Third Stop-Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa-May28th-29th. We took a long bus ride from Manuel Antonio up to Puntaranes, where we took a ferry ride over to the peninsula. (Picture on the left) Our bus ride cost us about $2.00 maybe and it was about a 3 1/2 hour drive. We originally planted ourselves in Montezuma at Lucy's Hostel, but it was small and dirty and hot and the beach was REALLY rocky. Not exactly what we were looking for. You had to buy everything with cash, which we were running short on and there was no bank in that town. I'm not making it sound very nice, but it was beautiful-just not what we were expecting. May I just say that we bought a mango and a pineapple for lunch in this town and they were the best I think I've ever had. Wow, do I love fresh fruit!! Anyway, we took a 15 min. cab ride to the next city to find a bank and ended up meeting two Americans there that told us that Santa Teresa is where we wanted to be. They told us to go get our stuff from Montezuma and meet them back in Cobano...the city with the bank...and they'd share a cab with us to Santa Teresa. Apparently they were building a surf boat there and were having a party on it that night to celebrate all of their progress. My first thought was...isn't this how girls get kidnapped in other countries? But my first thought was overthrown by my second thought....sandy beaches, shared cab which saves us money- and besides...there were three of us. How unsafe could this be? So we shared a cab back to Santa Teresa and Joe...our new buddy, gave us a tour of a guy name Tom's property (Picture of guy with long hair and beard) where about 4 of them live just to build this surfing boat. We got a full tour of the boat....it looks like a pirates ship with big octupus arms coming off of it that land on pontoons on either side of the boat. Really cool. Tom made the design and about 5 other guys are there to help him....and that's all they do. One is a breakfast and lunch cook....former pro surfer from FL named Preston-25 yrs. old-cooks for those working on the boat and is provided room and board. Ian-Surfer from Vancouver-lives next door to Tom...for free....don't know how. I guess the guy that lived there died and he's living in it for the time. ? How does that work? Anyway..he's 45 and super nice. Then there's Tom...42 yrs old. Married with 2 girls-ages 8 and 5. Total surfer. Saw his picture in this surf shop down the street. He's the real deal. Antonio-the evening chef from Italy. Apparently this guy is big in Italy....used to be the chef for the Ducati family....the motorcycle guys. And I guess there are some biographies on Antonio in Italy. He cooked for us our second night there. SOOOO good. (Picture: LtoR-Preston, Ian, and Antonio) Oh...then there was crazy Scott. 54 yrs old. Electrician for the boat. Plays the guitar for everyone because they'd rather hear him sing then talk. Did I mention he's crazy? Anyway...nicest people though. You can check them out at www.reefriders.net. They are tracking progress on their boat through that website. Just if you're curious. They plan to spend 5-8 months on this boat and travel from Costa Rica to Vancouver....and just live on the boat and surf everyday. It was kind of crazy to see this totally different lifestyle. They had us over for dinner both nights we were there. Way nice. They all knew we were Mormon which sparked some interesting conversations. Especially when they offered us their bong....umm, no thanks. ? Do you know anything about our religion? They were really great to us. It's always fun meeting new people. I tried surfing in Santa Teresa...which our buddies told us was 5th in the world for places to surf. The waves were crazy that day, though, and even the serious surfers weren't going out there because it just wasn't good water. But what do I know about surfing....so of course I tried. In my session of surfing I got up halfway one time, but was getting worked pretty good, so I considered myself successful with my halfway and called it good. I actually think I called it good after getting smacked in the back of the head with my surfboard as the waves were crashing in at a rapid pace. Yep, that's definitely when I was done for the day. The boogie boarding was perfect in this water though. So fun. (Picture:Les and Ally boogie boarding-someone had to be with our stuff on the beach at all times cause theft is a HUGE problem in Costa Rica....so I was on picture, watch the stuff duty.) The beach was beautiful...a lot of debris and a ton of hermit crabs, but really beautiful. Our hostel, called the Hostel Brunella...and yes it really was bright green. It was a pretty nice hostel until I woke up with a huge crab in my bed. That's right, folks. Big crab. I kept feeling something crawling on me, but you kind of get used to that feeling and just swipe things away. Well, I got up to go to the bathroom and came back to find a crab crawling up from behind my pillow....and I was unexpectedly done sleeping for the night. Luckily it was morning-just real early. The girls were still asleep and I tried not to wake them up-so instead of screaming I tried the hyperventilating tactic. Worked like a charm. Loved our little adventure in Santa Teresa.