Burned & Cockroaches
Costa Rica Day 20

hello hello,

well today's title really doesn't give the best representation of (the great day!) today but it is certainly memorable.

started out with getting ready for the 10a surf lesson and, no surprise now that i've learned about 'tico time' (tico means costa rican), i'm running late. i get close to Salty sols just before 10:15a and start jogging as i see King of the Hill waving at me and Robby and KOTH calls out no need to run. i make it up to the two of them and KOTH says eric asked them to wait for me, the rest of them are already on the beach. apparently the rest of the group wasn't on tico time today.

eric calls out 'kaela there's your board!' and they're all just about to hop in the water and cross the estuary **. KOTH hangs onto my bag and i grab my board and hop on to start paddling across along with them (it also seemed to be a shorter paddle this time but maybe that's my arm strength building up now -who knows). great surf! the waves (olas) are way less big than they were over the last week given the two big swells that came in back to back (which apparently never happens here in the dry season) so the waves (and getting up) is way more manageable now! having a good mid tide where we're all able to touch the bottom of the water doesn't hurt, either. for surfers today it was me, Sami from the other day (she's a junior in high school), and four other new ppl: a woman who did super well for her first time, one guy from Holland and two other guys i didn't get to meet/ interact with at all really. and instructors-wise it was eric and sophie. caught some good ones on my own today!!!! getting so much better. it's really fun and with the state of the tide towards the end of our lesson, just got to ride some long waves in. you can see the bottom of the ocean aka it's super shallow so just very non-threatening and the water is so clear and looked gorgeous from the beach today! that turquoise color wowie.

**very non-threatening spot of estuary. and it's mid to low tide i think so it's not so deep

okay let's see what else. oh and since i was late to the lesson, i didn't have a rash guard on today. holy moly do i have a burn on my back. i went to Volcano Brewing Co after sunset to watch eric's band play there and sami had said during our lesson that she and her dad and grandpa would be going there, so i looked across the tables for them for a few minutes. shortly after spotted Robby and KOTH and went over to say hi and ask if i could grab them a drink and King of the Hill beats me to it right away as the server was on cue! i sat down with them at their picnic table and later on, after eric's band finishes up and we've gotten to say hey to him, giovanni notices i'm there and comes over to say hey, too, and comments on my back. Yup. i'm reallll burned bc of no rash guard during surfing. later he's still chuckling about my back and says to give him my phone so he can take a photo for me. that's another lesson you only need to learn once!

what a packed day - after i got back to villas macondo from surf i catch Audrey and Carlos in the kitchen and we catch up on surfing. then i ask what (kind of meat) Carlos is cutting up and he goes on to tell me the closest thing they have to 'pork belly' here- not exactly what he was looking for but it'll do- as they're making a Portuguese meal. Audrey invites me to join them! as she had mentioned this yesterday that they'd be cooking a portuguese meal for dinner and that they'd knock on my door but we both got on to other things yesterday and i figured i'd missed them- but nope they're doing it today. i said yeah that'd be great what can i bring but they already had everything (and had been working at it a while  planning & prep-wise -- audrey's clams had been soaking in a bowl of water since last night to let the sand out) so no need to bring anything and just to 'follow the smell' for when it's close to ready. i play the uke for a few, rinse off in the outdoor shower (it's hauttt here today) and head to the grill to see where Carlos is at. the fire is started and he said it's easy to start because 'everything is so dry'. makes sense for the dry season we're in! anyways this is getting long already so speeding things up- grab a few more things from the kitchen, bring my big jug of water over, set the table with that and what audrey's already pulled out. she's finishing making the clams with garlic, olive oil and cilantro then comes over and doles out the wine while carlos finishes up the meat. yum! i didn't take a photo of the spread but there's a couple of the two of them. Carlos is Portuguese and was born there so it's cool to eat this cuisine that's part of his heritage. i always think that is so cool when people get into that! even tho he's lived in Canada for 10+ years, he's really into it and especially his parents, he says. they only eat portuguese-style, even when they come to visit canada. 

Ashley is visiting Tamarindo today!! she texted me yesterday seeing if i was busy and that she has a trip set up to Tamarindo! her bus left at noon from where she's staying in Guanacaste (Cotillo maybe?) so she wasn't here til maybe 2ish or so with traffic and the bus leaves at 6p. this worked great since surfing was in the am so that i could hang with her! i go meet her at the mercadito after finishing dishes from lucnh with Audrey and Carlos and we head to show her the beach. it's still so hot (3;30ish?) so we head to the shade and sit down at Ocean for a beach side drink. the server tells us first about the passion fruit mojito and some others and i'm sold at the first one. we have a great time chatting all things travel and life and what's important to us!! really happy we got to meet and know this won't be our last time seeing each other. she is a travel nurse and that means she can pick and choose contracts across the US where she could go work for different time frames. she lives in charleston, SC, now and grew up there, but tells me about a program that's somewhere in hawaii that she has her eyes on for eventually. so cool. 

we catch the sunset and i didn't even realize it was about time for her to catch her shuttle back!! she might day trip back to tamarindo again on monday but this time on her own vs on a shuttle bus with others so she'll let me know.

was going to check the scene out at Crazy Monkey? at the Best Western (aka the bar at the pool where i was yesterday but they just call it crazy monkey on friday nights when it turns into a partay and you pay to get in and locals go and it's a whole thing) but i'm way too tired post shower / with the burn / with a full day planned tomorrow (registered for a beach clean up the other day with The Clean Wave for tomorrow-saturday- it's 9;30-11;30a, then surf at 12;30p, and i can't remember oh wait yes and then watch eric's band tomorrow at El Be since i didn't catch all of it today but like the last half hour). 

oh yeah there was a cockroach in the bathroom when i got home tonight so that wasn't cool and then when i tried to shoo it out- moved the bed to do so- a SECOND appeared from underneath my work back pack  and i shrieked cause it came outta nowhere and they run so damn fast. 

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happy days!

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10:37p, 20 January 2023