Costa Rica

We are back safe and sound from Costa Rica, after about 18 hours of travel with a short pitstop in Orlando. I'd like to tell you that I was massively impressed with the surf, the friendly people, and the tranquility of a jungle setting, but I wasn't. I'm getting crotchety in my old age, and creature comforts are higher on my list. Here's my pros and cons of Mal Pais (where we stayed) and Montezuma (which we visited for a day):

Pros:
numerous surf spots
just chilling with your buds
removal / unplugged from 'the grind'
2 dollar Imperials (la Cerveza de Costa Rica)
Affordable hotel/room rentals
Canopy tour

Cons:
Pissy smelling water. Everytime you went in the ocean, you smelled like piss until you showered. That's because there are three rivers running into the ocean at Mal Pais. The rivers happen to double as open sewers.
Food prices in line with US prices. Our cheapest location had $3 breakfasts and $5 lunches. The nicer locations cost as much as a standard US restaurant.
2 dollar beers. And 6 dollar six packs at the package store. I can find those in the US. Any college town has cheaper drinks.
Inconvenience. It is a journey of significant undertaking to essentially get to the beach.
Random dirty smelly hippy bums.

Next time, Bri and I will just head over to the Outer Banks of NC for a roughly equivalent experience.

Edit: I had fun, the relaxation was great! But you can do the same thing 2 hours away.

Costa Rica

This post will be a little long so bear with me. This evening we're flying to Orlando to meet up with my college chum Bill Payne, of Bill Payne Design (the OSB website designer). On Thursday morning we'll all take an American Airlines flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.

From San Jose we're catching a twin prop over to a town called Tambor, on the Pacific coast. From Tambor we take a shuttle to the town of Malpais. This is essentially a semi-developed surf resort. Down in Malpais we're meeting up with our buddies Jamie and Judy, who we know from Orlando but who originally hail from the Jersey shore.

We'll be there from Thursday to the following Wednesday for what will amount to a surf vacation. Bri plans to take some surf lessons and will go out if the waves aren't too big. As of yesterday they were overhead or bigger.

If you want to be a stalker you can find us at the Hotel Oasis. We'll either be on the beach, here, or at a bar somewhere.

I am not bringing a computer and will be completely unplugged. Might check email a couple times, but I might not. It's been a while since we did that.

Ok, part 2. The results of the weekly survey!

1. Did you miss the weekly surveys?
81% - Yes
14% - No
3% - New here

2. When I'm bored I like to:
76% - Roam the internet
10% - Eavesdrop on co-workers

3. If you the reader could go to the beach every summer and be a lifeguard/beachbum, at the cost of maximizing your earning potential, would you?
54% - Do what you love
5% - Yes, no, the world will end, life is what you make of it

4. On Iraq, I (the reader) think:
39% - Boondoggle
29% - We can't win this one
19% - Stay the course
10% - We're winning and we can win

5. My favorite summertime activity is:
29% - The mountains
19% - The beach/shore
24% - A big trip of some sort
19% - Triathlon races
5% - Vegas, booze, women, and gambling

See you in a few days.