The Whale's Tail

Going to the beach here is pretty much obligatory. The whole middle Costa Rican western coast is a bunch of beautiful coastline with rolling waves, perpetually warm and crystal. So when we were kicked out of our rented house one afternoon so our floors could be varnished, we decided it was time for a trip to the Whale's Tail, part of Uvita's national park and beach.

Getting there took longer than expected. We took a wrong turn and found ourselves at a dirt road dead end surrounded by cow and horse farms, and had to turn around. And the 'right' way to the beach involved fording a river (no oxen lost). Infrastructure here is somewhat lacking, but to be fair, there is a paved road to the beach. We just took a scenic detour.

Once we got to the beach we started making our way to the Whale's Tail. The beach was wide, very wide, and with a lot fewer people. From (palm)treeline to waterline was a large expanse of wet sand (since my homestate is pretty much a unit of measurement anyway, let's say four Rhode Island beaches could fit inside). This was since we went at low tide; otherwise there would have been almost no beach.

The strand of beach between the rocky tail and the mainland.

We got most of the way out on the tail and couldn't resist the ocean to our left any longer. We waded out into the warm water, but unfortunately the waves were pretty pitiful, so we soon went back to explore the end of the tail, with all of its rocks and threatening waves beyond. We carefully walked around it for a while then scrambled up some small artificial rock tower amidst the rocks. Well, Nick and George climbed up it, anyway. I, the "reasonable one" as Nick and George like to call me, stayed on the ground and simply observed as they looked from side to side for a safe way down like pitiful cats in a tree.

Would you climb the pillar at the Whale's Tail?

On the way back we checked out the other side of the tail, and went for another swim. Nick and I had a good time in the comparatively high waves there. We attempted a series of invented challenges involving the waves: standing ground against them, jumping over them, riding them, and at the end, closing our eyes and trying to stay in one place whenever a nice big one would suddenly crash over us without warning. We waded back to shore once we agreed we had gotten a sufficient amount of salty water up our noses.

Back at the treeline, we all three went under the canopy in search of coconuts, George leading the way. We found plenty on the ground from unripe green to overripe brown. It was obvious what we had to do; we immediately set to work diligently smashing them against rocks and trees like cavemen of the tropics, grunting accordingly. We devised various strategies, from throwing it like a baseball at a tree to peeling off a sort of handle to smash it against a fallen trunk. We got several open and drank from the delicious inner juices; it was pretty handy how much was in there and how good it tasted. If you got through the outer webbing without smashing the inner core, you could have two or three mouthfuls of coconut water. The meat was also fairly good, and ranged from soft like a cooked egg white to very hard, which I could see why you'd want it in shaved form. As we imbibed, George teased Nick and I for probably breaking our diet (how much fructose is in coconut?) but Nick and I agreed this was a worthy exception. You can't go through the effort to break open a coconut and NOT drink the insides, right?

Delicious coconut, worth every bit of effort

Since the sun was getting a bit low, we decided it was time to return home, seeing as there is little artifical light in Uvita after dark. We opted to try a different dirt road back into town, to see if it was better. We didn't have a good map or anything though, so we were somewhat uncertain of our way.

"Is that a paved road up there...? Wait no that's just more mud."

"Should I run ahead and see if we're going the right way?"

"We could just ask a local which way to the main road."

"Now where's the fun in that?"

"The road has to be SOMEWHERE between here and the mountains."

"How long before it would be too late to just go back the other way?"

"I hear cars. I don't know guys, they sound far away..."

On top of that, it began to downpour as we wandered down the unfamiliar road. None of us really minded though since it felt so nice in the weather and we didn't have any electronics with us anyway (those pictures were taken by us separately). Finally we spotted a car moving through the trees on the highway, so we were saved from walking home in utter darkness (or getting a taxi I suppose). We got back, thoroughly exhausted and entirely soaked from the rain. You know how you're usually really tired after coming back from a day at the beach? Yeah this was way more exhausting than your average beach run. To soothe my aching legs I got in the pool and soaked for a good long time as twilight descended upon our home.

I slept very well that night.