Surfing Lessons and A Friendly Kinkajou

            Today was super fun seeing as I got to get up early this morning and take a several hour surfing lesson! Luke met us at the surf shop around 8:30 with Arden (whom he handed off to Mom and Dad) and then we strapped our boards to the top of the 4-wheeler and headed down Samara Beach.

            The first 15 minutes or so, our instructor gave us the rundown of how it was done, figuring out which foot went where, and drilling us on popping up into a standing position on the board. Apparently I am a “goofy footer” because I ride the board with my right foot foreword. Good to know J. We then headed out to the water to hopefully catch some waves!

            The waves at Samara beach are quite a bit smaller to begin with and apparently everything was exceptionally low today. Pretty good for beginners I guess but it also meant we spent a bit of time sitting on our boards and waiting for waves.  Honestly, that was ok with me though since we got to talk with our instructor a bit and get to know more about what he’s doing.  He grew up in Costa Rica, though not in Samara, and is actually leaving for Ecuador in a couple days to judge a surfing competition!

 

I have the best brother in the world who agreed to take a surfing lesson with me :)

            He also answered a number of my questions I had on how to tell when a wave is coming and about paddling a long ways out when you know the waves going to break soon versus waiting till it’s pretty close to start swimming.  So many details! I guess it's simply going to take lots of practice J. I kept forgetting one thing or another and would sometimes use my elbows to pop up instead of my hands, or place my knee on the board for balance which is a big no-no. I started to get it a bit by the end but I certainly have lots to work on.  Something I would definitely do again!

             After our surfing lesson we said out goodbyes to our instructor and hung out with Mom, Dad and Arden on the beach for a while.  Arden was evidently super tired and fell asleep in Mom’s arms while we were surfing.  The second time she has fallen asleep with someone other than Luke and Anna!

             We hung out in Samara beach for most of the afternoon, Mom and Dad taking the snorkeling gear down the beach and swimming out to Isla Chora. Luke and I decided to take a break from the water and instead walked with Arden down the beach. It was her 1^st birthday after all! I know she had a great day just hanging out with her daddy and having a very relaxing day J. 

            There were also a couple of horses at one point who decided to take a joy run down the beach. Honestly not too strange of an occurrence here.  There are a good number of pastures with lots of horses and I'm not sure whether they let the horses loose to graze along the road or they pop the fence but there is often a horse or two just walking through town or ambling down the road.

              We dropped by Luke’s house around 2:30 and hung out there for a while before saying our goodbyes since Anna was getting home early and they wanted the evening to themselves with Arden.

              After a bit of shopping for dinner supplies and tomorrows meals, we headed off down the road to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center that I had really wanted to go visit.  It was really cool getting to see a ton of the native Costa Rican animals! There were a couple margays, a jaguarundi, a kinkajou, several crocodiles and a caiman, parrots, owls, a rainbow billed toucan, an armadillo, a spotted skunk, a peccary, some boa constrictors and a big cage of fruit and vampire bats. 

The mama Margay

               I think my favorite might have been the kinkajou.  A lot of the animals were sleeping when we got there since many are nocturnal animals but after sunset the all woke up including the kinkajou.  We were allowed to stick our hands through its cage and when we did he would come up, grab your hand, and just lick you incessantly. It was pretty cool and a little funny as well J.  

That funny little Kinkajou