I am just sat watching a storm come in. Our tent is right on the beach, any closer and the tide would get us. Rachael has just been on numerous trips picking up plastic from the beautiful beach, but I will backtrack and explain how we got here.
We started the day with another Costa Rican breakfast. I have got really good ordering our Pinto con queso con platones con cafe negro con natural papaya con agua. Yes lots of with this with this etc but it gets us through.
We met a lovely young married couple that said they met on a cycle tour. It was very nice speaking with them, they loved the tandem idea.
There was no breeze like yesterday so we were soaked to the bone in sweat even after a couple of mile. So we stopped for early morning ice lollies.
Spirits were high, we were off to the coast. We went past some more cute little calves.
We hear a roar coming from the forest quite often. It sounds like you are in Jurassic Park. We have found out where the noise is coming from, it is the Howler Monkey. If you want to know what it sounds like click this link. They make crazy noise!
https://youtube.com/shorts/ACsNseXjndc?si=MtiX6oNOeCeRLrlG
We were riding along content that the mileage to the first beach was quite small. We turned off the main road when we saw a sign. We were both expecting it to be a few hundred metres at most after seeing the sign. It was about another two miles of crazy incline climbing in no shade in crazy heat.
We were both really feeling at our wits end. Then we made the final climb and rolled down to the beach. It was a lovely location, but we were both shocked at the amount of litter especially plastic bottles. Most of the bottles are what get washed up.
We had a bite to eat and a drink. Rachael attempted to climb for coconuts.
Our next beach and spot for the night had great reviews and we were only two miles away, up and down a very big hill.
We got to the campsite/cabina/restaurant and it was perfect. We got settled with our tent right near the water.
We got in the water and it was really warm, like bath temperature warm.
We then got sorted and had some food. They are some really cute chickens and dogs at the site.
Rachael read her book in the hammocks.
This is classed as the rainy season in Costa Rica, but not many people know that they have a mini summer called the veranillo. It lasts from mid July to mid August. We think we might be coming to the end of the veranillo as thunderstorms have been forecast for the next few evenings. Even if we are coming towards the end of the mini summer another misconception is that it rains most of the time in the ‘normal’ rainy season, but most of the time it is just an hour in the late afternoon. So we should still have some good beach time over the next couple of weeks.
As we were sat chilling we noticed the tide going out and what remained shocked us, more plastic bottles and mini bits of plastic like what we saw on the other beach.
Rachael did multiple trips but it would take a group of people days to clear. Still the small micro bits would remain.
We are the only ones on the beach, but once the ride comes in and out again there will be hundreds more bits of trash.
As we move towards the more expensive touristy places I am sure the beaches will be clean or people would not spend big money to holiday there, but it is a shame that small natural beauty spots like this are getting devastated by the actions of others and maybe even other countries.
So back to the storm, it is rolling in and the views are disappearing. Rachael has a picture of me looking out at the storm and contemplating the day we have had. The owners asked us if we wanted to move the tent into the restaurant. We umm and arrh for a bit but then decide that it might be easier packing up with everything dry.
Tomorrow we will get to Tambor. It is on the beach, hopefully it will be just as lovely as these but without the washed up debris.
The storm is now right above us the thunder is crazy and the lightening show is cool.
