The last couple of weeks I have been mostly going to the beaches. The first beach I went to was Mal Pais. This is on the far southern point of the Nicoya peninsula. I went with some friends in their car and it was about a 5 hour drive to the beach. An American who used to live in Bagaces had just moved down to Mal Pais so we went to visit his new apartment. The waves on the beach were huge, some of the biggest I had seen yet, and it was fascinating watching the surfers take the waves. There was a really cool thatched roof bar and restaurant right on the beach and we enjoyed the view of the beach. The next morning we were going to try surfing, but due to a very late night and copious amounts of rain, we decided to bypass on surfing.

The next week another intern showed up where I work. He is from Canada and was really looking forward to surfing. The other Canadian in town also was interested in surfing, so the three of us decided to go to Tamarindo to go surfing. We were all total beginners, and when we were renting boards the guy at counter recommended that we take a "teacher". We didn't want to pay anything extra so we declined. Later we found out he actually said "T-shirt", but by that time we all had raw, red chests. At first surfing seemed impossible. It was very painful lying on a board and paddling all the time and it was extremely difficult to get the board turned around in time to catch a wave. I was out about two hours, developed huge cramps in my legs, swallowed gallons of salt water but only managed to catch a handful of waves. I went back to shore exhausted and very pessimistic about surfing. I rested for about an hour and then decided to give it one more shot. Luckily, it was now low tide, and I was able to put my feet down. This improved matters immensely. Now I could relax between waves and swing the board around quickly to catch a good wave. I learned that surfing is a whole lot of fun. By the end of the day I learned to catch the good waves and how to stand up and surf the wave out. I still can't control my direction and I fall off a lot but falling into the water is almost as fun as surfing. The other Canadians had a blast too, and the new intern actually bought a cheap surfboard at the beach.


The next weekend I biked to the nearby waterfall with the two other Canadians. It has been raining pretty strongly for the last month or so and the road into the waterfall was nearly impassable. There was a tourist bus and another car stuck in the mud. The waterfall itself was about three times more powerful than I had ever seen and the pool underneath was brown and full. I went swimming and managed to catch another cold. Maybe next time I will learn. After we went to Liberia to watch the Stanley Cup final. We managed to watch one period at a bar before soccer came on and we got kicked out.

The next week I managed to injure my knee somehow which significantly reduced my ability to play soccer. Unfortunately, it also happened that this was the week that they started the mini soccer tournament in the company where I work. This meant that I will be unable to defend my title from last year and will have to watch the tournament instead. My knee injury also meant that I couldn't go surfing either. I went with the other Canadians to Tamarindo again, but I was only able to body surf, which is still a lot of fun. The one Canadian managed to snap his board in two and he was not too happy so he joined me in body surfing.

Hopefully my knee will be healed soon so I can get back to soccer, as well as go surfing again. Oh, and here is a picture of my new pet, Killer, snuggling up on my pillow.