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| The Holden loves Nosara waves |
Earlier in 2014, I noticed the Cymer corporate calendar showed the company would not consume ‘mandatory’ vacation days as much as in the past end of year holidays. And while investigating flights I discovered I had enough for an economy delta flight. So, the usual blackout fly dates made the 4 weeks a reality.
The pack list included the new Rusty and the oldest Holden. I cannot see going to the best waves I would see this year and not having a good board.
I stayed at Kaya Sol this year in suite 3. It had minimal requirements: walk to surf, internet, and air conditioning. This was an upgrade from Harbor Reef in that it also had a table/chairs. Suite 3 had an extra futon and I also got a mattress. Suite 3 had iguanas living in the roof. You could hear them scratching around in the morning, going to sunning spots to warm up. And a coconut tree would overhang and drop coconuts in high winds. Very loud and would dent the metal roof.
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| Notice the smaller Iguana and another Iguana's tail |
Jasmine joined me for the first week. We both had some wave adjustments that hampered first-day wave count. She had to leave earlier than expected for family reasons.
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| It was Great to have Jasmine there |
I got my surf funk on after Jasmine departed. Most days were waist to chest high and off-shores until 11am. Then the wind shifted to onshore and surfing was done for the day. Concerning tides, only low tide was to be avoided. I tried to be in the water no later than 6:30am to get a session in, head back to mi casa and follow up with another session before the onshore started.
Bill Whalen and Rick Soliway joined for the last week. They were brave enough to rent a car at LIR and drive to Nosara. At night. Bill was OK with white-water surfing whatever board I wasn’t using and did venture out past the white-water a few times. Rick took a surf lesson from Juan @Juan Surfo’s Surf Shop and realized a decades-old hip breakage does not work well with surfing. They also tried their snorkeling gear with mixed results.
Delta changed my return time to 9am from 2pm so I booked a reserved taxi for a 4:30am departure. Worked well.
Observations:
I am glad I sweated bringing the Rusty and Holden after seeing the available board rentals. They were left at Juan Surfo’s in a travel bag. Guess I committed myself to more Nosara trips.
Suite 3 a/c is only in the bedroom. The main room would be 7 degrees warmer.
Surfing the north end of Guinoes beach had less crowd and good waves. I tried the south end 1 day and found the surf classes always in the way. The north end did have (smaller) classes but not as numerous.
The best dining was at Beach Dog and Harbor Reef. Harbor Reef had an incredible blackened fish sandwich. Bill tried the blackened fish and had a lesser experience. Taco Tuesdays is quite a scene. A reserved table for 5 young ladies did not have any chairs at reservation time, leaving the ladies to troll the crowd to find chairs.
Thumbs down for the Gilded Iguana. I ate there twice and felt the quality was blah and overpriced.
And it seems most places are now into live music for dinner.
