Ok, before we get to the surfing, we had to post one more photo of the beautiful beach in Uvita that was only steps away from our tree house. The perfect setting for a day in the water.
Panoramic of the beach.
We set up our surfing lesson through the Flutterby House - they have a close relationship with a surf instructor / general surfer dude named Rama. As we would later learn, Rama moved down to Costa Rica to teach surfing full-time in 2007. He had previously lived near Lake Tahoe, California making a living building houses. As the financial crisis loomed, fewer vacation homes were being built in Tahoe so he decided to pack up and hang ten full-time down here. In addition to surf lessons, Rama still builds homes in the area when needed. The Flutterby House needed his help building some of their compound over the years and he now enjoys VIP status there. As he put it, "I included a lifetime of free meals in my price quote" - so needless to say, he hangs around a lot.
Anyway, enough back story on Rama. We grabbed our boards around 8:30am and headed to the beach. Low tide was around 7am and apparently (according to Rama) surfing as the tide is coming in is ideal. We went over some safety and practiced with Rama on the beach, then headed out to give it a shot. For those that have never been surfing, trust us that it is harder than it looks. Sarah had taken a lesson before and actually got up on her first run in; it took me a lot longer to get the hang of it, but eventually I got up!
Practicing on the beach with Lori, another Flutterby House guest and first-time surfer.
Sarah had the get-up-on-one-knee move down cold.
Almost...
Nailed it! (after many, many attempts)
By mid-day we were exhausted and ready for a break. We said goodbye to Rama and the Flutterby House and headed to town for lunch. We couldn't turn down the opportunity to get two more delicious sandwiches at Bob's Roadshack Deli. Both of them were amazing, again.
I got the Gringo 4x4 and Sarah got a sandwich quite accurately named The Fat Bastard with BBQ pulled pork, ham, bacon, cheese and various sauces. If neither of us can find a job when we get back, I think we would have great success opening a deli like this in NYC...
After lunch, we set out to find our next hotel, the Oxygen Jungle Villas. We thought it would be a simple drive down the road from Bob's...but it turned into a little bit of an adventure. Google Maps sent us back toward the ocean, in reality this place is up in the mountains...
You can see the route Google tried to take us - down to the Pacific - which would have included fording a river. The red star is where the hotel is actually located. I've never seen Google Maps fail this completely.
The "detour" toward the ocean was all on dirt roads, one of which was washed out by a river. For half a second we considered driving across, but then figured it would be better to ask someone at Bob's how to get there. They were very helpful and pointed us in the right direction. The back roads to get up to the hotel were very steep and totally unpaved / not well maintained. I was very glad we rented a 4x4 SUV for this drive.
We were rewarded at the end of our journey by a stunning view and luxurious accommodations. Quite a step up from living in a tree house!
The view from Reception.
Our home for the next two nights (this is the view looking out at the porch). A hut in the jungle...but a hut in the jungle enclosed by glass with air conditioning!
After cooling off in the pool and reading for a few hours, we got ready for dinner and ate at the restaurant here. They basically have a monopoly on your dining options because it's such a trek to get back to town! Fortunately, the hotel employs a very friendly staff and the chef knows how to cook a good meal. Looking forward to another relaxing day here tomorrow!