Costa Rica - June 7th thru 10th

Confirmed – A/C has been quite wonderful the past four (4) nights. Costa Rica is far more advanced than Nicaragua was. On our way to our hotel from the Nicaragua border we saw Burger Kings, Subways, and HardRock Cafes.  And their houses are a bit more advanced than metal huts. Lastly, the local foods – ceviche and casado – has been better than the local Nicaraguan food.

One of several mansions found tucked in the hills of Playa Ocotal

Wednesday started our scuba dive certification training at Rocket Frog Divers in Playa Ocotal. Nothing quite like starting out by watching videos and going through a 200+ page, five (5) chapter book complete with quizzes to remind you of your college years. As if that wasn’t enough there was a written final exam as well. There is way more information and technique involved with scuba diving than we had imagined. Anyways, our hotel and the scuba center are about three (3) miles from the “downtown” Playa del Coco area where the majority of restaurants are so it’s a bit difficult to get to being car-less.  Luckily, on our first day of training, we hitched a ride into town with one of our instructors for lunch.  There are quite a bit of American and Canadian tourists here and the town is much more commercialized with a host of fishing boats and few people in the water, but the black-sand beaches closer to our area are way better in my opinion.  The second day of training we performed a bunch of scuba diving skills in the pool and got used to breathing under water – trickier than it seems.

The third and a little of the fourth days had us practicing our pool techniques in the ocean environment. Our instructor actually took us around the reef during the last part of the third day. We were able to see a few sting rays, eels, and a ton of fish at that location! Jenna is convinced she actually “found Nemo and Dory and the pelican” as well, but that’s yet to be confirmed. Also wish I would’ve had my GoPro on that day to get some good video of the rays, but I’ll get that another time hopefully.  That night we caught a part of the NBA finals game at the local Packer bar (owned by two Wisconsinites who got drunk and bought a bar on their Costa Rica trip).

Looking back at Playa Ocotal on the 1st ocean dive day 

 Heading to our dive spot on the 1st ocean dive day

After a few more quick technique drills on the fourth day we spent the rest of the time exploring the dive areas behind our instructor’s lead. This time we saw three (3) oceanic whitetip sharks – I won’t lie…I was pretty hesitant diving around them (within 15 to 20 feet) – but they seemed disinterested with us as they mostly sat on the bottom while we glided past. We also saw some fat ole eels, more sting rays, a lot more fish, added in some seahorses, but missed out on the octopus that another guy diving with us found under some rocks. I couldn’t help but think of Steve Irwin (RIP mate) when I got probably a little too close to one of the sting rays. All-in-all, a pretty awesome first two (2) days of scuba diving. Oh, and we had to sneak in an Illinois flag picture under the sea for Costa Rica. We’ll be trying to take at least one (1) picture with the flag in each country we get to so be on the lookout for those!

Looking back at the Riu Guanacaste on the 2nd ocean dive

 View to the North from Playa Ocotal

One of the oceanic whitetip sharks

Underwater I-L-L (Yes, I know it's backwards) 

One of the more ironic things of the trip so far has been finding out that Ironman 70.3 Costa Rica is taking place next weekend in the nearby town of Playa del Coco which we have to go through to leave Playa Ocotal. This will be the first year of Ironman Costa Rica and the course seems pretty interesting as there is really only one way into and out of Playa del Coco. Imagining swimming, biking, and running through mid-to-high 80’s, 80%+ humidity, and the hills here makes me sick so kudos to all those taking that on next weekend. I hope you don’t get caught in the 20-minute mini-hurricanes that seem to hit this area daily.

On to South America from here!