Witch's Rock

This was a day of surfing...and a day of funny adventures. (Funny, of course, only after the fact. At the time, I allowed myself to be quite stressed.)

But...let's start on a high note, shall we?

As this was how our day began...

And ain't nobody complaining or stressing with that as the view.

After spending our previous days at Playa Dantita, we decided to try out the local surf. Julia had planned this leg of out adventure around the fact that some of Costa Rica's best surfing is just a boat ride away.
(If you're reading that and thinking some novices like us might not be ready for the best surfing this country has to offer...then cue the ominous music.)
Witch's Rock and Ollie's Point are located off the coast, and in order to reach them you have to charter a boat. So, our day began at 5 in the a.m. with our surfboards in a boat.
For those of you who have been listening to the ominous music being played as a result of the thought of the two of us hitting the big bad surf...I'll put your fears at ease. No humans were harmed in the making of this.
That said, we had a hell of a good time trying. Maybe I should speak for myself...I think Julia was a bit daunted by some of the day's waves.

After arriving at Witch's Rock, it didn't take long for us to realize that these waves were more powerful than any we had experienced before. And I'll be honest...I wasn't exactly "hanging ten". But, I loved every minute.
Here's the ol' Rock in all her glory...

It was a lot of fun being in a boat and getting to see the coast from such a different perspective.

Julia took a few pics of me at Ollie's Point. Needless to say, she wasn't able to get many of me actually on the waves. But I promise I came close!

If nothing else, I feel cool just being able to say that I made it out to such esteemed surfing points...even if all my stubborn attempts to actually ride the waves often resulted in me falling off the board and coming out of the water grinning.

As I mentioned before, this day was not without funny adventures. And yes, that involves more funny adventures than just my surfing attempts. Since this was our last day in Playas del Coco, we also needed to return our rental car and buy our bus tickets for our trip to Nicaragua the following day. Leave it up to us to try to fit all that in on one day!

This is Costa Rica...where no one is ever in a hurry. Of course we got back from surfing late, which meant that we had to speed over to the next town to get the rental car returned. Once Goldie was safe and sound, we had to find a way to get from the airport rental car agency into town to buy tickets before the ticket office closed at 5. And I was getting nervous.

We planned on calling a taxi, which of course didn't arrive. Yep, still nervous. Sweet Julia, cool as a cucumber under pressure, kept reminding me that it would all work out. Yep, she was right. The man from the rental car agency then offered to drive us into town...which turned out to be a blessing in more than one way. We had previously been given the wrong name of the hotel where tickets were sold...so trusty rental car man busted out his phone and got the real skinny for us.  We arrived, in plenty of time, and got our tickets for the bus. Nervous for nothin'...

The ticket office was next door to a sweet little cafe and art gallery...

And considering that we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we were pretty pumped to find this spot. It sure was nice to be sitting down in one place after so much running around. 

After dinner, we walked through Liberia, which is a really great little town. 

A long day. But, a damn good one.