5 star getaway..
On Saturday the 18th, Jen (my friend from freshman year of high school, now over 10 years, yikes!) arrived in San Jose with a friend of hers from college, John. The three of us took a shuttle van out to the beach at Manuel Antonio, which is a very popular spot and home of a famous national park on the Pacific Coast. I had been out there in May, and then again just for a quick stop with my parents in September. Jen’s boss from her job in LA had recently built a house in the area that he is using as a vacation rental. Thanks to Jen’s connection with the owner, we got a pretty sweet deal on the place for 4 nights. After arriving and entering the house, it became blatantly clear that we got more than a sweet deal. The house is AMAZING. A huge open kitchen with marble countertops and brand new appliances, a living room with comfy couches and TV with satellite cable, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on the main floor, vaulted ceilings and sliding glass doors and windows along the whole back wall overlooking a lush jungle-like valley and a view of the ocean as well. There was this great open staircase leading up to the master suite that featured a fabulous bathroom and king sized bed with the same jungle/valley/ocean view. Jen and I quickly claimed it as our pad and left John to fight with himself over which of the other 2 rooms he wanted. Outside the house there was a fabulous patio/deck that wrapped around the whole back of the house, taking advantage of the great view, not to mention our own private pool and lounge chairs for sunbathing. From the minute I walked in the place I felt a bit like a spoiled princess… From Saturday afternoon until Wednesday morning we passed the time by lounging, reading, sun bathing, swimming, playing cards, cooking, making a few trips on the bus into town, rocking out to some favorites on the 80s/90s digital music channels, watching some pretty intense rainstorms, and somehow we managed to enjoy ourselves while at it.
Definitely some of my favorite moments were cooking in the kitchen… I am really getting into the chef thing, now having a bit of skill in the American food, learning the Costa Rican food, and starting to watch Rachael Ray on the Food Network occasionally. So there I am in this fancy kitchen working up some of my own “30 minute meals” that actually take a little longer and trying to chop an onion with the grace and style of Rachael. (I still need practice.) It was a joint effort in the kitchen and we whipped up some mean beef stir-fry with lots of veggies, quesadillas, fried yucca, fruit salad, and several bowls of pico de gallo with tortilla chips, among other things. (This covering the 3 days there of course, not just one meal…)
The other big highlight was when Jen decided that we should try learning to surf – right then and there. To the point that we signed ourselves up for an hour lesson, took a bus back to our house, changed, and hopped a cab back down to the beach to get our surf on before the sun went down. Now I have never in my life touched a surf board, let alone tried to stand up on one while in the ocean but had figured I would need to give it a shot at least once before leaving Costa Rica. After all, this is a country that people flock to for that one reason alone. To me surfing had always appeared to be a lot of work for a short time of enjoyment so I was kind of wondering what I was getting myself into as Jen and I were on the beach with our boards and our instructor. He claimed to have us up on the board within 15 minutes or our money back… The bulk of the instruction of the lesson came in 5 minutes on shore with the boards on the sand where he showed us how we should lie on the board, paddle, and then stand up. We practiced our technique a few times and then hit the water. Truth be told, it was more than 15 minutes but I did in fact make it on my feet on the board! Hip hip hooray! I made it up several times in fact, and a handful of those were decent and lasted a few seconds!! It was pretty good fun actually, and quite thrilling to be standing on the board and riding a wave (if I can really call it that…). Jen had a waterproof camera and we enlisted a beach bum to shoot some pics, so I am really hoping for some visual proof of the accomplishment. All in all, it definitely felt like an accomplishment for the both of us. And we agreed that it was worth the bruises (from falling where it was shallow and hitting bottom) and the skin irritation on our stomach (from the crappy rental board) and the gallons of salt water we drank. Now we can check “surfing” off on the lifetime “to do” list. Maybe I’ll even try it again someday…
Definitely some of my favorite moments were cooking in the kitchen… I am really getting into the chef thing, now having a bit of skill in the American food, learning the Costa Rican food, and starting to watch Rachael Ray on the Food Network occasionally. So there I am in this fancy kitchen working up some of my own “30 minute meals” that actually take a little longer and trying to chop an onion with the grace and style of Rachael. (I still need practice.) It was a joint effort in the kitchen and we whipped up some mean beef stir-fry with lots of veggies, quesadillas, fried yucca, fruit salad, and several bowls of pico de gallo with tortilla chips, among other things. (This covering the 3 days there of course, not just one meal…)
The other big highlight was when Jen decided that we should try learning to surf – right then and there. To the point that we signed ourselves up for an hour lesson, took a bus back to our house, changed, and hopped a cab back down to the beach to get our surf on before the sun went down. Now I have never in my life touched a surf board, let alone tried to stand up on one while in the ocean but had figured I would need to give it a shot at least once before leaving Costa Rica. After all, this is a country that people flock to for that one reason alone. To me surfing had always appeared to be a lot of work for a short time of enjoyment so I was kind of wondering what I was getting myself into as Jen and I were on the beach with our boards and our instructor. He claimed to have us up on the board within 15 minutes or our money back… The bulk of the instruction of the lesson came in 5 minutes on shore with the boards on the sand where he showed us how we should lie on the board, paddle, and then stand up. We practiced our technique a few times and then hit the water. Truth be told, it was more than 15 minutes but I did in fact make it on my feet on the board! Hip hip hooray! I made it up several times in fact, and a handful of those were decent and lasted a few seconds!! It was pretty good fun actually, and quite thrilling to be standing on the board and riding a wave (if I can really call it that…). Jen had a waterproof camera and we enlisted a beach bum to shoot some pics, so I am really hoping for some visual proof of the accomplishment. All in all, it definitely felt like an accomplishment for the both of us. And we agreed that it was worth the bruises (from falling where it was shallow and hitting bottom) and the skin irritation on our stomach (from the crappy rental board) and the gallons of salt water we drank. Now we can check “surfing” off on the lifetime “to do” list. Maybe I’ll even try it again someday…
posted by Dynasty goes to CR at
3:14 PM
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