Days 654-660! The month of October is quickly flying. I’ve had a lot of wild things happen while traveling and this week is no exception. From volunteering, to surf injuries to surf collisions and running into friends (a nicer form of collision)… it was hectic. But it was still a very nice week here in Costa Rica. Enjoy!

I woke up at 7:30am on Thursday, October 16th. Already halfway through the month! The sun was out again this morning, which was exciting to see. I had breakfast and went back to my bed to read a little before work.

Work today was finishing sanding the counters in the restaurant’s kitchen… and then starting to deep clean the kitchen.

There was a lot of rust to remove and lots of surfaces to clean. It started raining very hard early on in the work day and kept on going till the end of it. We still had lots to clean, but we made a nice dent on the rusted equipment. After that task, I had to take a shower. It stopped raining as I got out and I decided to go for a surf, no matter the conditions. The sun was coming out too.

It was mid to low tide with 5 knots of wind onshore… I was hoping it’d be like yesterday at low tide, but when I showed up, the ocean waves were choppy and messy. I saw a couple surfers out still and decided to test my luck as well. The worst that would happen is I just get a nice session of paddling in.

And this is pretty much what happened. The south cross rip, again, was really strong, but with the addition of small waves everywhere… it was a constant paddle surf session. I was able to catch a few good waves still and after 40 minutes of being sloshed around, I caught one final nice wave back in.

I got back and made myself lunch. I took another stab at making tostones (or patacones) and they turned out much better this time, I skipped the putting them in salt water, but I’ll try that method again sometime.

I made my way up to the tree house and played guitar and read for the rest of the afternoon. The sounds of pool playing rang up to the tree house, so I put my book away and joined them.

I ended up playing some nine ball pool and some doubles as well. There was a solid group of locals hanging out at the hostel to play pool, it was a nice time! I knew almost all of them, from different pool playing nights from the first week being in Santa Teresa, which made it more fun.

I eventually went and made dinner, read a bit more, and then called it a night!

Friday, October 17th meant another work day at Lost Boyz Hideout. After breakfast and a bit of reading, I met up with Sophie and Anthony to start our work day. Sophie informed us we’d need to start working closer to 5 hours, since there’s a lot to get done. But later in the work day we found out that the hostel was hiring a team of skilled workers to come help.

This was much needed! We have a ton to get done and most of the tasks, none of us know exactly what we’re doing. But with the hired team, we’ll be in good shape and we’ll be there to assist them and other tasks. I also found out that I’d have Saturday and Sunday off as one of the owners was planning to organize and get ready for the “big push” starting Monday.

For reference, the hostel is set to open back up on November 1st. We still haven’t finished sanding, cleaning the restaurant kitchen, repainting the lobby, fixing the floor, the list goes on and on.

Today though, we continued on cleaning the restaurant’s kitchen. This mainly entailed trying to “de-rust” appliances, counters, whatever had rust. It’s a forever battle against the salty seaside air. We also cleaned out the fridges as well. I ended up doing a bit of sanding on the kitchen table in the lobby. This was last weeks task, but we never finished it, so I put a good hour of work into it before 1pm rolled around and I called it a day.

Even though it rained during our work hours, the clouds had parted and the sun was out when we finished up! I took that as my sign to go for a surf no matter the conditions. I put on my swimsuit, waxed my surfboard, and headed out to the beach.

The waves looked much better than yesterday. It was closer to high tide, falling to low tide, with a similar amount of onshore wind. But the waves were much cleaner. I was excited, there were some fun waves rolling in and not many surfers, so I paddled in. I braved the walk barefoot so I didn’t need to leave my shoes anywhere.

The paddle out was a lot longer than I was expecting. I had to duck dive soooo many waves and it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. But I kept persevering, hoping that the next wave would be my last one to break through to the back, and eventually, I was successful!

I was pretty amped and happy with myself for sticking with it. There were many points where I thought to turn around. I was by myself for a bit and eventually as the session went on, more and more surfers started to come out too. I caught one nice wave early on, but the waves were incredible at this point. Eventually though, the waves started to pick up in size and I think that’s what drew out more of the afternoon surfers.

Unfortunately for me, I tried duck diving one of these big waves and the board got popped into my face by the under current of the wave (meaning I didn’t dive deep enough, not sure I could’ve). I could feel a bruise forming and this missed duck dive put me in a bad spot with big waves crashing around me. With the combination of the two events, I decided to get myself back to shore and debate if I wanted to keep going.

After 5 minutes or so, I decided to walk back towards one of the rips and take it out to keep surfing. The waves might’ve gotten bigger, but they were looking like some fun rides. And I wanted to be a part of it!

This paddle back out was much easier and by this point there were 10 or so surfers out trying to enjoy the afternoon session. I was able to catch a couple very nice rides on some 4-5 foot waves. I took a few spills as well. I had a good time chatting with the other surfers, watching them catch their own good waves, and enjoying being in the sun and water.

I took a big wave and caught it all the way in, it was a fun one! So fun, that I debated going back on it being my last one, and trying to paddle back out. But, this paddle out was more like my first one… so I called it quits after around a 1.5-2 hour surf session.

A nice little contusion to add to the growing list of surf injuries, very glad it wasn’t my eye!

I was exhausted, but I still needed to have lunch, even though it was past 3pm by this point. Unfortunately, I was out of some key lunch ingredients, so I made my way to the grocery store and the fruit store. My stomach took charge while at the grocery store and I ended up buying some snacks and sweet treats on top of the regular food I’ve been eating. Felt like a nice reward for paddling out the past couple of days.

I made myself lunch, and was eating by around 4pm, and then I played some 9-ball pool with my friend Anthony. I eventually went to go lie down and read, which I did that until dinner, which I didn’t have till around 9pm. My eating schedule is very out of whack, but surfing has been my priority for the past month plus!

I finished off my night with some more reading and nodded off with no alarm set as I had no plans for the following day off.

I wasn’t able to sleep in as much as I wanted on Saturday, October 18th. But I had the day off, so I was in no rush. I read in my bed for a bit and then had breakfast.

I decided to run my one errand for the day right after breakfast to get it out of the way. I needed to walk to the doctor’s office to get the information so I could wrap up my insurance claim. It was a lot further than I remembered, but it was a nice walk down the main road of town.

Apparently the doctor was out and needed to send them the paperwork. They told me it’d be 20 minutes so I sat and waited in the AC of their building. It took more like 45 minutes, but I was finally in possession of the documents I needed! Of course it started to rain when I wanted to walk home. It lightened up fairly quickly but I still got drizzled on for the majority of my walk.

I spent the rest of my morning and early afternoon hanging out in the treehouse. I had my book, the guitar, and some fishing rope I found on the beach. It’s been awhile since I made bracelets out of them, but I had some fun shells to try and be crafty with. I spent a while working on it

Around 2:30pm I had lunch. And as always, I had some watchful eyes waiting for some treats for their begging.

Speaking of eyes, around my right eye was starting to bruise up. I believe this is (somehow) my first black eye! Not the most pleasant of experiences, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

The reason I ate lunch on the “earlier” side was because I had plans starting at 4pm. I’m in a group chat of events in Santa Teresa and I see that there was a beach cleanup today! I definitely wanted to be a part of that, not only for the ocean conservation aspect, but meeting new people too! Turns out, my friend Isa was helping run it (not the volunteer from Free Spirit for those who remember the name).

She actually came by the hostel to grab Sophie for the cleanup and they invited me along to the beach early to hang. Surprisingly, we all ended up having some deep conversations about relationships, life, gentrification, the list could go on and on. The conversations kept segueing into the next. This continued on into the beach cleanup itself.

Today, as a whole, was a very sunny and blue sky day. It continued through the beach cleanup and I finally saw my first, good, Santa Teresa sunset!

It lasted a little over an hour and in that time we scoured the beach for every little bit of trash we could find. Most of it, unfortunately, was micro plastics which were very hard to spot and pick up… it’s very sad. We swim in so much trash and a lot of society has very little care on where their trash goes. Scuba diving definitely opened my eyes to it.

Also from my efforts the restaurant sponsoring the pickup gave us free smoothie vouchers. I planned to check that out tomorrow.

I read for a bit once I got back to the hostel and made myself some dinner. While I was cooking, Kyle and Adrien, who I met in the surf lineup, came wandering in. They didn’t know it was closed until I informed them, but they hung around and chatted the entire time I was cooking. I got to know them a bit better, which was nice too. Hopefully I’ll see them around more while I’m still in town.

After dinner I decided to go see what was happening at the pool table. Turned out they were playing the number game I learned in Australia (where everyone has numbers for their balls). But they were playing you only had one number and if you hit yours in you win. The catch is you HAVE to hit the ball that is closest to the cue ball… the other catch was you had to bet 200 colones (40 cents).

I wanted to play regular pool, but they weren’t… so I played a round. There was 6 or 7 of us playing and actually was one shot away from winning, but lost my 200 colones. I decided to play one more and swiftly lost another 200 before calling it a night.

I got up on Sunday, October 19th and just laid in bed reading. A lot of my books on my library app came flooding in at once, so I’m trying to get through them without losing my place in the reservation line for the E-Books.

Eventually I got up to have breakfast, but afterwards I went back to reading. I finally decided to head out of the hostel around 11am, I had a plan for the rest of my morning. I found out the day before that there was a clothing thrift sale happening at the school near the hostel and it was wrapping up today. So I walked over to check it out.

I didn’t find anything that I wanted or needed, but it was fun to peruse for a little before heading on to the next spot. Yesterday’s beach cleanup was sponsored by a restaurant called Eat Street, the same restaurant that put on the Octoberfest. They gave everyone who participated a free smoothie voucher and I was going to cash it in. I would’ve happily done the beach cleanup without getting a free smoothie, but I wasn’t complaining.

I especially wasn’t complaining when I got a very high quality and thick smoothie filled with banana, coconut milk, dates, peanut butter, and cinnamon. It was almost as thick as a milkshake.

I sat at the restaurant and used their free wifi to work on some plans for post Thanksgiving travels. I decided I’d head back to Nicaragua, but I hadn’t decided on a date and flight time yet. A later problem to figure out, but it was nice to see cheap flights in December.

I was close enough to the beach, so after I finished, I went to go check out the waves. There were plenty of surfers out since it was high tide and the waves were pumping! I was glad I was sitting and watching because there were some massive and heavy sets rolling through. I really enjoyed seeing surfers catch some really nice waves and took some mental notes on how their bodies were moving for turns, takeoffs, etc. I love watching people surf! Not as much as I love surfing myself, but I thought it’d be best to skip out on the big, powerful waves especially with already having a black eye.

I walked back to the hostel and enjoyed the rest of the sunny day playing guitar and reading more. While I was at the beach I got one of my new songs I’ve been writing stuck in my head and I was able to work out some kinks that I had in the lyrics. When I got to the hostel I was able to play it and really liked how it turned out.

I FaceTimed my parents in the early afternoon. We had a nice catch up and chatted about my plans, things that had been on my mind, what they’ve been up to, and our plans for around Thanksgiving! It’s coming up quick!

I had a late lunch, I was full from the smoothie. I made some more patacones/tostones and I have to humbly say, I think I’ve gotten these down now. These were hands down the best I’ve made and pretty much on par with the ones I’ve had at restaurants.

After lunch, I read for a bit more. The sky made it look like there was going to be a beautiful sunset… but when I showed up, there were a bit too many clouds for it to be anything breathtaking. But it was still pretty! I listened to music as the sun set and then made my way back to the hostel.

I’m in an artsy groove right now and made a couple more bracelets out of the fishing rope I found the other day. I plan on giving this one to my friend Dylan! He made me a bracelet before I left the US and I’ve been wearing it ever since, somehow it’s survived all the crazy adventures. I felt like I should return the gesture.

I had dinner and then finished off my night with some more reading. I headed to bed early knowing tomorrow I’d be back to the random little labor jobs the hostel had for me.

I woke up earlier on Monday, October 20th, we chatted about starting at 8:30am. But even though we were all ready by then, we waited till 9am, when the hostel’s manager and part owner, Dennis, arrived to get started.

Today ended up being another day of all sanding. The dining table that we started sanding the other day needed to be finished. But we needed an electric sander to finish the job, which Dennis brought us. I continued hand sanding the benches that go along with the table.

1pm rolled around and I stopped what I was doing, threw on my swimsuit, and went for a much needed surf! The weekend swell was allegedly done, so I was excited to get back into the water for a paddle… hopefully this time injury free.

The ocean this afternoon wasn’t the kindest. It took me a solid 10 minutes (or what I perceived to be) to paddle out through the break. There were many times I thought about turning around, but after two days off I was determined to make it to the back. I did, but I wasn’t rewarded with a great day of surf. The ocean was very messy and randomly some big waves would come through.

It’s always a frustrating part of surfing when you sit further in to try and catch waves only to have big sets roll in that you could’ve caught if you were sitting further out. But when you do sit further out, the big sets don’t come… it’s a vicious cycle.

The biggest thing of note, during my almost 2 hours of paddling around, was a big head popped out of the water giving me quite the fright. It took me a second to realize what it was, because of course my mind went to the worst, especially because at this point I was alone in the water. BUT when I saw it pop out again I realized my fears were for naught because it was a turtle coming to say hello!

Pretty cool to see while out in the water!

I only caught a couple waves, that weren’t very good, before I walked back to the hostel. I showered and then walked to the grocery store to pick up groceries I ran out of. And then it was time for lunch and diving back into the book I’ve been devouring. Currently it’s the 3rd book of the ACATAR series (the series I started in El Tránsito).

In between reading, I bought my flight from the US back to Central America. My current plan right now is to fly back to Nicaragua and then figure it out from there! I know there’ll be plenty of more surfing. I also started looking into plans for later on next year, potentially even working at a summer camp in the US next season. We’ll see how the cards play out! Trying to keep my options open while also trying to get some things squared away so I don’t need to worry about them or do them last minute.

I made myself dinner and then went back to reading, finishing the book. I’m really enjoying this series and I’m not surprised at why it is so loved across the world right now. A bit raunchy for my taste but the fantasy element is great! Overall it’s a cute story. I believe there’s two more books of the series already out and another one on the way, so I have more to look forward to.

I was back to sanding on Tuesday, October 21st. It’s a monotonous task, but with listening to music, the time flies by. For some reason, 9am rolled around though and no one was around to start working… so I just got started by myself and eventually the other volunteers showed up. I’m not really sure why they were late but at first I felt like I missed a memo we had the day off (we did not).

1pm hit and I immediately got ready to surf. I waxed my surfboard and headed to the beach! It was another sunny day and I was excited to get into the water. The tide was close to being high tide and the winds were light, I was optimistic for a good session.

It was another tough paddle out, but the waves were a lot better than the day before! The first wave I caught was a solid one and then a big set came in pushing me down the beach to the north (there was a northerly rip today, unlike the southerly I’ve been experiencing). It took awhile, as I stopped to try catching different wave sections along the way, but I eventually made it back to around where I had started. I met some friendly locals who I chatted a bit with during the session, one named Daniel who has been living in Santa Teresa for 25 years (he was born in a town nearby).

I caught a few more waves and got wiped out on a couple too. I got dropped in on by a couple locals as well, not the ones that I was chatting with, which was frustrating. But it’s part of the joys of surfing beaches around the world. I ran into Adrien and Kyle in the lineup and then after catching one more good one, I called it a surf session after about 3 hours! I was exhausted!

Also, part of my kick pad (the pad I have on the tail of my board to help with traction) was starting to come off from one of my wipeouts. I probably would’ve tried to surf longer, but it was starting to almost fully fall off. So I wanted to get back and try and glue it back on before that happened. A little frustrating since I just got it, but I could tell it was one that had been lying around the shaper’s shop for a while, probably why he gave it to me for free.

On my walk back, I ran into a surfer I had met a couple days before, Devin. Him and his dog drove down from Washington State all the way to Panama over 3 months and are slowly making their way back up. He saw my kick pad and said he had some shoe glue back at his place and that, if he found it, he’d bring it over to the hostel later in the day. I was really grateful and it was a very kind gesture!

I made my way back to the hostel and had a very late lunch. I then collapsed into my bed and played some guitar for a bit. I was tuned out and focused into playing my music when I saw someone walk in. When I finished the song, I looked up and it was Devin! He dropped off the shoe glue, which after googling was in fact water proof and a good choice for what I was working with. We chatted for a bit and then he went in his way for the night. I’d drop off the glue to where he’s staying tomorrow or later in the week.

I worked at drying my board and applying the glue. It seemed to do the trick, but only time will tell with how it works in the water… I then read for a bit and had a late dinner before reading some more and calling it a night.

Well… just before I went to bed, I felt my bed start to shake! At first I thought one of the dogs got underneath it but the longer it went on the more I suspected that wasn’t the case. My other suspicion was confirmed in the morning, that it was a decently strong earthquake which was felt throughout the entire country!

I got up on Wednesday, October 22nd to wrap up another week on the road. Today was mostly wrapping up sanding and cleaning up to prepare for staining the wood we sanded in the next couple of days. While cleaning up, I noticed something I hadn’t seen prior to today… and I’ve been here for 2 weeks! But the hostel has a fire poll, fitting for the Neverland vibe but also feels a bit dangerous to have a one story hole, it was fun to go down though!

Closer to the end of the “work day” Anthony and I had to carry some heavier furniture out of the kitchen. A couple deteriorating wooden cabinets, a table, and even a fridge. It was a bit of a pain, but we were able to get it all done with the help of Juan, one of the maintenance workers at the hostel. The last object was a metal table and grill combo… which was easily 1,000+ pounds and we were not moving that just the three of us, so we put that off for another day.

1pm rolled around and I hopped up into the treehouse for a FaceTime with my cousin Mina! I’m trying to figure out my plans for the summer and she has some good connections for a summer camp I’m interested in potentially working at. Seems like it could be a fun way to spend my summer in the US and picking up another job for my ever growing tool belt.

After a very nice FaceTime, I went off for my afternoon surf. The winds didn’t look great on the Surfline app, but when I got there I was met with a pretty good surf session! The waves were still a bit messy, but there was good sets rolling in and I was catching a bunch of good waves. But after an hour or so had passed, my luck had run out and (one of) a surfers worst nightmares arose.

I caught a really nice wave and was enjoying the ride when I saw a surfer, who had just finished his wave, starting to paddle back out. Instead of paddling towards me, like I was taught, he just kind of sat there and stared at me. I was trying to figure out what his plan was and if I should go infront of him or behind him. Since he wasn’t moving I decided to go infront of him, I gauged that if I went behind I’d hit him with the wave speed and the distance. But the wave had other plans and since I chose to go infront of him and he wasn’t moving I ended up pretty much right on top of him…

I bailed at the last second but I was too late. THANKFULLY, my board only hit his board and not him. But, unfortunately one of my surfboard’s fins went right through his board and took it clean out of my board. He was obviously not happy, as was I, but I wasn’t the one with a now broken board. We both paddled in and I of course apologized, let him berate me for a little before I again apologized but also stated that he didn’t make the situation easy for me with how he was paddling… or lack of paddling. His girlfriend came over too, obviously unhappy. Now, fortunately we were both level headed people and both recognized this wasn’t on purpose or out of malice.

Even though he wasn’t willing to take any blame, I wasn’t going to let the situation escalate to anything further. So I said, I knew a surfboard shaper we could go to right then and get it sorted. On our walk to Arthur, the guy who made my board, the other surfer and I ended up having a nice chat about traveling. Even though the conversation started tense, we were able to treat each other as human beings and with respect. Which unfortunately can be a rare thing in the surfing world.

By the time we got to Arthur, we were both on the same page that it was an accident, we’re glad neither of us gotten hurt, and it could’ve been much worse. Arthur, thankfully, was around and quoted it to be $50 for the repair. I offered to pay for it and of course the other surfer agreed. Do I think we should’ve split the price, 100%. I didn’t even have to leave the water after the incident happened… accidents happen in surfing, it’s part of the risk of being out and around other surfers. But I’m a good person, believe in karma, and hope that if I’m ever in this situation the same would happen for me. Also $50 is not that much in the grand scheme of things.

That bummer out of the way, I thanked Arthur for helping and parted ways with the surfer and his girlfriend wishing them a good rest of their travels.

I obviously wasn’t pleased with how the end of that surf session went, I would’ve loved to keep going. But I had a good session outside of that and everything happens for a reason… the world’s weird like that.

I took a shower and immediately set back out to drop my laundry off at the laundromat. And on my walk back to the hostel, a familiar face approached me on their motorbike. My friend Alicia, who I met while volunteering in El Tránsito, has lived in Santa Teresa for a while, but we haven’t had a chance to hang out yet. And because I finished surfing early and happened to be on the road at that exact moment, we finally ran into each other!

She pulled over and we chatted for a handful of minutes. We said we’d try and get a surf session or two in before I left. As I said, funny how the universe works.

I made a late lunch and while I was cooking, my friend Immy FaceTimed me! Again, I would’ve been surfing! For those who don’t remember, Immy and I met at the Beachside Bungalow hostel in Hoi An, Vietnam. Then we both lived on the island of Koh Tao, Thailand at the same time. AND THEN, we both ended up in Melbourne, Australia at the same time as well. It’s always nice catching up and we’ll see what country we run into each other in next!

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing guitar and reading. I made myself a late dinner and then wrapped up my night with more reading before passing out from an exhausting day physically and mentally.

Not the most ideal way to finish out my week, but there are many worse ways to do so. I’m glad this is my first surfing collision and hope it’s my last, but I doubt that. The more I surf, the more chances for incidents to occur and it’s a learning experience to keep in mind when making decisions in the future.

We’re just over 2 weeks so far in Santa Teresa, with around 3 more to go. The times already flying by but I’m trying to soak up every minute of it, surfing, relaxing, and enjoying this beautiful part of the world!

See you next week!

– Elie

(Sorry there’s not more pictures… not a lot to document at the moment and unfortunately can’t take pictures while surfing!)