Its been awhile since the last post, sorry about that to the many many followers (dad and Janna). We have been down in Costa Rica for about 10 days now at the Resort. Our last week in Nicaragua was awesome. We stayed out in the jungle at Parque Maderas, which i mentioned earlier. The hombre who founded the place, Tyler, bought a bunch of land about 10 years ago and has been working on it ever since. He's got a grand vision for the place, but as of now its still pretty cool. The buildings accomodate around 15 people, all new with a very unique style. Anyone that comes to Nicaragua MUST stay at Parque at least for a few nights. It was very laid back. Each morning the howler monkeys would wake us up at the crack of dawn, reminding us that the surf could be firing and that we'd better go check it out. We spent early mornings surfing, afternoons exploring/lounging at the Tranquilo (calm) Bar. And the evenings checking to see if the massive death spider was still in the same place in the bathroom (it was). The food was excellent as well. Each night we had a family style dinner at the long table with everyone staying at Parque. It made for a great atmosphere and great conversation, and we met some very interesting people while staying there. The surf was just a 10 minute walk down the hill, and we ended up getting some pretty nice waves by the end of our stay.
Crossing the border back into Costa Rica was an experience that I won't soon forget. There is about 1 km between the Nicaraguan Post and the Costa Rican post, which you can either walk, or hire a Nicaraguan to cart you across on a bicycle trolley. The second we stepped out of the cab on the Nica side we were bombarded with people trying to swindle us into paying them money for one service or another. We dodged the melee, and decided to walk it with all our gear, which didn't end up being too bad with large backpacks, small backpacks, and surfboards. After making it safely through we caught a bus to Liberia, followed by another to Tamarindo where we were picked up by a driver from the hotel. Arriving at our destination we were greeted by Ioven's grandfather, Senor Patillo. We got acquainted and shared stories over dinner, then hit the sack fairly hard. The place we are staying is Senor Patillo's private residence, reserved for himself (when he is in CR) and personal guests of his. Our personal chef, Gabby, is the most amazing/sweetest lady you will ever meet, and even though she does not speak english, we have all grown accustom to each other and there is mutual affection that goes beyond words. Gabby basically cooks for us whenever we want, which is generally fairly gourmet, but if we decide to eat at one of the three fabulous restaurants within the resort we let her know so she can take the rest of the day off. It works out well.
Anyway, we have basically been living the life. We eat, golf, surf (if we need to get to the beach near the property that has great surf, we just call a driver to come pick us up), and laugh nearly to the point of vomiting. One of Ioven's friends, Joey, and her boyfriend, Raul, joined us a few days ago. They are awesome and today Raul was kind enough to take us all fishing for sailfish, which i was particularly excited about because these fish are never seen in HI. Our day was amazing and we saw a bunch of spectacular sights including marlin sunning themselves on the surface, more dolphins than i thought existed, giant manta rays, and mating green sea turtles. We didnt get the elusive sailfish we were after, but Rob reeled in about a 45lb bull Mahi Mahi (one of the biggest ive seen). Raul is a photographer who works for an underwater camera housing company, so he jumped in the water and got some unbelievable shots. During its airshow the Mahi almost landed ontop of Raul, which made for an amazing shot.
The plan for the rest of the trip is taking shape. We are going to stay with an old friend of Mr. Patillo's who runs a hotel, La Carolina Lodge, with his wife up in the mountains near Bijagua. The place sounds unreal, check it out. After that Ioven leaves, and Robert and I are debating going to Jaco to surf, or to make the treck of a lifetime to Northern Panama and the Caribbean side to a group of islands that we have heard great things about. Both would be cool, but im leaning toward the Panamanian adventure. Ill keep ya posted beeches...
Hasta Luego
