Kaya Sol Suite #3 was no longer available due to some business issues so I booked into La Casita. Turned out Kaya Sol didn’t own several of the building but were the managers. The business snarkiness escalated to the point that a fence now separates Kaya Sol from ‘the other place’. We had to wait for our room to be available. Hmm, La Casita wasn’t booked for the previous night – why can’t we get in there now? So we had lunch and then the room was available.
La Casita’s air conditioner drips water INTO the room. I had a cool water collection system to get the drops including a shoelace tied to the curtain. The curtain gets saturated with water and then runs down the shoelace and into a container. The containers fill up during nap time and were emptied several times during the day. Other than the A/C issue, La Casita was nice with no stairs to traverse. Kaya sol does have a great location.
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| Always something goes wrong. |
An empty Sambuca bottle was repurposed to prop open a window while we were out and about, to air out the room.
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| Everything has a purpose. |
We got our boards from Juan’s, waxed up, and got an evening session in 80F degree water. Perfect.
Bert eventually traded in the Infinity board for an epoxy board at Juan’s. Surf conditions were light and perfect for Bert’s new board. I borrowed it and had a blast on waist to chest high waves.
A bonus this year is that a young woman liked to sunbathe topless near where I buried my sandals/water. She would show up at about 10am at marker 10. Bill NEVER saw her. Sorry I have no pictures. That I would post.
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| Sorry, no topless shots. |
Bert left after 12 days. Then Don and Cate came into Nosara, staying at Casa Romantica. I know Don and Cate through Jeff Wolf and surfing at RockPile in Solana Beach. This was their first Nosara visit so I provided info on shuttles, where to stay, rent boards, etc.
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| Randy, Cate, and Don at Kaya Sol Restaurant. |
Wave size was perfect during Don and Cate’s 6 days but they did have trouble adjusting to the offshore winds. Paddling into waves with offshores is difficult with the solution being later takeoffs. Don adjusted by the second day and Cate dialed in later.
Silvia was scheduled to join us but canceled due to having a nasty cold and logistics (getting from Mammoth Mountain, 4-hour sleep, and then travel to LAX).
Bill arrived on December 30. He said the shuttle was a half-hour late due to a girl needing to be dropped off at a house ‘near Casa Romantica’. When the shuttle finally dropped her somewhere she offered to pay by credit card. The driver said the credit card machine wasn’t working. She said ‘I only have a credit card and no cash’. Suddenly the credit card machine worked. Hmmm.
The common theme when dining out (lunch or dinner) was to prepare for a long wait. We waited for almost an hour at the Paris Bakery for lunch. BUT the Casado at Rosa Tica’s was worth the wait. We were educated on the difference between chicken with sauce Casado and grilled chicken Casado. Go with the grilled chicken Casado.
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| Rosa Tica's Casado. Yummy. |
Nachos, Pasta Carbonara, and Chicken Cesar Salad at Kaya Sol restaurant were great.
Every day we were up and out at first light 5:30am so we could watch the sunrise on the beach. Then back to the room for the first breakfast of either French toast or banana and peanut butter on coconut bread. Both yum.
After breakfast #1 we picked up the boards and back to the beach for yoga and surf for 2 hours. Afterward, it was back to the room to put away gear and clean up for lunch. Twice we walked the town and then had lunch. Walking the town twice a week seems to have been enough mid-day walking. After lunch was nap time followed by reading at the pool till it was time to return to the beach for sunset. Everybody went to the beach for sunset. Then it was dinner, drinks, and in bed by 9pm.
One sunrise we saw that a turtle had just laid her eggs and was slowly returning to the ocean. Someone said they lay 180 eggs at a time with hatching in 28 days unfortunately she laid them in the middle of the main walking path. Not a good chance for that breed.
Funny thing. It took a week to figure out bringing half-frozen water, topped off with more water, was excellent refreshment after an hour in the ocean. Not until the last week did I figure out topping off with OJ was even better due to the citrus sugar.
Several other surfers were there for annual trips. Patrick and Margaret returned from San Francisco. Shawn and Nate were their friends and stayed an additional week. Scott and Kelly returned from Maine. We met Terry and Maggie, and their son Dan and his girlfriend Jessie. Dan and Jessie both live in the San Diego area so a good chance to see Terry and Maggie when they visit. Terry is a musician that plays at Beach Dog café and also works at Red Rocks in Colorado. Ben was staying at the Kaya Sol hostel; he works at a San Francisco startup that is a cannabis clearinghouse.
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| ??, ??, Margaret, Patrick, Shawn, and Nate. |
Scott shared a not-too-favorable story of reserving a Kaya Sol place then having them pull the reservation. But he did have a good review of Mamma Rosa Resort. Bill and I toured Mamma Rosa – thumbs up except it is situated more south.
One negative discovery was that dining costs were now on par with the US. Lunch entrees were priced $6-9, and dinners were $9-18. Notable high expense dinners were Burger and Beer, and Beach Dog Café. Burger and Beer was promoting their craft beer. Come on, I am from San Diego, I think we got that market covered! So a burger and pint came to $22, but the mahi-mahi burger was tasty. As for Beach Dog Café, I noticed their dinners were the priciest in town last year. This year their prices didn’t change so they were in line with everyone else. Dinner of Pad Thai and Bohemia beer was $21.
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| Beach Dog Cafe. |
Ahh, but the local market fixed their freezer so trits were good and frozen. Last year the local market freezer wasn’t doing the job so trits were melting away right out of the container. Cost about $2.25/each.
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| The local market well-stocked for my visit. |
Ever have a day you want to do-over? That was our departure day. My LIR departure was for 9am and Bill’s was 2pm(?) but he wanted to try and go standby on an 8am. So we shuttled in and arrived at 5:30am. Then waited 40 minutes for things to start opening at the airport. I got through no problem. What, no departure tax? Bill discovered standby is only for domestic flights, and he could not check luggage until 11am so he was stuck on the other side of security. I thought about exiting the airport to hang with Bill then realized that involved customs and could not see how that would work out. Lucky for Bill he packed the last Pilsen in luggage so he got to enjoy a mid-morning warm beer.
Add this to Randy’s screw up list. I decided to buy a duty-free Sambuca in LIR. Duty-Free changed their methods so now they hand the purchased goods to you in a sealed bag in the duty-free store. On previous trips, they would hand it to you as you were boarding your flight. Not thinking much of it, I stuffed the bottle in my backpack. But when getting to LAX I totally forgot the bottle when picking up the luggage and resubmitting it for the LAX-SAN flight. So when the TSA agent confiscated the Sambuca I told her it goes well with an espresso.
But while walking about LAX wishing I took Amtrak to Solana Beach I ran into Oscar Wolf and his girlfriend Laura. They were on the same flight to SAN and were coming from Colorado. And that flight was late for takeoff due to not have a flight crew. Bill and I entertained each other by texting our travel progress, seeing who will be lying down in a bed first. I won by 5 minutes.
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Next year’s trip may be different. Several of the Cymer surf team have expressed interest in joining, meaning there might be enough to rent a house.
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| Until next visit. |
