Dominical

Considering how late we stayed up the night before, it was no wonder that we slept in the following morning. Not to worry, all we had to do is cross the dirt road to make it onto the beach. Eventually we all gathered together and formed a base camp in one section of the beach, close enough to the van, in case we ever needed anything. A new addition to our group was Jorge, a student from San Jose, spending his holidays in Dominical. Our day was spent like many others, consisting of sitting in the sun, reading, swimming and/or surfing, depending on one’s preference. Audrey and I had to take a trip to the bank, which entailed crossing the entire village and walking over one kilometer, but we shouldn’t complain since at least there is a bank machine in town. We started complaining when the bank machine was not working. Brendan wanted to go inside of the bank to figure things out, but he couldn’t get in since he didn’t have a t-shirt, so Jorge lent him his. I joined him inside, but not before being frisked by the security guard and checked with a metal detector – they are serious about the security here… at least in banks. Brendan still couldn’t do anything inside the office, since he didn’t have his passport on him, but luckily as we came outside again, the bank machine was working, so our problems were solved.

On our way back to the beach we stopped by the merchants’ stalls and looked at all the bracelets, sarongs, earrings and other jewelry. Once we were back on the beach, there was only one thought to carry through – let’s jump in the water. We quickly understood what Danne was referring to when he told us his broken surf board story the night before. These were by far the biggest waves I had seen in my life, some at least twice my height if not more. There were times when I couldn’t control which was I would be tossed around, simply making sure that I had my arms in front of my so that I wouldn’t hit the ground head first. The current was so strong that every few minutes we had to make an effort to return to the area close to the lifeguards, just to make sure that we were safe. The lifeguards even had a jet sky at their disposal, in case someone got sucked out by the current. I was also told by a surfing instructor, who happened to be paying special attention to one of his students who was surfing topless, that the previous week two people drowned as they were sucked out by the current and panicked. We all received our fair warning.

After all the effort of fighting the current, I got back to the beach, and though I tried to immerse myself in the book I was reading, I promptly fell asleep for a while. As I was trying to wake up, still have dozing off, I opened one eye and looked towards the street. I know that walk, I said to myself, then quickly computed what I was observing: that was Kellie walking down right in front of our hotel, I was sure of it! I snuck up behind her and surprised both her and Eric, since they thought that I would have headed back to Puerto Viejo after Bocas. Stranger things have happened, but this is yet another chance encounter of which I have had so many so far on this trip. Both of them check in to the same hotel we were staying, and after the normal introductions, our group grew to nine (ten if you count Suzie, who should be counted! Lol).

By this point in the afternoon, the little headache had turned into one massive problem; I first suspected being a bit hung-over, progressing to sunstroke and dehydration. What mattered was getting some painkillers to take it all away. Luckily Kellie gave me a few prescription pain killers, and about 20 minutes after taking them I began to feel some relief. So much so in fact that I suggested that we go out to dinner, since I really needed to fill my stomach with something. So Eric, Kellie and I went over to the restaurant, but by the time we got there I already started to feel nauseated. Doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure our that taking strong painkillers on an empty stomach is not a good idea, yet here I was dealing with the consequences. I could barely touch a few fries, then got my sandwich to go, apologizing to Eric and Kellie for being such a bad company for the evening, then needed to retreat back to the room for a nap, which I thought it would be the best thing for me considering the circumstances. I asked a number of friends for wake up calls, and even though it was in spurts, I managed to get a good hour and a half of sleep, waking up refreshed and renewed, and most of all hungry. I devoured that sandwich in no time, impressed with how good it was even though it was cold.

I made my way onto the beach, where the bonfire was in full swing, and everyone was gathered around the fire, either sitting on stools or chairs or air mattresses, and there was the perfect party atmosphere – people broke off in smaller groups, but always migrating from one to the other, so the cohesiveness of the group was always maintained. We had the mac cranked up with music from iTunes, and spent the night listening to tunes while feeding the fire, having a few drinks and telling humorous stories. Even in the silence between songs or jokes, we could hear the huge waves breaking off not too far from us.

We decided to stay in Dominical for another day, since Jorge had told us about the possibility of whales making their way up the coast the following evening. Had fresh breakfast from the previous night’s dinner leftovers, but the curry rice tasted even better the next day. After we eat, I headed up with Brendan and Audrey to the internet café, where I found out the exorbitant price of $4 for an hour of internet. Needless to say that I was very quick, and spent the rest of my time looking for the phone number of Costa Linda, the hostel in Manuel Antonio, and though I found it, we still couldn’t get through. We had forgotten that as of Mar 20, a number 2 would have to be added to every phone number in Costa Rica. We again spent most of the day at the beach, and once Kellie brought out her waterproof camera, we went into the waves and clowned around like we were little kids, taking videos and pictures of us acting silly. Towards the end of the afternoon, I joined Dana, Paula, Kellie and Eric at the happy hour of one of the Mexican restaurants in town. Aside from the happy hour drinks, this is where we had the famous exploding hot sauce incident… I feel the need to elaborate…This plastic bottle of really hot chilly pepper sauce had been baking in the sun for quite a while, and as Paula reaches to open it, we hear a muffled sound followed almost immediately by a shower of wet, spicy, burning particles. By this point I had read way too many action novels, so I automatically pictured being the character next to the victim, who gets to experience the splatter of the blood. While the victim was Paula, this was only an attack with hot sauce, though it did burn severely on burnt skin and open bug bites. Poor Paula had to run the the washroom to wash off the spicy sauce, but like a true sport, she returned to finish her taco. I caved in and got a taco as well (despite the previous experience), though Dana and I were both very cautious about opening that bottle again. After our late lunch, we split up, as Dana and Paula went back to the camp, Eric and Kellie stayed to play ping pong, and I headed back up to the internet café for a very quick stop.

As I made my way back to the beach, I ran into Brendan and Aaron, both of whom were the proud new owners of machetes, which will come in really handy in cutting off wood for the first. Excited to try the new toys, we went back to the camp, and set up a fire and had one of the best meals I have had on this trip. We all pooled together resources and made a buffet dinner, complete with fresh fruit, and everything your heard desires. We were in awe of the meal we were able to pull together, and for a while there was absolute silence as everyone was devouring their dinner. What better ending to such a good dinner? Soon after we finished, we started seeing fireworks on the beach, not far away from us at all – we already knew that the was a birthday party on the beach first then moving to a club (the Mexican restaurant we were at in the afternoon) but we never expected fireworks! What followed was about a half an hour of constant fireworks, so close we could see them exploding right over our heads. Much better as any Festival of Fire where you see them from at least 1km away. We were right in the middle of things. Luckily Aaron had his camera with him, and I will have to bug him for some pictures and videos so I can place some up here. Overall, it was a great way to sign off our visit to Dominical. We retreated back to our fire, where we continued our party, with jokes, drinking games, and Dana talking not only about her famous ‘double clicking the mouse’ but also making up acronyms for the strangest sayings… I have to remember what they were!). As usual, as one by one everyone went to sleep, I was the last one out, so I grabbed my reading light and my book and sat on the patio by the hotel reading for a while. All this time I was watching the traffic stumbling its way back from the clubs and bars throughout Dominical.