Greetings everybody! Let me just start off by saying that Costa Rica is a fantastic vacation land. Let me just re-cap some of my high lights.
High lights thus far............

1. The sun. You just can’t beat it. I don’t know exactly how close you are to the equator, but you’re pretty close. If you go out without sun tan protection (at least SP36) for longer than 15 minutes, you’re going to get a nasty burn! You have to dress for the sun, which means long sleeved shirts and hats if you’re going to be in the sun.

2. The sea. The water is clear blue. When you go for a dip in the ocean it’s refreshing to your body and not shocking. We even went swimming at night. Which was a rush, but that’s a whole other story! The sand is “black fine sand” for all those who don’t know. Trust me, at 13:00 that sand is scalding hot! You have to wear good sandals.

3. The waves. View image The waves were fantastic for me, small and manageable average chest-head high. For the other guys who hadn’t taken 7 years off from surfing, the waves could have been better. I was lucky to be in a group of very good-excellent surfers. My skills, opposite as predicted in the beginning of the week, never really re-emerged. I sucked just as much in the beginning as I did at the end of the vacation! No really, I had a blast! I really did enjoy a few good pummelings though.

4. My fish. View image If you haven’t seen yet, I caught an 8 foot (2 ½ meter) sailfish. It was huge! I can’t really take full credit for it. I just reeled it in. The story in short is as follows. We booked this excursion thru our hotel. We expected to be on one of those BIG WHITE boats with all the fishing poles hanging off, instead when our driver dropped us off at the beach we had this tiny with 3 seats. The captain of this “mighty” vessel, couldn’t speak a word English, so right off we thought, “shit, we just got ripped off!’ After an hour of rough 3-4 foot seas, we got 5 miles off shore. Le Capitan set our 4 rods in the water, and we were off. I didn’t even have to bait a hook. After an hour or so of driving, 3 of our 4 poles began to take-off. We missed 2 fish, but the third fish was hooked. In our panic, the boys all agreed that I should reel in the first fish. (Thanks again guys!) I fought the beast for 20 minutes before he conceded the fight. I really must day that, it wasn’t as easy as it looks on TV! The fish jumped 2 times or so. After Juan got him in the boat, I took a few pictures and released the sailfish. We spoke to a few people later that day, and they said that the fish I caught was a trophy fish! I really proud of it, and I am glad we let him go as well!

5. The hotel. View imageWe stayed at this hotel. http://girasol.com/ It is run by an Canadian named Philip. If you ever need a good hotel, in CR go there! But, like all things in Costa Rica, never except the first price! You could always negotiate a good deal!

6. The sunsets. What more can I say!View image

Other than that life in CR is relaxed. Everyone sleeps through-out the dayView image. So a normal day went like this: wake up at 5:30am- go surfing until 10:30
Go out to lunch or eat a late breakfast.
Sleep by the pool or in you air conditioned room until 3:00
At 3:15 go surfing until dark
Watch the sunset.View image

Come home, take a shower or jump in the pool.
Then head immediately out for a killer fish dinner!
At 10:00 either go out drinking or go to sleep again.
That’s a normal day in Costa Rica, if your on a surf vacation!
Well, that sums up my Costa Rican experience thus far, more later tot ziens!