Esterillos Oeste is the Place to Be

Esterillos Oeste is the Place to Be:

Ozzie is 27 years old. His father is from Germany, his mother from Colombia. He spent his youth in Northern California. When his parents split his father moved to Austin, Texas and his mother to Atenas, Costa Rica. Over the years he split his time between the two. An amazing person, with an amazing life story and a zillion travel stories. He has the wisdom of an old man, and an articulate, magical way of speaking. Hell of a surfer as well. He has a crazy, curly fro -- almost sideshow Bob-esque. Ozzie lives his life out of 4 bags...simplicity is key. He has a degree in art, loves to paint on old wood in house paint, and utilize lots of pens and sandpaper in the process. He's moving to Australia for school, work and waves in a few weeks...but before he does that he will be headed to New York City for two weeks to check out some art galleries, some shows, and eat some good food.

Pat is in her 50's. She has a pixie haircut, and never, NEVER is without a smile. Every day is the best day of Pat's life. She opted for an early retirement from her job in a court house, but her social schedule in Esterillo's keeps her busy most days. She only started surfing about a year ago, but she has a passion for it that is only surpassed by her excitement and lifelong love of horses. In September of 08 she surfed 23 days in a row. She has a tattoo of a Macaw on her right leg, symbolic of her new life in Costa Rica. (Esterillos has a prominent and growing population of the beautiful birds). I call her Pat the Paparrazi because she ALWAYS has her camera, and she is ALWAYS taking photos.

Pat, Ozzie and I have amazing chemistry. The conversation is constantly flowing. We are an odd combination at first glance, but we are a great group. When Ozzie and Pat arrived in Dominical, it brought a whole new dynamic into the quiet, simple, asleep-at-730pm household of Bill and I. We were having three full meals a day, fantastic dinners -- coffee with conversation in the morning, music music music, vietnamese iced coffees with some conversation in the afternoon, lunch, exploring, talking, music, talking, reading, visiting John and Mary for some conversation, and then dinner...followed by star-gazing, chamomile tea, and conversation in the rocking chairs on Bill's porch. I talked more, thought more, gained more, and discovered more in those 3 days than I have the past 3 months. Wonderful time, wonderful people. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

Friday morning, we go for a surf and then head back to Bill's to pack up. Shawn arrived mid-morning to pick us up, and we decided to stick around Dominical for a bit, hit up a late-afternoon surf at La Punta, and then head back to Esterillos. The boys paddle out and I decide to hang on the beach. I've been feeling FUNKY, funky lately, and figured that with the huge swell we have coming in the next week that I could use a bit of rest. Pat and I sat 5 feet from our fully-packed rental car, and in a span of 2 minutes the car was robbed. They stole Ozzies backpack, Pat's backpack and my bag. Ozzie had a few shirts in his bag, his 2weekold ipod and his camera. He was a tad bummed, but he said - well, it was just some material things. Life goes on. Pat had everything a woman would need for a 4 day trip - a hairdryer, her makeup, a hot mama dress, a few of your favorite outfits and two bathingsuits. Thank GOD she had her bag with her camera and all her money in it tied around her shoulder. My bag had: my $380 ipod, my watch, my debit card, cash, my DAILY PLANNER that has my LIFE in it, my journal, a dress, 5 bars of wax, and some other odds and ends that I care not to think about. I was pissed. For the second year in a row I was robbed on my last day in Dominical...another ipod headed to the pawn shop. LA DRONE, that is "theif" in spanish. A word that I have become accustomed to saying and hearing in Costa Rica. Damnit. I shoulda known better. Given my company though, I was only able to be upset for about an hour. Ozzie shook it off in about 30 seconds, Pat was upset for a few minutes because her favorite dress was in her backpack, and therefore I felt ridiculous crying like a little baby. We went to Soda Nanyoa, loaded up on Batidos (smoothies) for the road, and we were off. An hour later we were pulling into Esterillos and ran into the WHOLE crew at Azul eating dinner. Les, his beautiful wife, Adam, Maria, and Legend Mike. We ate, laughed, told stories, and hugged it out. I felt like I was coming home to my family. It was nice to catch up and trash talk with my good friends, and it was nice to finally meet Les's better half, Adams' mama. Shawn and I are so lucky to have them, especially because Adam is letting us stay at his beautiful, AIR CONDITIONED!!!!! house in Esterillos. He slept on the couch last night and let Shawn and I have his bedroom...his big, comfy bed....a REAL MATTRESS!! BAH!!! And Newman, his dog...the best dog in Costa Rica, man oh man, we lucked out.

Woke up at 5am this morning to have coffee with the family: Mama, Les, and Adam. We loaded the boards up and headed down to the soda mary secret spot. Well, the reef was firing. Breaking CLEAR ACROSS THE CHANNEL. What channel? No channel!! It was pretty goddamn serious, and I was pretty goddamn scared - there was lots of swell out there in that endless ocean. It's the biggest swell that Costa has seen in the past year. To my surprise, I actually had a dozen waves. Nothing fancy, just dropping in and going like hell, but I got some. Got worked on the paddle-out, hard, several times. But all in all, I still have all my limps and not scrapes or bruises. Shawn didn't get out unscathed. His leash hogtied him and he was drug across the bottom on the inside, getting a nice cut on his leg, a bump on his head, and some leash-burn around his ankles. Supposed to stay this big for another day and then start to dwindle a tad as the week goes on. After the session we headed back to Adam's for breakfast where we feasted on Les's French Toast, Adam's bacon and some fresh pineapple. We had an assortment of syrup, my two favorite being VERMONT Maple Syrup with VANILLA (real vanilla beans inside!) and a Blueberry Syrup that was just mmmmmmm delicious. All of that and it is only 9am. HA. Going to get in a surf session out front this evening. Woohooo.

Only have 8 days left in Costa Rica, but I plan on them being action packed and full of laughter. On the 21st we are heading up to Atenas to stay at Ozzie's place and hang at his mothers bar-restaurant. For those of you who don't know, Atenas is in the mountains between Esterillos and San Jose. Breathtaking views, clean-crisp air and green galore. Oz is going to throw us a big going-away party at the restaurant, then we will crash at his place and leave for the airport the next day. I look forward to meeting up with Oz when he makes his trip to the NYC, and I'm glad now to have a friend (as well as a couch) in Australia.

I'm missing Dominical for sure, but it's nice to be back with the fam in Esterillos. Pura Vida.