Pura Vida
Costa Rica Day(s) 21, 22 y 23

pura vida, 

​

what a last few days! my mouth is curling into a slight half-smile //smirk just writing that first sentence there. i am so grateful. this has been the most fun in a long time. i am so lucky!!! i thought earlier this morning that the universe served me up this sweet trip to something like restore my faith in something greater looking out for us in life, after having endured the last few years which have been my (and manys;) thoughest one yet. *morning thoughts*

​

where to begin? front to back, back to front? i think i've got to go back to front, as the days just keep getting better and better seemingly - but all are encreeable!! 

​

welllll this afternoon a had a new first! multiple firsts. i have been planning with sarah and sebastian lately to surf together some time and they have mondays off - so we'd been tentatively aiming for today, so long as their surfboards were done being repaired by their guy. apparently he lives in a tent and sebastian says he does a good job. anyways sarah did not make it with us today which i am bummed about but another time! sabastian and i prob left villas macondo ~3p ish or just after and walked the beach with our boards to the river mouth and - finally - took the boat over! (it is funny that i've now paddled over and back more times than i've boated - you could have told me that my first day here and i would not have believed you). even being on the boat, i still got nervous! it's safe (enough) - it's big enough, though with waves coming (as the tide's coming in)- i don't like the rocking of the boat with such large crocs up the river. and with the tide coming in, the boat gets pushed up the river just a tiny bit before the driver can get us back closer towards the mouth on the other side to safety. sebastian no joke goes 'i saw the biggest crocodile i ever seen in my life right over there' and points, i don't know, a hundred yards from where we are when we're a little past halfway across. i swear, some of the experiences i've had here - i couldn't make this stuff up better than it's actually happened! the people here are just not phased by some of the things and it's funny how they can say them so casually and my reaction is probably so extra from what they're used to, i can't help it! this time.  idon't remember what i said but after that, i just say aloud to myself 'stay calm' and do some slow breathing. it helps!!

​

we're on the other side safe and sound. we walk the five mins or less towards where we're going to surf and it's WAY easier with this short board sebastian has me carrying compared to the last times with a longer board! i think i even said after we left villas macondo 'this feels like i'm carrying cardboard'. so nice! this is the board that sebastian is going to use, though, and he's carrying the longer one we thought i'd use.

​

we get to the spot and there's only five people out in the water and one other wayyy down - who sebastian points out and asks if i see that guy and says that's his friend. he calls out and waves to his friend (no idea how they're actually recognizing each other - i guess it's cause they planned and knew to look out for each other, but this guy is WAY down there!) to motion him back towards us, not as far north up playa grande where the friend is surfing now. 

his friend is Ricardo but introduces himself as Pinguino - which i do not catch at first and ask for it once more - and at some point before we hop in the water he explains how i'm going to be safe with him as he used to lifeguard over at playa tamarindo(!). that was a nice surprise! i feel very safe now knowing this, as i told sebastian when we first put our boards down that for some reason i was 'feeling a little nervous' and it's because it's my first time surfing without Eric, my instructor. not nervous in a bad way, just nervous and like i wasn't expecting that to come on! i've been so excited to get out there with sebastian and sarah since the last few days where i've felt more confident that i could actually do that with them and enjoy it, that i hadn't thought of any nerves one bit. anyyyyhow, Pinguino goes on to share that, as a lifeguard over there, he's done the swim from the life guard tower to the small island in the water and back. several times a week! i'm impressed. i let him know i'm a good swimmer and have been doing it since i was little, even if i'm new to surfing. he assures me that it's going to be good - the surf isn't big waves or anything. we'll be fine. turns out i'm going to be using the board that Pinguino was on -- woops wait i meant to finish that story -- that is why they call him Pinguino -- like a penguin because of the swims out to island he does! haha. i get it now and the pronunciation. so yes, i'm using the board Pinguino was on which is a foamie board. bright orange. haha. i haven't been on a foamie since probably australia (2014), so at first it feels a little backwards to me but, i'm just so happy to be going out there with them that i don't care what i use. also, they have their own challenges. so i'm good to take this challenge, especially because it's a shorter board than what i've been riding out here with eric - aka it's more difficult for me to balance on. that was a quick observation as soon as we get in the water! a little shorter or so but, Pinguino helps set me up with my first wave and - i can't remember if it was my first or second go for it -- probably second. wait no know i know it was my third because my first two attempts i went down. Ricardo points out that after the first go, i was holding the board from the edges when popping up (instead of palms down, pushing from the board to get up) and that slows down the board in the water. so he gives me a tip (only now writing this do i know why, cause i slowed myself down that first go) that i can lift my feet up and bend my knees back during those last few paddles before popping up, as this makes you go faster. so i do that this second time and, did not go right haha. we laugh off what i'm doing but at the same time, he is sure to explain what it was i did that results in the ride (not) going the way it did. so this time i say, i don't think i like doing that lift up with my legs - (as he said now it's a quick thing- and i'd had them up too long before popping up), as i'm not used to it and not going to do that this next time and he gives me the all good, he was just giving a tip, not something i need to do! got it. and third time's a charm.. i'm up! it's cool on the foamie, different than what i've been using here like i said, and ride that thing full in!! now i've got a handle on it*. 

*it helps that i've got Pinguino showing me the ropes and giving me the push at the right time before i go and pop up***

what a seshhhh. it's cool because once you've got a feeling for how to do it right, it's easier to do it again and again! it's so fun taking these waves in and i'm surprised that i'm getting them because the shorter board had me thinking it'd be maybe harder ! but nope, with lots of help, i've got it and i've gotten the practice in since being here! and figuring out (not all the way of course, but better than the beginning and better every time), the timing of when to pop up. it's also cool to see sebastian catch some waves!! he's using the shortboard that i carried over, like i mentioned, and he calls out over to us how he loves this board and i say back how yeah, he looks like he's really comfortable - at ease - on it. steez. style with ease (i don't think Pinguino catches me say that last bit) but i haven't used 'steez' in a practical way in.. a long time! well yes sebastian has some steez on that shortie and Pinguino - well, yeah. he tells me he did a 'hang five' after like the first ride i see him take in and i'm like what's that and he shows me how it's the five toes of his feet hanging just over the tip of the front of the board (as i had commented how he was so far up on the board towards the end of his ride!). and i'm like. wow. i literally never knew what 'hang ten' meant (as he shows me after hang five, that a hang ten is the two of them off the tip). mind is blown how i'm only learning this now and known it's a saying forever!!! wow haha. the more you know // always be learning.  

not only such a fun sesh, but the fish were digging it, too! some little fish were popping up out of the water less than ten feet ahead of pinguino as he's paddling back out after one of his rides in. so cool! i say how that's the first time i've seen that while out surfing. so cool. and with the lighting- as it's late in the day and the sun shining on them - it was just so pretty to see! at one point, i can't remember if before or after that with the fishes popping out, - i do say 'it's like a dream' looking out on the beach as we're waiting for me to take a wave. i had asked him when he started surfing and he said when he was three and a half. three and a half! he was on a wake board, he says, from my reaction. this reminds me of how my dad had me on little pink minnie mouse skis in our front yard and pulled me around with rope around my waist (fully 'reminds' me solely from home video footage i've seen), and it's so cool how families have their kids do things// pass it on to their children at such a young age and then it shapes them and into who they become and what they - love - to do. it is honestly kind of a dawning moment for me. i love skiing and pinguino loves surfing. i ask on our paddle out at one point 'do you surf every day?' and he nods yes and i'm just like. wow. this is the fucking dream. from his smile it's also like he knows how lucky he is here. he's twenty-five and so nice. okay wow i feel like i ...like writing? i guess i just haven't been writing about the things i enjoy! (or had a trip of a lifetime to write on ). anyway, pinguino tells me at one point on our way out that he calls his board Magic. he's got another nickname for it too - something that means wood as -- he knocks on the board and says -- it's made of wood! i like Magic (mostly because it's easier for me to say, for sure). at one point i say how i'm surprised how well i'm able to do on the foamie bc it's shorter than what i've been using, and motion to his board saying how i've been using a slightly longer one, like the one probably around his size, and he's like you wanna try it? and i'm like no, no, i'm not gonna use your favorite board, and he's basically like no, go for it, - so we switch ankle bands and i'm on his board Magic within a minute. wowwwwwie. okay it is shorter than i could tell and - it is so tricky to balance on!!! just laying on it! now i realize writing this duh because i was on a foam - better buoyancy - board and this one is far less buoyant. but it's hilarious and fun trying to balance myself / paddle / stay still / anything on it and i honestly keep laughing a good solid laugh of surprise and delight would be the best way to describe it -- you're laughing cause it's harder than you expected and then, you're tipping one way nearly falling into the water and like WOAHH i'm-going-over laughing and it's just good fun. i don't actually fall over but you think you're going to! and pinguino is for sure helping me catch my balance a point or two at the beginning on it. but yeaaaaah, wow, is that board fun to ride. i thought i wanted to be riding a longer board than the foamie, like what i've been riding lately, but i am so glad i tried this wood one. it's sweet. goes to show what you learn trying new things! i say both before and after how it's an honor to ride Magic. towards the end, i offer it back - 'you wanna ride Magic?' - after pinguino comes up from getting off his ride in and he's like full on smiling like no, you keep going. if you say so!! 

it's gorgeous with the sun getting lower and lower and the new lighting - for me being out on the water - while surfing. it's something else. we have to head back though as 'last boat' is 5;30p back and i'm sure to tell sebastian on our trek over that i'm not paddling back after dark! we wouldn't, though, and we joked how we'd camp (i say this first that yup i'll camp out there before paddling back in the dark, and he's like well yeah my friend and i did kind of make camp there! but someone destroyed in on new year's eve  i'm like what the heck). pinguino and i head in after our last waves and i could hear sebastian call - at least i think i made out - 'ultimo' , and know that sebastian is going back out for one more. it's a good one!! we say our goodbyes to one another, pinguino and i, and i am so thankful for him letting us borrow his boards, showing me such a fun time and hope to see him again before i leave. we share info and will make it happen! sebastian and i are off and pinguino biked there, so he's going back on his bike. 

yeaaaaah well, it's 9:15p and, this is getting to be a novel so i'm going to write about the rest of this day(?!) and the two before it another time. so much good stuff, though. incredibly grateful! i'm hungry too, so, got to take a break. but this was nice to reflect after a few days of not writing about it here. 

​

pura vida!

​

9:17p, 23 January 2023