go for a surf lesson with Oscar and Jose, two amazing instructors from the local school.





I am learning about the “beach break” here—the waves crash straight into shore and are pretty fast, compared to other breaks that may crash slowly from right to left or vice versa. The speed and plethora of waves is great for Harlan and I as we don’t have to paddle out too far to get one.

A quick coco break and then back to the surf!

We are using fairly long boards. Ella goes out further with Oscar to catch the green water on her short board.  The instructors were pretty excited to try Ella's "hypto krypto" and Oscar catches a few waves while we break for pineapple or coconut water on the shore. It is amazing to see his quick turns and acrobatics on the waves.

This town is growing on us! Unfortunately we will have to move on soon..but will get to explore the Osa Peninsula. Scroll down for a few more surf shots...next up Osa report. :)

Three generation surfing family--well, at least we all caught a few waves!

Ella and Oscar--a fantastic surf instructor and friend