Heading back to the USA

We just spent the last 2 weeks in Jaco, a coastal community on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. The area is known for its surfing and beautiful beaches, both of which we took advantage of!

View of Playa Jaco

Mike, the kids and I took surf lessons with Del Mar Surf School. Great folks! All four of us were successful in getting up and catching several waves; of course Travis and Piper were the best and we ended up renting a couple boards after we took lessons and spent many hours on the South end of Jaco Beach catching waves.

 

We spent New Years in Jaco there and it was great watching all the hotels on the beach try and outdo each other with fireworks.

One afternoon we went out sailing, snorkeling and fishing with Neil of Kayak Jaco. He has a trimaran that we took out of Herradura….Mike caught a Skipjack Tuna (aka black tuna) and a Sierra Mackerel, and Travis caught a Giant Hawkfish. We threw the tuna back (Neil said those ones aren't very edible) but we kept the other two for a tasty dinner. Probably the funniest part was that I gutted and filleted the fish while dressed in my sarong….luckily the ocean is great for cleaning up! We stayed out until sunset then had a nice dinner in Herradura.

T and Capt Neil with a Giant Hawkfish

We spent several days at Hermosa Beach, boogie boarding and shell collecting, with a HUGE highlight of seeing over 50 baby green sea turtles get released from the Turtle Sanctuary there. That was so incredible watching the little guys head out into the sea and the gorgeous sunset.

Hermosa Beach

Another surprise was finding a "hidden" beach you can only access at low tide… It's different than many other local beaches in that it was white sand from ground coral, rather than brown or black from volcanic material.  The best part about this beach were the endless FOSSILS scattered around the shore!  It will be interesting to see what the baggage weighs in at when we go to check in at the airport :)

Fossils on "Secret Beach"

 

Before we left the beach we did our requisite tourist trinket shopping, picking up some things for ourselves and friends, then headed back to the much cooler climate of the Atenas uplands.

We head back to Alaska tomorrow….it it -40F in Fairbanks…..it is going to be a rough change from the +90F at the beach!