New photos are up from today’s adventure. You might notice the new Tweet This plugin I added also. It adds buttons for Tweeting, Digging, or Stumbling (and some others I didn’t include) at the footer of each post. If you don’t know what these are just ask me. Very useful for social media/networking people out there. So yesterday was a super boring day where nothing interesting happened so we’ll just skip right to today. Oh some dude in the development next to ours had a stroke a few days ago but that’s another story. Pretty sure he’s ok now though.
Having a tail to hang from would be cool
I woke up at a reasonable hour (10:15am) and began to prepare for my little bike ride. I had my water all set, my towel, sunblock on and packed, money and keys all ready. Around 11 I decided it was time to head for Playa Hermosa. Little did I realize that Hermosa was about 15km from Ocotal. Oops. I didn’t realize there was such a huge elevation increase. Not easy on a 1 speed beach-comber bike. a There were multiple times I thought about turning around and just heading home. Thankfully the competitive part of my brain told the reasoning part to shut up and stop being a wuss. So after 1 hour and 15 minutes of biking/walking with my bike, I made it to Playa Hermosa. Wow, what a waste of time and energy. The beach was nicer than Coco but not as nice as Ocotal. I plopped down in the sand and just rested for about an hour.
So after my hour of resting with a bittersweet taste of accomplishment in my mouth I decided I would stop for some food on my way back. I wanted to relax to break up my trip so 15 minutes into the ride I stopped at Nano’s pizza. Since I was the only one in his shop I sparked up a conversation and we spoke in spanglish for about an hour. Talking about soccer, the economy, Costa Rica, and all sorts of stuff. The conversation was definitely worth the bike ride. It’s rare that I can speak that much spanish with someone around my age and not feel judged. As soon as I told him I used to play pro soccer it was an instant connection. He grew up in the Saprissa youth academy and loved the game. It’s funny how something that simple can bring people together. And he didn’t like Beckham. Weird.
How They Sell Soda...3 liters...Awesome
Anyways another 30 minutes after lunch I see people driving past and pointing up ahead. I can’t really see what they see yet but I figured oh it’s a bird, a plane, Superman, whatever. IT WAS MONKEYS!!!! Yes this was the second time I’ve seen monkeys in wild but the first time they were just sleeping. This time they were swinging all over and I saw a baby trying to jump from tree to tree and nearly falling out. It was hilarious. I must have watched for a good 10 minutes. If they didn’t fling their feces everywhere they would be cool pets.
Eventually I made it home safely and have done nothing but relax and watch movie with spanish subtitles. I am currently watching Spiderman 2 with subs and it’s a great way to learn. A word of advice. When you think something is close by bike, double check on google maps.
Blogging about my experiences working from wherever I can find an Internet connection.