9th January – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

We had a trade off decision to make – sunset cruise with the chance of not seeing a sunset or a morning cruise with snorkeling. We chose the latter and we were so glad we did. We arrived and there were lots of people waiting for the boat. Lucky we had a group of nine, so we avoided the masses on a smaller catamaran, the Spanish Dancer.
We cruised out towards Manuel Antonio park. We had a choice of searching for dolphins or going for a swim. Feeling the water, the choice of swimming was unaminous. We cruised around the islands in the park and made it close to shore. We had a quick swim. Now when I say quick, I had barely jumped into the water and Tan hadn’t even taken her shorts off and the captain was “Get back in, the other boat has found the dolphins!” Spewing as the water was beautiful, almost silky to swim in. The catamaran powered towards the other boats and here striped dolphins were playing in a dispersed pod. We cruised around for 10 minutes or so and we were off. We thought the captain was on speed or something as everything was rushed.
Lying back on the netting on the deck as we traveled to the snorkeling spot was really relaxing.
On arrival to the snorkeling spot, a small rocky outcrop 100m from the shore, I had had my bombie contest with Erick the tour leader. His effort was pretty poor, as mine produced quite a splash.
Snorkelling around the rock was really good, not Belize good, but still good enough. We took a pack of corn crackers each which we crushed up and opened. The fish, yellow and silver ones went crazy in a feeding frenzy only centimentres from our eyes. There was one fish, a drummer, who was a little bigger which also joined the party.

On the other side of the rock where it was a bit deeper, some larger fish were hanging out especially under some of the ledges. With a deep dive I scared them out and started chasing them. Here I deep dived and emptied the contents of my cracker pack to watch different fish species feed away.

We had white marlin on skewers for lunch on the boat. The captain set sail and we cruised on the open water sipping beers. I stayed away from the rum punch after my Belize experience.

The Pacific side has a more regular swell than the Carribean and this means there are waves and some great beach breaks so we decided to learn how to surf. Our guide, Jonathon, picked us up in a busted mini van and drove us to our exclusive surf spot. We drove to the town of Manuel Antonio, and drove past the public beach. Our exclusive surf spot was the public beach jam packed with tourists. At this stage Tan and the other girls were thinking great, we have an audience.

Paul didn’t want to surf but instead come as our team photographer. First up we were given our team surf shirts, white rash vests. We all looked the part especially when we were told we had to do warm ups first. These exercises involved running up and down the beach, Baywatch style, followed by some stretching. To learn to surf you need to know how to stand up so we all lay stomach flat in the sand followed by a snap to standing position. After we had all mastered the four steps to getting up we were kitted out with our boards and ready to hit the waves. Tan was laughing with her 10’ long board that she could barely lift. Just to set the scene, I’ve skated for 19 years now, spent a few years on a boogie board and have surfed once at Tidal River, Victoria, Australia on 30cm waves. I got out there and bang.. I rode the first wave of the day standing up all the way until the fins hit the sand. This surfing caper is easy! Now, for everyone else it wasn’t as easy.
After much frustration of getting out the back and being pounded by waves, Tan finally rode a wave in poorly, well, sort of her knees / stomach. With much perseverance Tan eventually got up and caught a wave in. I was pleased that she gave it a shot and succeeded. Everyone gave up and I continued to catch waves like a pro and Tan kept on trying.
After a small break we grabbed the boogie boards and had a bit of fun in the surf too.
Everyone was finished but Tan and I still got out there later that afternoon to catch more. It was lots of fun. Tan was battered and bruised with all the hits she took from the board and sand. We were both tired and a bit sore too.

We all caught the van back and had to pay. The office was in a state of construction (apparently) but it looked more like a derelict building. Not something you would expect from a professional outfit.

Back at Mono Azul, the trees were alive with monkeys and the sunset was a ripper. Too bad as we went on the day cruise instead! I found out if you shake the base of the trees with monkeys in them they become very vocal and pee everywhere.