Days 675-681! Here it is! My final week in Santa Teresa. It’s crazy how fast time can seemingly fly by. This week is filled with more surfing, new hostel guests, final volunteer days, and much more. I very much enjoyed my time here, but if you want to hear all the sappiness of leaving yet another nice part of the world, keep on reading. Enjoy this final week!

To start off the week, I woke up nice and early on Thursday, November 6th. Not for an early morning surf session, I wished that were the case, but for my first morning shift of reception work.

I opened up the hostel and got the desk all situated. And then, got to reading. We had one check out today and 4 check ins. The one check out left earlier in the morning I guess, because 11am rolled around and I went to check on her in her room to tell her it was time to check out… and she was already gone! Technically the people in the dorm don’t have to do anything for checking out besides moving their belongings out of the room. The studios have to return their key, that’s about it.

The check ins didn’t come during my shift, but one guest extended his stay, so I helped them do that and took his payment. Outside of that, I chatted with guests about their plans for the day, helped carry in some beer for the bar, and read more! I finished the Fellowship of the Ring, it was good. I think I had too high of expectations for it and with all of JRR Tolkien’s rambling, I lost interest at parts. But overall, I enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the second one!

I then started reading Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. Some of you might remember I’ve read a handful of series by him: the Stormlight archives, the Reckoners, and Skyward. Mistborn was his first big hit series, which I’m glad I’m finally getting to read! It’s been on my list for a while.

A friend of the hostel, Isabella (you might remember her from the beach cleanup a couple weeks ago), came by the hostel today. She was talking about a photo shoot she did for one of the local restaurants that she’s the social media manager for. Apparently they were shooting their new food and the people “modeling” with the food got free food out of the deal. I half jokingly said, “if you ever need anyone to let me know.” To which she responded saying she needed people Saturday and that I’d be a part of it as long as I had another friend come too.

So I said that I’d get one of the other reception staff to come too. I asked Paula, one of the volunteers and she said yes, so we were in! I was definitely looking forward to that in a couple days… free food to smile infront of a camera! Sign me up!

With work being uneventful, it went by fairly quickly. When 3pm rolled around, I switched with Savannah, one of the German volunteers, and went to my bed for a nap. When I woke up, it was time to surf!

I waxed up my board and headed to the beach for a sunset surf. The tide was just post high tide and there was about 6 knots of wind onshore… not ideal, but I wanted to surf. A small swell was coming in too so the waves were big and strong. I paddled out fairly quickly at the start, but after one nose dive and a couple big sets, I was paddling and paddling and paddling to try to get back out to the lineup.

I was thinking about calling quits, but I kept at it for a while. I eventually got dragged fairly far down the beach but far enough into another rip current, that led out and away from the breaking waves. I was able, after much effort, to make it back to the lineup and I was very proud of myself for not giving up. Paddling is a killer workout!

I unfortunately didn’t end up catching any waves this session, I tried for a handful that were too flat and fat (too much water not enough force). And eventually, after some really big sets came crashing through, called it quits. At least there was a beautiful sunset!

When I got out, I ran into one of the guests of the hostel. He’s just learning how to surf so he had his rental board and had been practicing in the whitewash.

I walked with him back to the surf rental and then back to the hostel, chatting along the way. His names Henry and he’s from South Africa! I haven’t met too many South Africans while traveling. I showered and relaxed for a bit, the surf session had taken it out of me. I then joined one of the guests in the lobby who I knew played guitar. I played for a little bit and we chatted while I did. We talked about music, London’s music festivals, and traveling.

I had dinner and chatted with Savannah, who was working, and Paula the other reception volunteer. And after lots of chatter about life in the US during college, the hostel, etc. I called it an early night! After a not so great surf session I was looking forward to a good morning session tomorrow!

I woke up bright and early again on Friday, November 7 (a very merry half birthday to me). Today I woke up early for a surf, not for work. I rolled out of bed at 6am, questioning why I had decided to wake up so early. But I forced myself to get out of bed and to the beach to surf.

On Surfline, the morning conditions looked ideal. 2 knots of offshore wind, high to low tide, and some semi powerful waves causing 2-3ft plus (chest to head) sized waves. Meaning 4-6ft wave faces. I was excited to head out and see what I could catch.

The Surfline report held up! I had a fairly easy paddle out into the surf lineup and the big sets immediately started rolling through. I was able to catch one early on and then had a nice little float around waiting for the next. There were a handful of surfers out as well on this cloudy, grey morning. I caught a couple big nose dives on waves that I misread and had moved faster than I was expecting. But one wave I was positioned in the perfect position that even with two people further out trying to catch it, I knew that they would struggle to and I would be able to! This was probably my best wave of the day.

The only other wave I caught was a fairly large close out wave, probably closer to the 3ft side of the waves. It was frustrating I couldn’t get a nice long ride, but the frustration was lost to me as I was amped to have not nose dived and was able to catch a steep big wave. It still flares up the adrenaline nonetheless.

I paddled back out after this wave and turned around as I watched one of the older surfers catch a nice wave. When he finished I saw his surfboard go flying away from him, his leash had come undone! He popped up out of the water and immediately started waving his arms at me and calling me over to him. He was a bit of a ways away and usually people tend to start swimming to shore and body surf waves in. But I wasn’t going to let him flail around and ignore his call.

I had just paddled through a big set to get to the lineup and was tired… but I made my way over to the man, who was swimming his way in and stopping every now and then to keep beckoning me over. When I eventually got a few meters away, he gave me a big thumbs up as a thank you and that he was okay… I guess he just panicked a bit. I’m glad I jumped to his aid, but boy, did it bite me in the butt.

I got no instant good karma from my attempt to help the man. I had pretty much paddled to one of the worst spots I could be in, the impact zone of some pretty sizable waves. Not only was I in the impact zone, I was fairly far away from the rip currents now. So I was yet again in a situation where I was paddling and paddling… and paddling.

I kept trying to get out and every time I thought I was just about to make it, the next big set came. The beach lifeguards were doing a training, and without boards (just fins and swimming) they were swimming past me as I was struggling to duck dive the big waves and paddle out to the lineup. It was pretty disheartening to my morale as each of them swam past me to practice being saved by the next crew coming from shore.

After a long hard fought battle, I called it quits and headed back to shore. It honestly was the perfect time as the tide was coming to low tide and the waves were getting bigger, steeper, and closing out more. I wasn’t super satisfied with how the surf session ended and was wanting to head back out. But after watching the waves from the beach for a little, I decided it wasn’t worth it and to head back to the hostel.

I spent the rest of the morning working on setting up social media for Landlocked Beach Bum. I enjoyed my time working on Free Spirit Hostel’s Instagram, so I’ve decided it’s finally time to start messing around with marketing my music through social media and see if I can create a small fanbase! I worked compiling my links, setting up a newsletter, Instagram, and Facebook as well. The next step will be filming content, editing it, and putting it out. It’ll get me back in the swing of video editing, which I love to do, and it’ll be a fun project to see where it goes and try different marketing strategies.

I played some guitar, read a little, went to the grocery store for a couple items, and then it was time to start work! It was a fairly relaxing morning outside of my 2 hour morning surf session.

Volunteering was fairly chill as well. I had one check in and a couple people extending their stay. I played more guitar too, working on my next fingerpicking song, Follow the Sun by Xavier Rudd. A very pretty song! The most exciting part of the afternoon and evening was watching the University of Kansas (KU) Men’s basketball team play the University of North Carolina (UNC). The first half of the game was well played by both teams, but KU looked much better. The second half of the game though… UNC came out swinging and absolutely mopped the floor. For KU’s first game ever at UNC, it was an embarrassing showing. The season has just begun, so hopefully this early loss will whip the team into shape early!

Outside of this, I continued reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson and wrapped up my night around 10pm.

I had plans for another early morning surf tomorrow and I found out a couple guests had a car and we’re going to Mal País, a town nearby with point break surfing, for a sunset surf and they said I could come along! So I was looking forward to that too.

For some reason, I woke up at 5:30am, 30 minutes before my alarm at 6am to get up and surf… the sun was already starting to rise, and I thought, “why not get up now and get even more surf time in.” It was my day off from volunteering so I didn’t need to be up this early, but I was glad to be able to get some extra surfing in.

I ended up having a blast! The water was the glassiest I had seen it since coming to Santa Teresa. There were a lot of consistent waves too and over the course of over 2 hours of surfing, I caught a handful of nice waves. I even caught a few big ones as the size of the waves grew as the morning progressed.

As the waves grew bigger, duck diving my surfboard became more and more essential. But today, something clicked. I was duck diving really well on a lot of the waves (I still had plenty of bad attempts), and I realized I needed to sort of scoop my board under the wave. This really helped me with my timing and I had a couple duck dives where I fully went underneath the wave and in the past I would’ve gotten sent flying backwards with the wave.

There were a lot of nice people in the lineup too, but as the morning progressed it got pretty crowded! Eventually the paddle outs to the lineup got harder and harder, and the waves were getting larger and closing out more as the morning went to low tide. So I caught the whitewash of a big wave back into shore and called it a session around 9am.

I got back to the hostel, had breakfast, and immediately went for a much needed 2 hour nap.

When I woke up I felt refreshed and ready to take on the day. After reading for a little bit, it was time to head to Eat Street, a local restaurant. You might remember I went there for a smoothie after the ocean cleanup a few weeks ago or the Octoberfest event from around when I first showed up to Santa Teresa.

My friend Isabella is the social media manager for Eat Street, as well as Lost Boyz. She was doing a photo shoot for the restaurant’s new menu items and needed some “models” for the shoot. I gladly offered to help, especially when I found out there was free food involved! One of the other Lost Boyz volunteers, Paula, came with me as well.

Over the next couple hours we did some pictures holding the food, sitting at a table with it, helping film some videos for Instagram, and then after an hour of staring at the food, we finally got to eating while getting our pictures taken.

After the photo shooting was done, we all just sat, chatted, and ate the delicious food. The girls weren’t super hungry… but I was. So I ended up pretty much eating 5 full meals. I was a happy model!

I definitely ate way too much and as I walked home in the drizzling rain, I realized I probably wouldn’t be surfing this afternoon because of it. This was also confirmed when I got the hostel and the two Belgian girls that offered me a ride to Mal Pias with them were already gone.

So I took that as my sign to relax and digest. I spent the remainder of the afternoon reading in the hostel lobby and chatting with hostel guests and other volunteers.

I forget if I mentioned this, but the other day the volunteers moved rooms to a smaller one, now that there’s guests. So we’re all spending more time outside of our room which is nice!

Sunset rolled around and I decided to aide my digestion and go on a walk to the beach. The sky was cloudy and grey but I was hoping there’d still be some sort of sunset. If not, at least I’d have a nice walk on the beach and watch the surfers. When I got to the beach I saw there was definitely going to be a semi-nice sunset and found a log to sit on and enjoy.

As I sat and watched, a group of hostel guests were coming to the beach as well and saw me. They came and joined and we all chatted as the sun set below the clouds. I was glad I didn’t go surfing, the waves were messy and did not look very fun…

As night started to set in, I walked back to the hostel and immediately headed back out after I got my wallet. I needed some groceries for dinner and the rain hadn’t started yet so I took that as my opportunity to go. But when I left the store, I had to walk back in the pouring rain.

I didn’t eat dinner till around 8pm, reading more of the book, Mistborn, up until then. After dinner I played some doubles pool with the locals, hung out more with the same group of hostel guests, and then when they went out for drinks I went to bed. I had to be up early the next morning for volunteering. The Belgian girls said they might be going surfing again, so maybe I’d get the chance to join them in the following afternoon.

I woke up nice and early on Sunday, November 9th. It was time to start my morning volunteer shift… which started with some “excitement.”

As I was getting everything set up at the reception, our security guy, Junior, asked me if I knew someone named Wilbur. I said no and followed him outside the main building. There was a drunk local with a bottle of Jaegermeister who was asking him questions in Spanish. I definitely wasn’t the right person to help with this situation so I called over Anthony, another volunteer, who was luckily nearby. Anthony is fluent in Spanish and knows enough English and was able to help a little bit.

The guy apparently knew a couple people staying at the hostel and wanted to talk with them, but wouldn’t leave… Junior had to clock off too since his shift was done, which was definitely not ideal either. The guy was pretty belligerent and none of us wanted the situation to escalate, especially since there were guests sleeping nearby and some guests already up and eating breakfast, confused as to what was going on.

We finally got him to leave, but throughout the morning he kept coming and going… eventually showing up in just his underwear. We got his friends to help us deal with him, I called the hostel’s manager and he called the neighbors who also knew this guy, and eventually he stopped showing up. But definitely an interesting way to start the morning. I could’ve used my minimal Spanish to try and deal with the situation, but I thought it best to play that I knew zero Spanish and have the more fluent speakers figure it out.

With that problem aside, it ended up being a busy morning in the reception. I had to help set up the rental for a couple ATVs for a couple guests, I helped fix a “broken” AC unit in one of the studios, and chatted with a guest about her upcoming trip from here to Leon, Nicaragua by local bus. The latter was definitely going to be a challenge for her, but I told her about my experience with local busses here and in Nicaragua.

The rest of the volunteer morning was back to the usual quiet. I spent it reading and chatting with some guests.

Originally I had planned again to go surfing with the Belgian guests who had a car. But this time logistically it wasn’t going to work. They had to leave at 2pm to get to the surf school around 2:15pm and then the surf school had the surfboard rack for their car. My surfboard wouldn’t fit in their car so there was no way to get it to the surf school… so I wasn’t joining them again unfortunately.

But one of the guests, Andre, was learning how to surf and was eager to join me to the main beach. I’d actually been giving Andre pointers about how to read Surfline (the surf app I use) and answering other surfing related questions he had. We got ready and then walked over to the beach together. When we arrived, I saw some beautiful waves and a very easy paddle out to the lineup. I encouraged Andre to try and paddle out with me.

I told Andre he should try to make it out and if at any time he felt uncomfortable to just turn around and catch the white wash in. But, we actually made it out to the lineup with ease! And then, pretty soon after, a rogue big set came crashing through and Andre turned to try and catch the white wash back in. I missed this while I was duck diving waves, but I guess he took a couple wipeouts and that was enough to send him back to the white wash by the shore to practice popping up.

If he had managed to stay out, I think he would’ve actually been able to catch some of his first real waves and I would’ve helped him along the way too! But maybe in the next couple days I’ll be able to help more.

I ended up having an incredible session! The first wave I took was super fun, I got a couple turns on it, and was able to ride it for a while. There was a lull in the waves after that, but it made for nice sitting and waiting in the ocean, which I enjoy! The water was the calmest I had seen it in the afternoon.

I spent a lot of time paddling between different sections of the waves, but the hunt for waves was fruitful! I caught a bunch of waves. Some were big and closing out, some were nice rides, and some had no power at all. But I had a great time catching them! One of the best waves I went for, I caught… but a local decided to not be kind and dropped in on me. He 100% saw me going for the wave and catch it but there’s a part of surfing culture that isn’t as pleasant as the rest. I rode the wave for a couple seconds seeing if it was worth it to try to ride past him or if he’d pull out of the wave.

In the end I just let him have it. There was no reason to stir the pot further, but I wasn’t very happy about it and avoided him the rest of the session.

I chatted with a nice American in the lineup, Blake, who just finished up two years in the peace corps in Panama! He was a really nice guy and we chatted on and off throughout the entire session. This is the type of person I like to meet and experience in a surfing lineup.

The surf lineup was PACKED with people, my estimate would be around 70+, high season is upon us in Santa Teresa. A lot of big sets started to roll in and I managed to catch a couple as the sun continued to set. A thunderstorm started to roll in and I was counting how close it was getting to us with every roll of the thunder. Eventually, it got too close for comfort and I caught one more wave all the way in and called it a session!

As I was walking in, I saw Andre snapping photos from the beach. Apparently he wasn’t having a ton of luck in the white wash so he went back to the hostel and swapped out the surfboard for his camera. He didn’t get any of me surfing, but he did snap a bunch of pics of me walking over to him!

The thunderstorm was continuing to get closer and closer, and the sunset got blocked by the clouds. So we hurried on home before the rainstorm came.

I made dinner and spent the rest of the night chatting and playing games with some of the guests I’ve been hanging out with. We played some Jenga, until part of the table started playing a slapping card game… the two don’t mix well. I noticed the slapping game was very similar to a game I have with me. So I went up to my room to grab TACO CAT GOAT CHEESE PIZZA. It had been awhile since I’ve brought it out.

I explained the game to the group and we ended up playing two rounds. We had a goofy time and laughed a lot when people messed up the special cards or slapped at the wrong time. Since it was getting late and the games a bit raucous, we wrapped up the game playing and everyone went off to bed.

I had to volunteer in the morning, two more days of volunteering this week, and fell asleep pretty much as soon as my head hit the pillow.

It was another morning of volunteering on Monday, November 10th. I still had no movement on selling my surfboard and only had until Wednesday night to figure that out… but there’s still time.

I was training Anthony, one of the other volunteers, on how to do the reception work today. We didn’t have any check ins come in during the morning shift, but I showed him the process and how to open up the hostel. We had lots of check outs though! But we don’t have to do too much for that, we just make sure to get keys back from guests in private rooms.

For the morning, I read, played guitar, and chatted with guests until 3pm rolled around.

Then it was time to go surfing!

Henri and Andre, two of the guests, had rented boards and came along with me! Andre stayed in the white wash today and it was a good thing he did. The paddle out today was brutal. Henri and I slogged against it for a while until we eventually made it out to the lineup… but it took us quite some time.

When we finally did make it out, the paddling didn’t stop as set after set rolled in on us. Eventually one of the locals, specifically the one that dropped in on me yesterday paddled over to us and started catching wave after wave… the worst of it was when I was paddling out, he made eye contact with me, and still did a finishing surf move as the wave closed out directly into me! I was pretty unhappy and his board bonked me in the head. Luckily it was after he had fallen off of it and it was moving slower, but it was a pretty dangerous maneuver on his part…

Frustrating to say the least.

I immediately caught the next wave all the way in and walked further down the beach, away from this surfer.

Further down the beach I found another spot to enter the lineup. Infact this paddle out was MUCH easier than the first. I was glad to have gotten out and tried a different spot (so, thank you to the surfer I was annoyed at). By this point the surf was getting crowded, especially for the lack of surfable waves. But even in the hectic lineup, I was able to catch a nice, clean wave.

One of the locals started paddling onto it as well but when he noticed I was further in and caught it, he backed off. I was very appreciative that he didn’t drop in and disregard the surfing etiquette. The local from earlier eventually paddled into the same area as me, which I wasn’t happy about. But we didn’t have any more incidents.

The sunset during this surf was unreal and made the paddle out worth it.

I eventually called it quits as a big set rolled in and then I enjoyed the remainder of the sunset with some guests from the hostel. We walked back once the sunset was over and after I showered, I headed back out. There’s a tattoo artist next door to the hostel and I wanted to see her designs! Since I’ll be heading to the US in a couple days, and will be out of the water for a few weeks, this is the only chance I’ll have for a new tattoo if I want one (so I don’t have to take extra time off of surfing)!

I really liked the tattoo artist as a person and her designs were very cool too. I wanted something that was Costa Rica themed (I plan to get my Nicaragua one later, since I’ll be going back soon enough). She showed me some ideas, we talked about them for a bit, and then we decided that I’ll think on it some more and we’ll chat about it over the next couple days.

I was pretty confident I knew what I wanted, but I wanted to sleep on it.

I walked to the grocery store after that to pick up a few things. On my walk back, out of nowhere, all the power in Santa Teresa went out at the same time for a solid 10 seconds. The street was pitch black… it was a pretty wild experience. And then, like nothing happened, it all just came back on at the same time. No clue why!

I made myself dinner when I got back and while I was eating, Anthony had his first check-in (he worked the night shift today as well, I guess he needed to switch shifts with someone). I walked him through it all again and later, when another check-in happened, he was able to do it by himself.

After dinner, a small group of us walked to a nearby convenience store. Apparently I HAD to try the Costa Rican ice cream snack, Trits. It was about $3 and it contained a container of what was basically an ice cream cookie sandwich. It was very delicious and was worth the little outing. I then hung out in the lobby until I went to bed.

I woke up early on Tuesday, November 11th to the singing of the howler monkeys… they were obnoxiously loud the entire night, don’t they know we were trying to sleep!?

I unfortunately couldn’t get a morning surf in as I had to volunteer behind the reception desk. But today was my final day of volunteering at Lost Boyz! I spent the morning reading and playing guitar.

One of the guests extended, one check-in from Australia showed up, and two travelers came in asking about the accommodation (remember these two). Overall, an uneventful last day!

Immediately after wrapping up, I got ready for my afternoon surf. Surfline said it should be a good session, so I was optimistic. I waited for my friend Andre and then we headed for the beach. I popped by a surf shop, that I know one of the employees of, and showed him my board to see if he’d be interested. But… he said the shop could offer $200 or 300 for the board. No thank you! Glad I asked though.

When Andre and I got to the beach, the ocean was messssyyyy. It was still near low tide so the waves were steep and fast, but since the wind was cross shore, there were waves everywhere and not in a good way. So, instead of braving the mess, I decided to help Andre out and give him a little lesson.

I may not be the best surfer, but I have picked up quite a bit of surf knowledge over the past year of surfing. Andre is still in the white wash phase of surfing, learning how to pop up and balance. Slowly getting into learning to paddle into waves. I was able to give him some pushes into waves to help build the speed of the board to a point he could stand up. And then I gave him pointers on areas I thought he could try to improve on.

He later told me that one of my pieces of advice, waiting a bit longer till he felt the wave carrying him to stand up, helped a ton. Which was nice to hear!

After helping him out awhile and waiting for the tide to come further in, I decided to check the waves again from the shore. I hemmed and hawed at what I saw… I really wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth paddling out. The waves looked really choppy. But ultimately I decided to send it anyways.

The paddle out was tough, but not the worst. In the end, I was glad I paddled out. I met two very nice people in the lineup, one from Montreal and the other from Hungary. We were all struggling, paddling around, and commiserating about how bad the surf was today. Out of nowhere, big sets would roll in, sets from random spots would pop up, and just overall messy waves. I caught a wave and it felt like it had two different waves coming out of it at once… it was weird. But I still caught it!

The sunset was unreal again, which made being out in the water worth it. Eventually the sun went down and I finally caught a nice ride all the way back to shore! I’m glad I got one good wave in!

I was walking down the beach looking for people I knew when I saw the two travelers from earlier, who had come by the hostel to see if they wanted to stay there. Turns out they were both from California, one of which was from San Diego! I jokingly asked if she knew of any work and she said she actually might. I gave her my WhatsApp, so there’s a slight chance it might turn into something! It would be pretty crazy if it did!

I joined my hostel friends on the beach again… and when I showed up I had apparently JUST MISSED a turtle hatching! It happened out of nowhere directly next to where they were sitting on the beach. Very happy for them and jealous! I hadn’t realized the beach had turtle hatchings…. Maybe the turtle from the other day was laying eggs?

We watched the sunset till it got dark and we were getting bitten by too many mosquitoes, so we headed back to the hostel.

I made myself dinner and chatted with a new hostel guest. Jamie, from England, an older traveler who’s just in Costa Rica for two weeks before going back to work. Apparently tonight was also taco Tuesday… so I decided to join Savannah (one of the other volunteers) and her friend Jacob to Taco Corner for a second dinner.

It was a 20 minute walk back to the hostel, so we pit stopped at a grocery store for Trits! I enjoyed it so much I wanted some more. This time I tried the orange and pineapple flavored version and it was equally (if not more) delicious as the original.

We got back to the hostel and I immediately got ready for bed as I had full intentions on waking up at 5:30am for my final morning surf in Santa Teresa.

My friend Mateo had alluded today that a friend of his wanted to buy the board… so we’ll see if that pans out or not! I also found out that the electricity in town would be out from 9am to 3pm tomorrow… so there goes my plans for a job interview! Hopefully I can reschedule…

I woke up very early on Wednesday, November 12th. Today was my final day in Santa Teresa, and what better way to start that final day than with a morning surf.

I got up at 5:30am and met Henri in the lobby. We headed out after waxing down our surfboards and made our way to the beach as the sun was starting to rise. I wish I had a picture, but the sky was a beautiful orange, with the sun reflecting off the clouds. I also wish I had a picture when we arrived at the beach. There was a rainbow over the ocean!

I took this as a good omen for a fun final day of surfing… but I was a little mistaken. The paddle out was okay, not too bad, but the waves were either very steep and fast or too flat and slow. No in between. We started in the same spot but throughout the session we got separated as we hunted for waves that we could catch. Thankfully, since it was early in the morning, the time between sets and waves was fairly long, which made paddling around fairly easy.

Every now and then a big set of waves would come out of nowhere. One of them dunked me all the way to the ocean floor, causing a significant amount of pressure on my ears from the sudden change in depth. But I quickly made my way back to the surface and was a-okay. It took me a while, but I finally caught one good wave! All I needed. I attempted a few more rides and paddle outs but that was the only wave I got of the morning. Henri, unfortunately, didn’t catch one. It was a tough morning surf session.

After about an hour and a half, we both happened to be getting out of the water at the same time. We walked back to the hostel together where I showered, made breakfast, and then went for an hour nap. When I woke up, the power was still on in the hostel, but I also had an email saying that my job interview was moved to Friday. So I could’ve done it but better safe than sorry!

I walked to the nearby barbershop… it was time for a very long overdue haircut. I think it had been since Guatemala! But it was still closed. So I went back to the hostel and read in the tree house for a bit. I’m really enjoying Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It’s a very good book (I might be a bit biased though as I’ve enjoyed almost all of his books). I went back to the barber an hour later and he was open this time!

Josie, the barber, took good care of me. After explaining what I wanted in English, the whole rest of the haircut was in Spanish. We had all the classic barber/client chit chat and I got a good amount of Spanish practice in from it. I struggled here and there and had to pull out google translate for the words I didn’t know. But for the most part, I held my own! After over an hour of trimming, cutting, and shaving… I was a more groomed man!

I went on a walk to the grocery store after this. I needed just a couple more things for lunch and dinner today and then I’d be done with the Santa Teresa grocery store. I made myself a big lunch after this and then spent a bit packing my bags afterwards. I had an early morning following today and a little bit of packing left to do that I wanted to get out of the way.

I read some more in the tree house until it got closer to sunset. Before I went to watch the sunset, I saw a small group of guests playing Liars Dice, a very fun dice game! I joined them for a round before heading out to catch the sunset.

I decided not to surf tonight. Mainly because I wanted to just enjoy the view, but I also had a feeling the waves would be big and steep again based on the wind, tide, and swell. It turned out to be the correct decision and I happily enjoyed watching other surfers catch some crazy waves, while sitting dry on the beach with friends.

The mosquitos came out again after the sun set, so I made myself way back to the hostel. I had an important appointment at 6pm I needed to get back for. It was time for my Costa Rica tattoo!

I made my way over to Dog House Tattoos and we quickly got to it. I decided a couple nights before that I was going to get a humming bird. Carol, the tattoo artist, specialized in designing them. But outside of that, I’ve seen many beautiful hummingbirds while here in Costa Rica, which is known as the “Hummingbird capital of the world.” (Hummingbird in Spanish is colibrí)

Also, on top of that, my Zeida (my grandpa) loved birds and watching the hummingbirds, which is something we’d do together when I’d visit him. A nice memory to think about every time I look at the tattoo. I’m not sure how he would’ve felt about my tattoos, but that’s okay.

For $100, the tattoo definitely ranks well against the other tattoos I’ve gotten while traveling. Also, I think it turned out really really well and it fits nicely with my other travel tattoos!

I finished out my last night having one final home cooked meal of gallo pinto. Then I finished up my blogpost, chatted with some friends and called it an early night since I had a bus at 6:45am to catch!

Overall, I had a very nice time in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. Was the laboring amazing? No… but it wasn’t the worst thing ever either. Once the hostel started to get guests, my opinion of the place definitely became more positive. I was very happy to be surfing every day, on a very nice board. And I’ll have a friend sell it for me, so I won’t have to worry about that for now. I am glad to be heading out before high season gets into full swing, I can tell this town becomes very crowded.

Santa Teresa can be added to the ever growing list of tropical oases I’ve ended up in, made friends at, and gotten to enjoy over the past almost two years. I’m sure I’ll be stopping back through this town at some point, but it will be a while if I had a guess.

By the next blog post, I’ll be back stateside! Thank you all for continuing to follow along on my adventures, there’s still plenty more to come.

See you next week!

– Elie