Around The World In 80 Waves

I was going to try and paddle out here in Dominical before I left this morning. However after watching a surfer carrying his snapped board up the beach I have thought better of it.

I am somewhat sore from the beating I took yesterday and dont fancy a bill for a new board, which would almost be certain based on the overhead close outs thumping down on the beach which I have been trying to spot a ridable shoulder on for about three days. I dont think there is one by the way, at least not on this swell

There is a huge swell on its way and I am keen to get to the entrance of the Golfo Dulce so I can learn the lay of the land before it arrives, because there are waves there, which supposedly can be ridden for more than a mile and I’m keen to bag one if I can on this trip.

(http://magicseaweed.com/Pavones-Surf-Report/446/)

Time to hit the road again.

Despite our surf safari it was still early by the time we opted for the morning glass on offer at Playa Hermosa, which was the best of a not particularly inviting bunch that we had seen.

We found a shady spot to leave the car in under the trees just above the water line.

Apart from a few families who had started their day at the beach early there was nobody about and we paddled out with the break to ourselves. There are towering hills surrounding the bay, all completely covered in dense vegetation and the beach truly lived up to its name which translates as Beautiful Beach. (However I should probably point out at this stage that there is a Playa Hermosa approximately every 20miles all the way from the USA/Mexican border.)

I thought I was paddling out into a fun waist or chest high session where we were not really going to be challenged but loads of great waves would be snagged by us both. However I could not have been more wrong.

This was the picture of the day but don’t think for a second that it was easy. Only about one wave in twenty didn’t suddenly lunge up to at least head high and then close out right across the bay onto about a foot and a half of sand, with the spray, sand and possibly you being sent flying twenty five feet into the air. The wipe outs here were unreal and I shant need to see a chiropractor any time soon after getting my whole spine wrenched into place with an unnerving series of cracks on one!

This picture is a crazy shot of me trying to ditch my board and bail off the back of the wave rather than drop into yet another pit of oblivion. By the looks of it I probably went head first over the falls with the lip and was lucky not to land on my board as I went.

I dont know if it was on this wave or not, but on one I took such a hammering that my shorts were nearly torn off. When I eventually got back on my board and back out past the impact zone I realised it had ripped my fly open and my wedding tackle was actual hanging out the front of my shorts. I thought better of publishing those shots from the Go Pro.

Despite all of the above we both had a really enjoyable session, then spent the rest of the day talking breaks, boards, freediving, seafood, travelling and the merits of bikini clad female surfers in the bar back at Dominical.

I met an American surfer who is my age called George in the bar last night. He is a yacht skipper who is looking to set up a fantastic holiday home locally and has returned to the area to see the lay of the land.

George knows the area well so as my copilot and navigator for the day, the two of us set of this morning to check out the breaks close to Dominical. 

As well as the local breaks we also went of the beaten track and climbed one of the local mountains in the Little Green Surf Machine.

To say we were pushing the envelope in the bug is putting it mildly. At one stage the car is kicking out sideways, its wheels are spinning on the loose rocks and it is certainly struggling to make it up the incredibly steep hill road. 

You can see two sections of the road here and after past experience I was wondering how wise some of the path that we attempted were in the Volkswagen.

However my car didn’t let us down and we made far better progress than you might have thought possible in it. 

At one point it really did get ridiculous and we wisely gave up there, but were able to look down on all the rainforest and coastline beneath us.

This was the view from the top which was simply spectacular and certainly made the effort worthwhile.  

We checked out some fantastic bays and this view near to the restaurant at the tip of a headland where we had lunch was probably the view of the day.

Whilst there we saw a Capuchin Monkey swinging through the trees and had a feast of fish for lunch. We also saw the delightful sight of a foot foot crocodile which had been killed crossing the road having it’s corpse ripped to shreds by vultures who had spotted an easy meal. No chance of bagging the raw materials for a free wallet or pair of shoes though because somebody had nabbed the skin already by the time we drove back.

Dominical is the sort of place I was hoping to find along this journey.

It is barely signposted from the main road, and the main drag of town, if you can even call it that, is a stretch of dirt road one line of palm trees back from the sand.

You can see the market stalls which vendors have fashioned out of driftwood and that sell all the usual sarongs, wood carvings, towels, tshirts advertising the local beer, jewellery, etc

There is usually a lovely sea breeze which takes the edge of the heat, although as usual that never really goes away.

The surf here at first glance loooks epic but upon closer scrutiny you can see that it is just board snapping beach break with no shoulder to ride unless you had a jet powered board.

I have met a few cool people here including one American called George who I’m going surfing with later, that is if this morning’s torrential rain doesn’t put us off. As usual I have been up since before dawn so am waiting for him to join me.

I am staying in the Tortilla Flats which are next to the beach. In fact the only thing between me and the sand is the bar, which for some reason has proved something of a distraction during my stay here. It is the best bar in town and where people gather to watch the sun setting. To illustrate the proximity to the beach see Rob vs Keith.

My room is basic but cheap although I’m regretting not going for air conditioning again. (I have promised myself that the next place I stay will be like a palace.)

Tortilla Flats has its own skate ramp which seems to draw in the local kids. Many of them take an interest in my car but nothing untoward has occurred as a result.

The only other thing to report is that I have been warned about the river which is a few hundred metres away. I should use caution if walking along it because the 20 foot crocodiles in it have a a habit of attacking people on the footpath. Apparantly they are rather fond of dogs and have eaten nearly 50 in the last year alone!

I think I will go for a swim somewhere else then.

Not for the first time on this trip I got back home to discover a crab had moved into my room!

Now it looked strangely like the crab on the cover of The Fat of the Land album by The Prodigy, so I am going to call him Keith.

As soon as I stepped through the door Keith raised his claws defiantly and then scuttled off into a hiding place, which kind of set the tone for the game that we played for the next twenty minutes.

Keith was an elusive character and I was absolutely shattered when I had gone to my room so wasn’t really in the mood for the game he seemed to be enjoying so much. I certainly wasn’t going to allow him to be crawling around the room and possibly over me while I slept so he had to go.

The way the game worked is that I would pick up some utensil, box lid, shoe or equivalent and approach stealthily. Using the loo as an example, which you can see him hiding behind here, he would then speedily scuttle around the other side rendering my distance maintaining object inaffective. I would then hurry around the other side of any number of objects only for him to do exactly the same going the other way.

Ocassionally I would corner him behind a door or equivalent but with the kind of bobbing and weaving of which Muhammad Ali would be proud, and with strength that his size would not suggest he would grip hold of the base of the door fending off any attempt to free him with his spare claw. I would then rush to grab a more suitable utensil or crab trap such as the bin only to discover he had run back behind the loo or equivalent as soon as my back was turned, and we would be back to square one.

Now I was trying to be cool with the crab and just get it outside, but every now and then he mould make a lunge for one of my flip flopped feet. At first it was funny but after more than 10minutes of this in the heat and humidity and because I was so tired anyway I eventually grabbed my boots (checking to make sure there was not anything funky inside them before putting them on). All I will say is that it didn’t go too well for the crab from there.

Rob 1 Crab 0

Driving south from Jaco to Dominical there is a noticeable change in the scenery.

Everything is more lush and verdant.

The rainforest to my left all the way there was constantly shrouded in mist out of which the occasional lightning bolt could be seen and from which thunder would rumble.

There is clearly a great deal more water about and the rivers now look like they should as opposed to the arid gutters I have been seeing thus far.
It didn’t take me too long to get there because the distance was only 100km.

My base in Jaco has been the Hotel Roblemar which I found after a cruise around all the places on offer here.

I opted for a room without air conditioning, which at times felt like a mistake, even if the free sauna in Central America is doing wonders for my waistline.

On the positive side my room was huge, came complete with its own fridge and satelite TV. Having the HBO channel has allowed me to unexpectedly catch the first of the new series of Game of Thrones as well as a few movies that I haven’t seen, which always puts a smile on my face.

I could also park right up in front of my room, and my motor was looked after by a security guard all night, although I did have to wake him up when leaving for my dawnie yesterday!

The hotel is run and owned by Hugo Robles who is a really cool guy who impressed me first by actually knowing where Wales was as opposed to the usual belief that it must be a suburb of London or something similar.

However I also discover during my stay that Hugo was the first surfer in town after bringing a board down to Costa Rica from Californina in the seventies.

This is confirmed by Hugo’s picture which is proudly displayed in El Paseo de la Surfistas here in Jaco, where pictures of the great and the good of the local surf community are posted along the walls like the Hollywood walk of fame.

Not that I needed any further encouragement to stay here, but the hotel has a pool styled like a ukulele. It has the four strings marked along the base of the pool and is a welcome relief to the relentless heat here.

It seemed only appropriate to get my uke out whilst here and spend an afternoon strumming, whilst cooling my feet. It is good to add a Costa Rican session to my rock ‘n roll world tour.

I got up at 5am this morning and took the car for a quick spin along the coast to Playa Hermosa, which is supposed to be the best break locally.

Although it was super clean it was just dumping on the shore in a Puerto Escondido fashion so I wasn’t tempted into the water there. Huge board snapping potential.

After a bit of a surf safari I returned to Jaco and decided to go into the beach break there where the locals were ripping it up.

There was a really friendly vibe in the water which was packed with North Americans from Canada and the USA, but I didn’t bother with the camera which meant I missed the opportunity for a shot of the biggest face plant of the trip so far after taking off and stacking on one of the bigger waves that break so quickly here. After that I was a tad reluctant to get in front of one, and was starting to get a bit peeved with the wind which had picked up and was causing so much chop on the water.

However I nailed my last ride of the day and the Ticos (as the Costa Ricans are proud to be called) were cheering me on down an epic ride down the line. I got out really stoked and may go for another dawnie here tomorrow for another slice of the action before moving on again.

My headlights were still not working so with the help of my hotel’s manager I found a car parts shop.

Once there and with the help of the Haynes Manual I wisely bought for the car in California, myself and the owner of the operation figured out how to change a light bulb. Whilst you might think this should be a straight forward operation and be wondering why it takes two men to change a bulb it actually entailed unlocking the entire headlamp unit and temporarily removing the Little Green Surf Machine’s eyes! (I’m sure there is a joke along these lines as an aside.) At first glance it looked like it would be a nightmare and especially so with my talent for breaking things by not knowing my own strength, however the whole thing was achieved in under 10 minutes.

The operation was also a car wash so as a reward for good behaviour I treated the car to a proper clean by their valeting staff. The guy did a brilliant job spending nearly an hour, being really meticulous taking care not to miss the sills and such like which is easily done, so when I discoved the cost of the bulbs and the valet was only £12 I tipped him enough to buy a beer, which was well received with the customary ‘Pura Vida’, which seems to be the standard answer for everything, a normal greeting, and the marketing slogan for the local Imperial beer here in Costa Rica.

The finished result was fantastic. I dont expect it to last long but took a few snaps so that I can advertise online on the Panamanian equivalent of Exchange and Mart.

If I didn’t need the car for the last leg of Central America I would be very tempted to sell the car here. I have already turned down several offers of selling the car in Costa Rica where car prices are very high, some which would have entailled a $2,000 profit on the purchase price! I hope the market is as bouyant further down the line.

Jaco is Costa Rica’s main surf town and I am going to hang out here for a few days. There is miles of sand for you to pick a break to surf on, loads of surf shops and plenty of hotels in town, although some of them are asking extortionate money for one night’s stay.

I realise I will not get much sympathy on this but the heat is sometimes unbearable here. My clean shirt was almost wringing wet with perspiration after 5 minutes of just walking in the sun yesterday. I cant drink fast enough to keep up with it and am feeling really drained half the time purely due to dehydration. I have picked the dry season for my visit to Central America, hoping to escape before the rains start, but at times I would simply love a bit of British drizzle to cool me down.

I went for a scalping yesterday to try and help with the heat. After my moustache I had thought my next hirsuite project should be growing a flowing mane whilst I had the opportunity to do so, and have not had my hair cut since LA towards that end. However my hair is so thick that as Clem says ‘The boufant will not be denied!’ and it has been feeling like I am walking around with a woolly hat on my head. It had to go as a consequence

I am not going to get into one on this but you can also imagine my delight when my mobile phone’s internet stopped working again as soon as I got across the Gulf of Nicoya. Does anybody know where I might get a mobile phone company voodoo doll?