Costa Rica 2003

Witch’s Rock Surf Camp

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Nov 29 – Dec 7, 2003

Writeup by Bill Whalen

Participants:  Randy Schader, Lingyun Zhao, and myself

Day 1 (sat): up at 4:40AM to catch my flight. It was a blizzard out. Best time to leave Syracuse. Randy left at midnight the night before. We met at Atlanta. Flew down to Liberia, CR together. 4-hour flight. No free drinks. When we arrived, it was an overcast day (good) and a warm breeze. Yaa. 1-hour shuttle ride to WRSC was fast with hairy passing. Had to stop twice for Imperial beer. Just the passengers, not the driver. Randy, Mike, Will and I. Will brought a bong for the locals. New, of course, as a used bong might cause trouble at the airport. Good for many free drinks. The first person we met was Amy. Fell in love with her until I met Katherine. Dinner at Pedro (?). Mediocre food with an ocean view. The prices are cheap. The most expensive dinner was lobster at $12. Our room at the Tropicana had 3 beds, bathroom, central AC that was either on or off – no adjustments, and barely room for the suitcases. That was considered a better room than most. A few ants, one lizard inside. Many lizards outside.

Day 2 (sun): up at 6AM and walked the town. Already a lot of surfers out. Our first lesson is at 9AM. Ate a light breakfast (the Betty – fruit and granola covered in yogurt). Yum. Had butterflies in stomach anticipating lesson. Randy went with the large burrito. Brave man. After surfing for 2 hours my legs and arms were totally exhausted. And that is just the AM session. Back to the room to shower and pop pills. Ibuprofen for me and amoxicillin, alka-selzer cold medicine for Randy. He already had his morning dose of muscle relaxants for breakfast. Anti-malarial pill was Sat for Randy, Monday for me and Thursday for Lingyun. (Mario at the Tropicana hotel front desk called him Jackie Chan). Following lunch was a one-hour siesta 2PM-3PM and then more surfing 4PM to sunset. Now I’m in more pain. Awesome supper at Nioga and walked the town. Discovered that the dirt paths leading away from the one paved road are actually more roads with more businesses, restaurants etc. Was told that their one paved road was paved just last year. All the rest of the roads are dirt and gravel with huge potholes. One stretch was a mud pit like at Watkins Glen. Every time a vehicle goes down the road, even the paved one, it creates a huge dust storm. Back to the room at 9PM, read for 1 hour and then collapse into sleep.

Day 3 (mon): today is my malarial pill day. Lost my first item. Left my water bottle at the breakfast table. Oops. Randy had already lost his pen at the airport. Loaned it to someone and forgot to get it back. Time for day 2 of surfing. More ibuprofen. Lower back is sore. Learned technique on how to paddle out thru surf and how to pop up. Instructor was Nick the Brit. Indescribably physical. On first attempt to swim thru surf, failed and had to return to the beach to take a rest break. Made it out on my second try. Later, I learned that today was much bigger than average wave day. Great outdoors lunch by the sea. 2 green and yellow parrots were busy conversing. Post-lunch siesta. Afternoon is snorkel time. 2PM. Fell in love with Susie from Vancouver (or did she say from Belgium – see notes. Young and beautiful. Traveling alone. Wow. 4PM the surf was too small so it is beer time. 500 colones ($1.25) per beer. I like this country. Dinner again at Nioga.

Day 4 (tues): AM session had small waves. Good. PM session was a road trip to the “secret spot” – Shady Tree with Jason leading. It was a 30-minute drive to a spot on the beach, which was only a 2-mile walk down the beach from WRSC. Waves again were small. Fun. Then to a nearby upscale bar for Imperial draft beer. Only $5 pitchers. Fell in love with Daniella from Turin Italy, now living in London. Also traveling alone. Randy and Lingyun went out to dinner and Bill stayed behind at WRSC to party more. Bought 2 beers and drank ½. Must have been full. Was able to stay up to 10PM. Late night. Lingyun has “blow up toys” – inflatable hangers. Need to add that to my travel list.

Day 5 (wed): 9 AM session. Can we rally? Lingyun goes to the bank. You arrive and get a number like at the deli. Then leave and come back when it’s your turn. The line went too fast and he missed his turn. Got a new number and waited 11/2 hours. It still took 20 minutes to get money from his MasterCard when it was finally his turn. What a waste of a morning.

Day 6 (thurs): big surf day. Everyone out in the water at 10AM. Bill moved to an 8’6 epoxy board, Randy to 7’2. Big surf- tough to get beyond the break. Randy got 2 waves; bill caught one and spent the rest of the session in the white water. Took a breather on the beach; Randy talked to a hottie that looked like Jane Porter. Bill & Randy swapped boards and played in the white water. Bill on a short 7’2 board. I could get up on it in the white water. Lots of fun and wipe-outs. Bill notices the first topless babe. On to the canopy tours. $25. Mostly safe except for the head gashing and shaky ladders. Bill got a big divot and Randy a smaller one. One high-in-the-tree ladder was attached only with a loose rope, no clamps nor bolts (definitely not OSHA approved). Randy was amazed with the hue tree size. New kid arrived. Stacey from Miami. Traveling alone. Fell in love again. She couldn’t remember her instructor’s name, but it sounded like a bug. We all guessed it was Roach. Great dinner at Los Olas, with pitchers of Imperial. Waitress said that Robert August was there the prior evening, and that he had a place nearby. The waitress also followed us outside when leaving, saying we shortchanged her. Our mistake. Lingyun’s shoe stunk up the whole room. We threatened to take everything out of the safe and put his sandals in it. He washed them.

Day 7 (fri): had a couple of big rides. Heard my group cheer me on. The last ride in (for the AM session) I road all the way to the beach. Had plenty of time to look around and I was definitely high up on the wave. Great rush. Graduation was at bus ride to Avaino(?) with Nick the Brit, Phil the Brit, and Katherine leading. Low tide. Waves were steep and crashed quick, shallow water. It slams you to the bottom. It got Randy good on the very first wave. Recovery break for him. I had a short 7’10 board and could not do anything. However, the beach was beautiful. Went forever. Usual nice sunset. Stopped for beers at the local dive bar. Young girl came in collecting money for her birthday party. Lingyun was valuable to bring, as all the insects would eat him and leave others alone.

Day 8 (sat): woke up hoping Johan would forget about my surf lesson. Tired. Last lesson. Adios Lingyun. Ding repair seminar. Bill went to get his head repaired. Katherine was giving a “low tide yoga “ class at 3PM on the beach. I had good intentions of going until I discovered that at that time it is still too hot. I was sweating just walking out to the beach. No yoga. Lingyun actually met another tourist who could speak Chinese. Sat on porch and finished my book. Felt like an old British colonial resort.

Day 9 (sun): went to the beach for an 8AM final surf, but there were no waves. So instead had breakfast and a 9AM “low tide yoga class on the beach” with Katherine. The last position of lying on your back motionless and concentrating on nothing but your breathing, all I could concentrate on was the strong wind blowing across the beach filling up my nose and ear with sand. Typical hair-raising ride to airport – 3 cars wide on a 2-lane road. We could see huge mountain range in the distant. Poor layout at airport - had to go from one line to another line and crisscross through a 3rd line. Walt Disney would have had a heart attack over that. A perfect hot breeze blew thru our open waiting area. There was one man smoking as cigar directly under the no smoking sign. We flew together to Atlanta (cool-lanta) 40 degrees. We had a ceremonial final beer to discuss the Next Big Adventure and got sticker shock; big change from the $1.25 Imperials to $5 Sam Adams (welcome to America). Randy continued on to LA and I stayed the night. Put on a sweater and coat. Stayed at the best western suites. (College Park, Airport south). Nicest suite I’ve ever stayed in. 2 rooms – king bed with TV in one and couch computer table in the other. My single room was bigger than our triple at the Tropicana. Watched ½ of Harry Potter. Boring when alone.

Day 10 (mon): rose at a leisurely 7:30AM for an 11AM flight. Took advantage of the ironing board to make myself presentable. They originally tried to put me on the 1st flight out at 8AM, but I opted for the 2nd flight out at 11AM. Had a high sugar and Excedrin breakfast at the hotel and a calm ride to the airport with plenty of time to check in. Finished book 2 on the flight back.

People (Most can be found on the WRSC website)

• PK – owner. Said the new building next door to WRSC will be his hotel. Two floors with the second floor mainly comprised of two large rental units (30x15) with balcony. 12 rooms
• Joe – his son
• Amy – first person to welcome us.
• Katherine – sign in person
• Susie – traveling alone. Originally from Belgium. Now living in Vancouver. Rented a car in San Jose and drove alone thru the mountains to Liberia. Totally gutsy move. After her week was up, she was going to travel throughout CR. But for some reason (male?) she decided to stay longer at WRSC.
• Daniella – Turin Italy. Traveling alone.
• Geri – blond, traveling alone. Lives in London for 5 years. Needs to move on before getting “caught up in the trappings of London” , soon to go to Australia for 6 months to get her Yacht master license. Has enough money to take one year off. Total babe.
• Pasquale – traveling alone. Living in Boston. From Switzerland.
• Stacey
• Katie and Christopher – from Boston.
• Rita
• Lesley
• Kimberley
• Renata and Dominick – from Denver.
• Deanne – from NYC w/ husband. Another total babe
• Jason – our instructor
• Johan – our instructor
• Roach – total party animal and instructor
• Marvin – in charge of breakfast
• Kenneth – funny, hyper guy in charge of rental boards
• Will and Mike - shuttled in from the airport to WRSC with us. Will brought a bong to share. Mike had no idea where he was going to sleep. However, he goes down there 3-4 times per year.

Misc thoughts

Cars: all are 4-wheel drive (for a good reason). None would pass a NYS car inspection. Bald tires, worn suspension, non-working taillights, 1” of dirt all over. Cars stop and park anywhere and expect other cars to drive around them. It wasn’t unusual to have a car parked on the road requiring other cars to use the “middle” lane and oncoming cars to move over to the shoulder to avoid a collision. One car was broken down with an axle problem and did some major repairs while parked on main st. He took up 2/3 of the street and everyone else had to go around him. Did see two cars that did not make sense at all: Audi TT and Mazda Miata – where do you drive them?

Roads: the main paved roads are so full of potholes that drivers use both lanes and both shoulders when driving. Passing on hills and curves seems to be a fact of life. Scary. The dirt roads are really full of potholes. Frequent stopping and rolling down into the pothole and up the other side is common. Makes for slow travel. Instead of using a bridge to cross a creek, the road goes thru the water. Good thing it was the dry season. In the wet season, it is not unusual to have to get out and push the van thru the river. As a car went by it threw up a cloud of dust. Need rain.

Building construction: they were building a cement block wall while we were there. Very labor-intensive, no major equipment. Grading a lawn involves a team of workers with picks, shovels, rakes and a wheel barrel. 8+ workers work a week and still were not even close to being done. A day’s work with a backhoe and a concrete truck. One worker was mixing the concrete in a wheel barrel, but first, he had to manually shift the gravel thru a screen. Wow. Slow. A ladder is homemade out of 2 planks with boards nailed between them. Ditto for the scaffolding. Not OSHA approved.

Weather: truly constant. Every day was identical. Hot 88 degrees, sunny, no rain. At the peak of the day, it was too hot to even walk down the beach except close to the water. Siesta time. Even at night, it didn’t drop down below the need to wear just a T-shirt.

Water: drink lots of bottled water. Not sure if it did us any good since the label said spring water, not filtered nor purified. Where was the spring? Bought large 6L bottles and poured it into smaller bottles for drinking. Big savings.

Cats and Dogs: it was amazing how all the animals got along. No fighting. The cat was the boss. All animals are off leach and none fight with others.

Overpacked: With a sweater (except for airplane traveling), raincoat, underwear, and a few long-sleeved shirts. Brought surf hats, which greatly reduced sunburn to the head. Increased the dorky quotient. Used lotion #45 successfully.

Bought a few souvenirs. Bill bought a cool rashguard: red w/ the WRSC logo. We each bought a WRSC shirt and a Robert August t-shirt. Should have bought some trinkets for nephews.


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