A Better Day

January 17, 2003

It started with a second opinion about our truck and ended with an evening with an old house mate from the Bubble house. In the middle was quite a nice surprise. While walking the cliffs overlooking the glassy, peeling surf, we walked by a fellow who was more than enthusiastic about the day and the surf he had just had. I mentioned how I wished I had my board so that I could go surfing, and he said, "take mine." I said, "Really? OK." and he said, "yeah, take my wetsuit too. I've only worn it twice." The hero of the day is Danny, who without knowing me for more than 5 seconds, had let me enter into the most private of places (his wetsuit, size men's Large) and take hundreds of yards away from him what would be my most prized possession. It made my day--my week. The surf was fun, head-high, and suddenly my truck "issues" vanished from consciousness. Nothing mattered but slogging around in a giant wetsuit on a board I had never seen before, and IT WAS GREAT! I caught some, came in, ran back up the cliff, and Danny told Ingrid it was her turn. She too had a blast in the water, and we both feel much, much better now. Thanks Danny. Later in the evening, a Stefan and his girlfriend Shantanee stopped by to chat, have a beer, and fulfill an already remarkably fantastically inexorably dia mejor.

Stefan and Shantee Jan 17, 2003

Scooby Piñata for sale on Ebay by Jen January 17, 2003

Where are we now? What are we doing? We run a Surf Camp in Costa Rica. Pavones, Costa Rica that is... home of the longest left hand warm water pointbreak in the universe

The Plot Thickens

January 16, 2003

So we thought it couldn't get any worse. It did. We took the truck to a transmission guy, who wouldn't touch it until we had the engine fixed. We took it to the engine guy, and he says, " Sell it. Don't drive it." Basically we need to buy a new truck, a new motor, maybe both. It can't really get worse, can it?

Post Traumatic Stress Meltdown

Where are we now? What are we doing? We run a Surf Camp in Costa Rica. And we're glad we don't have problems like that anymore :P

Ready?

January 15, 2003

We got our bags, finally, and of course the only bag that was torn was the board bag. :(  Luckily the boards themselves were free from harm.  Today the sun was out, the winds light, but the truck misbehaving. We spent 2 hours in the DMV today and are yet unsuccessful in acquiring the title to our truck. It seems that the person who we bought it from as well as the used car lot she bought it from no longer exist. We need signatures from both these people for the duplicate title. Catch-22, or something more bizarre?  The truck has decided that it does not like gas from the front gas tank, so were having that looked at tomorrow, as the transmission people won't touch it until the engine runs well. Aside from that, everything is great!

Jen and Leilani

Where are we now? What are we doing? We run a Surf Camp in Costa Rica.

Dinner Por Favor!

Hawaii to San Diego Airport - HNL to SAN

So far, we have been searched, metal detected, delayed, fogged in, and have not yet received our baggage. The weather is beautiful, sunny, 65 degrees in the shade, and about 80 in the sun.  Since the bags have my camera dock, you don't get any pictures yet, but rest assured, you will be inundated with them shortly. The journey has begun.

San Diego Airport. Jan 14, 2003

Where are we now? What are we doing? Right here: Surf Camp in Costa Rica.

How it all began...

In January of 2003, Ingrid and I quit our jobs, sold our cars and all our stuff, flew to California, bought a truck and a callen camper, tricked out the camper shell with new walls, a bed, cabinets, fans, lights, a fridge, and drove south. 

We created a diary of our exploits and adventures covering a year and a half road trip through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.  We finally ended up in Pavones, where we set up and still run Venus Surf Adventures, a surf camp in Costa Rica far from the trappings of modern life (well, most of them anyway), in a bucolic, remote, jungle beach town. 

We love it here, and this blog is the story of how we got here.

Yep, Pavones Perfection.

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