24. March 2008 by admin.

Photos

So it begins…

Day 7.. no sleep for 3 days, totally stoked on many a waves and completely exhausted on the verge of complete mental collapse..

So it ends….

Let’s fill in the middle.

Semana Santa, Saints Week, was anything but holy. Well sometimes it was. The first 3 days off school Friday though monday were as tranquil as a empty beach at sunset, calm before the storm. I did a whole lot of nothing, trying to not leave the house. I had studied a lot the past couple of days, and was looking to kick back for a bit, waiting for the final word on wither or not Erin would be coming down. In the end i was flying solo. So Tuesday it begins.

Tuesday 7:05 am, yes it really does exist. I leave the house to take the bus to San Jose. Well public busses don’t take kindly to gringos with surf boards so Taxi it is. Super chill taxi driver takes me 30km to San Jose for 3000 colones or about 6 bucks, holy truck driver bat man thats cheap!

I get to the Bus terminal to grab a charter bus, which allows stowed luggage, at 8:00am to find out that the next bus doesn’t leave until 10:30, so I wait. I read the newspaper, drink coffee and wait some more.

Finally I leave, I’m in the front most seat and its about six inches too short for my legs and the guy in the seat next to me is about six inches to wide. 3 hours later I make to San Isidro General, to wait 3 more hours.

Get on the second 4:30 bus to Dominical and about 3/4 of the way there the bus in front of us swerves from hitting a little girl, it’s breaks go out, and it plummets off the road, ending upside-down and on fire, 35 hospitalized, 1 fatality.

Two french ag students on the crashed bus transfer to ours, and are heading to Antoches Hostel same as me.

When we finally make it to the hostel it’s getting late and my new found french friends are sore from the crash and still shaking, can’t say I blame them. We check into the hostel and make quick work of the bottle of guaro i have, and head to a bar to forget the accident.

Wednesday 7am, yup two days in a row.

After a night of partying/forgetting I grab my board and head to the beach, which should be less bright in the morning I’ve decided. 30 mins and 2 waves pass and I ride a 3rd in, Breakfast of gallo pinto made by yours truely feeds, me the french, the maids, the hostel owners and a canadian couple.

Nap time, sun bathing, coffee shop, sunset session, and horrible news!

Because of some horrible old catholic law you can’t buy booze from thursday until saturday night, me and the french head to the liquor store and buy 6 bottles to make us through the days of forced sobriety. I mean Mussolini’s italy was bad but they didn’t outlaw wine.

So come 8pm we’ve made fast work of a bottle of vodka, and 1/2 of a guaro, we head back to the liquor store buy two more vodka’s cause i need it

I skip the thursday dawn patrol, although i still woke up earlyish to make gallo pinto again. Spend the day with sunglasses on and a rum and gingerale in my hand. 4pm dawns the end of the day and i paddle out into huge surf. Getting back just in time for a dinner of fried rice with scallops made by the french. We of course keep on our race to kill our livers, now joined by a group of ticos and a brit named William.

The French pass out me and Will head off to the beach to scout for ladies, find a trollish woman and go to bed.

6:30am surf session, great waves… still a little buzzed id say.

This time i buy my breakfast, 2 bucks buys you coffee pinto and two eggs. I spend the majority of the day gathering supplies for dinner, drinking coffee, and discussing politics with anyone who will discuss them. The afternoon session is a little disapointing but my dinner of home fries and beans makes quite a splash with all the staff, and friends.

rum and cokes in coffee cups with Will after white russians, we find a party at a local disco and talk to some swiss girls, who deny us any notion of play, and Will teaches a crab to smoke fags. Breaks his coffee cup and we stagger back to our hostel and have to climb a fence to get home

Saturday Dawnpatrol involves me not making it past the breakers and ride some little white wash for like 30 mins and head back in.

Day progresses with me passing out on the beach for a few hours and turning bright red, going to the coffee shop and chilling for like 3 hour, and buying supplies for more potatoes. Its now legal to buy booze, im supper tired but make a go for it, passing out at about 11:30,

6:30am, no surf time to go home.

The first bus wont let me on with my board, go to breakfast.

the second bus won’t come till 1pm so we rent a van for 4 bucks a person and pass the 7am buss on our way to san isidro general, i make it home in time to take a nap and then eat dinner.

I’m still tired

Photos

Posted in music, waves, partying, guaro, nature, politics, coffee, Costa Rica, travels, busses, Food, Uncategorized | No Comments »

18. February 2008 by admin.

We were planning a day trip to punteranus, we ended up on 5 hours of busses and landed in Jaco.

We met a brit named nick, and went to the monkey bar after drinking to fox news and animal planet at the hostel. So the a bar tender lived at the hostel so we go the hook up, and yeah, that went well.

We had some realish mexican food, and some bomb cerviche. the best coffee in the world is at finca rinca in jaco, the girl there gives out free samples, and we talk to her while gringo wasps get pissed off she’s not helping them, but their just looking anyways so why bother she says. We took the 315 bus back, and had pavo for dinner

Pura Vida

Pictures aqui

Jacopoko 2/18/08 7:45 PM

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18. February 2008 by admin.

Well…

Yeah i went to dominical, it was all i wanted it to be. Great waves, great food, great drinks, lots of fun, two concerts, tons of chill people, some christ imitations and underware swimming at 3ish in the morning.

So it started with leaving a rental car lot at like 3 pm because the power was out, my credit card didnt want to go through for the the 1500 mandatory deposit, and i wasnt 25, and we had a hard time getting our passports out of the school lock up.

So we leave, into the middle of san jose at rush hour on a friday, sounds fun already. We of course get lost, because the landmark of a gas station to turn out is now a high rise building and has been for like 30 years, nice map. So we get to cartago around 4 to pack the board into the car, of course the back seat is fixed so i cant get my long board in, and i cant rack it because were planning to hit the expo in san isidro on the way down. So 150 km later and 2 hours behind a lumber truck who refused to let anyone pass, we make it to san isidro general, and think the expo is closed so we grab dinner and have some drinks. The road to dominical is dark and full of tight curves and 1000 foot cliffs so i made mine doubles.

We pay our inflated check, gringo tax, and scream off into the dark in the only automatic in all of the country! So, we get to Domincal 10 mins before the hotel closes but grab a beach front cabana with two queens, air conditioning, and a hot shower for 30 bucks a night, perfect, so its friday night, disco night and i feel its time to hit the bar. Soo we do with every intention of being able to get up for a dawn sesh.

Well first things first we met a marine with a friend who looked exactly like tom hanks, he introduced us to the injured sloth, guaro and café rica and…

so im on the beach, i have no idea where my shirt is, we’ve started a fire, a swed has my hat, and me and tom hanks have finished a bottle of rum between us. I could tell that i wasnt surfing in the morning. In between making that realization and the bar, i had met a girl from the 805 going to spanish school with alot of texans, all who were med students and very pompus for that fact. The marine barrowed some cash to get horrible drunk and passed out on the dance floor, and me and Tom tore down a palm tree to make a fire.

Day-2

KNOCK..

hey its 12:30 you need to check out or pay.

what 12:30 then why can’t i walk straight yet?

so we pay the man for another night, the beach is crowded and the surf is lame, so we hope in the rental car and drive south. We go to places where they don’t have electricity and gringos don’t visit, the car gets great gas millage and we just drive almost to panama. We go to one town where we get water, that had obviously not seen gringos, or not on a regular basis. The town has spralling grand roads, and traffic circles and very nice 50 style homes, but the roads are dirt and you can tell not finished, the soccer stadium is in disrepair and the town seems like it was supposed to be a great settlement but the planner forgot about it or the gringos decided against osa and went to jaco… who knows but it was neat.

That night we go to san isidro, we have gotten directions to this expo, which is supposed to be a party of the year, it isnt. Picture county fair, in spanish, with bullfighting and the drinking rules of vegas, now picture the legal age is like 14. Thats what it was superblok displays, brazilian tractors, crappy chinese food, and beer, beer beer, every one especially the pregnant teens were drinking beer.

So after about 2 hours, and running into a creepy 50 year old form the mission distract we peaced out. That night we read, had a few and passed out.

Day 3

Beach day!

We got up early hit the beach, got a bomb breakfast and hit the waves the sand and every thing with a vengeance. it was good times.

we ran down to the bigger town of uvita to hit an atm before dinner and to stop at a beach to toast the sunset.

We returned in time for a shower and dinner at a thai resteraunt and went to the TropiCow girls show for about 5 mins when we decided we hadn’t as the singer suggested armed our selves with alcohol to the point where of bearing this tripe. So to the liquor store, and a quick couple cups of injured sloth later we are ready to TropiCow girl it up so we do. I run into the girl from Santa Barbera, and meet some bostonian or something named lara like lara croft, though not half as attractive, and we hit the next concert down.

This one is much better, its like a dj and a guitar and its trippy and danceable to and good. Lara buys me 3 rum and cokes for paying her admission and we dance and make drunken messes of the place till 3 am, we then pick our selves up, and make the trip to the hotel. So about half way to the hotel we see its a photo-lesent tide, and we say what a better time to underware swim, drunk at 3:30 with no moon. So we do and the current takes us 200 yrds down the beach, towards the center of town, 3 gringos, dripping wet drunk walking the unlit streets of domincal i bet this is a common sight.

9am came too early but we had to drive to san jose drop off the car and make or peace with the world.

so after a couple of dumb menuvers including opening the car door at 60 kmp to see what was rattling under the car and almost going head on with a bus we made it to san jose, the cars exhaust was snapped off, but full coverage right!

pura vida Garrett

pictures here.

Dominical trip

Posted in partying, guaro, rental cars, nature, music, waves, travels, Food, ISH, tom hanks, Costa Rica | No Comments »

18. February 2008 by admin.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but here goes like 3-4 posts at once…

Why the lack of updates, well you know when its perfect every day you try not to spend hours on your blog. So since the 5th lets see whats happened? Ron Paul is continuing his campaign! Romney dropped dead… I mean out, that was wishful typing. McCain is still a fascist and Bush still looks like a monkey. My host brother is dating a huge girl according to dona Yenny, my friend Erin Celiac booked a flight to costa, and I met Tom Hank’s twin bald brother, see the Domincal post for pictures.

In the whole 3 weeks Ive been here I have heard not one word of Brittany Spears or Heath Ledger, it truely is paradise. Ive gone to the beach the last two weekends, met sweds, brits, nores, ticos, ticas, germans, nicos, peruvians, and way to many gringos. Most of the europeans speak better english then me, and none of the gringos can say more then grassyass and HOELA in “spanish”, i learned that guaro and café rica is muy rico, and dangerous.

Ok so to school i guess. Im meet nice people, all of who help me with my spanish, or try to understand my mexi-melt spanglish, and i help them with english a bit, mainly teaching them curse words, there are not that many bad words hear, life is to good to swear, or they just don’t want us to know when they talk behind our backs… either way never call a girl a fox in costa, just don’t.

The food is amazing, and cheap, you can eat for like 2 bucks and not be able to move, this includes a drink. The cheapest meal was 2 bucks for a whole plate of food, a cup of coffee, a juice, and a bottle of water, and this was for two people.

We broke a car! The exhaust sheared from the muffler. But it was a rental so we just coasted into the lot and said nothing, i had full coverage anyhow. Don’t know how i could have managed to do that, or how thats all i managed to do.

We found out that only McDonalds has real ketchup, tico salsa tomate is no substitute but mixed with mayo with lime its bearable. Coffee hear might be the single thing keeping to me alive, but tomorrow i start a swim class, im going to tear these ticos up ive got an average of 6 inches on all of them and im much slimmer.

thats all for the general update, as my mother reads this

Pura Vida

Garrett

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5. February 2008 by admin.

So Sunday we went and explored Volán Irazú, it was breathtaking! I guess if it’s a clear day, which Sunday wasn’t really, you can see the Caribbean and the Pacific, which is awesome. But yeah from a geologic stand point the place rocked. It has two calderas both of which are dormant but still seep sulfur gas, which the air is thick with, you can taste it. We had an awesome tour guide, who’s name I completely forgot. But she showed us all around the park, and took us to the highest peak, which is the 2nd highest in all of Costa Rica, and a great view.

The area was kinda like a moon scape, from the 1930-something eruption which destroyed Cartago. Vegetation was slowly coming back though. It was cool, lots of lava bombs, and other pyroclastic material spread about.

After the tour, we went to the little gift shop, and had coffee with a nice German couple. We also had fried bananas with salt and lime, interesting but good. We talked politics and about the state of the world. It seems the declining dollar is as much of a concern in Europe as it is hear, thanks Presidents Wilson and Nixon you screwed us royally.

We then took the bus back to Cartago, the windy road made Rachel motion sick. But the tour guide on the bus talked to us the way back, he was Peruvian and had a incomprehensible spanish accent. All i could gleam was he had a degree in economics from UCR and was a masters student now, writing his thesis on immigrations effects on economies. All in all it was awesome, pictures below should give you a nice idea, but probably not justice to the place. Now back to work for me.

Pura Vida

click below to see all the pics

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Posted in Geology, Germans, coffee, Food, travels, busses, Costa Rica | 2 Comments »

2. February 2008 by admin.

Hola Amigos~

So to was a great, great day!

I moved with Rachel into a host families home! My own room, with freaking internet and everything a technofile like me needs. The house is nice size and my host family is sweet. My room includes breakfast, desayuno, and dinner, cena, and a nice size room for myself, and my boards.

Spent the grand part of the day moving and getting settled. I, with Daniel my host brother, walked my board bag all through town. This solicited  some very odd looks from the ticos. I mean its not every day they get to see a gringo and a tico wheeling a 10 foot bag through the streets of cartago. I still need to put pictures of my bag up this thing is huge. It fits my long board and my 6′4” great, and i have room for another if i wanted.

After the move me and Rachel went in search of lunch. We ate at resturante intelegente, the intelligent restaurant.  Which is the local Chinese joint, but we both got local fare as tico chino food sounded a little sketch. The food was alright but nothing spectacular. On the way back we stopped at dionicies, a liquor store. We purchased a 2×1 pack of rum or ron in costa rica for 10 dollars US, nice. We then walked back home, had a drink and sat and talked with Dona Jenny for a couple hours. While a local painter who could be orlando blooms twin painted the home.

We then went to the centro comercial and had dinner, i bought some soap, jabon, and some shampoo, champoo, and we come home.  I then had the best cup of coffee of my life made in a awesome contraption called a correador, http://www.runnerduck.com/coffee_maker.htm see link for plans. I mean this coffee is what god drinks before he creates universes.

So yeak tomorrow the volcano Irazu and defiantly some super awesome pictures that’ll make all you geology nuts wirthe with jealousy, ok time to finish Don’t Be a Menace in South Central, While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.

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