aimless erin: July 2005

FUIMOS A LA PLAYA!!!!!

Last friday night Alexandra, Marcia and i piled into Suzie (marica's beat up 4wd) heading for Punta Uva (10 km south of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast). The trip started well, when Allie broke the handle to roll up the window of the passenger side door. so we managed to get the window about 3/4 the way up by pulling on it. Perhaps i should mention that suzie has a lot of loose wiring, one loose parking light, the back hatch door is rusted shut. And the passenger side door does not have a handle on the inside, it broke off. so normally you roll down the window and reach outside to use the other handle to open the door. So the rolled up window created some difficulties, and marcia had to walk around and let us out of the car each time. on our food stop at the mas y menos en Gualiples, allie had to stay in the car to watch it (since the doors dont lock and the window was still partially down). so we bought her a hideous leopard print umbrella to make it up to her.

since we left late from La Selva, we got to Selvins cabinas at 11:30 that night, and almost didnt get a place to stay. but since we were such three charming women from sarapiqui, and not just tourists, suddenly space empited up. we got an awesome little cabin (but lacked hammocks!). The next day we had minor excitement with a hitchhiking incident. irratic driver, rapid spanish and rummaging in the glove box by the front passenger-- something about drogas, un amigo, y una pistola... almost a pulp fiction moment, but we got dropped off without incident. probably will be a bit more careful when hitch hiking in the future.

our cabina at selvin's

The next 2 days we spent out on the beach. lounging, snorkeling, swimming. the water was awesome. never rained, although it threatened saturday afternoon. the water was amazlingly warm. i spent the hour just before dusk floating past the waves on my back, watching the clouds and sky change colors. we went out to puerto and listened to live reggae music on saturday night. it was rebecca's last few days before she was leaving to TA a bilology course that was coming to costa rica.

the next day we spent on the beach and went out to the point. totally clear water and the snorkeling was amazing. i swam with a manta ray, saw and eel, and countless tropical fish and coral on the reef past the point. to get to the point, rebecca and i scrambled through the rainforest in our bikinis, coming across howler monkies, army ants, and huge pelicans. very stange. allie and maria amalia both brought guitars and played under the shade of palm trees. Maria amalia and rebecca had been late arriving because they hit an intense thuder and lightning storm. then maria amalia's dog, la negrita, jumped out of the window while the car was moving to chase cows. la negrita only suffered a slight limp and lots of spoiling. Sunday afternoon we drove back to la selva, for another week of work in the forest.

I love the beach down here. AMAZING! here are some pictures so you can understand what my obsession/ love of the caribbean coast of costa rica: