Costa Rica
Punta Blanco

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    • Day 6

      9. CR - Pavones

      August 28, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

      We thought Dominical was a one-horse town with its raison d’etre being surfing, until we came to the tiny 600 resident community of Pavones. It consists of 2 grocery stores (about twice the size of a 7-11 mini-mart), with several hostels/family run hotels (usually with 1-4 rooms), a few eateries, (mostly like your typical outdoor beach-bar), and the ever-important surf shop. The guide books announce clearly that there are no banks or gas stations here, so you need to stock up before you arrive. (Credit cards are rarely accepted).

      This area is famed for having the second largest point-breaking surf in the world. Craig has taught me – beach break is bad – that’s when the wave pretty much breaks all at once, and point break is good – when the wave starts breaking at one end and the break rolls towards the other end. Remember the Hawaii 5-0 TV show opening?

      Surfing today – then on to Panama.
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    • Surfing & Chillin

      September 23, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

      Nachdem die Anreise nach Pavones beschwerlicher war als gedacht genießen wir jetzt den Surf & Chill Modus.
      Heute ging es schon den dritten Tag raus zum Surfen.
      Wir starten meist gegen 8/8:30 Uhr.
      Jens ganz der Profi schon mitten im Line Up, ich als Anfänger erst noch in den weißen „funny“ Waves. Gestern und heute hieß es aber auch für mich „paddle as good as you can“ 😅. Ganz schön anstrengend kann ich euch sagen. Aber eine sehr gute Übung als Vorbereitung für das was ich noch lernen kann! Morgen gehts dann weiter.
      Nach einer kurzen Siesta geht es gleich zum Punta Banco!
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    • Letzter Tag in Pavones

      September 26, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Am Morgen dem Surfen gehuldigt, bei tollem Wetter. Die Aussicht und Natur ist sagenhaft.
      Nach der ersten Einheit haben wir noch den Rest von Pavones erkundet. Der Fluss „Rio Claro“ ist ausschlaggebend für diesen Surfspot. Er spült Sand ins Meet und trägt ihn auch wieder weg. Eine umfangreiche Erklärung der einheimischen Surfer lässt sich nur bedingt wiedergeben. Kernessenz: geiler Surfspot der bei besten Bedingungendie zweit längste „lefthander“ Welle der Welt bietet. Aber auch jetzt grandios für uns Amateure ist.Read more

    • Punta Banco

      September 24, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

      Nach dem Surfen haben wir heute einen kleinen Ausflug zum Punta Banco gemacht.
      Schon der Weg dorthin war genial. Zwar Wie üblich die Schotterpiste, allerdings parallel zu Strand und Meer. Da macht es auch nichts aus, dass man maximal 20 km/h fahren kann 😉.
      Zum Glück wurden wir mit Sonnenschein verwöhnt, da hätte sich eine natürliche Dusche im Wasserfall eigentlich angeboten.
      Schildkröten haben wir leider keine gesehen. Punta Banco ist dafür bekannt, dass es sozusagen Auffangstationen für 🐢 Eier gibt. Damit die Kleinen auch schlüpfen können.
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    • Day 263

      🏝️🍹🥭 Más pura vida ⛱️☀️🏄

      January 17 in Costa Rica ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Strand, Sonne, Wellen und ab und zu ein Cuba Libre. So sah unser Leben in der letzten Woche aus. Für eine Woche sind wir nach Pavones gefahren, um hier unsere Füße in den Pazifik zu halten, zu angeln, zu lesen, im Meer zu planschen und unsere ersten Surf-Versuche zu wagen. Meistens hatten wir kein Handy dabei, deswegen gibt es nicht so viele Beweisbilder. Was auch ein wenig schade ist, denn grad Siggi hat beim Surfen eine richtig gute Figur gemacht und alex hat die Wellen auch ganz gut mitgenommen :)

      Aber wir genießen auch viel die Abgeschiedenheit unseres kleinen Strandes hier. In Santa Clara sind wir untergekommen, in einer liebevoll gestalteten Cabaña, die einer so herzlichen Familie gehört. Ein Surfbrett haben sie uns geliehen, Fisch und Früchte zum Essen geschenkt und Siggi in die Künste der hiesigen Art zu angeln eingeweiht. Wir hatten eine schöne, ruhige und dank Ventilators auch nicht zu heiße Woche und würden eigentlich gern noch länger bleiben.

      Aber jetzt geht es zurück nach San José, dann nach L.A. und dort erwartet uns dann schon wieder so viel Schönes, darauf freuen wir uns auch riesig ❤️
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    • Day 53

      Pavones

      March 22, 2018 in Costa Rica ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

      Pavones
      Pavones is a laid back pueblo way in the south west corner of Costa Rica.  Any further south and you are in Panama.  It was stinking hot, as usual, however the sands have dammed the river and a beautiful freshwater lagoon is the perfect swimming local.  Caleb was so happy to have freshwater swimming that he declared that we were not leaving until we had to fly back to Canada.  Jorja loved being in the water so much, that she learned how to swim!   She can now swim out into deep water, roll over and float on her back and then swim back to shore.  Yahoo!   We couldn't even find a place to buy post cards!
      Sat am Marty and Caleb headed off to pick up Keith (who was visiting from Columbia) in Golfito. 
      They turned the 1 hour drive into a 45 minute rally race including drifting around most corners.  They did the regular, get money, beer and rum (who needs groceries anyways!) and headed back.  We had not run into any police checks thus far, so it was lucky Keith was with them on this trip as the  Police found them.  They cracked a beer and headed out of town and would have made it past our first police check point, if Keith had been wearing his seat belt.  The hand motion to
      come here, looks alot like go away, so Marty continued to crawl away from the checkpoint as the well armed traffic police got more agitated. In hindsight, continuing to drive away with confused looks on their faces might have been successful, but they did the right thing and slowly backed up to start one of the longest and serious conversations about the horrific neglect of driving without a passport ($200US) or wearing seatbelts ($150US).  Listening to Keith dance through an incredibly circular converstaion where he continued to insist, "there must be some way we can help each other out", allowed Marty time to practice a 45 minute smile.  After many offers from the Costa Rican police to remove our license plates, seize our vehicle, and point us in the direction of the nearest bus, the senior officer decided they could take the three officers out to lunch to continue the converstation.  Keith dramatically declared that my young son was waiting in the vehicle and we could not take them out to lunch, but would love to buy them lunch.  Sometime during this latino dance, Caleb noticed one of the officers approaching our vehicle and decided it might be best to jump in the front seat and place the not quite yet consumed recycling a little further under the seats.  The transaction had to take place inside the sliding side door of the police van where Keith asked if 20K colones would buy the officers a decent lunch in Golfito.  At that point it seemed that we had made three new friends in Costa Rica,  with many mucho gustos we were on our way, ticket free, to continue our journey. 

      Pavones is world famous with the 2nd longest left break in the world.  We stayed at Cabinas Carol which is a great surfing hostel run by Pablo the Italian.  We met many great people, and had our only realy hostel experience in Costa Rica.  Caleb was a bit too young to participate in the "life" but he was definitely closer in age to the other residents than his parents!  Caleb and Stacey tried surfing again, and even with the bigger waves, had some success.  We were glad we tried then! While we were there (4 days), the wind came up, and the swell came up, and everyone who was anyone in surfing arrived in Pavones.  There were amazing waves and world class surfing where the rides were two minutes long, and surfers travelled out of sight around the corner.  At any one time there were easily 50 surfers out beyond the break waiting to get on the wave.  Rodrigues, a 20 year old Brazilian who is an expert surfer (we watched him do flips on his board while surfing), said it was the best surfing of his life.  We mere mortals swam in the fresh water, explored up the river, chased iguanas (they have incredible burst speed and do not move where one expects them to!) and enjoyed Keiths cooking.  Eventually we had to leave the land of perfect bodies, and head up the coast. 
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    • Day 4

      8. CR - Dominical - no Pura Vida today..

      August 26, 2019 in Costa Rica ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

      You have probably heard the Costa Rican phrase "pura vida", or pure life, which loosely translates into "the good life". Craig and I have been enjoying the pura vida - until today.

      Craig had a number of things that he did not need regular access to stored in a water-proof soft cargo bag affixed to the roof rack, including a few things I gave him before he left so as not to have to transport them on the plane. We finally got around to opening the bag to find a few small rips that allowed enough of the occasional torrential downpours over the last few weeks to sleep in. Clothes were drenched, smelly, mildewed and moldy. Kinda gross.

      We asked at the front desk about local laundry facilities in the area. They told us there were none around except for the on-site facility that would do laundry @ $1 per item. Yikes! With very little additional research, we located 2 public laundry options within a mile of the hotel, and used one of them. BTW - when I say public laundry, the one we chose consisted of a guy in a garage with a few washers and dryers hooked up, and a few bags of laundry ahead of us I'm the queue. We left the clothes, crossed our fingers, and later retrieved a bag of freshly laundered, 95% mildew-free, folded clothes. Although a few things could not be salvaged (Craig's hiking boots for one), we came out relatively unscathed.
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