Our story began with a long red eye drive from St. Pete to Miami to catch our Grupo Taca flight for San Jose. In retro we should have paid the extra money and flown from Tampa. After a surf trip the last thing you want to do is drive another 4 1/2 hrs to get home. Then we got lost in Miami-that’s another story also. When we finally landed in San Jose I realized a lot has changed in my six year absence. Costa Rica is a developing country and barely qualifies as third world in most places. For one thing the airport is now new and shiny. We don’t have to travel far like back in the day to pick up a old red pathfinder. This time there’s a new rav4 waiting right down stairs with racks already on it. We attach our soft racks to their hard racks and were on our way.

During my last visit I spent a lot of time in San Jose-I like that city. Its hustle and bustle, cheap food and craziness always revved me up. We decide to go downtown to eat. We’re at a little hole in the wall near La Plaza Cultural. We all eat variations of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) We drink like 4 cervesas, a couple sodas and it totals like barely 10 bucks. After all the other Latin American countries I have been to I cannot believe how easy it is for me to speak and understand Spanish in Costa Rica. I’m like woh! These people actually enunciate and fully pronounce their words. In general Ticos are very friendly and kind. They speak slowly like this very polite viejita (vee-a-hee-tah/ little old lady) who pulls me aside at the restaurant and warns me of ladrones, pick pockets in that part of the city. We leave town quickly after that.

Out in the countryside Costa Rica is breathtakingly beautiful. The rising green Mountains and valleys are covered with forest and pineapples and coffee plants. All of the fields seemed to be lined with the same circa (fence). This is made of gumbo limbo tree branches which are cut, stuck in the ground and connected with wire. The cut branches immediately start growing again into new trees, talk about fertile soil. Verdadero Paraiso.

I think I still know the way but we get lost several times and it takes us 3 hours to get to the beach. We're looking for the Rancho Coral at Esterillos Este (pronounced like este-re-yos). The problem is no one knows that its called the Rancho Coral. In my best Spanish I'm asking everyone where it is. Finally we give up. Its getting late, the surf is blown out and we have'nt slept in 2 days. We drive back 20 minutes to Hermosa and crash at the first place we can find.

The next morning we awake to a dreamscape: 4-6ft glassy walls framed by misty green mountains and pastures that meet the black sand beach. Playa Hermosa is no Puerto Escondido but its the next best thing. I had spent the last 6 years watching videos of guys getting barrelled at Hermosa and finally it was my turn. I got a couple little shoulder cover-ups but nothing serious. Finally a 5ft wall comes in and I'm far enough down the line not to be closed out. This wave ledges and throws out. I drop mid face and set my rail- wooomph! I'm looking out from behind the lip at all those green mountains. For an instant time stands still. I'm about to pump out of the tube when I feel the foam ball take my board out from under me. The last thing I see is the lip going by me as I fall into the abyss. A few waves later my friend Shaun almost drowns. We decide to search for the Rancho Coral again.

Its about 10am as we pull into Esterillos and I immediately see fellow gulf coast homey Skip Miller out killin' it. I paddle out and ask him "where's Rancho Coral?" he points straight in and say's "right there". It was under our nose that whole time- its just that all the locals think of it as Tommy's Place. Oh well.

Esterillos is a beautiful beach. You can walk for miles. It is lined with Coconut Palms. There are macaws and parrots. Crocodiles and big land crabs. It seems like an ideal paradise to waste away your days surfing beach break barrells and drinking Imperials. Thats exactly what we did. If you figure 10 barrells a day with an average of 3 seconds per tube(some more, some less) thats almost 3 minutes of tube time. Now thats a nice surf trip. Since I've been home I've had a lot of dreams about that place. Costa Rica is like a warm friend you can always go back to when things get rough. Costa Rica is a surf trip every surfer should take...perhaps again and again and again and...

Costa Rica Tips

• May-September is the rainy season called invierno (winter).
• Costa Rica requires a passport for all entries.
• The colon is the unit of currency. You can change dollars to colones at any bank or the airport.
• Tico Travel is an excellent source for tickets and travel information.
• There are hundreds of places to surf and stay from the border of Nicaragua all the way to Pavones and over to Puerto Viejo and back.
• Rancho Coral is a really sweet, clean, cool, peaceful and uncrowded place to stay on the beach. It is close to restaraunts, stores and other conveniences. Ask for Tommy.
• Don't be an ugly gringo: Be polite, smile, don't make fun of the locals. Speak your Spanish cleary and softly- hide that nasty gringo accent as much as possible.
• Be careful with your stuff. Thievery is a problem in many places.