it! We came to the conclusion that we should spend some time on the beach, shocking, we know. Arriving at the beach at 9am was a nice contrast from the days we have been arriving in the busier afternoon hours. The tide was extreeemely low and there were very few people out. We did some reading, which may come as a surprise to those of you who didn’t take us for bookworms, and had a lot of quiet time while soaking up some vitamin D…or should we say overdosing on it? Sunburned pics to come. One of our buddies from Tico’s Surf School, Pablo, walked over and sat with us for a while. Well actually he walked by silently while we were lying there with our eyes closed and stealthily swiped up the beach bag that was in between us. Don’t worry, Pablo is not a sociopathic clepto or anything, he was just demonstrating that we were getting a little too comfortable in our environment and reminded us that petty theft is something we will have to be cautious of everywhere we go – what a wise old owl. We chatted about lots of things, like how people in the town think Pablo is an asshole because he can’t keep his opinions to himself, his adorable son with the messy long hair, and how he was mad at us for leaving so soon. Pablo is kind of hilarious and talks really fast with zero filter about what he is saying. He is our kind of guy so it was good to spend some time with him before we left. He offered to take us to a waterfall about 30 minutes away in the afternoon but we knew we probably needed to pack instead.
Then the most epic thing ever happened. Max sauntered up and declared himself to
be our favorite Kentucky boy ever, we weren’t exactly convinced yet (don’t worry
BD, you’re not that easily replaceable). Remember Gerald? Our hilarious and
studly Tico guide from our Wing Nuts zipline tour? Refresh your memories at
blog entry “aaaahhh!” Gerald was our number one favorite Tico amigo. He had mysteriously, and rudely, vanished after our canopy tour, except for one brief glimpse when he hung half is body out of a moving car that was passing us as he shouted “Henniferr” and threw up a peace sign. Jenny had told Gerald that no one calls her Jennifer except her dad when she has done something disappointing, which is very rare obviously. During out treetop picnic Gerald had promised to take us to Carrillo, the nearby beach. Christian and Sandro, our surf instructors, had beat him to it when they took us to a bonfire there. But the fact remained, Christian was no Gerald.
Max (our friend who is studying Spanish at Intercultura) was staying in Samara with a local family, a stern Tico dad who rarely spoke but made lots of noise each morning, and his wife who stuffed Max with Costa Rican food at every meal and line dried his clothes for him who had 3 older children – the youngest of whom was Gerald! The idea of Gerald had become such a joke to us, that we always made sarcastic comments to Max about giving Gerald a piece of our mind if he saw him. We (of course) thought we were quite hilarious but didn’t think Max was really paying attention to our weirdness.
Anyway, back to the gripping story…Max told his “host brother” that it was our last day in Samara and Gerald was surprised to hear we were leaving sooner than expected. He told Max he would take us to a sunset in Carillo that evening! Our first Samara sunset on our last night with a long lost Tico friend - talk about a cosmic occurrence. It all felt so full-circle, we knew it was epic and meant to be. Of course, plans around here are pretty hit and miss so we didn’t get our hopes up too high (yeah, that’s a lie…we were stoked).
Jenny, Max and Georgia (the Canadian we met yesterday) went surfing for a little while Kelly relaxed in a nearby hammock and chatted in Spanglish with Sandro They cracked each other up as usual and both only spoke in their native language ranting away and not understanding each other until they somehow broke into a little rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “My Sherie Amor”. Music really is the universal language.
Being the chemistry-eyeing matchmakers that we are, we foresee a great romance
between Georgia and Max (who we hope are not reading this) so after surfing we walked home with Max and gave him some helpful and most likely undesired dating tips. We convinced him to be a gentleman and invite Georgia to our sunset adventure. Whether or not he wanted to listen to us, he did… duh. Oh and during this time Christian showed up and was in a mood… we presume that Kelly handing him off as her Tico boyfriend to Georgia yesterday probably didn’t help any matters. But we said our “see ya laters” and headed home around 3 to shower and start packing. About 4:30, Kelly was just starting to think about packing and Jenny was making an egg, both of us in bathing suits (you would be too if your un-air conditioned apartment was 95 degrees!) when Max came barging in our door to get a move on. We raced around trying to figure out what on earth we were doing so we asked Gerald if we needed to keep the bathing suits on, his response was “well there’s a pool and an ocean so you decide”. We threw on some clothes as quickly as possible since the boys were yelling at us to hurry up, and then hopped in Gerald’s little red car. Naturally, we reprimanded him for not being a more available friend. He was un-phased by us and quite the smart ass, so it goes without saying he was back to the #1 spot for our favorite Tico. He told us he had come by and sat outside trying to figure out which apartment was ours and asked the guys at the mechanic where the 2 “loco gringas” (crazy American girls) lived. And he came by again on a 4-wheeler but we weren’t home - which he had to mention since Kelly had been wanting to 4-wheel around town all month. We stopped by Iguna Verde to get beer and pick up Georgia. After jokingly yelling at Max about his new gal pal, he let us know she was an isle over (insert foot in mouth here)…luckily she was way too distracted to notice and came rushing over to show us why. She was beet red and dragged us into the produce isle (one of only about 4 isles in the store) where she had accidently dropped a watermelon which had totally exploded and was now making a nice pink fruit paste all over the floor and nearby walls of Iguana… it was hilarious, and looking back we realized we just laughed and walked off. So, hopefully she got that one figured out – if you are reading this then sorry for being less helpful Georgia! She said she was tired and going to go home and was not easily convinced so we parted ways and headed to Carillo. We were still pro-Georgia for Max, but Gerald didn’t like her “vibe” and Max was not impressed with her ditching so as of now we are guessing that love story is over before it begun.
Driving into Carillo during the day was so gorgeous- it is a much less populated
area and really beautiful. We were driving over a bridge and saw a few people leaning over taking pictures. Gerald yelled at us “Get out! Quick! And get your cameras!” So we jumped out while he parked the car a few feet away. In an estuary off of the ocean we watched people trying to feed a huge (no seriously huge, 8ish feet) crocodile! Luckily we were above him on a bridge because next to birds, Kelly does not do crocs. (R.I.P. Steve Irwin who did help cure this fear enormously during Kelly’s childhood). We had walked through an estuary in Samara a few days prior and Kelly said it seemed like a creepy spot where crocodiles hang out and Jenny had called her an idiot. Obviously Kelly’s croc knowledge was far better than Jenny’s (sorry about the idiot comment Kelster. Anyway, after seeing this huge crocodile lunge most of its body out of the water to snap its giant fangs at the dead chicken on a string that a brave tourist was dangling, we were pretty relieved we didn’t have any prior croc run-ins.
We jumped back in the car for another 5 minutes or so until we pulled up to this beautiful resort… there was an enormous deck with a bar overlooking the ocean and nearby mountains. We were thrilled. The four of us sat at a table and Gerald’s American friend, also named Kelly, joined us. This Kelly lives in Samara with his family for about 3 months of the year, and while he is away Gerald lives in his elaborate home for him. Not a bad deal. He was a good guy with some interesting stories about living in Italy, being a retired professional bike rider, and living in a place where many of his friends have died in avalanches, kayaking accidents, or other thrill-seeking accidents. The death stories made for a morbid turn in conversation for a little as Max chimed in about finding a dead body as a raft guide on summer…ew! Anyway, Kelly left as the sun set and we all enjoyed another Imperial as the sun faded completely out of sight. There is really nothing like watching a bright orange sun disappear directly into the ocean water as it reflects all of the vibrant colors in the sky. A picture can really never capture how amazing it is to witness the natural beauty of a great sunset. We wish we could properly explain how happy, relaxed, and at peace we were in this moment, but it will just have to be left as one of those times you can’t put into writing. Good company, amazing view, great memories of our time in Samara, and the spirit of adventure driving us forward… it all felt right and it was the perfect way to end our last day in Samara.
To be continued...
Sunset at Carillo
(from left: Kelly, Kelly, Gerald, Jenny, Max)
The resort that Gerald took us to for our sunset
Amazing view
Gringa love
Enormous croc!
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