We took a cab into town and went back to our old last hotel because the owner of that hotel also rented out quads.   We had seen a little scooter there and hoped that it would fit what we were looking for.  However, the cost to rent the scooter was 40 dollars a day.  Which I think is ridiculous.  We tell him that we would like it for two days but we could not afford this.  He sits and looks at the numbers for awhile and says that he could let us have it for 46.  This is much better!  The problem now is that we need to give him one of our passports, which we didn’t bring, to rent the scooter.  Thankfully the owner said that one of his guys could take Sebastien back to the hotel to get his passport.  So that is what Seb did while I sat and chatted with our old neighbor.  When Sebastien returned the owner started to fill out the paperwork and put the total to be 76 dollars.  WOW!  Sebastien told him that this was too much and that we were under the impression that he said it was going to be 46.  The owner said “no” and we told him that we didn’t have that much money in which he replied, “Don’t come here if you don’t have money.”  We obviously left after that.  I found it pretty amazing that people actually rent these out on a daily basis.  The quads were $70 a day.  When a car is $80 a day I just don’t get it.  We found out later that a bike was $20 a day.  Though you could find some for $7 a day.  Crazy!

So after that fiasco we ended up walking to Santa Teresa.  This felt like miles!  We luckily did this walk on the beach instead of the smelly dusty street.  I felt exhausted and crabby about 20 minutes into this walk.  Every step felt like I was dragging a 10lbs. weight behind me. But here are some pictures of that hell…

When we finally got to Esencia, where Anne, Kirk, and Cory where staying they were not there.  So guess what… we walked around to find them… We finally found them surfing.  Anne was coming in when we got there and so I took her board out just to cleanse myself from all the crabby energy I had been accumulating.  The good thing that came out of that session was that I found my next surf board.  Anne rides this fun 5 something fish that she rides.

So we finally spent sometime visiting with with Anne, Kirk, and Cory at their place.  Which was a little house fully equipped with kitchen supplies and had a nice home feel to it.  After eating some amazing guacamole, that Cory had made, we all called a cab and headed back to the break near our hotel.  Here is a picture of that beach.  Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures of this break when it was breaking but maybe Anne did so I will check into that and post them if she did.

When we got back to this beach Sebastien and I went and grabbed our boards and headed out to surf.  I had a few fun left rides but I also  had a intimate relationship with a few jelly fish.  The jelly fish in this area are pretty small and clear.  So you don’t really see them and one of them (maybe more) got into my swim suite bottoms.  Luckily peeing helps the stinging go away.

The waves were big and fast. It was a struggle to get out there and I feel a few times trying to stabilize myself after I had caught a wave. There were also a few really big sets that scared us both. Seb went in first and I was out there waiting for the “perfect” on to take in. Two ticos started talking to me in Spanish which makes me nervous. The one guy thought I was a tica and was explaining to me why he thought that when I see a huge wave lining up right behind him. I pointed it out and figured that this was my chance to go in. I turned to go for the wave when this Tico cuts in front of me and snaked me out of the wave. But I was already to far inside to paddle out for the next one so I did my usual and ditched the board and swam underneath the next wave. When I didn’t feel my board drag I started to freak out. The little black tie thing unknotted and my board was heading in without me. The tico asked if I was ok which just pissed me off because I would have been if he wouldn’t have stolen that last wave. So for the next 5 minutes I swam feverishly towards the shore hoping that my board didn’t hurt anyone on shore nor get busted. When I got on shore I asked a few people in the water if they had seen it and one guy had thought he did. I looked for Seb and thought that I saw him with a board but when I ran up to him I realized that it wasn’t him. I panicked a little at this point. Seb ended up finding it in the hands of some old guy who had made some remark about being glad that I was alive. I was fine and so was my board. Thank Jesus!

After that craziness we returned to our rooms and rested for a while. After gathering our composer we headed back to la playa to rest and enjoy our vacation. We looked for a spot that was partly shaded. There were a lot of people in the area where we sat. After a few minutes of settling in we were asked by a tico if we wanted a beer. “Cool” responded Sebastien. This guy in his early 50′s sat down and offered both of us a beer and started taking to us. At first this was all very cool and Sebastien kept saying, “wow this is really nice.” More so because, like I said earlier, we hadn’t been able to get alcohol because of Semana Santa. So we kindly accepted and tried our best to communicate to Christian. Even without knowing what he was saying it was pretty obvious that he was drunk. Not only was he drunk he was also very drawn to me and even when I was trying to read I could feel him look at me and want to tell me something. I engaged him for a while and then would go back to my reading. At one time his friends came and when he was introducing them to us one of his friends gestured that he was loco. Great. Now I know why he is being drawn to me. Christian then pulled out a bottle of whiskey and kinda forced Sebastien to take a shot. And then he pulled out the Vodka. NO way was I doing any of this! Christian then came and sat next to me. He started talking closer and closer to me and I swear he was asking me if I thought he was ok. I asked him, “Estas bien?” Which he looked at me strangly. I looked back at him strangely and then he touched the scar on my stomach. Sebastien sat up and gestured to him not to do that anymore but he did and we got out of there. It was pretty sketchy. when his friends where there I also think that they were explaining to me that he had Electric Shock Treatments. I will never tell others that I am a Therapist again!

We ended up surfing again that evening. We had a much better session. There were a few girls out in the water and its wasn’t as closed or fast. For dinner we ended up eating at this open grilled place which served me a fish with its head and skin still in tacked. This time Seb liked his meal while I was not happy about mine.

As soon as we pulled up into this place I thought Merry Beth would love it.  Sebastien asked about a room and we were in luck plus they had internet which sold Sebastien. I told him I was going to walk down and see if there were other things.  But nothing was very convenient so we figured we could handle one night at Tranquilo Backpackers. After dragging our stuff up a huge flight of stairs and taking in all the commotion that this place had to offer we ended up walking down the street to see what else there was in town.  I also wanted to see if we could find the place where Anne, Kirk, and Corey were staying.  We didn’t find them (though we walked about two miles, we did find a clean and cute cabinas place that may have a room for us the following night. With relief we checked la playa y las olas.

The first thing that stands out is the smell when walking on the road in Mal Pais. I don’t know if I can accurately describe it but its a combination of dirt dust, sewer, and rotten eggs.

We didn’t end up unpacking our surfboard the first night in Mal Pais because it looked pretty crappy.  We ended up eating at this vegetarian style place which had lots of American kids running around naked and families whom seem to know each other.  I though it was very good but Sebastien just thought it was ok.  During our meal a man with fire sticks man put on a show throwing these light fire sticks around.  It was pretty entertaining.  So were the kids and families.  After dinner we headed back to TB.

You would think that a place with the word Tranquilo in it would be calm and tranquil.  Oh no.  Not this place.  It was Spring Break 2009 and these kids were celebrating.  Nothing to crazy but it was just not what we were in the mood for.  OH and let me just add that it was/is Semana Santa and during this week on Wednesday and Thursday no one sells alcohol.  However, Lonely Planet didn’t include this their book so we were the ONLY people who did not have any alcohol for the next two day/nights.  Great.  Stuck in Spring Break without any alcohol.  I ended up putting my IPOD headphones on and turning on some nature/mantra music and falling asleep.  Sebastien didn’t sleep well and when the howler monkeys started at 4 am he was ready to beat them up.  I have to add that the night before Sebastien got up and reached for the IPHONE to use this application which creates a really annoying noise to scare or piss off animals.  I told him I didn’t think that the monkeys would like that very much and that I really didn’t want some howler monkeys to bust through the window and steal his IPHONE.  I kinda fell asleep after saying this so when I asked Sebastien if it worked the night before he said he ended up not using it.  I feel back to sleep again.  The next morning we quickly got up and headed down to check the status of the cabinas place.