Surfs up dudette!

Me enjoying a dip in the pool before breakfast.

My goal was to get a restful night's sleep, as I had not slept well the previous night and was to do all of the driving on the trip.  However, Mother Nature decided otherwise.  Since our room's ceiling was not completely covered (the Inn was going for a wilderness-chic look) and I am a city girl, I awoke with every noise.  Several times I could have sworn there was something in our room, because I kept hearing really loud scratching noises along the walls (later I found out that the noise was due to geckos).  Costa Rica does not follow Daylight Saving's time, thus it was light outside around 5:30AM.

Playa de Jaco

Not wanting to wake Sarah with my tossing and turning, I decided to go swimming.  I quietly changed into my swim suit and headed to the pool.  It was so peaceful to swim while the rest of the world was still asleep.  I could have stayed in that pool for hours, but eventually Sarah discovered me and announced it was time for breakfast.  Due to the fact that we were the only guests at the Inn, the entire buffet breakfast (minus the watermelons of course) was for ourselves!  The owner, Romy, decided to join us.  Being that the Inn was on a coffee plantation, coffee was an integral part of breakfast.  The coffee was so delicious that I ended up having about 6 cups.  And, wow, was it strong stuff!  I was still feeling it by the end of the day.

After breakfast, Romy gave us a personal tour of the grounds.  He designed the entire place himself.  I was in such awe of this man's genius!  He kindly invited us to see his home, which was built into the side of the hill the grounds were on.  While we were walking there he had us pick some mangoes for our drive to the beach.

This should be on a postcard for Playa de Jaco!

We said our goodbyes and promised to return as soon as we can and then began our three hour drive to Playa de Jaco.  I had read in my Lonely Planet guide that good directions from Costa Ricans are difficult to come by, nonetheless, we got so lost in the beginning of our drive that we were forced to ask.  Big mistake!  We were sent in crazy circles for about thirty minutes.  Finally, the Universe provided us a gift in the form of an American who was capable of giving us the correct directions.  We were finally on our way.

It rained almost the entire time we drove, but as we were approaching the beach the sky cleared up and it turned out to be a lovely day.  When we first spotted the beach from the highway it took our breath away.  We wanted to stop and take pictures, except we could not as I was running late for my surfing lessons.

We quickly checked into Villas Estrellamar and besides its central location in downtown Jaco it was a terrible hotel.  We then headed over to the beach.  A lot of people had warned us that Playa de Jaco was one of the worst beaches in Costa Rica and that may be the truth, however, I personally thought it was very pretty!  Prior to the trip, what drew me to this beach were the excellent waves for surfing, as I had never surfed before and had been dying to take lessons.

Me practicing surfing on land.

I used to be a competitive swimmer and the water feels like home to me.  So, I intuitively knew that I would love this sport.  I found a man named Gustavo that gave me semi-private lessons (5 hours for $45).  His information can be found here: www.jacosurflessons.com.  The lessons were a bit fast-paced, but that worked for me as I was eager to get in the water.  He made me laugh a lot, because he kept saying, "surfs up dudette" in a Spanish accent.  Surfing is intense.  Every muscle in your body is worked.  And I am now hooked and planning on pursuing lessons in Long Island this summer.

I returned my newly beloved long board over to Gustavo and Sarah and I returned to our hotel.  Not quite ready to eat dinner, we laid in some hammocks for a long time chatting about life.  It sure was nice to be lazy after my action packed day!  Eventually we made it to dinner.  The restaurant we ate at was unremarkable, so much so that I forgot the name.  The band was excellent though.

Me after a day of surfing.

They played all of my favorite Latin songs, including a great rendition of Guantanamera.  The best part of the evening was when a man wandered   over to our table dressed as a doctor and asked if he could take our blood pressure with his stethoscope.  What people will do for money--too funny!  Sarah and I were not ready to call it a night, but were really turned off by the fact that the streets in Jaco at night are saturated with prostitues and dirty old men looking for some fun.  Yuck!  Thus, we called it an early night, plus my body was really fatigued from a day of surfing.