Surfing and Cycling

We took it easy Sunday, walking the mile or so along Playa Negra’s black sand beaches to get to Puerto Viejo.

Since we’d taken our sweet time that morning we were losing daylight, so we taxi-ed back to the Airbnb for more cash, rented bicycles from a nearby hotel to get back into town quickly, and rented surfboards from a guy on the beach.

Jon had never surfed before but was pretty good at it! He stood up several times and took the waves all the way in. Our surf session lasted an hour, just before sunset. The sky turned grey and the beach became monochromatic, a striking view. It took me a second to realize this was because I’m so used to seeing the sunset over the ocean back home on the Pacific coast.

I can’t say that I’m a regular cyclist NOR surfer, so standing up/riding a few waves in and getting to town and back in one piece on the bicycle were successes!

On the way back from town, in the near total darkness, I hit a rock and landed in some tall grassy type plants. Thankfully they were leafy and thornless, a much better cushion than any of the many barbed wire fences I noticed the next day. Nearly everyone has a fence made up of wooden sticks with a series of barbed wires strung through and around them.

Surfboards and bicycles sound like SoCal, but with the warm ocean, tropical humidity, and rocky roads I know I’m nowhere near home.