After skipping ahead in time to discuss my current adventures with the “king of fruit” it’s time to get back to the story of my time in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. There are quite a few parks around the area, and Elani and I decided to check out Mirador el Silencio. It’s a private reserve just outside of town in the jungle at the base of Arenal Volcano. As one might expect, the views of the volcano were quite good, although of course the peak was covered in clouds. I think we saw the peak about twice in the two weeks we were there.
Arenal Volcano with its typical cloud cover Taken by Elani
The trails in the reserve lead up to the remains of the lava flow from the 1992 eruption. The flow itself isn’t a flat slab of rock like some, but rather a boulder field slowly being reclaimed by vegetation. In a few more decades, I imagine the whole thing will look pretty much like the rest of the jungle at the base of the volcano, but now it’s an eerie mix of short, bright green shrubs poking out between jagged black rocks.
Lave fields from Arenal’s 1992 eruption Taken by Elani
Of course, being a nature reserve, there was plenty of flora and fauna. The forested parts were filled with huge trees whose branches serve as hosts to ferns, bromeliads and a slew of other plant life. Closer to ground level, we spotted orchids and some wonderful looking berries that I didn’t recognize, but I think we can assume were either delicious or deadly poisonous. I decided the safe option was not to find out
Every tree is basically its own aerial garden Taken by ElaniOrchids Taken by ElaniDelicious or deadly poison..hmm Taken by Elani
As is typical for Costa Rica, the bird life was in fine form. We spotted several of these large black birds that look like some sort distant relative to turkeys. Even the parking lots had some great sights, with a colony of Montezuma Oropendolas and a couple of Keel Billed Toucans.
What I like to refer to as a “proto-turkey” Taken by ElaniA Montezuma Oropendolas – try saying that three times fast Taken by Elani
However, the most exciting wildlife sightings had to be the monkeys. They were much too high up to photograph, unfortunately. But we saw two species, the howler monkey which we’d definitely heard before but only seen once, and spider monkeys, in the only sighting we would ultimately have of them. The spider monkeys were by far the most impressive. A small group of about half a dozen went swinging through the treetops way above our heads. Spider monkeys are athletic and fearless even by monkey standards, and watching a group swinging through the treetops at speeds I’d be hard pressed to match sprinting on flat ground was something to behold. After all that, we hopped in our rental car and headed off to unwind with a relaxing dip in the hot springs before heading back to town for dinner. It was a great way to spend a day exploring.
At the time of writing this, Elani and I are one week into our five week stay in Penang, Malaysia. It’s a wonderful mashup of cultures and history, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to write about it, but for now I want to talk about durian. The “king of fruit,” as it’s often called, has to be one of the most famous and controversial in South East Asia, if not the whole world. Some value it as a delicacy and discuss the flavor and varieties with the same mystique as those who enjoy top self wines and whiskies. Others find the taste, texture, and particularly smell an affront to the senses – so much so that it is specifically banned from some hotels in the this part of the world. Malaysia is a particular hotspot for this contentious fruit: not only the fresh fruit, but also durian candy and ice cream are commonly available in shops and stalls around Penang. So with all the hype, we had to give it a try – I mean, how could we not. But how to even begin to figure out how to tell the “good” durian from the “bad”, not to mention all the stories of the overwhelming smell? If we brought one home and opened it up, would our apartment irrevocably smell of durian for weeks to come?
Looking over various tours in the Penang area on AirBnB, we found a tour to a local durian farm, including all you can eat durian. Well, if we’re going to do this, we figured we might as well do it right, so we booked the tour and paid a few extra bucks to get the “fancy” grade durian. Our hosts picked us up in Georgetown and drove us to their farm in the hills about 30 minutes drive outside of town. Once there, we met the other folks doing the tasting, a Chinese couple and their adult son, who seemed to be much more seasoned connoisseurs than us. The farm was a beautiful patch of jungle set high among the foot hills with a great view of the surrounding countryside and Indian Ocean beyond. Our host, Peh, and her parents and uncle showed us around their farm where they grew not only durian, but also banana, papaya, mangosteen, rambutan, and nutmeg, along with a variety of veggies for their own use. They showed off – with obvious pride – their durian trees, which included some large trees that were over a hundred years old and evidently produce the best fruits.
View from the farm Taken by ElaniDurian fruit still on the tree Taken by Elani
We started the tasting by sampling the rambutan and mangosteen, both of which were great, though I’d say the mangosteen were particularly tasty. This wasn’t Elani or my first time trying either of these, both of which are common not only here in Malaysia but also in Bali (where we were prior to flying here). Both are fairly uncommon in the states, and if you get the chance, I recommend them. Rambutans are quite similar to lychee, but with a slightly earthier taste. Before peeling off the skin, they look about as much like a tropical sea slug as a fruit. When ripe, mangosteens are round, about 2 inches in diameter, and glossy black. You have to break off the pithy outer shell to get at the multi-lobed, translucent white fruit inside. They are quite different from anything else I’ve had, quite sweet and tart, with very soft flesh and a floral, almost perfume-like smell. They’re very tasty, and as it turns out, a common pairing with durian. Then it was time to get down to business.
Rambutan (left), mangosteen, and tea Taken by ElaniUnopened durian (and one jackfruit ) Taken by Elani
There are very few things in life that I’ve found really live up to their hype, and durian didn’t buck the trend on that count. I found the smell to be in no way overwhelming. A little stronger than most fruits, to be sure, and complex – an odd mix of floral sweetness, with funky notes similar to, but not quite like a combination of aged cheese and fresh garlic. So, a bit odd, but considering the rather florid comparisons to opens sewers or worse I’ve heard, really nothing to get all worked up about. And the taste? Again, complex. Trying to describe it really points out the insufficiency of the English language regarding taste. All I can really do is write down a list of things that you’ve probably tasted before and ask you to imagine eating them together, but I’m sure that that would taste nothing like durian in all reality. So maybe like a good strong brie, with jackfruit and a little garlic. No, that’s not quite it. How about a pear cheesecake with blue cheese, bourbon, and truffles? Yeah, that’s not it either really. Alright, this isn’t working, so suffice to say they are sweet, there are fruity notes, almost perfume-like notes, but also some really earthy funky notes like aged cheese, and a little something almost tingly and fermented tasting. Oh, and each one’s different. We got to try several varieties (they grow 10 on this farm alone) from younger and older trees, and all were different, with different notes coming through more or less. Then there’s the texture. The flesh is soft, sort of like a custard or soft cheese, but again there’s a lot of variety. Some patches were a bit firmer, more like lychee. Also, there’s a bit of a membrane around the outside of each section and again around the seeds at the center of each section, not tough, but firmer that the rest of it, and providing an interesting contrast.
Our host opening a durian Taken by ElaniOpen durian Taken by Elani
All in all, I think complexity is really the defining element in durian. The only thing that durian really tastes like is durian, and every durian tastes different. Like everything that’s an acquired taste (wine, beer, whisky, aged cheese, coffee), and durian is definitely an acquired taste, it’s complex and varied with a lot of pleasant tastes and just enough unpleasantness to keep it interesting. So if you focus on the unpleasant flavors, you’re not going to enjoy it. But if you’re willing to take it all in and appreciate the good and the bad, you’ll find a lot more of the former than the latter and at worst, it’s at least interesting. In a lot of ways, enjoying durian is traveling to a new city. You have to take it all in and enjoy everything. If I focused on the dreary high rise condos all over the suburbs, the painfully mediocre beer, or that time when I watched a rat screech and go tumbling off the eves of the building just in front of me into one of the open drainage ditches (that often have a slight raw sewage smell) next to the side walk, only to shake itself off and run under the door into the building it just came out of, I don’t know that I’d really have a very high opinion of Penang. But if I take that along with the amazing and inexpensive food, varied and rich culture, and depth of history that define Penang, it is a pretty great place to be – even if now I have to look both up AND down to avoid rats.
One of the major problems with Fortuna is that, other than going to restaurants and shops, there’s not that much to do in town, which means walking isn’t that great of an option for transport when sightseeing. That leaves three options: renting a car (which thanks to some shenanigans with rental agencies and insurance, starts at $50 a day), taking a cab (great for short distances), or renting a scooter. The latter is a bit more affordable for short trips, since it came in at $30 a day including a full tank of gas, and really, unless you’re a hardcore scooterist, you’re pretty likely run out of stamina before you run out of gas. During our time in Fortuna, Elani and I tried all three, but when it comes to the actual experience of traveling, the scooter was the most memorable.
Our first outing was a trip to one of the local waterfalls, then out to the free hot springs. We rented a scooter with an automatic transmission and 125cc of raw power. We were given reflective bandoliers and helmets that, let’s just say, would not have passed Department of Transportation standards, and off we went. Carrying two full size adults, a scooter that size didn’t accelerate or stop particularly well, but we got along well enough, and after a couple of trips around the block for kicks, it was off to the waterfall. After a long ride up a rather steep hill (during the steepest part, I had to completely open up the throttle to keep speed up), we made it to a park with a lovely little orchid garden and, of course, a rather stunning waterfall.
First view of Fortuna Falls Taken by Elani
After going down WAY too many steps, we were treated to closer views of the waterfall and a chance to have a swim in the pools downstream.
Fortuna Falls Taken by ElaniSwimming downstream of the falls Taken by Elani
Then it was off to the hot springs. I’ve already written about them here, but suffice to say it was a very relaxing time. The drive out there was a bit longer then I thought. A 10 minute car ride turned into a 15-20 scooter trip, but it was a nice day, so no biggy. On the way back however, it was twilight and it started raining. A 20 minute drive on a heavily loaded scooter on a major road, in dark and rain with no windshield (no idea why they thought that was a non-essential piece of equipment) was pretty much “exciting” enough to undo all the relaxing I had gotten in the hot springs, though on the plus side, it was the first time I’d felt too cold since I’d left the mountain town of Monteverde. But despite a bit of white knuckling it on the way back, it was quite lovely day of scootering.
I evidently hadn’t had enough, because a couple days later, I rented another little bike to keep myself amused while Elani was working. This one was a still a 125cc, but it was a proper little motorcycle with a manual transmission and everything. Still hardly a power house, but I did get it up to 80 kph (or 50 mph if you’re into that kind of thing) before I decided that was probably faster than is really necessary on a contraption like this. I decided to head out to the town of La Tigre, because it sounded cool. Lovely drive, but I was hoping for a bit more out a town named for one of the fiercer land predators on earth. Well, what’s in a name, anyway? The most excitement probably came for crossing a bridge. Here’s a picture of me by said bridge:
Me and my “trusty” steed Taken by the dude at the roadside restaurant
Doesn’t look too bad, right? Well, the driving surface was a steel grid that shifted unnervingly and had a few slats missing. Not enough to drop a tire into, but with skinny little tires, I didn’t want to find out how much that would disrupt my path. But I crossed twice without incident and stopped for a snack at the restaurant where that picture was taken. I ordered a “cheese snack,” which turned out to just be two thick slices of cheese on two store bought tortillas, so not exactly fine dining. But hey, it was cheap, and the proprietor offered to take a picture of me with my trusty steed.
Well, it was nice to get a chance to try out the one the most popular local form of transport, and even with a few rough roads, nerve racking bridges, and rain storms, it left me having a few fond thoughts of my own poor neglected motorcycle patiently waiting for me back home.
One of the main tourist draws to La Fortuna is the abundance of thermal hot springs to soak in. There is a pretty wide range of development, luxury, and of course cost to choose from. Everything from a free trip down to the river by the bridge to $85 for a half day (and dinner of course) in carefully built and maintained pools at the high end luxury spas. We mostly stuck to the free hot spring, though we did spring for an evening at one of the fancier places just to see what all the fuss was about.
I’ll start with the fancy place. It was $70 for a half days with dinner. Drinks were not included, although to my surprise, they weren’t overcharging for them (though I think they could have been a bit more generous with the pours on the mixed drinks). We chose this place because it was supposed to have some of the best natural surroundings, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a few miles out of town and set into the jungle – they did a great job of landscaping and building the pools so that it fit nicely into the surroundings. I don’t remember how many pools it had, but there were plenty. They started at the top with a waterfall that was really too hot to spend more than a few minutes in and flowed through the rest of the resort with more pools in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and temperatures all the way down to unheated river water. So we spent the few hours trying out the different pools, getting a little too hot, then cooling off and going back again, with the cycle broken up by a trip to the poolside bar for drinks. After dinner (which I think I’d call fine, not mind-blowing), it was getting pretty dark and it was a good time to head to the farthest downstream pool, which was a great place to watch the fireflies buzzing around in the treetops. All in all, it was a great way to spend the evening. However, at the end of the day, the luxury and convenience of this place made it feel a bit canned. Everything was safe, secure, and taken care of. The people there were all tourists, the food was a bit “institutional,” the grounds themselves were too man-made. Basically the only thing that really felt local was the water. Which is why at the end of the day, I think I enjoyed going to the free hot springs quite a bit more.
The free hot springs in Fortuna are right before the big lines of huge resorts on your way into town. You park on the side of the road just after a bridge (usually giving the guys directing traffic and parking, probably unofficially, a couple of bucks) and wander down to the river. Once at the river you can either head to a number of little pools downstream or, like I usually ended up doing, head upstream under the bridge and find a comfortable spot to sit among the rocks. The water in the river wasn’t really hot, just warm, but considering that the air temperature was anything but cold in Fortuna, that was fine with me. Unlike the high end hot resort hot springs, this place has a nice mix of locals and travelers, and though it was crowded enough at times that you’d have a wait before you could snag one of the most choice spots, there was always somewhere decent to sit, and the scene was friendly and vibrant. However, the social scene wasn’t what made it stand out to me. There were two striking details that made this place completely different from any hot spring I’d been to either in Costa Rica or elsewhere. The first was that it was just a river, no walls or benches or any of the other niceties you’d expect to find a in even a semi-constructed hot spring. It was just rocks and sand, and it was up to you to find a comfy spot to sit. The second was that being a river, the water was flowing. I’ve never really felt anything quite like being in water flowing just a little cooler then body temperature, it is EXTREMELY relaxing. One of my favorite parts was finding a little rapid I could sit under and wedge myself against a rock so I could almost completely relax. It was pretty much like getting a whole body massage. The couple of time Elani and I were able to stay at the hot springs until twilight, we were rewarded with sightings of bats and fireflies in the darkening treetops.
While the resort hot springs were certainly nice in their way, when it came right down to it, the free hot springs had what I really look for when I’m traveling – the chance to experience something truly unique to the place I’m visiting.
I live a weird and somewhat extraordinary life. A couple of days ago I didn’t really have any intentions of going to Malaysia and didn’t even know that much about it (still don’t, really, but that’ll change soon one way or another). Now Elani and I will be traveling there in a little over a month and staying for a month and a half. So, what changed?
Well, I’ll start by saying I don’t like to plan too early – there’s a sweet spot to planning. If you wait too long, things book up and prices rise, but if you plan too early, you can miss out on some information that would change your decision, or preferences or goals may change. Basically, I’m a big proponent of waiting until that last minute before things get difficult. That may sound like me justifying being lazy, but “lazy” is usually just a derogatory term for efficiency, and I’ll certainly never apologize for being efficient. Anyways, that sweet spot came for planning where to go after Bali, mainly because we need an exit ticket before arriving there.
Two of the top spots in Southeast Asia are Thailand and Vietnam, but the weather in general and the wind for kiting in particular aren’t great until later in the year. That meant it was time to use my favorite trick when I don’t know where I want to go –pull up the Google Flights map and see where’s cheap. It turns out that the cheapest flights out of Denpasar, Bali, other than to somewhere else in Indonesia, were to Malaysia. The next step was to check the US State Department’s website for travel restrictions and dangers (for would-be travelers out there, I recommend it as a starting place). Despite the fact that in East Malaysia (the section of the country on the island of Borneo, and definitely nowhere near where we’re going), there is a real danger of being kidnapped by pirates (I’m not being the least bit facetious about that, actual modern pirates are kidnapping tourists on Borneo for ransom – holy crap!), mainland Malaysia is actually quite safe. Visas to Malaysia are straight forward, with a generous 90 days given for tourist on entry. Okay, so a go on Malaysia then. A little more digging showed that though Kuala Lumpur is a little cheaper, Penang is a bit more chill, has more history, and is one of the best cities in Asia for street food. Sold!
At this point things were looking good, we just had to wade through some bureaucracy to get a 60 day visa to Indonesia and then after that we would fly out to Penang. It was a pretty good plan, but I was lamenting to Elani that that puts us in a non-kiteboarding spot for my birthday. Not a big deal, but it got us thinking, why bother with all the trouble of getting a 60 day visa? Instead, we could just do 30 days in Bali, head over to Malaysia for a while, then go back to Bali in time for my birthday. Boom, done, perfect plan. Sometimes you just need to step back and think about things differently.
So, that’s what we’re up to. First Bali, then to Malaysia, then back to Bali, and by that point, the weather will be starting to get nicer in Thailand and Vietnam. I love it when a plan comes together!
It’s been a little while since my last post – about a month, in fact – so it’s probably time I got everyone up to date on where I am and what I’m up to. Right now, I’m writing from Rügen, Germany, which is a lovely little island in the Baltic Sea situated in the northeast corner of Germany. It’s pretty much just vacation towns on the coast and farmland in the interior, but the atmosphere is relaxed, the natural beauty is abundant, and the beer and smoked fish sandwiches are excellent and plentiful. Honestly, I’ve thought on a few occasions during our stay that I could really see myself retiring here someday. It’s too slow paced for my life right now, but I have been enjoying my time here after being in Lisbon for a few weeks.
Beer and fischbrötchen (fish sandwich) on Rugen Taken by Elani
Which brings me to what I’ve been up to since my last post from Tarifa, Spain – I’ll write more about it later, but to be brief, after heading out from Tarifa and a short stay in Malaga, Spain (it was supposed to be one night but turned into two because of a mix-up with bus tickets) it was off on an overnight bus trip to Lisbon, Portugal. Elani and I rented a place in a nice, modern area of town for three weeks. For about a week in the middle of this, I was off to an inn just outside the little town of Elvas (which is a couple of hours drive east from Lisbon, almost on the Spanish border) for an intensive training seminar on the Spanish school of classical fencing. It was an amazing experience and a great way to get to spend time with the folks from my classical fencing school in Seattle and to get to know students and teachers from the classical fencing schools associated with it from across the country. During the time I was away, Elani stayed in Lisbon and had the chance to get a bit of work done and explore the city. After Lisbon, we flew out to Berlin, grabbed a rental car, and made the three hour drive to Rügen.
So, what’s next? Well, when we leave Rügen in a couple of days, we’re going to stay in Berlin for a little over a week. That being said, Elani and I both agree that if we’d known how much we would like it here, we would have just stayed the whole time. But Berlin is a nice city, and I am excited to get me some currywurst. From Berlin, we fly out to Sanur on the island of Bali, Indonesia. The plan is to stay there as long as our visa allows – and it looks like we should be able to get a 60 day visa without too much hassle. It’s going to mark a bit of a shift in this adventure, I think – Europe has been a lot of touristing and moving around every few weeks, and seeing lots of folks from back home. But Sanur is a smallish town, we’re going to be staying there a lot longer, and the plan is to adopt that model a lot more in the future. It’s a bit more of a sustainable pace and a bit easier on the pocketbook, to boot. After Bali, it’s a bit more undecided, but top contenders are Thailand and Vietnam. After that, who knows?
In the meantime, it’s time to get back to telling the story of our adventures in a little more depth, so back to Costa Rica for our move to the town of La Fortuna and our meeting with a good natured and slightly overfed sloth.
After our stay in the land of expats – Arenal – it was time to jump right back into a major tourist destination with La Fortuna, or just Fortuna, as it is pretty much always called, much like Nuevo Arenal is almost exclusively called Arenal. I was corrected for calling both Arenal and Fortuna by their full names, so Costa Ricans (or Ticos for short) seem to take not saying more words then is strictly necessary fairly seriously. There’s probably a good lesson for me there, I’m at a hundred words and I haven’t even told you much about the town yet. Alright, back on track.
Anyways, the most obvious feature of Fortuna is Arenal Volcano, usually half covered in clouds, which juts into the sky just a few miles outside town. Until relatively recently (2010, I believe) there were almost nightly displays of lava flowing down the sides of the volcano, which is really what built Fortuna up as a tourist destination. Since the flow suddenly stopped, tourism has taken a bit of a hit, and the town has a bit of a “not at capacity” feeling, but there is still plenty of natural beauty, thermal hot-springs, and adventure activities to keep folks coming.
I got a chance to have a little preview of Fortuna for an afternoon even before moving out of Arenal. A former coworker of mine was vacationing in Costa Rica, and I took the bus over to meet up with him while he was staying in Fortuna. With a couple of nice folks he met at his hostel, we went for a walk around Arenal National Park and then hung out at the natural hot springs. The park offered a few great views of the volcano and wild life (including my first, but not last, sighting of monkeys). Here’s a shot of me taken in front of the volcano:
Me at Arenal National Park
The hot springs were basically thermal vents feeding into a river, which is pretty awesome, I must say. Warm (but not really hot water) flowing over you is a pretty great way to relax.
It was only a couple of days later that Elani and I headed over to Fortuna from Arenal (the town, to be clear) for our two week stay here. We got a nice little place through AirBnB that was a few blocks outside of the main downtown, which has a nice little park and church at its center. As with most places in town there was a pretty great view of the volcano to be had there – when the clouds weren’t in the way:
Elani Posing on the fountain in the park in Fortuna Taken by Geoff
The town itself wasn’t particularly large, but here there were plenty of decent places to eat, including an honest to goodness sushi joint, which was a nice change of pace. Not the best sushi I’ve ever eaten, but perfectly edible and they certainly didn’t skip on the portions:
Really why would you put sushi in anything except a boat? Taken by Elani
After a few quiet days of chilling out and eating too much sushi it was time to get out and take in what Fortuna has to offer, starting with meeting a new fat little flower-eating friend.
Well, first of all, let me apologize for the joke in the title. It is very dumb and really should be beneath me, but clearly it’s not – I’m sorry. But that’s all in the past now, it’s time to move forward. Ahem, anyways, one of our first adventures out in Fortuna was to check out a “sloth experience” run by a local farmer. Basically, he found an abandoned baby sloth, fed it, gave it a place to stay in his garden, and now he’s got a permanent house guest.
So the experience started by learning a little about his farm and how to make juice out of sugar cane, and a sample of fresh sugar cane juice. Then we took a walk out to the garden and stood around awkwardly with several other tourists and our guide waiting for our star to make her entrance:
Badoke making her entrance Taken by Elani
A little late but, you know she is a sloth after all. Her name is Badoke, which basically means chubby. Which may not be the kindest nickname, but it was fairly accurate. I guess life is pretty easy when all you have to do for your supper is hang around and be adorable. So, after a bit or waking up and a proper amount of scratching herself, it was time for breakfast. What else, flowers eagerly handed to her by her adoring fans. Here’s Elani feeding her one her favorites, avocado flowers:
Time to get some breakfast Taken by Geoff
More eating and posing, she makes breakfast look good:
What doesn’t everyone look this good when they get up in the morning? Taken by ElaniMmm flower Taken by Elani
And a bit of working the audience:
Making friends Taken by a helpful person who’s name I’m afraid I didn’t get
The camera loves you, Badoke:
She calls that look “fluffy steel” Taken by Elani
After 20 minutes or so of showing off for the tourists she made her way off to her favorite avocado tree to finish up breakfast – which I imagine rolls neatly into lunch – in peace. It was a pretty great experience. It wasn’t the last time we saw sloths in Fortuna, there were actually some wild ones living a few blocks from our apartment that our host kindly showed us, but it was certainly the closest look we got of one. Meeting a chubby new tree-climbing friend was definitely one the highlights of our stay here.
Me, extremely busy, on the beach in Tarifa Taken by Elani
I’ve been a bit remiss in my self-imposed duties, I’m afraid, which is to say updating this blog. I’d love to say that it was because I’ve been kiting every day, but that’s not really it. I have been kiting to be sure, and doing plenty of exploring and even, in an out of character turn of events, quite a bit of socializing. But really I let myself get distracted, and fell out of the habit of writing a post or two over the week. Or wait – maybe I should blame it on writers’ block. That makes it sound more like I’m a serious writer, so I’ll go with that.
Not that I regret having a bit of a busy schedule over the last several weeks. Elani and I were able to convince a couple of our best friends to come visit us in quick succession (we actually dropped one off and picked the other up from the airport on the same day). Getting to share our globing trotting with a couple of our favorite people was awesome. While they were here, it was a great excuse to tourist around a bit more, well, a lot more. We’ve seen not only several amazing cities in southern Spain (Seville, Ronda, Vejar) but also day-tripped to two other countries – Gibraltar and Tangier, Morocco. Heck, Tangier marks a trip to a whole other continent for me, one closer to the goal of hitting all seven.
Long story short, a lot has happened since my last update. I seem to be making memories much faster than I can write them down, and I still need to tell the whole story of Costa Rica. So, be patient with me. I’m trying to get back in the saddle and get caught up. To start with, let me tell you about Nuevo Arenal, and drinking gin and tonics on the beach.
Some events really capture the feeling of a place. And I think one of the things that really captures the beach bum soul of Tarifa is sitting in a parking lot next to the beach and drinking gin and tonics after a session of kiting.
The day was great for kiting. The beach was a bit on the crowed side, because the wind had changed directions, meaning fewer of the launches worked well. But there was plenty of room once you were out in the water. The weather’s warming up here, but it’s still the Atlantic Ocean, so the water is nice and cold (wetsuits strongly recommended). The wind was good, and the waves were light, so it was a good day to head out and practice. Since she had finished work earlier than usual, Elani came along as well, not to kite but just to enjoy the sun and sand. We met up with a friend of ours who’s a consummate kiter and digital nomad from the UK.
After kiting, packing up our gear, and heading back to the cars, our bud offered to make up a round of gin and tonics (being British, of course she had the supplies on hand), and we sat around bullshitting and enjoying the last of the sun and the view of the evening light on the rocky hill just inland from the waves. Walking back to the beach, the crowds of kiters had gone and all there was left was the view of the sunset and the Rock of Gibraltar poking through the mists in the distance.
View of the sunset and the Rock of Gibraltar poking through the mists Taken by Elani
