Days 647-653! It’s time to dive into a full week of working and hanging out in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. This week holds a lot of pool playing, reading, miscellaneous jobs around the hostel, and FINALLY a surf session. It’s definitely a different vibe here in Santa Teresa vs El Tránsito, but I’m looking forward to meeting more people and exploring the town some more to see what it has to offer.

I woke up at 7:30am, on Thursday, October 9th to kickstart my first full week in Santa Teresa. I made myself breakfast, read a bit, and then it was time to get to work.

Today’s tasks were scrubbing the grouting behind the kitchen area, pretty much the same task as the day before in a new area… and the other task was starting to sand the wood that had collected dirt, grease, etc. from people touching it daily. The other volunteer, Sophie from Germany, was here today. Turns out she only works part of the week since the other part of the week she spends at her boyfriend’s house.

It was a pretty tedious day of work, I can only do so much scrubbing of walls. But Sophie had a speaker and I was on music duty, so I was playing songs I enjoyed listening to. That made the morning go by much faster. We also all chatted throughout our work too which was nice. I met another owner today, Dennis, who was the one that hired me on. He popped by even though he was on “vacation” to drop off more sand paper.

I was covered in wood dust so right when 1pm hit and my 4 hours were up, I walked straight to the beach.

I ended up spending just about two hours at the beach. It was a pretty quick walk to around where Anthony and I were sitting the day before. The ocean was a bit less hectic today so I went for a swim, then dried out in the sun, and then did it all again. I was jealous of all the surfers I was watching, the waves were pumping and the rip to paddle out looked really easy today!

I need to get my hands on a surfboard STAT!

I relaxed in the shade of a palm tree listening to music and watching surfers. I then headed back just before 3pm for lunch. I made myself more gallo pinto with chickpeas. Today, I added in tortillas to the mix, definitely improved the already tasty and simple meal.

After lunch, I grabbed the hostel guitar and took it up into the tree house. It wouldn’t be a Peter Pan themed lost boys hideout without a tree house!

I ended up having an audience as I strummed away for the next couple hours. I felt bad though, I’m not sure why the dogs joined me, but they were struggling to figure out how to get back down the steep stairs. But they seemed to enjoy the music so they hung around for a bit.

I read for a bit after it got dark and then decided to make dinner. I hung out with Sophie, Anthony, and Ariel (the friend of the hostel). The power was going in and out as a heavy thunderstorm rolled in. I called it an early night to read a bit more before bed and to get some sleep before waking up on the early side to get some more groceries.

I woke up at 7am for another grocery trip. Based on my meals and first grocery store trip, I’m averaging around $3 per meal! Pretty cheap!

I got more of the same things I’ve been eating and when I stopped by the fruit store, I got myself a plantain as well. I had grand plans for my lunch today.

Today’s work morning was spent entirely with sanding. It’s the task for the next few days. A lot of the wooden surfaces have collected a bunch of gross particulates. So we’re sanding them off and the next thing will be restaining.

4 hours of sanding and chatting with the other two volunteers later, I was done for the day! Instead of heading straight to the beach, my friend Anthony was willing to give me a ride across town. My right ear has been clogged for a bit now and I decided it was finally time to get it checked out. He dropped me off at a clinic. Which was closed… even without cell service I was able to use my downloaded Google maps and find the next closest one. This one, was open!

There was no one else waiting, so directly after I finished signing in, I was seen by the doctor. They took my vitals and then checked my ears for pain, which I have none. And then she checked my ears.

Turns out the right one is just full of earwax and water now! So she told me to go to the nearby pharmacy for some ear drops meant to remove both. The visit was $100 which should be covered by my travel insurance. But I’m glad to have the peace of mind knowing it’s not still infected.

When I got back, it was time for lunch. Today, I bought oil and a plantain… I was going to try making Tostones, or Patacones (which is what they’re called in Costa Rica and some other countries, tostones is Nicaraguan).

I followed an online recipe, it was fairly straightforward. Peel a green plantain, slice into pieces around an inch thick, fry once, take out and smash into discs, and then fry again. I skipped the step of soaking in salt water, I guess that helps keep it from oxidizing and turning brown and also helps keep it together. I also cut them probably a bit small. BUT…

I think they turned out alright for a first attempt!

I’ve been missing these since leaving Nicaragua! They were super easy to make (the oil is a little expensive down here), and straight off the pan they were super tasty. I’m gonna try and perfect these while I’m here!

I haven’t checked meat prices here yet, it would be nice to add chicken to this. But for more or less $3, this is a delicious and filling meal! I also went for some style points with the presentation. Definitely not a meal from El Ancla, in El Tránsito, though.

I also had a couple opportunistic pups who thought it would be a tasty meal…

I read for a bit, then played guitar, and around sunset I made my way to the beach. It’s been raining every sunset so far, and I wanted to take advantage of this one. But when I showed up, there wasn’t much of one to see. I still enjoyed watching the clouds move around as the storm for the night rolled in.

I spent the rest of the evening playing pool with a handful of locals and Milo, the owner’s, of the hostel, brother. I was teammates with a guy named Choco, we started on a 0-3 steak and then right when hope was lost, we won 4 in a row! We ended up winning one more after that too. It was a fun way to end the day!

I made myself the same meal from lunch for dinner. This time the tostones weren’t as good. They don’t really refrigerate well… much better straight off the fryer. But I still enjoyed nonetheless.

There was a huge rainstorm through the entire night. When I woke up, it was still coming down! But even so, it was time for another day of sanding on Saturday, October 11th. I spent the morning chatting with the other volunteers, friends of the hostel, listening to music, and grinding away at different wooden surfaces in the hostel.

It rained the entire 4 hours, which was kind of soothing and not annoying since I didn’t have to be outside. Also with all the greenery, it was really pretty!

I spent the early afternoon reading and playing guitar in the tree house. It was a perfect spot away from the rain but also within the rain so I could still enjoy the peacefulness of it all. I then had lunch and went back to the same spot to keep reading. The only problem with the rain is the lack of beach time! But with my ear problem it’s best if I stay out of the water for a few more days at least.

After a while, I filed an insurance claim with my travel insurance for my doctor visit yesterday. Hopefully that will be as seamless as it was in Australia!

Later in the evening, my volunteer friend, Sophie, asked me if I wanted to come to a mini Octoberfest at one of the bars nearby. I took a little convincing since I wasn’t going to drink and I was enjoying reading my book. But I caved and decided to be social. I’m glad I did, it ended up being a nice time!

Right when I showed up there was a pretzel eating competition. I would’ve participated, but it was entertaining to watch. After it finished I snuck a pretzel from one of the contestants bowls who didn’t finish all of his. It was tasty! The free food wasn’t over as later in the night I met the winner of the eating competition and he offered me half of his burrito that he ordered before the competition (he wasn’t hungry for it after eating 3.5 big pretzels in quick succession… I feel like I could’ve done more damage in the 6 minutes they had).

I chatted with some of Sophie’s friends and people I recognized that were friends of the hostel. I also saw two people playing uno and asked to join them at one point too. We played 3 games and chatted a bit. They were from Sydney so we were able to chat about Australia and traveling.

I snuck off around 9pm to make a little bit more food to finish off my little feast for the night. Then played some pool with Anthony, Ariel, and Jessie, practicing my Spanish a bit. And then it was time for bed!

I woke up on Sunday, October 12th, not knowing it was going to be a big and exciting purchase day!

I ate breakfast, read a little, and then got to work sanding more of the lobby area. I guess today’s the last day of sanding for now and then we’ll come back to it. Our next task will be cleaning the kitchen… which I took a gander and it needs plenty of it, so we’re about to have our hands full! But once I wrapped up my 4 hours for the day, I was done for the week! I’ll have the next two days off.

It was another very rainy day, where it rained all through the night and into the early afternoon. When the rain lightened up, I walked to the fruit store to stoke back up. I made a point this time to introduce myself to the guy that’s always been behind the desk. His name’s Alex, and I’ll be seeing plenty more of him while I’m in Santa Teresa!

Earlier in the day I had put a message out into a WhatsApp group, asking if anyone had a surfboard they’d sell me at the specific dimensions I wanted. I was after a 6’8”-6’10” surfboard with around 40+ liters. This would put me in the ball park of where I was surfing in El Tránsito. Not long after, I was getting messages from people with all different kinds of boards. I probably should’ve done this right when I arrived, but I was relying on Facebook Marketplace.

Around lunchtime, I got a message from a guy with a new board he wanted to sell me for $750. This was A LOT higher than I was hoping to pay for… but it was exactly the dimensions I was after, and prior to this message I wasn’t having much luck with that. I told him just that and he dropped the price to $650 and he’d include fins and a tail pad… I wasn’t sold yet, I still didn’t want to spend that much.

The guy asked me where in town I was and it turned out we were literally two houses away from each other. He said he’d be right over and a few minutes later he was, along with the board. The local shaper was very happy to meet me and found it funny just how close we were to each other. We chatted in a mix of Spanish and English and I emphasized that I really did like the board, I thought it was beautiful and the perfect size… but I really didn’t want to spend that much.

To be fair, a new board could be double or even triple the price… especially locally shaped. But I had in my mind I was going to buy a used board.

He said he wanted to help, and of course make the sale too, so he offered $600 for the board. I felt like this was too good of an offer to refuse and decided to make the deal. Even though it’s more than I wanted to spend, I’ll hopefully be able to sell it in the back end for around the same price. Similar to what I did with my motorbike, Kilby, back in Vietnam/Laos.

I walked to the ATM and back with $600 in hand. I was now the owner of this beautiful 6’8” – 20” – 2 1/2” – 41 liter surfboard. I was glad I could support a local shaper in the end and also it turned out he was a single father, I learned this from my volunteer friend Anthony who also got a board from him. Apparently Anthony was planning on introducing me to him anyways, so I’m glad it worked out!

I was super excited to finally have a board! It’d been far too long since I’d been in the water for a surf and with upcoming days off, I was ready to break the drought! So long as my ear was all good to go.

I put the fins in the board, googled how to put the tail pad on, and then gave the board its first coat of wax! I seriously am so excited to have this board!

I chatted with Sophie, one of the volunteers, and she was saying that it sounded like once the hostel reopened we’d be given two meals a day, which would be a game changer for budgeting in this town! I have enjoyed cooking for myself but it’d be nice to save money too and use it to explore the town’s cuisine as well.

For the rest of the afternoon, I played pool with Anthony and Ariel. It was raining on and off and I didn’t have a leash yet for my surfboard, so no surfing quite yet. Also apparently the water quality was bad post all the rain we’ve been having.

Later in the evening I went to play guitar and read. Then I had dinner and called it a night! I was looking forward to a couple days off from the maintenance work.

I was able to sleep in on Monday, October 13th. Today was my first day in Santa Teresa without “work.” I thought about waking up early for a morning surf, but without a leg rope and my ear still recovering, I thought it best to just rest today.

I also found out later the waves were really big, so I didn’t miss much!

Speaking of my ear though, today was the first day where it wasn’t clogged! Hopefully that continues on that trajectory.

I ended up reading in bed for most of the morning and eventually making breakfast. After breakfast, I walked to the grocery store and got some more necessities. I finally got myself a jar of peanut butter, it’ll go well with all the bananas I’ve been eating.

I got back to the hostel and went back to reading. At the same time I worked on getting flights home for Thanksgiving. The WiFi at the hostel is very spotty, especially because of all the storms. So this took longer than I had thought it would. I was successfully able to book my flights! In the middle of November, I’ll be heading to Orlando to visit my sister first! Which will make just over 5 weeks in Costa Rica.

I got to playing some pool with a few of the locals all the way up until I had lunch. While we were playing there were very loud animal noises. I had heard this yelling a lot recently and was trying to figure out what it was. Turns out, it’s been howler monkeys!

For lunch, I tried making myself tostones (or patacones, here in Costa Rica) again… this time I tried to soak them in salt water after frying them the first time. What I learned was I’m supposed to crush them first before soaking them. So instead of tostones, I had mush on the half I tried to flatten and fried pieces of plantain with the other half.

I was stuffed after lunch and needed a walk. So I went on one to Denga surf shop, which one of my friend’s friends works at. I was in search of a leash for my surfboard, my friend was there but their prices were a little higher than I was hoping. I hopped across the street to another surf shop, called Sommos, that another friend of a friend works at and he had a better price for me.

I went back to Denga to check and see if they had surfers ear plugs, and they did. But they were $60! I’ll wait and see how my ear holds up and also if I can find a cheaper pair… seemed a little steep.

I read some more once I got back to the hostel, chatted with my roommates, and then played some guitar and pool before a late dinner. I decided to be a bit antisocial tonight and finished off my night reading more and heading to sleep early. I think I’ll take Tuesday off from surfing as well and then get at it on Wednesday, but we’ll see!

It was time for another day off on Tuesday, October 14th. I woke up on the earlier side today. I felt nice and rested, and after breakfast I headed into town to drop off my laundry at a laundromat. They told me to come back at 5pm, so off I went back to the hostel.

But before I made it back, I decided to go check out what the waves were doing this morning. The sun was out, so this ended up being a walk up and down the entirety of the main beach here in Santa Teresa.

This took me about an hour, but the important part was that it took me 5 minutes to get to the first surf spot, 10 minutes to the next, and 20 minutes to the last populated spot. There were some surfers dotted throughout the rest of the beach, but I wanted to know how long I’d be trekking for surfs.

There were tons of surfers out in the water for high tide. I was told mid to high tide is best here. The waves looked alright, not as big as the other day which I was happy to see. But the one problem was there was a bunch of junk in the water, mainly pieces of wood and trees, but lots of plastic too. I’m guessing all the rain caused that. It didn’t look like the surfers minded it or that it got in their way.

When I got back to the hostel, I showered and spent the rest of the morning reading and playing guitar. I finally decided to learn the entirety of the finger picking to Dust in the Wind by Kansas. I was able to memorize the song but it still needs some work. I’ve only had the intro down for the longest time now, so I was happy to add the rest to my skill set!

I made myself lunch and then joined the local guys who were playing 9 ball pool. I ended up going on a tear and winning all the 9 ball matches I played and then we switched into doubles where my partner, Ariel, and I ended up winning all of them as well. I needed to go pick up my laundry, so I left the pool playing and took a stroll in the drizzling rain.

By the time I got back the power was out and the storm picked up. I had this strange inkling the power was going to be out… it’s a common trend here with all the storms. Somehow my iMessage was working and my parents were able to message me. So I tried to FaceTime them and it worked! I’m not exactly sure how since I don’t have cell data here… but I was happy it worked so we could chat.

I updated them on how I was doing and my thoughts on future plans and then I went back to reading for a couple hours, afterwards I made myself dinner.

It was already on the late side, so I showered and called it a night to read some more and go to bed early.

I woke up at 7am to a bright and sunny morning! I was shocked to see that it wasn’t cloudy or raining, but very happy to see the sun and blue skies.

I was thinking about going for a morning surf but I decided to sleep in a little bit and go to the grocery store instead, since I needed a few things… but now I was kind of kicking myself for that decision.

After breakfast, I was back to work on helping renovate and clean the hostel. Today, we were cleaning out the restaurant kitchen. The kitchen had definitely not been touched since the hostel closed for the month… it was pretty gross.

We had to remove everything that was stored in the kitchen and check to see what was still useable. Being in Costa Rica, specially by the ocean, everything rusts easily and there’s of course tons of bugs to devour things as well.

We didn’t have the proper cleaning supplies on hand to start deep cleaning the kitchen. So instead we sanded the dirty wooden surfaces in the kitchen. We wrapped up a little on the early side and of course the rain started as soon as we were about to finish up.

It was only a sprinkle at this point and I hemmed and hawed if I wanted to go for a surf. Not just because of the weather, but also because of my ear and that it finally was feeling better.

But I made up my mind… it was time to stop the drought of surfing in my life and paddle into whatever the ocean had to offer me today!

I put on my swimsuit, attached my leash to my board, and walked to the beach! When I got there I saw a handful of other people surfing, but not as many as usual since it was currently low tide and onshore winds… I believe it’s the opposite of what you usually want at this beach. But there were still some nice waves coming through, so I stashed my sandals behind a log and paddled out into the water. To my luck as well, the rain held off!

The rip currents are strong here, which made the paddle out fairly easy. The new board felt super light under me and I could tell this was going to feel different than my past surfboard experiences in Nicaragua. The board is slimmer and less thick than what I was using and it’s the shortest size I tried at Free Spirit as well.

But, I was excited to see how I’d go!

The first wave I went for was super steep and I was able to stay up for a couple seconds before bailing as I didn’t have the best footing on the board… but I was close to a nice wave! This definitely boosted my confidence for the session.

The waves were fairly sporadic as the wind wasn’t very intense. Every now and then a big set would roll through which caused me to get pushed back into the impact zone a couple times and made for harder paddle outs. But each time I pushed through itching for a wave. Eventually I caught a good one and had a seamless paddle into standing up and riding the wave until it closed out!

I had a number of other failed attempts or pulling off of a closeout wave. But in between I spent a lot of time paddling. Not only to find the peaks of waves, but also because the southern tip (cross rip) kept pulling me out of the position. This led to commiserating with a guy from California, Kyle, and his friend Adrian, both now living in Santa Teresa.

They were both really nice and chatty, which made up for the lack of friends in the water with me. I had gotten used to surfing every day with the other volunteers at Free Spirit.

I also met a Costa Rican (they call themselves Ticas), named Sebastian, who wasn’t a local but was familiar with the beach. He was giving me some pointers on the wave and showed interest in my board… he offered to buy it when I left but A) thats a while from now and B) he left before we could exchange contact details.

Every time I felt like stopping because of all the paddling, I would catch a wave that would invigorate me to want one more. Eventually though, I caught a really nice wave that turned into a second wave as well and rode it all the way to the beach. Finally, after two hours, I called it quits (I didn’t know it was two hours at the time but my internal body clock, mainly from my muscles, told me so).

I will say, a week or so off from surfing did not do me any good for my back and shoulder strength.

I was pretty dang pleased with how the surf session went. I definitely have a lot to work on with this new board, but to know that I can catch waves, duck dive, and enjoy the session with it is huge! I was grinning ear to ear my entire walk back to the hostel. I had really missed surfing!

I had a late lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reading. Not long after I settled in to read, a huge storm rolled in and continued on for the rest of the night. I took a break from reading to play some guitar. And then took a break from that to enjoy a mango I had bought from the store this morning and watch the thunderstorm (which sounded like it was right above our hostel).

It’s a moment like this where I sit and think to myself… “how did I end up here?” Eating a delicious fruit, watching a crazy tropical storm, in a beautiful part of a jungle beach town.

The rest of the night, after I had dinner, was just as chilled as the afternoon. There’s not much to do when it’s raining, but at least I have good books to read and a guitar to strum on!

Getting back to surfing really amped my outlook for the next month. I had been missing the atmosphere from El Tránsito, but adding surfing into my repertoire showed me that it is something I really enjoy and, like playing guitar, can just make my day so much better. Santa Teresa might be more touristy and “influencer-y” but I’ve made some good friends already and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next month has in store for me!

I’ll see you next week, with, I’m sure, plenty of more stories!

– Elie