Due to the road block in the night we had some catching up to do in order to make the Nicoya Pennisula that morning. We were out of the door and on the road by 7am and dad was tonking along. We hoped to get back to San Jose, collect the bike, get some breakfast and head to Puntarenas to catch the 11am ferry to Paqueres... Easy! Unless you're a total idiot and leave your fanny pack under the pillow in the hotel!!
We had driven for 45mins and as we pulled up to a toll for the main road I started lookng for some cash and realised that all my money, passport and bank cards were sitting under the pillow in our hotel in Jaco. I had done 'a Burnham', a classic manoeuvre whereby you endanger your whole trip by faffing so much your brain losses track of what was faffed with or not! A technique I developed back in South America ten years before. What a Douche!
Back to Jaco we go where all my stuff was waiting where I'd left it! We'd lost an hour and a half and concluded we weren't going to make the 11am ferry... the next one was at 2pm so we figured we had loads of time & got some breakfast. Back on the road we pushed on and within 1hr 30mins we were approaching San Jose. Sat Nav was set to the airport from where we could easily find our way back to the hotel.......
We missed our first exit off the main road, no worries up to the next one, do a u turn and try again... made it, then missed the next one and then another and despite having sat nav we were doing a lot of unnecessary miles. I was getting more and more angry with myself, first the stupidity of the morning now this, I was totally messing up our day... Eventually we had weaved our way through all these different junctions and found our first official airport sign, Yes!... But then, just as the runway came into view, dad let out a huge burst of laughter. I had directed us to the wrong airport! I had done another 'Burnham'... two in one day, we must have wasted another hour and a half trying to find the wrong airport.... Arghhhhhh. Double Douche!
Finally back at Hotel Mango it was 12pm. It was 1hr 30mins drive to Puntarenas to catch the 2pm ferry... if we missed this one there was not another till 6pm and we would have had a nightmare getting to where we wanted to stay the night in Mal Pais. As is customary when in a rush, leaving was not easy and it took 25mins of negotiating with the spanish speaking staff before we were allowed to leave. I had used the hotels phone last time we were there to call my bank about card troubles and the bill had apparently come to $40! I was not allowed to leave until the bill was paid.
Finally on the road the sat nav said we would arrive in Puntarenas at 14:02 just in time to watch the ferry leaving town! In addittion my fuel was low and I would definitely need to stop before getting to the ferry. I led us out of town as fast as the traffic would allow with dad following closely behind, both a little anxious that if we got split up we would struggle to contact each other. After about 45mins the bike started to splutter and I was out of gas... we pulled up on the hard shoulder and I frantically undid the straps holding my spare fuel can to the side of the bike and chucked my emergency gallon into the tank. Sat Nav was now showing our arrival as 14:08pm and I would still need fuel... 15mins later we took a junction off the main road and refuelled, in my head I was sure we would miss the ferry and I had ruined our last day together in Mal Pais, despite this I rode flat out and we pulled up at the ferry terminal at 14:04pm and with a huge smack of relief we found a friendly worker who got us on the boat with minutes to spare! What a ridiculous morning!
At 4pm we pulled out of the ferry terminal is Paqueres and ambled through the windy little roads to Mal Pais... after an hour or so the roads changed from asphalt to dirt and the last half hour was slow going as we dodged holes, road creeks and big lumps of rock. We arrived at the beach front at 5:15pm, the sky was turning colourful and the waves were pumping!
Dad was keen to have a little comfort for his last couple of nights and very kindly treated me to a stay in the Blue Jay Lodge, which was just a few km's West of Mal Pais and back 200m from the beach. It was a real nice place and still not massively expensive. We had a cabin 50m up the hill which had a sweet little balcony with a pair of hammocks that overlooked the turquoise ocean in the distance. Nice!
After signing in we legged it to the beach and whilst dad tried to lock us out of someone elses car I jumped in the water for the last half hour of light. It was getting on double over head but crumbly and playful with some really long rights and lefts to be had. Straight off the bat I picked up two nice looking, chunky rights but on each wave, after a big drop and bottom turn I got thrown off as the white water came down the face. After that I couldn't catch a wave to save my life and with the light all but gone I rolled back onto the beach, the last one out the water and with a slightly concerned father!
That night we ate at an Argentine restaurant on the main (only) road which was fantastic, great food and some really funny banter with the Argentine waiters... after a few cheeky comments he asked where we were from and I said Germany... he almost kicked us out, too soon me thinks! (Worldcup)
Anyways the next day was beautiful, we woke to blue skies and jungle noises and had a pleasant breakfast before walking down to the beach. The tide was low and the Mal Pais beaches are just exposed rock at low so I saddled up and rode NW to check nearby beaches... after about 15mins I found a stunning beach with a heavy & hollow right reeling off a rocky outcrop. I parked the bike in the sand, jumped in the rip and got sucked out to the break in no time. It was busy, 10 or 20 good surfers were hustling for two peaks that jacked up quickly and were easily a head and a half on the faces (If I were stood on my board at the bottom of the wave the top would have been one and a half times as tall as me). Not as big as the previous night but more powerful and more technical... I managed to pick off 10 or so decent waves and had some pretty heavy, sandy hold downs before the wind swung onshore and killed it.
Dad had been walking in the morning and we had arranged to meet for lunch. There was a really nice bakery in town (the same road!) which hit the spot just right. After all the shenanigans of the last few days we just wanted to relax and spent the afternoon by the pool before dad went for a guided nature walk by the hotel staff David and I went for a sunset surf. I had a terrible time and kooked everything up which was probably karma for not spending the last afternoon with dad. Dad had a fantastic time and saw a troop of White Face monkeys rumble into Howler town and have a monkey stand off!
For our final meal we decided to be adventurous and go back to the Argentine restaurant for some more meat and wine. We shared a huge Parradilla, (mixed grill) which was delicious. Those fellas were good guys and they knew how to cook meat. In the front corner of the restaurant was a huge 5ft x 8ft fire with a grill over the top where all the meat was cooked, it must be insanely hot work but it made the whole restaurant smell of beatiful wood smoked meat. We had another great night and finished the trip in great style.
Dad would be leaving in the morning for the airport and it was going to be difficult to say goodbye and readjust to travelling solo and on a budget. We had a brilliant time together and it was a huge privilege to be able to share some of the most incredible experiences of my life with my old padre, it would be very sad to see him go. I was extremely impressed at his attitude, he was up for everything (except water sports!) and had the stamina to keep trekking through some testing jungle missions. Many thanks for coming out to play and thanks for putting me up in some halfway reasonable accomodations and eateries, it was awesome!
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