The trip started with a one-week (7/4 - 7/11) surf session in Tamarindo
in the Guanacaste region. Witch's Rock Surf Camp (www.witchsrocksurfcamp.com) was absolutely awesome; I highly recommend it for anyone looking to learn how to surf or improve existing surf skills.
One one of the last days of the surf camp, we took a group surf trip to Playa Avellanas - great surf spot, beautiful beach.
Two days prior, Rada and I also took an overnight excursion to see the volcano and hot springs at Arenal. Following
the week of instruction and twice-(sometimes thrice)-a-day surf sessions, I reworked my travel itinerary to include three
additional surf spots.
Immediately after camp, I overnighted in San Jose to cut a 9-hour
trip in half. My primary objective in San Jose was to get out of San Jose. In the mood to surf, my instructors
told me I'd hate San Jose. I'm sure it's a great city but it wasn't what I was looking for on this trip, so 16 hours
and four photos later, I left for Jaco.
I spent the better part of the second week (7/12 - 7/16) in Jaco.
Playa de Jaco has become a pretty big surf spot and proved to be a great spot for me to continue my education. It proved
decent, but not sufficient, preparation for my sessions in Malpais. Additionally, while in Jaco, I took a side trip
to Manuel Antonio National Park; that was great.
I spent three days (7/16 - 7/19) in Malpais, surfing Playa Carmen
exclusively, because Playas Malpais and Santa Teresa (surrounding beaches) were too rocky and I wasn't looking to get dead.
Playa Carmen, even sans rock-bottom, was sufficiently challenging for my second week of sessions (you'll see one picture after
I got worked on a series of waves - on which I broke my rental board, by the way).
My trip ended in Samara, a beautiful, white-sand beach town.
The guide books claimed that there was no surf in Samara, but that proved to be untrue. The surf was great and there
were tons of surfers (lots of locals - "Ticos") catching chest-to-head-highs pretty consistently near high-tide. Samara
was a perfect ending spot for me and a good confidence-booster, after the beating I took on the surf at Malpais. I also
got a chance to do a little free-climbing as well (included a couple of shots of the rock formation).
All-in-all an awesome trip. I'm already plotting my next surf
adventure...
Pura Vida,
