Costa Rica, Pura Vida! | Day 6
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Our final activity of the trip was a sea kayaking tour, which is one that Franklin offers directly with VIP Concierge Jacó. We were led by a Rastafarian-looking man named Walter, who had leather skin, dreadlocks, and a tribal facial structure. They took us to a private beach where the water was crystal clear. We had only paddled a few yards when a school of fish leapt into the air in between Walter and my kayaks! It was a thrilling surprise!
We kayaked around a little peninsula of dry mounds that Walter said would be bright green in the rainy season. (Costa Rica only has two seasons: dry and rainy, always hot.) After so much time in the jungle, it felt good to be on the open ocean. We didn’t paddle super far, but came around to a spot called Blanco beach, where the sand was white and soft. There, we stopped to swim and see some fish hidden among the rocks. I saw a few bright blue ones that reminded me of the blue morpho butterflies, a brilliant shade that seemed impossible.
While on shore, it came up in conversation that I do acroyoga, and it turns out that Walter does as well. So we did a few poses on the beach. I never thought I would get to continue my weekly hobbies while traveling in a foreign country! It gives me more hope for future trips and the nomadic life I’m about to embark on by not re-signing my lease in Round Rock.
Unfortunately, our time was short and we needed to return to meet with the driver who would be picking us up. I would have liked to stay on that beach longer. When we returned, Naomi told me that fresh fruit is included in the tour, so we stopped at the fruit market near the hotel, where we got mango and guanabana—a white fruit with a spiky green exterior that looked to me like watermelon.
I wanted to try the coconut water, which came in little plastic cups in a refrigerator. Naomi talked to a guy that worked there, and I tried to follow along their conversation with the little Spanish I know. To my delight, she was asking if we could drink coconut water straight from a coconut! The guy took us to a little shed in the back where he showed us the difference between a peppa, which is the fresh coconut with the fruit still on it, and the dried coconut I’m familiar with. He hacked both open to show us inside, and explained how coconut milk is made with the white interior in a blender.
We were able to buy both and brought them back to the hotel patio to enjoy and compare the different flavors. The pepa, which is what they typically use when they sell coconut water, was sweeter and had a tang that tasted like carbonated water. The coconut water was more bland and a tiny bit chalky. I asked the hotel for cups of ice so we could try them cold, and after that I preferred the coconut over the peppa. I wasn’t a huge fan of the taste of either, but it was refreshing and such a memorable experience to be able to drink it directly from the fruit—no additives!
The fruits were so good, and I fell in love with guanabana! It was extremely difficult to eat, and almost looked like fish. It was gooey, slippery, and stringy and hard to bite down, especially when trying to remove the big black watermelon-like seeds inside. We decided that it’s probably better in a smoothie than by itself, for that reason. Nonetheless, I loved it. Me encanta!
After that, Naomi had to work and I had to pack, and spent a good deal of time just resting at the hotel. I got lunch from the hotel restaurant, and enjoyed a pizza by the pool. I took a nice cool shower, changed, and went through more pictures. Before I knew it, it was late in the afternoon. Finished with packing, I borrowed Naomi’s bike again for some last-minute souvenir shopping. I found some really cool things at Dolores shop, and revisited Tikopod and Fruity Monkey Poop, where I saw the same woman I’d met on my first day here. We talked a while and I bought way too many things for myself and for my family. I just love the style of everything here!
It was getting dark when returned, which made me a little sad. I wouldn’t get to see that amazing view from the hotel again, since I would be leaving before sunrise in the morning. The night was not over yet, though. Naomi and I went out to eat one last time, walking through Jacó Walk, which looked so lovely all lit up at night. The restaurant we went to was called Marea Alta, and had a massive hanging sculpture of a scarlet macaw outside of it. For one last taste of traditional Costa Rican cuisine, we got gallo salchichón—a sausage wrapped in a tortilla—and tamales, which were extremely different from Mexican tamales, wrapped in banana leaf instead of corn husks. To be honest, I preferred the Mexican kind; but I’m glad I tried it!
On the way back, we stopped for ice cream, because Naomi wanted me to try one flavored with cas, a kind of fruit I had yet to try. It was a little citrusy, and so delicious! I also added guanabana, which was amazing as gelato. We sat and talked for a good long while about love languages, cultural differences, fashion, and some heavier topics of modesty and prostitution. It was great just to sit and talk with Naomi as a friend, not just a client or tour guide. She is so incredibly sweet, patient, professional, and a little ADD, which I think is adorable.
It was sad to go back to the hotel, knowing I would not have tomorrow to try more foods and go on more adventures; but I did not feel the heavy weight of endings—because I know I will be back. Franklin and Naomi came up to my room to say goodbye, and Franklin was so gracious and expressed that when they manage to have a house, like they are planning, that the extra room will be open for me to stay in, even for as long as a month if I want to, and he wants me to try surfing, and take me on more tours that I didn’t get to experience due to the short amount of time I was here. It filled my heart with such joy, to know this doesn’t have to be a forever goodbye. I can’t wait to continue my collaboration with them, and to watch them grow as they develop VIP Concierge Jacó, and as Naomi opens her school and makes her travel blog. There is so much to look forward to. Pura Vida!
