2015 Costa Rica

Day 0 (Friday) – Vacation Begins!

The evening before our trip, I dropped off the dogs with their sitter. Zanna whined all the way there. I met Kendra at BJ’s in Louisville, and we had our usual. Then we went straight back to Kendra’s apartment were we unloaded my car and I packed our shared suitcase while Kendra went to the store for a couple of things. I didn’t sleep very well, but Kendra did let me drop the AC nice and low.

Day 1 (Saturday) – Travel

On Saturday, we got up at 4:15 and rushed to pack our last-minute items. At some point in the night, the extension cord that I was using for my phone came loose from the wall outlet, and I woke to 28% battery on my phone. So between the low phone battery and the taxi being 20 minutes late – it was not a great start to the trip.

At the Louisville Airport, we sailed through security and were at the gate just before the first boarding. We left at 6:05 and landed in Miami on time, where we had some early lunch at TGIFridays. We had a couple of appetizers and Kendra enjoyed a Blueberry Pom Long Island Iced Tea. After we ate, we got seats near a charging station to charge our phones before the flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.

In Costa Rica, we walked from the tarmac to the airport in steaming heat. Kendra asked why we were going to Central America in June. I reminded her that she wouldn’t go during the school year, so there we were. The customs line was long, but moved pretty quickly. We were through to the airport exit in about 40 minutes. When we stepped out, the dive trip leader called my name, and we waited for the last family (Mellisa, Chris, and Jackson) to arrive. I changed out of my pants and bought some Powerade.

The drive to the resort took about four long and winding road hours. Our room was standard, but clean. It’s a place where you have to put your card in the slot by the door to run the electricity and air conditioning. I promptly powered it up and set it for 20 degrees Celsius. We unpacked for a few minutes, touched up our hair and makeup, and took some quick volcano photos in our back yard before meeting the group for dinner.

We went to an open-air restaurant in La Fortuna, and ate traditional Costa Rican food. I had the chicken, which came with rice, beans (not for me), a small salad, vegetable hash, and a grilled plantain (banana-like fruit). It was delicious! We were introduced to Lizano Salsa, a bottled sauce that’s available in most homes and restaurants in Costa Rica. It’s like a super-flavorful and mildly spicy BBQ sauce. Dinner cost about $26 US for both of us, including our bottled water.

Day 2 (Sunday) – Hiking

On Sunday, we had a quick breakfast at the resort that included an omelet bar, fruit, pound cake, and breads, and then met the prearranged tour guide at 7:45. Mellisa, Chris, Jackson, Kendra and I had planned the tour together, which included a hanging bridge tour, La Fortuna waterfall, lunch, and a volcano hike with our guide, Gabriel.

It took about 15 minutes to drive to the Hanging Bridges, and we chatted with Judy, another tourist from New Zealand. We took some photos with the volcano backdrop and began our hike. On the hike, we crossed nine stationary bridges, and six hanging bridges. We saw toucans, trails of ants carrying leaves, massive ant colonies, tarantulas, red poison dart frogs, monkeys, and small and large waterfalls. The hanging bridges are made of a metal mesh and you can see through it to the ground hundreds of feet below. We saw small streams and large waterfalls. The path was mostly uneven and laid with patterned concrete blocks that were somewhat hard to walk on, but kept anyone from slipping. We had a nice 2 hour walk.

When we arrived back at the hanging bridges park entrance, we took a few more photos and had some fruit for a snack. As the clouds rolled in, we got into the van to go to the La Fortuna Waterfall. From the entrance, the falls appeared tiny, but as we descended the 500 steps with increasingly wobbly legs, we got to see just how large and powerful the waterfall was. At the bottom near the falls, you have three options: an observation deck to watch people in the strong current of the pool under the falls, a slightly downstream set of pools between rocks that were about 3 feet deep, and a rocky path to the waterfall. The water was cool and felt wonderful after the steamy hikes of the morning. We cooled off in the slight current of the pool and decided to hike upstream to see the view from the rocks in the bend. We took some photos there and went back to the pools to get out and go over to the falls. The path down to the falls was extremely rocky and my exhausted legs complained about the deliberate process. There were some people sitting in the rocks providing suggestions for the best place to enter the water. Once in the water, Kendra, Jackson, and I took lots of photos and plotted the best spot for photos – turning our bodies sideways against the powerful force of the falling water, and looking like surfers. We found a sunny spot and took some photos. I took a few seconds of video of Kendra, and then went to hand her the camera to take a shot of me, when she decided that she was done and relaxed to float away – into the current that could easily slam her into the rocks! She swam strongly and I reached out to pull her upstream when I suddenly stepped into a hole. The depth went from chest high to over my head. I put my GoPro in my teeth and swam to the rocks. Kendra did the same. I wasn’t pleased and glared at her.

Exhausted, we climbed out and slowly made our way back up and over the the more relaxing pools. We messed around a bit there with Jackson and Mellisa until it was time to leave.

The advertisement for the falls claimed that there were 300 steps down and back up. There were 300 nice and even steps down, and then another 200 mostly uneven steps made of wood, dirt, and blocks. Maybe in the future, all 500+ steps will be nice and even, but they are tough. I kept getting overheated and had to stop a lot on the way up. Kendra had gone ahead with my fan and cool cloth, but the guide waited with me. My face was so red that a passing tourist asked if I needed medical attention.

When I finally made it to the top of the stairs, we were able to go to lunch. The guide dropped us off at a restaurant in town for lunch. Lunch was included with the tour, and we had a limited menu. The food and drink were good, but the service was terrible. We got all of our things out of the van (the guide said that he didn’t know who would be going with us for the second half of our tour), and sat at the a table. The server gave us a limited menu and spoke little, if any English. Fortunately, Kendra can get by in Spanish, and so we ordered our food. When we got our drinks, the extremely slow server brought us delicious garlic bread. It didn’t go far with a party of five, and we asked for more when the server brought out our lunch. I asked in Spanish. Then Kendra asked more nicely in Spanish. And then Mellisa went up to the counter to ask a third time. We finally got it, and enjoyed it with the last of our meal. I had the chicken (no beans or salad). It came with rice, a hash, some steamed veggies, and grilled plantains. I really enjoyed everything.

When we were finished, we went across the street to a little shop with hand-made items and purchased a few things. As we went back through La Fortuna, we asked the driver to pull over at the wood carving and artist’s shops that Luis (the Bill Beard’s guide) had pointed out the night before. We bought a few things there and were then off to the volcano tour.

Along the way, Gabriel stopped and pointed out a sloth in a tree by the road. We considered not doing the tour because we were tired, the volcano was covered by clouds, and it was raining. Gabriel talked us into continuing, explaining that we would be traveling to the other side of the volcano, and that it was more clear on that side. We continued and at the entrance, the guy in the hut pointed out a few things. We saw two vipers in the trees. We heard and then saw a Montezuma bird.

Along the walk to the volcano lookout, Gabriel showed us some ferns that drew up when they were touched. We saw a huge ficus and various other plants. The path went through a cane forest. At the end of the path, we took steps and then a rocky path up to a nice view of the volcano. Unfortunately, it didn’t really look any closer than the view that we had from our hotel. There was a group at the top taking lots of photos. We took photos from a lower point, and a few minutes later, the volcano was again covered by clouds. We didn’t get a good view from the higher point. We did have a view of Lake Arenal.

We took some photos and Jackson found some spiders that the guide did not recognize. On the way down the hill I took a last minute video that cracked up Kendra – “Volcano (shot of the volcano); lava rock (shot of the lava rock).” We hiked the mile plus back to the van and the other four fell asleep in the van on the way back to the resort. We arrived back at the resort at 5:30 and had plenty of time to get ready before the planned group dinner at the resort restaurant. (This was in no small part due to Chris, who slyly let Kendra and I know that there was a cake planned for Mellisa and Bart’s birthday at dinner.)

At dinner (that was not included with the resort price), Kendra ordered the filet mignon and I got the sea bass for about $50 total. Chris and Mellisa’s total was higher, because the cake was on their bill. I chipped in $5, as I (incorrectly) assumed everyone else did. We had to distract Mellisa to keep her from going to bed before the birthday cake came out. We sang happy birthday, and off everyone went. Kendra and I planned to relax a bit in the hot springs to relax our muscles from the 1000+ steps that we had gone up and down. We changed as the lightning started and went to the hot springs anyway. The springs were designed to flow into a big multileveled set of pools with waterfalls. The top level was the hottest, with each level getting less scalding. We hopped into the lowest level. The water was about 3 ft deep and quite comfortable. It was very relaxing and I would definitely recommend it. After about a half hour, we went to the room and slept like babies.

Day 3 (Monday) – Travel

On Monday, we slept in a bit and had a few hours to repack to go to the coastal resort. We had breakfast, though we missed the pound cake from the morning before. The view of the volcano was clear and crisp as we ate breakfast.

After breakfast we gathered our things and loaded up the bus. We went past the resort into La Fortuna and did some quick shopping at a woodworking store and at the market before leaving at 11:00. We got nauseous on the drive down the mountain, and stopped for lunch at around noon. We stopped again to go to the bathroom around an hour later. We stopped again to go to the bathroom and the market, and then finally made it to the resort around 4:00.

After checking in and waiting for the shuttle, we unpacked and had our dive gear together to meet the dive shop in our hotel lobby at 5:00. At 5:20, we gave up and went for drinks while our trip leader made some phone calls. At 5:45, Rocket Frog (Mike and Nary) arrived and we talked about our dives. We had asked before the trip about adding a Catalina and/or Bat Island dive, and were told that we would have to wait and add the dives after we arrived. Rocket Frog told us that there were issues with the visibility and accessibility of the dive sites because of a hurricane to the north. When we asked about adding extra dives and they said we would have to wait and see what the returning dive boats reported the next day. They picked up our gear and dive forms and told us that they would be back in the morning to take us for our first dive.

After the meeting, we went down to dinner. Once again, dinner was meat, rice, and a meat/vegetable hash that tasted like beef stew. And don’t forget the plantains. There are always plantains. The dining room was open-air and we managed to sit beneath a fan.

After dinner, Mellisa, Jackson, Kendra, and I took the shuttle down to the main desk to ask a few questions and so that I could pay for the internet package. It was $25 for 3 days or $38 for 5 days at a slightly higher speed. I got 5 days of internet. Mellisa also set up a shuttle for 9 people to the beach at 8:00 AM for all three of our dive days.

We asked about the black sand beach (Ocotal) and the closer and more touristy beach (Coco). We found out that it would cost $40 per room to go to Ocotal and back, and that there was a shuttle for $10 per person to Coco and back. After our chat with the front desk, we went up to our room, did a little dive packing, completed the general unpacking, went through a few videos, and went to bed, planning to go to Ocotal the next afternoon.

The room was pretty nice. It was all tile with two double beds and had a good-sized deck with a FANTASTIC view of the pool, the lower hillside, and the ocean. There was a huge closet and a long dresser/desk, which meant plenty of storage space. There were only 8 hangers, so we had to choose carefully which clothes to hang. The natural stone shower was very large with niches in the wall for towels above to stay dry, and tons of space for soap and shampoo. It had a shallow basin that could be used to soak dive gear on the last day, which was awesome. The sink was average-sized. There was a single towel bar and no hanging hooks. We were in room 2203, and there was a water stain in the ceiling, but no sign of water in the room, so we weren’t concerned.

Day 4 (Tuesday) – Diving

On Tuesday, we woke early and went through more videos. Costa Rica is in the Central time zone, but does not observe Daylight Savings Time, and therefore were two hours behind our home time. At breakfast in the same dining room as dinner the night before, we sat at a balcony table to get some fresh air and see the view. Mellisa and Jackson were hanging around to chat with us and feed the cats at the other end of the balcony. The pancakes were good, though bees really liked the syrup bottle. The eggs were a bit disgusting. Kendra enjoyed her Nutella on toast and said that the juice was good. After breakfast, we gathered our stuff and met the shuttle at 8:00 am for the 8:30 dive.

As we were boarding the shuttle down to the beach, the Rocket Frog van pulled up and we all went down to the beach together. Nary walked us WAY down the beach (about a half mile) to a better place to get on the little dinghy boat. As we walked, she told Mellisa and me that the next day we could get picked up and board at the dive shop instead of walking a half mile down the beach. When we got to the designated spot, Nary instructed us that we needed to jump on the boat quickly and get out of the way for others. They called us out to where the water was about thigh deep. Kendra and I were the first on and I was trying to hurry out of the way. I stood with the boat behind me, at a height of about my waist – I placed my hands on the boat side, lifted my butt up to the edge and plunged backward onto the rubber mat in the bottom. The others found this quite amusing – my Navy Seal boarding.

Dive 1 – Monkey’s Head

On the boat, we took a quick 10 minute trip to Monkey’s Head – our dive site. Our dive master, Yasser, dived with one blue and one yellow fin, making him easy to spot on the dive. Visibility was around 30ft – I checked my depth when I could no longer see the anchor line. I saw a striped sea snake, first one and then MANY blowfish, a lobster, the first of many china blue starfish, one octopus after another, and a few pipe fish.

Dive 2 – Monkey’s Head

During our second dive, the visibility was worse, but I saw a small ray, a crab in a beautiful shell, more blowfish, and an medium striped eel. We might have had some fun during our safety stop.

As we got onto the boat after our dive, my face felt a little burned, so I put on some more sunscreen, and sat on the front of the boat with Kendra and Mellisa. We enjoyed the sun and the view, took some photos, and talked about the dive. We arrived back at the beach and walked the half mile back to the shuttle stop for the resort. We walked up as a shuttle was finished loading. We rushed to get on, and as soon as we were on, the shuttle took off. We looked back and saw Noel walking up the hill and yelled for the driver, but he didn’t stop. It was even Noel’s birthday! We felt terrible.

Back at the hotel, we went straight to the dining room for lunch. Chris was on a lounge chair by our pool waiting for us, and we went straight in. Lunch was good. More meat, rice, and fruit. We did ask for Lizano and tortillas, and I had some chicken tacos with rice.

After lunch, we went back to the room and took showers, hanging up our wet swimsuits and skins. Kendra was pretty red and a little sensitive. We had talked about going to Ocotal beach, and another couple wanted to go with us. Over lunch, we found out from Corrine that there was a free shuttle to Coco at 3:00. Mellisa and Corrine had also been trying to find out about adding extra dives. Finally, we decided that if we went to the beach on the 3:00 shuttle, we would have trouble getting back to the resort for dinner at 6:00. We were planning to have cake for Noel’s birthday, and so we stayed at the resort.

Although it was beautiful out, Kendra was tired and took a nap and I continued to work through the nearly 100 videos that I had taken on our tour on Sunday. After an hour, I was pretty tired and decided to take a nap as well. When I woke, I found out that I was more sunburned than Kendra; it just took longer to show up on my skin. We slathered on some aloe and went downstairs to dinner.

At dinner, we were ravenous and the food was better. Not fabulous, but good. We found out that Mellisa called our room several times to see if we wanted to play volleyball and it just kept ringing. We were in the room, and the phone never rang. Throughout the week, people had tried to call us, but never got through. We also had very little luck reaching the front desk. I was able to call a couple of times, but had to call and call, getting either a busy signal or repeated ringings with no answer.

So we missed a great volleyball game, but got some rest and AC for our sunburn. We chatted for a while at the table, and after dinner, we went to our room and got into our pajamas. After a few minutes, Mellisa and Jackson came in to hang out. Per Mellisa’s suggestion, I downloaded the Heads Up app, and we spent a couple of hours playing, trying out different “decks” until we settled on the kids deck. We got to sleep a little late, but had a great time.

Day 5 (Wednesday) – Diving & Ocotal

On our second dive day, we slept in as late as we could, grabbing some quick peanut butter toast and a banana, and caught the 8:00 shuttle down to the beach. We arrived on the beach at 8:09, and there was no dive boat. We walked down the beach to the spot where they had picked us up the previous day. The mosquitos and/or sand gnats or whatever were biting like crazy. Because of my sunburn, I was wearing my dive skin to cover my skin from ankle to wrist to neck. I had put some bug spray on my neck and feet, but that was it. The bugs bit me through my dive skin. We later counted 33 bites on my upper back. I kept walking back and forth on the beach to try to outrun the bugs, and at 8:30, there was no dive boat. Mellisa thought that maybe Nary had come to pick us up at the hotel instead of the beach and we walked back to the other end of the beach. No Nary. We found a spot where the bugs weren’t biting and watched for a boat pulling a dinghy. When we thought we saw one coming around the bend on the other end of the bay and started walking that way at 8:40. The dinghy was pulling up to the beach as we got back. Did I mention that it was hot and steamy, and I couldn’t outrun the bugs? We were a bit annoyed.

On the boat, we went out about 15 minutes to our first dive site, and along the way, we gathered our gear and got ready for the dive. As we were trained, we asked for the air analyzer before connecting our regulators to our Nitrox tanks. The 2 divemasters and the other helper gave us a blank look and told us there was no analyzer. Kendra and I started looking for the box that we had used the previous day. The guys just stood there. I was really, really unhappy. On the previous day, our Nitrox tanks ranged from 31% to 34% oxygen. (Normal air contains 20.9% oxygen.)

I really didn’t want to dive without analyzing my tank. The captain called to a couple of boats nearby and nobody had an analyzer. They didn’t want to go to the dive shop. I had to make a decision. Here’s how I determined my answer:

– Option 1: Dive air. The divemasters offered to dive the Nitrox tanks and let us use their air. The pro was that this was safe, but I can REALLY tell a difference when I dive Nitrox instead of air. I am way less tired.
– Option 2: Dive Nitrox and assume that the mix was at the high end at 34%. If the mix was lower, then we would have a higher no-decompression limit than our computer indicated, but our maximum depth would be safe and conservative.
– Option 3: Dive Nitrox and assume that the mix was at the low end at 31%. If the mix was higher, then the max depth would be shallower than the computers indicated, but our NDL would be conservative.

Because we typically dive about 45 minutes on a tank, and we were only diving 2 tanks a day on this trip, I wasn’t concerned about our no-decompression limit, but didn’t want to go past the max depth. I knew that our computers would warn us if we approached our computed max depth, so we dove with our computers set to 34% Nitrox.

Corrine, as our dive trip leader, seemed very against us estimating our Nitrox tanks. I told her that if I were a trip leader, I wouldn’t want anyone to take any risks, but for myself, I was not happy about it, but was comfortable with my choice. I’m a conservative diver and felt no risk.

As we arrived ad our dive site, Corrine and Lynn wanted to “mix it up” a little, and reshuffle our dive groups. This time, Corrine, Lynne, Noel, and Bart dove with Yasser. Our dive group went with Rocky (a different divemaster than Ben that was with us the day before), and was made up of Kendra, me, Mellisa, and a single diver – Tom that Mellisa had dived with the day before. I was by far the most experienced diver. Tom was a major air hog, even compared to my air pigginess. Mellisa consumed the least amount of air.

Dive 3 – Tortuga

During our 3rd dive, we descended through a school of beautiful fish but to pretty bad visibility at around 15 feet, max. We dove around some rocks and saw an eel swimming and another school of fish on our way to the “shipwreck” (this means boat wreck). Under the bow of the boat was a nurse shark. The visibility was so terrible that I couldn’t even get a good shot of him. Around the boat, we saw a white tip shark swimming around, and another big school of fish. This was Kendra and Mellisa’s first close encounter with a shark. We dove around for a bit after we left the boatwreck, and saw some pretty fish. Back on the boat, I kept my sunburned self in the shade.

Dive 4 – Agrentina

At Argentina (the dive site, not the country), the visibility was better, at around 30 ft again. We saw lots of big schools of fish, blowfish, an octopus, some interesting sea urchins, several eels, and lots of pretty fish. Our dive guide, Rocky, cracked open something (a clam?) and the yellow fish fed on it. Before our dive was over, Mellisa and Tom went up, and we kept diving.

After the dive, I kept to the shade on the boat, and we got back to the hotel at around 1:00 again, but this time to rain. We all had to wait for a shuttle, and Sandra came to join us. Everyone was interested in going to Ocotal beach, and Sandra, John, and Chris had been chatting with a girl that they met. She had travelled alone, because her boyfriend (for whom she had purchased the trip) broke up with her on Mother’s Day (because his grandmother didn’t like her, or something). Yeah. This girl was either drunk or high every time that I saw her, which was as little as possible. I make it a goal to keep as far away from crazy as possible. Anyway, this girl had an SUV with her travel package, and would drive a few of us to the beach. Both Jackson and I could spot the red flags, and we preferred the taxi. Because there were 9 of us going to the beach, and we had previously been quoted a rate of around $200 to take us all, getting a taxi for 5 was better, and then (theoretically) all 9 of us would split the fare, or we would swap on the way back. Bart and Sandra chipped in later.

Now’s a good time to mention – I’ve been on trips with larger and smaller groups. 2 people works well. Kendra and I did that in Grand Cayman. 4-5 people works well – 2 rooms and you can split a taxi and get to do pretty much anything you want. 25 or more people works well because people split off and do their own thing, usually in different groups every night (Fiji and Cozumel). Around a dozen is pretty complicated. It’s possible, though difficult and inconvenient to get the group together. If you split in half, it’s usually along the same lines, prohibiting getting to know other people in the group. It’s something to keep in mind when you travel.

On our dive, Mellisa had learned from Tom that Rocket Frog was doing a trip to Bat Island the next day for a different group. She learned that they were paying $75 to upgrade their morning dive to that dive. Rocky told us that there were no afternoon dives. At lunch, Mellisa and Corrine called the dive shop and talked to Nary. They were told $85 for the upgrade and no afternoon diving. They called Bill Beard’s (our travel agency) and were told $65 + $15 = $80 for the upgrade. Mellisa found out that the Rocket Frog dive shop was located at Ocotal Beach, where we were going, and planned to clear up the issue while there.

After lunch, we rushed to catch a taxi. The girl (I swear, I must have blocked out her name) drove us down to the front lobby to catch our taxi. Our “taxi” was conveniently enough, the beach shuttle/van. We got in and we all went to the beach.

In the taxi, Mellisa told us about some stuff we had missed. As we returned from the dive earlier, Mellisa had been walking with some of the group on the beach. Kendra and I walked on the path in the shade. Mellisa overheard someone refer to us (Tom, Mellisa, Kendra, and me) as not being “advanced” divers. Mellisa pointed out that on one of our travel days, the “advanced divers” had said we would be mixed up. A more experienced diver would be buddied with a less experienced diver. However, during both days of diving, all of the experienced divers had gone off and left the newer divers to ourselves. How did they expect us to get better and learn from them if they left us alone? Mellisa was also frustrated that she had to shoulder the burden of Tom’s heavy air consumption. On that day of diving, she was buddied with Tom and when he got down to 1000 PSI, he had gone to the divemaster, who had sent Tom back to Mellisa. This happened a couple of more times until Tom was down to 250 PSI. At that point, the divemaster was too far away and Mellisa and Tom had to do their safety stop and go to the surface. When the divemaster surfaced with Kendra and I later, he saw Mellisa and said, “I wondered where you guys went.”

When we got to Ocotal, Mellisa and I split the cost of the taxi and all 10 of us went into the dive shop. Lynn had really wanted a Rocket Frog t-shirt and most of us were looking around the shop. Mellisa talked to the shop owner (co-owner) Mike. To be fair, Mellisa was pretty upset before the conversation even started. But to also be fair, Mike was very defensive and did not handle customer relations well. Here were the issues that were discussed:

– Price discrepancies for adding dives – Other person said $75, travel agency said $80, and Nary said $85. Mike said that $85 was their price always, and he doesn’t know why the other people were telling us $75.
– Booking extra dives – We were told before the trip that we could add dives. We were told different things by dive masters and other divers. No afternoon dives at all. (But there were boats on afternoon dives.) Bat caves were going the next morning. Etc. Mike said, “I’m telling you the same thing that I told you during our first meeting.” (He said that a lot.) Ultimately, they were combative, but had made no promises. They said that the boat would come in at around 5 with a report on the conditions and they would decide then whether there would be a bat island trip the next day. We agreed that we would check back before we left at 6:00 PM.
– Nitrox – I stepped in for this discussion because it was my problem. When I told him that the guys told us that there was only 1 air analyzer and 4 boats out, he stopped me. “That’s not true. Who told you that?” After I explained (using my good customer service voice) exactly what had happened, Mike backed down a bit. “That shouldn’t have happened. I assure you that there will be an analyzer on the boat for you tomorrow, and if you like you can even analyze and sign your tanks this evening when you come back.” I agreed and we were done.
– Airhog buddy – Mellisa said that she wanted to make sure that Tom had a 100 cubic ft tank for the next day. Mike said, “He’s not with your group. We’ll have to deal with him directly.” When Mellisa started to argue, he said, “What does this have to do with you?” That’s when Mellisa told him the problem. Particularly about Tom buddy diving with the divemaster the first day, but the second day the divemaster just took off when Tom was low on air. There was a bit of arguing back and forth, with Mellisa saying things like “I didn’t pay for these dives to babysit someone I don’t even know”. Ultimate, Mike got snappy and said something like, “Look, we’ll make sure that you aren’t buddied up with Tom, okay?”

Pretty much everyone in the room was uncomfortable at this point. Mike grabbed us a few bottled waters and a few people did some shopping. Then we went down to the beach.

On the beach at Ocotal, we looked for a place to put our stuff. The girl at the front desk had specifically told us not to get our phones or other electronics anywhere near the sand because the black sand is metallic. You don’t want little pieces of metal getting in/around your electronics or your memory could get wiped. We found a spot with some grass and a big log to sit on. We put all of our electronics in my dry bag and hung it from a tree.

Everyone else had planned to swim/snorkel, and Mike at the dive shop had told them to go around the rocks to the right to get to a secluded beach. I had decided that morning that based on the rough surf and my sunburn, I wanted to relax in the shade. So I volunteered to be the designated bag-watcher. While everyone was getting ready, I took a few pictures, then hung out on the log, going through some photos on my phone (away from the sand), and looking up occasionally.

Kendra had gone out with Chris and Mellisa. Not too long after they started, I looked up to see Chris walking up. He had gotten tired of fighting the waves. The girls were going to keep going.

I stayed on my log and looked up occasionally, counting snorkeling heads. When other snorkelers started coming in, I realized that I hadn’t seen Kendra and Mellisa’s heads in a while. There was a huge expanse of lava rock to the right of the beach. The last time that I had seen them, they were going around the rocks, so I got up and wandered over to the rocks. While I was there, I took some photos. That’s when we spotted the girls up on the rocks way off to the right.

They were standing on a section of rocks waving their arms and yelling, but we couldn’t hear them over the waves hitting the rocks. I assumed that they had gotten tired and were walking back across the rocks when they got stuck. As I walked closer, I could see that the rock outcropping that they were on did not meet up with the rocks on my side. As I got closer, I could hear what they were saying. “We’re hurt… bleeding… lost gear… get a boat!” I turned and repeated what I had heard to Chris and sent him back to the dive shop to get help. As I got closer, I could see Kendra point to her bleeding leg and make the dive signal for shark. There was a shark? Oh, crap! Jackson and John came over as I was slowly picking my way across the rocks. Bart was still in the water looking for Mellisa and Kendra, and was swimming around the rocks.

John, Jackson, and I were on the outcropping across from Kendra and Mellisa. Between us was an inlet that led to a cave. There was no way across. We could mostly hear Mellisa and Kendra and they were giving us more details.

Mellisa and Kendra had been snorkeling pretty safely. Mellisa had kept an eye on the rocks and beneath the surface. If there was foam under them, that meant churn and they would move farther away from the rocks. They had rounded the turn and had seen the beach that Mike at the dive shop had told them about. “If you follow the shore to the right, there’s a secluded beach that you can only reach from the ocean. It’s an easy swim,” he had said. When they saw the beach, they decided that it looked just like Ocotal and it wasn’t worth the swim. They decided to go back. That’s when they were hit by a wave. And then another. They were sucked under the surface over and over, choking on the salt water. Mellisa grabbed onto a rock with both hands and held on for dear life. She said that she didn’t care if her fingernails were ripped off, she wasn’t letting go of the rocks (and sea urchins!). The waves ripped her mask and snorkel off of her head. Kendra got pulled down. She surfaced for a second, grabbed a gulp of air and was sucked down again. The bubbles were everywhere and she didn’t know which way was up. She was scraped against a rock so hard that it pulled off her fin and boot on her left side. She grabbed a rock and held on. Her mask and snorkel were dragged off, too, but she managed to snatch them before they were gone. Her GoPro was ripped from here arm, where it was strapped. There was a lull before the waves came again, and they clamored up on the rocks, cutting their arms and legs even more.

While they waited for help, they had looked at the spot they had been in. It was scary to see, with the waves crashing against the rock and nothing but churning foam. Luckily, Kendra’s missing boot had washed up on the rocks and they grabbed it. When the dingy pulled up, the dive shop guys tried to get close to the rock outcropping, but it was too choppy. The boat driver pulled up about 15ft away from the girls and one of the guys jumped in, climbed up the rocks, and joined the girls. From there, he tossed Kendra’s snorkel, mask, and single fin across to the boat. He then tossed Mellisa’s fins over to the boat. The waves crashed, crashed, crashed, and they jumped in during the lull, swimming over to the dinghy and pulling themselves up. Mike (dive shop owner), John, Jackson, Chris, and I walked back across the rocks to the beach, where the girls were already getting out of the boat. I gathered up our bags and followed them up to the dive shop.

At the dive shop, Mike rinsed Kendra really well and put some Neosporin on all of her cuts and scrapes. They did the same for Mellisa. I asked whether we needed to seek medical attention for Kendra’s cuts and scrapes. Mike said that nothing was deep enough to need stitches, though she would probably bruise up and be sore later. They told us to pick up some peroxide on the way back to the resort and rinse really well after showering. They gave us the Neosporin tube to take with us. Mellisa showed Mike and Nary her sea urchin spines in her fingers. They told her that there was nothing that a doctor/hospital could do for them, and that she should put a warm washcloth on them to help the spines work their way out naturally. They said that any spines that come out could be pulled out with tweezers.

We asked Nary to call for our taxi, because the people that had ridden in the SUV loaded up and left while we were finishing up with Kendra and Mellisa. So we sat at the table outside the dive shop and waiting for the taxi. Mike was kind enough to come out and bring some pineapple, watermelon, and bottled water.

We waited a LONG time for the taxi, and then found out that he had been at the restaurant pick-up spot for 20 minutes. We had been watching and hadn’t seen him go by. Anyway, we got into the taxi and asked if the non-English-speaking driver would take us to “la pharmacia”. We stopped and picked up a couple of bottles of peroxide, and some extra gauze. I had a little gauze and tape in my travel first aid pack back in the room. We asked the driver to take us up to the hotel so that we didn’t have to stand there and catch a shuttle up the hill. He did, and we tipped well when we paid.

It was Wednesday night, and we had a group reservation at the nice restaurant in an hour after we arrived, so we went back to the room to shower and get Kendra cleaned up and medicated. We did our hair and makeup and put on dresses. Then we went up the hill to the restaurant. We waited a few minutes, but when Corrine wasn’t there, we checked in. We weren’t on the list. They were fully booked and didn’t have any room for us. We let Corrine know and went down to dinner at our regular table.

We had a quick dinner and went to bed, exhausted. I told Kendra repeatedly that if she didn’t want to dive, we didn’t have to. The diving really wasn’t that great, anyway. We decided to see how she felt the next morning.

Day 6 (Thursday) – Diving & Coco

Thursday morning, Kendra felt like diving, and we were picked up by the van and driven to Ocotal to the dive shop, where we again departed from the beach. On the boat ride out to the dive site, we saw a school of dolphins.

Dive 5 – Shark Shadows

During our 5th dive, Ben (Bennie) was our divemaster. He’s from Canada. Not that it makes a difference. On this dive, the visibility was pretty poor – around 20 ft. We saw more eels, blowfish, schools, and we got to see a spotted eagle ray. No sharks, though.

Dive 6 – Punta Gorda

During our last dive, we saw octopus after octopus, eels, and finally – a sea turtle! The first dive group had been getting photos of the turtle and he was swimming away as we approached. Kendra swam about five feet following the turtle, and then turned for me to get a photo with the turtle. That’s when one of the more experienced divers grabbed her BCD bladder to stop her. A few minutes later, the turtle returned and was swarmed by the more experienced divers. He then ran away, never to be seen again. They all got good photos, I suppose. I did get a quick shot of Kendra with the turtle before she was grabbed. Apparently, only “advanced” divers are allowed to follow a turtle to get photos. Wait… What’s that? Kendra IS a certified Advanced Open Water diver? Huh.

After the dive, we brought all of our gear to the shop. They would be delivering it our resort the next night, which is a nice service. We would have preferred to take it with us and clean and dry it ourselves, but there wasn’t room in the van. We all discussed what time they would drop off the gear the next day. First, my group would be on an all-day tour and likely get back around 6:00pm. Second, the dive shop agreed to bring a logo flag and since we would all be dressed up for our new 7:30 dinner reservations, we would get a group photo in front of the flag. So we decided 7:00 would be great.

On the way back, we discussed that we wanted to go to Coco beach. We had in writing somewhere that there was a free shuttle. Two days before, we had tried to get it, but were told that it was only the 3:00 shuttle. So we planned to take the 3:00 free shuttle into town. We shuttled down to the front desk, (9 of us) to find out that it would still be $10 round trip per person. Mellisa negotiated us down to $8 round trip per person, and off we went. On the shopping strip in Coco, we all split up. Our group went into a big shop across the street. Lynn and John went down to the beach. Bart and Sandra went to a coffee shop.

While on the bus, I had been developing a migraine, and I was fighting it off. While Mellisa and Chris shopped, Kendra, Jackson, and I found some chairs and relaxed. After shopping, we decided to try out a nearby pizza place. None of the employees spoke English, which made us happy. We love finding local places that aren’t full of tourists.

In the pizza place, we were seated at a round table with sofas. When Chris and Mellisa joined us, they found out that there was a swarm of mosquitos under the table, so we moved to a big table looking out of the front of the open-air restaurant. We ordered our drinks and pizzas and waited as the rain started. When I say rain, I really mean torrential downpour. There was plastic sheeting used over the entrance and oven of the restaurant, and the sheeting was not enough to hold the water. Unfortunately, they had trouble near the oven, so we only got one of our three pizzas out, and we ran out of time. We split it and ran out in to the rain to catch the bus. As we ran across the street, a bus stopped and honked for us to run. No, wait, that was OUR bus, so we ran back and got on. Lynn and John were already on the bus, and Bart and Sandra were just down the street.

Day 7 (Friday) – Rincon de la Vieja

On our last day, our tour guide was scheduled to pick us up at 7:00 AM. That meant that we couldn’t have breakfast because the restaurant wasn’t open yet. We started the day with a two-hour drive. Our first stop was to get helmets and gear, and then we were off on our zipline adventure. The zipline tour started with a hike past the waterslide up to the top of the hill. It wouldn’t have been bad if we hadn’t done all of the hiking on a previous day. The zipline was a bit scary at first. We all got nervous, went too slow, and had to pull ourselves to the very end. After the second or third zipline, however, it was exhilarating and the views were spectacular. You could see the coast, volcanoes, the jungle, and waterfalls. After the zipline, there was a “tarzan swing”. The idea was to climb up on a platform, get bungee strapped in, and swing. It looked fun, but I didn’t try it. It wasn’t worth the additional stairs for my exhausted legs. After the tarzan swing, we got our bags and were then off for a bit of horseback riding. We rode horses up the mountain, where we started down a long and winding path of several hundred uneven stairs to a pretty waterfall. While cool and pretty, it was not worth the steps. The guide was rushing us a bit back up the hill. I was exhausted! Next, we had to walk downhill to spa. There we stripped to our swimsuits and slathered ourselves with warm mud. We rinsed with VERY cold water. By the way, that mud WILL stain a light-colored swimsuit. Plan and wear a black suit or something. Afterwards, we relaxed in the hot spring pools. While we relaxed, our guide brought us pina coladas and fruit. We picked up a $9 bag of Cheetos Puffs because we had been unable to find them in stores. On the way back to the main area, we took a tractor ride. Back int he main area, we were invited to climb back up the mountain and come down the water slide. Chris and I decided not to climb, but Kendra, Mellisa, and Jackson went up the mountain and down the waterslide in the COLD spring water. It was a very, very long slide. After we got out of the waterslide pool, we dried off and hand lunch. The lunch provided was very good with a good Costa Rican selection that included chicken, beef, rice, veggies, and some delicious rice pudding. After lunch, we relaxed in some hammocks, bought the professional zipline photos, and had planned to walk through the shop, which was closed. In the van ride back to the resort, the other four fell asleep again.

Back at the resort, we took showers and then naps, planning to get up at 6:30 to dress for photos at 7:00 and dinner at 7:30. At 6:20, Mellisa knocked on our door and told us that Rocket Frog was coming at 6:30!! We rushed to get presentable, and made it out the door at 6:35. Nary saw us and brought our gear from the truck. She asked us to check our gear. I made sure everything was there and she went down to the truck again. I sat there with my credit card and cash tip, and… nothing. That sound outside was the truck pulling out. We went back to the room and got prettier for dinner. There was no flag and no group photos.

At dinner at the “nice restaurant”, we didn’t like any of the appetizers. It was still an open-air restaurant and without the sea breeze, was hotter than the main dining area. The chicken was good (not great), but the folks that ordered the tenderloin didn’t even eat half of it. The crepes for dessert were decent, but tasted like they had a canned mixed fruit cup in them. Sadly, we probably would have been happier in the main dining room. After dinner, Mellisa went back to the room to pack. Kendra and I went to bed early so that we could pack the next morning. We called the front desk and found out the taxi ride would be $40. I asked for an 11:30 taxi, and they said that they recommend a 12:30 taxi. I asked for a 12:15. It would be awesome to leave at 12:15 instead of 10:00 with everyone else.

Day 8 (Saturday) – Travel

Unfortunately, we woke early on our travel day. We had breakfast at 7:30. At breakfast, we let Corrine know that we would be taking a taxi. Jackson came back to our room with us. He grabbed the scale and helped us weigh our checked bag. Then he hung out in our room listening to music while we packed. At 9:30, we were done packing, and Jackson had to go get ready to leave to catch their shuttle. We hung out in the room going through videos until 11:00, when the food at the pool would be served. We went down and got a couple of smoothies, and then had to wait for pizza with no veggies and hot dogs with chili. Right after we finished, my tummy felt a little weird. We rushed back and grabbed our stuff and took a shuttle at 11:45 down for the 12:00 check out. At the checkout, we confirmed our 12:15 taxi. Corrine and Noel were checking out to re-check in to their new room(s) in a studio because the hotel was fully booked.

At 12:15, we were in the breezy doorway, and no taxi. We asked at the front desk again. A couple from New Mexico joined us. They were scheduled for the 12:30 shuttle. The 12:30 shuttle arrived at 12:40 and was our 12:15 taxi. That stressed me out a bit because it was a half-hour drive to the airport and we had a 2:40 flight.

We arrived at the airport at 1:00 and zoomed through no line to pay taxes, no line for priority check-In for our luggage, and only a small line through security. At 1:30, we were at our gate. It was REALLY crowded and we scored a couple of seats and Kendra guarded them while I bought water. When I got back, Mellisa and Jackson were talking to Kendra. Their flight was supposed to leave at 1:11.

When we first decided to join the trip, I asked Mellisa what flight they were on. They were flying United through Chicago. We’ve had repeated bad experiences with United, especially through Chicago. So instead, we flew US Air through Miami and back through Charlotte. We hung out at that gate until they boarded around 2:15. They were later rerouted through Indiana when they couldn’t land in Chicago. They had to sit on the plane until they could refuel and be ready to land in Chicago. They were originally scheduled to land at around 7:30, but finally landed after 1:00 AM. Fortunately, their flight to Lexington had been delayed enough that they hadn’t missed their connection. Unfortunately, after midnight, baggage check and security are closed, and they had to go through a special gate, where they had to throw away all of the liquids in their checked bag. They finally landed in Lexington around 3:45 AM, with two bags with broken handles, and a puncture in the checked bag that damaged Mellisa’s BCD.

Our trip was a lot smoother. I had paid extra for priority boarding, which paid off on these full flights. We were delayed by a different United flight blocking our gate. We took off about 20 minutes late on our US Air flight. By the time we landed, we had just over an hour until our next flight. We got off and passed through customs quickly, but the entire flight had to wait over 20 minutes for our checked bags. We rushed through to recheck our bags, and hurried to our gate. Fortunately, it was in the same concourse, so we grabbed some pizza and water, and found some seats next to our gate. We managed to take about 2 bites before boarding was called, and we were the first to board. We ate our dinner before take-off. On the plane there were people coughing in the two rows in front of us and the two rows behind us. I put on a mask and pressed it to fit my face completely for the whole trip. I did not drink or eat. Paranoid? Maybe. But I was tired of getting sick from every trip that we take. We landed on time in Louisville, took a taxi to Kendra’s apartment, and I drove home.

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