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Nicole and Matt Peterson's Costa Rica Trip
We recently went to Costa Rica for a vacation. We've posted a trip report and a lot of pictures We met some great, new people on our trip, many of which are here in the photo below. We're on the left, with Johan behind Nicole, Nathan and Shane near the back and Kirk, the Cali drug girls (pharmacy students) on the right. We had a great time at Witches Rock Surf Camp, the surfing instructors were great, the camp staff was very helpful and the bar staff was always friendly. We've grouped some of the highlights into sets of pictures. Each link should take you to a photo gallery. Nicole learned to surf at the surf camp thanks to the great instruction of Johan, a local who has been at WRSC for two years and surfing for seven years. Nicole did great in her surf lessons and she really enjoyed getting better at surfing. Johan also gave Matt several lessons that greatly improved Matt's surfing skills.
Matt, Nicole, Shane and Nathan all went on a canopy tour on Wednesday and here are the shots. The canopy tour had a 600 meter first cable and a number of 300 meter cables along a 8 cable route. It was extremely fun and with the safety gear, we felt very safe but there still was an element of danger and excitement as we flew on the cables Our first evening in Tamarindo, the sunset was perfect and as we sat out in front of our little cabana on the beach, we were treated to a postcard-perfect sunset. We had a few Imperials (costa rican beer) and took some photos, not knowing that it would be the best sunset of the week. We enjoyed our airplane ride over the western half of Costa Rica, flying over small towns, farms and the coastline. We took a few shots from the air and a few in the SANSA terminal where they use a scale to make sure the plane baggage isn't overweight. Some of our fellow terminal passengers were a bit annoyed from waiting most of the morning for their delayed plane to arrive. We were lucky enough to get to the terminal and hop on a flight within an hour or so. We saw a number of disappointed travelers who walked up to the SANSA terminal only to find out that all the flight seats had been booked. On the last ful day of the trip, five of us from the Witches Rock Surf Camp booked the boat trip to Roca Bruga (Witches Rock) the camp's namesake and one of the most famous surf breaks in Costa Rica. Witches Rock is in the national park on the north pacific coast of Costa Rica and is primarily accessible by boat trip. It is possible to camp in the park and walk to the surf spot but it is a remote place to camp and so almost everyone perfers to reach the spot by boat. We left Tamarindo at 5:30 AM for the hour drive to Coco Del Playa marina and then loaded onto the twin-engine boat for the 90 minute boat ride to the surf spot. We saw some dophins and turtles on the way there before getting to the famous beach break. The break has about 4 peaks and we had one of the biggest peaks to ourselves. The swell was a little on the small side, making for an easy day of shoulder-high A-frame peaks with our choice of lefts and rights. Brian was on a short board but the rest of us had longboards which was the perfect board for the conditions. Everyone got some really great rides and the surf was small enough that paddling back out was a breeze. The only downside was that the swell was too small to work at Ollie's Point so we didn't go to Ollie's, instead staying at Witches for the entire time. Shane hired a videographer to take some video of us surfing at Playa Grande. These are the best shots (and only shots) of me surfing at Playa Grande. I learned a lot about what I need to improve by watching the video and also that the waves aren't as big as they felt when I was dropping in on them. We met a great group of folks who were all doing the WR Surf Camp experience. Surfing, dining, drinking and talking with them really enhanced our fun and make the trip so much better. Charlotte and Rada were Nicole's surfing school mates and they improved all week with great instruction from the WRSC crew. Brian and Christy, fellow UCSB alum like Matt, were there and we spent a lot of time in and out of the water with them PICTURES OF ALL THE FRIENDS WE MET AT WRSC
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