No scuba for you!

So we had some technical difficulties this morning with Rocket Frog Divers. They seem to have two websites with two different addresses that share a single office and cell number. We were up early and made it to our taxi and he took us to a spot that didn’t have any Rocket Frog signage but was at the beach. Seems some people get picked up at the beach. Our driver said it was an hour away to the correct spot but it’s only 13 miles from our hotel. I’m not sure he just didn’t want to go that far as he had other fares to get. He was willing to take us back to our hotel though. The lady Emily talked to on the phone this morning was willing to wait for us but I wasn’t getting a good vibe about the whole thing. Rocket Frog wasn’t as responsive as the Dive shop I’m scheduled with next week. Rocket Frog is out. They don’t seem to actually have an office in the next town over, they will occasionally just pick people up there. It is an hour to go to Playa del Coco because short way is currently closed and you have to go the long way, which takes an hour. So next time more research will have to be done and more clarifying emails.  

After we got back from not diving and snorkeling we went down to one of the tour companies and organized several things including a ATV trip that we took this morning. 

We are going to do a jet ski tour, whitewater rafting and a sunset catamaran tour with snorkeling. Emily also has a hot spring/ mud bath thing that she’s doing while I am doing Scuba next week when they didn’t have space for her to snorkel. 

ATVs in the dry season is a dusty affair. There was less beach riding and more level B/ field road riding but, a lot worse. I’ve cut across a harvested cornfield that was smoother than some of these roads. There is a dark red color to the soil where it’s freshly dug or wet. Because it’s so hilly there’s a lot of areas that have been eroded and then there are holes for no identifiable reason. People with a want of new shocks and struts or rentals were taking hatchbacks on them, very slowly, we’d pass them. The roads are so bad that the ATV that Emily was riding lost a wheel! She was riding in front of me and all of a sudden her rear left wheel came off and made a brake for the side of the road. The wheel was still attached to the hub so it must’ve lost a hub nut and washer. These thing have to take a beating. Instead of waiting for them to bring another out her and I just rode two up which was fine with Emily, she gets to enjoy the views more that way. We got to see some of the other beaches, some monkeys and sea life.  There is a beach, Pirate’s beach that we think would be nice to try and snorkel at. I have extra time and money tomorrow so we may have to see what we can do. 

Since a theme is starting you probably have guessed that we took the boogie boards out again after lunch. They are a good value, you can try and ride the waves, you can just float on them and if you don’t want to sit in the sand on the beach you can sit on your board. When we first went down to the spot where the surfers hang out we were the only ones there today. When walking down there really wasn’t a lot of action in the water but it picked up as we got closer. Then the surfers showed up and more boogie boarder’s. One family did really well at it. The father gave directions and they all did well. We should have gotten closer to hear the instructions, I couldn’t understand him, we think he may have been speaking French or Emily though Canadian French as some wasn’t familiar and he was too far away. The kids always seem to respond in English. 
I think Emily was hoping for a good story to add to the blog, seems there was something with a fin that stuck up out of the water swimming behind me that she was watching, after it was gone and hadn’t decided I looked tasty she informed me of it’s presence. We were out a little later today, we had a good time. 

We opted for dinner here at the hotel tonight, we had a mixed seafood dinner for two. There was a variety of fish and some shrimp over a bed of mixed vegetables. It was good. I believe it is supposed to have rock lobster on it, but I didn’t see any, it may be out of season. Everything tasted fresh. It seemed like a lot of protein but we ate it all. 

I need to get to work on getting my pictures sent to Emily so that she can add them. I’m going to include some random pictures of what things look like here. I’m liking it here, for it being the high season there’s not been any crowds. The beach is huge and you can find your own spot and not be close to other people if you don’t want to be. We did make it into Playa Flamingo and it is more developed there. They have more going on and it may be a good choice to stay in if you were looking for more civilization, a bank, cross fit gym, marina and more paved streets. 

I’ve noticed here that there really isn’t much garbage laying around. Things may not be well maintained or sparkly new but there isn’t garbage like when we were in Columbia. Emily said that it’s the same in Samara. I also do know that they have street sweeper here either. They do have a lot of road apples on the roads and the beaches. I have yet to see broken glass imbedded in concrete on top of a wall here but they do believe in razor and barbed wire like Columbia and Peru. Also spiky wrought iron fences. There is a police station just south of the hotel, you do see them a lot though. When you do see them with lights on they don’t really drive that aggressively, I think they just like the lights because they never seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere. 

If you have some requests for pictures let us know and we will see what we can do. If you have questions about anything we will do our best. 
Anyway I better get to those pictures. Hopefully everyone is having a great start to the week.