Paradise Found!

Yep, it's true... I found paradise.

I've found it many times before, and am always thrilled and blessed when I do. And today I found it on a point of rock overlooking the Carribbean Sea. It's called Miss May point and its near the town of Manzanilla in the very far southeast of Costa Rica. It juts out from the rainforest, and looms over the massive waves that come crashing in below. The palm lined coast goes for miles and miles in each direction, and the mountains loom green in the distance.

And the waves crash. Loud. And HUGE. And shoot spray 30 feet or more up in the air. Every single wave. It's like I took a shower in the sea.

Naturally I stood near the edge to take pictures and feel the blast of the surf. The waves would curl in and depending on how they hit the cliff would either shoot a little, say, 15 feet up in the air. Or a lot... one of them rocketed a wall of water onto me that was probably 40 feet high. It was awesome! The caribbean blue stretched to the horizon, as this was the first sunny day of the trip. And on top of that, it wasn't that hot. It was a perfect temperature, with a perfect breeze, and a perfect partly cloudly sky, with perfect rainstorms on the horizon, and perfect waves and a perfect place at a perfect late afternoon time.

Perfecto.

I got there by renting a bike for $5 in Porta Viejo and riding 15 km down the jungle lined coast. There are a lot of palm lined beaches. And a lot, I mean a LOT of tourist lodges and cabinas. Now most, if not all, blend in pretty well, and are also empty. I'm here in the low, low season for the southern Carib coast, but there are a few more folks than normal since the pacific and central regions are still rainy and flooding. I rode alone the paved street, and also took a detour into the dirt roads that led to the nature conservatory. Muddy trails on a 1 gear bike with a basket. Sweet.

The point is beyond the town of Manzanilla. On a trail that leads for 2 hours till you reach another town that has no roads. The good old Lonely Planet says that it's like what the Caribbean coast looked like before the tourists came. And if that's true... no wonder they did. The trail in the jungle, withing 20 feet of a beach and waves and coconuts washing ashore is amazing. And then of course there is paradise.

A few days ago, I left Tortugero in the north, and took a 3 hour water taxi through national forest, along a canel parallel to the caribbean, surrounded by thick walls of jungle green. The boat sat about 10 people and was fast. Damn fast. It was great to slide along. Hear the howler monkeys (which is a surreal sound and not the shrieking monkey noises you might imagine. They are more like a creepy grunt of an orc in the Mines of Moria... yep, I just did an Lord Of The Rings reference.) The boat ride was wonderful. Again, a perfect temperature and breeze. Occasionally our driver would slam on the brakes and show us an alligator or sloth or racoon that he somehow saw while we raced past at 20kph.

Then we ran out of gas... and he had to row us to a little town where the street was flooded and we boated into town and up to the gas pump. The lady brought us the pumper, knee deep in water, and we filled up and were on our way. There was a tourist bus parked in water half up it's wheels that was collecting folks from another boat. It was pretty surreal.

I stayed a night in Cahuita. Its a pretty mellow town with a black sand beach that I found after trapsing across the rocky headlands and through woods. I could have just taken the road, but this seemed like a more exciting way to get there. It rained a lot at night, but then again, it pretty much always does. :) The next day I hiked approx 11 km round trip through the national park. Along the coast, palm trees, river crossings, monkeys walking right next to the trail, (and also pissing on the trail from above. Missed that shower by about 10 feet!). Saw these awesome neon blue butterflies, and an Eyelash Viper: a snake thats about 10 inches long, and if it bites you you'll be dead in 15 minutes. So naturally I grabbed it and played with it like a pet... kidding.
The point was beautiful, the beaches serene. It's all pretty magnificent.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to raft the Rio Pacuare... the premiere river in central america. I'm looking forward to it, though my butt hurts from my big old bike ride today... and sitting on these wood chairs. Every chair is wood here it seems like. Who needs cushions!

Pura Vida baby, Pura Vida.
Rock on
Craigo

GREAT OCEAN ROOO-OOOO-OOAD!!!!

This one is going to be super fast, cause as things are going here in Australia, it's a whirlwind (including the wild wind blowing outside today which will be kicking up those fires again, and people here are very concerned. They don't want a repeat of Black Saturday from last month).

The Great Ocean Road is AWESOME!!!!!!!

We sang the song "Holiday Road" from VACATION, but sang it with "Great Ocean Rooo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oad!" It was the theme song.

It was great (ha ha) to get out of Melbourne and hit the road. We sang songs, walked in the ocean, saw cliffs and sites and apostles. Had great food, tons of laughs and a really really good time. Visually it's similar to the PCH in California, but that's only the first part. Then the cliffs tower up and things change up a lot. I kept thinking of the song Cliff's Of Dover from Guitar hero.

This was a wild, 2 day road trip. We piled into a toyota Corolla (quite literally the only car available for rent in Melbourne thanks to the wild and crazy QUILT FESTIVAL!!!!) It was a little small, but we made it work and headed out (drivnig on the left of course). We sang songs a lot, everything from Nine Inch Nails ("Down in it, now I'm down in it") to Hadaway ("What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more"). We had to sing cause there wasn't a lot of radio action out there.

Some of the highlights include walking down 366 steps to the beach, the cliffs towering above as the waves crash on rocks. And we walk up to an anchor from a shipwreck from 1890. There was another from 1871. This is called the shipwreck coast, with over 55 shipwrecks in 150 years. Some huge, some small, all dramatic. The coastline is beautiful, but feeling the wind blow in and the waves roar against the rocks hides an awesome power for which we are helpless against.

At night we drove out of the hamlet of Apollo bay (think a very very small santa barbara) and looked up at the stars. We danced in the road to our own songs (again, no music, at this point my ipod speakers had died), we tried to take pictures of the stars, but as is it doesn't capture how AWESOME they are. It was millions and millions, the milky way was bright, the southern cross up above. And they were bright bright bright. I've seen more in my life (I think), but it's been a long time since i've seen them so bright! Wow! We couldn't help it. "We didn't start the fire!"

We saw the world famous Twelve APostles rocks and climbed down on the beach near them. The waves were AWESOME, and we took some really cool pics as the sun got lower.

We ate some really good food in Apollo bay. Pricey, but everyone's meal was a tasty treat and actually filling! (a plus for me:)

The place was great, but the energy and chemistry we all had made it all the more wonderful. The amount of times we laughed and joked with each other, sometimes picking on each other in the fun way friends can. It was a wonderful, hilarious, song filled good time, that ended with a VERY long drive back in the dark reminicing about Jr. High and High School days with Tom. (Six flags, Car spin outs, old girlfriends and crushes and more). It was the kind of road trip I haven't had in a long time, and am glad it's still out there. Olga said it felt like we were in high school driving in the dark, talknig about silly stuff. And it did. And the great thing is it can, you don't have to stop having fun times with friends just because you have rent or a morgage or a job or "responsibilities". Those things are not exclusive of fun, excitement, wonder, and dancing in the streets.

Speaking of dancing, all the pedestrian crossing signs here look like Michael Jackson's legs from the Thriller days. Black pants, black shoes and white socks. We always get excited knowing that MJ was here, crusing the country, enjoying things. :)

Gotta go, flight to catch. The rest of the crew is gone. They headed out today after a bit of fiasco with airports being closed in the middle of the night and such, but now it's just me. The great TEAM NAILS AUSTRALIA trip is coming to an end. I'm the last one, heading to Tasmania in 2 hours.

The wind is blowing.

It's time to Ramble On...

Craigo