Snorkeling and sailing in Coco Beach, plus a tragedy

January 10, 2023

Today there was a tragedy. Not a major mechanical tragedy (still lucky there!), but still one that I’m just kicking myself over.

I woke up excited for my sailing and snorkeling expedition and started to get dressed but could not find my long-sleeve dry-weave Seattle Marathon shirt. Nor my swimming trunks. I looked everywhere, then concluded that I left them in the hotel in Rivas. Crap. I really liked that shirt for a lot of sentimental reasons. I e-mailed them but I doubt I will ever hear from them. We’ll see. So, in a mad rush, I had to go out to the street vendors to find another long-sleeved shirt and swim shorts. I did manage, then got back to the hotel for the free breakfast, then headed out about 8:00 to the boat. The good thing I suppose is that you won’t be seeing me in pictures wearing the same orange shirt anymore!

We took an outboard raft from the beach to the sailboat. There was about 11 of us (I always make the group odd, since I am solo). There was a couple from Italy, but the rest were either local or from Canada or the US. In fact, there was one couple that was from Canada but they have been living here for about 5 years now and just got permanent residency. I talked with him a lot, about getting around, medical, all sorts of stuff. Everyone seems to really like it here, despite it being crazy expensive compared to countries north of here, but there is a lot of Americanism here which makes it easy to transition to and a nice escape from the cold, which may be why it is so popular with Canadians. It was so neat to be able to share stories with everyone on the boat. Kind-of like people watching where you make up stories about everyone, but you actually get the real scoop that you would never imagine unless you take the time and interest in others.

Snorkeling was not the best apparently, as there were some really big waves that made the water really murky. I didn’t really know the difference, never having snorkeled before. I saw some pretty rocks, and it was just a blast to be able to swim with fins in such beautiful, warm water. We swam to the beach and stayed there for a while, finding some turtle eggs (hatched). It looked like a private beach, but there are no private beaches in Costa Rica. The one fellow from Canada who is living here now told us about a recent issue where Mel Gibson spent about $6M building a house on the beach just a couple hours south of here, and then complained to the government about people walking all over his beach. The government told him; “sorry, all the beached are public in Costa Rica”. Apparently, Mel didn’t like that response and is still trying to sell his property now.

I swam back to the sailboat (some others took the raft back) and enjoyed some amazing food and some rum punch on the way back. It was such a perfect day, and definitely made all the hard work yesterday to be able to have a day off worth it! Although I’m still ticked about losing my shirt.

With some helpful tips from locals about the roads here then, I spent the afternoon adjusting my schedule and route over the next couple of days. Man, hotels here are just crazy expensive.

A few other thoughts about Costa Rica that I failed to include last night: Everything for the most part is very similar to Nicaragua and El Salvador, except there are definite sprinkles of Americana all over the place. Like Remax signs to manage, rent, or sell your property with photos of Americans (or could be Canadians too), private school signs, and other signs all in English obviously directed to that market. Lots of rental car agencies too.

I feel like I fit in with this crowd here, everything from talking to Sandra last night and what she does on a daily basis, and then also just seeing the older folks around me doing their karaoke and bingo at the hotel lounge here. One of the servers here told me she sees this exact same crowd here year after year. Other than my tight schedule and having to plan out every day carefully to make sure I get to Panama city in time, I just feel like I could spend a lot more time here. I wish I could spend a lot more time here and not have to worry about getting on to my next destination. It is getting a bit depressing though that my sweetie is not here with me to share in this experience.

Tomorrow may be a camping night, so there may not be a journal post. I can’t get too spoiled too quickly – going from $25/night roach and love hotels in Guatemala to $200+/night hotels here with a store and restaurant and everything you need in one place. It’s weird, where I came from recently, you could not find a nice, expensive hotel. Here in Costa Rica, you cannot find a cheap, trashy one!

My free breakfast at my hotel, after shopping and getting a new outfit for the day. Those are fried bananas on the right.

On the raft from the beach to the sailboat

Its hard to see, but there was a ~4' wide giant sea turtle just to the right of this boat.

Some rocks I was trying to get close to, but not so close as to get pushed in to the sea urchins from the waves.

No fish, but a pretty rock at least! I didn't want to get get too close this big rock that stuck out of the water since there were such big waves that could push you right into sea urchins. That's all I needed in my foot!

Swimming back to the sailboat, through the surf

Second lunch & whole dinner at a nearby restaurant while working on my routes. These were nachos but with real thin crunchy bananas. Oh my God! I can never go back to tortilla chips again! I could not finish this huge dish either (but could have the day before I'm sure).

In search of the best beach sunset picture. Sorry for all these that follow, but I just could not decide!

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0