Sun Rises and Black Sand

We've made it back to San Jose from our first destination - Puerto Viejo. I'll pick up where Luke left off Saturday (1/02) afternoon. It continued to stay cloudy pretty much all day Saturday so we decided to take a 25 minute walk south of Puerto Viejo to another beachm Playa Cocles. Walking along the road is kind of ridiculous. They're not in very good shape, so there are cars swerving everywhere trying to avoid potholes, other cars, pedestrians and strayt dogs. Needless to say, it can get a little interesting. The waves on this beach were ridiculously huge and there were red flags up indicating that it wasn't safe to swim there due to the strong riptides. Instead we settled for burying me in the sand: After this piece of art we got into a game of beach soccer against a group of Ticos and a fat guy from Mississippi. Leo was sent to the other team and Prez, Luke and my team was victorious. Player of the game (after Prez of course) was a girl that wasn't afraid to sacrifice her body for the good of the team.

On the walk back to Puerto Viejo we saw a random guy with only the top of his head shaved. He was trying to balance a glass ball on his head while staring off at the sea. Probably having a vision quest - WTF? We also saw a sign on the beach indiacting that 49 acres were for sale for the low price of $150,000. I think we'll probably put some money down on that one soon.

Upon arriving back in Puerto Viejo, we headed to dinner at Tamara's Grill and had Casados - a typical Costa Rican meal with salad rice and beans along with meat. Leo and I had a fish fillet (snapper) and Prez and Luke had chicken, yumm... After dinner we headed over to the supermarket and picked up a handle of Jamaican white rum for the night. It was our lucky night because the clerk threw in 4 free glasses to drink out of and on the way out we got free screwdrivers (vodka+orange juice drinks) for the road. Also the awesome American beer they keep in stock (you may notice a certain red dog):
We then went back to the hotel and took naps for an hour before starting our festivities. We proceeded to sit on the balcony for the next 3 hours drinking Cuba Libres (rum+cokes) and playing card games (Chandellier and Riding the Bus).
"I have a feeling we're going to get schwasted tonight." - Prez
"We're going to wake up naked on the beach." -Rivers
Luke talks a big game when riding the bus and Leo rode it all the way through on his second time ever playing the game.
9:56pm - Shirts off o'clock
Before long, we finished the entire handle of rum and headed out for the night. We went to Johnny's again and joined the rockin' beach party there. It was around this time that Prez and I decided to stay up to watch the sun come up the next morning. After leaving Johnny's we headed back to the hotel to put Luke and Leo to bed. Since our hotel was above a bar, it was a good thing they were intoxicated because the bar played loud music until 2am every night making it impossible to sleep. The room walls also vibrated.

At this point Prez and I were committed to seeing the sun rise so we had a heart-to-heart convo on the balcony until 3:30am and then to pass the time we headed back out to the beach and did some late night naked swimming:

At 5am there were still people playing music outside the hotel and we got in a quick game of drunken cribbage. At 5:30am we headed back out to the beach to get ready to see the sun rise and stumbled upon two people having sex on the beach... awkward. It definitely wasn't even that dark out anymore. Ha.
"At least we're in good company, the drunks are still wandering around." - Prez (not referring to ourselves)
We also played with some puppies that were hanging out on the beach. I wonder if they had slept at all...? At around 6:00am we finally got to see the sun rise. Due to some cloud cover it wasn't as glorious as we had expected. It was still neat though. At 6:15 Prez and I stumbled back to the hotel and went to bed - very much still iniebriated. We were awoken a few short hours later at 9:00am by Leo, who yelled as us and said we were going to the beach to play. After complaining for a long time I finally got my shit together and got ready and headed out to the beach with the group. Prez and I were quite possibly still drunk.

It was then that we were informed that we had eaten fried chicken from a street vendor the previous night, which nicely accounts for the missing colones from my wallet. Leo also told me that I hugged the chicken man... weird.

We layed out on Playa Negra (black sand beach) for most of the day. Some highlights were: spear fishing for crab with homemade spears fashioned by Leo; football in the sea; getting really tan and blonde (and sunburned). Before we had to leave for our drive back to San Jose, Prez and I decided to go for a run on the beach. Did an out and back northwest toward Cahuita (probably 4 miles total). Once you got out of the town there was absolutely nothing but beach and it was beautiful. Along the way we saw a naked guy sunning himself and a topless chick standing on the beach getting water poured over her by another girl (showering). Must have been the day for nudity.

On the car ride home we discussed our nutrition for the day. It included:
1.25 pieces of bread + peanut butter
1 fanta
1 other drink (Me and Luke: Powerade, Prez: H2OH)
2 Liters of water (Prez)
1 bag of chips
This lasted us all the way until 7pm when we all had the Big Box Meal from Taco Bell in San Jose. Now we're back at Leo's house and we'll see what tomorrow in San Jose will bring us. Keep checking back, as we'll be sure to update frequently.

Hasta Pronto!
-Chris