Hung over in Costa Rica.

9:00am

It's mid-morning on Easter Sunday and I am lounging lazily on the patio hammock, with a cup of hot chocolate and soothing flemenco guitar music emanating from the Macbook. Amber's gone for a surf and should be back any minute, unless the waves are really good.

I've got a massive headache from drinking too much last night. Paul and Gina brought a bottle of red wine and vodka mixed with carbonated water over and we got pretty boozed by the end of the night. We got talking about what New York was like and what we could do when we were up there. Knowing that we have friends in New York has multiplied our excitement of visiting a hundredfold!

We prepared onion omelette with chopped green beans, eggplant, 

zucchini and red cabbage with rice for our vegetarian friends.

5:06pm now and just back from a surf. It was pretty gnarly out there and only one other surfer besides me. Since Amber went for a surf this morning, she didn't bring her board out with her this time. She caught me with the Lumix catching some waves. I'm still far from being comfortable out there, but am feeling more confident each time I come back in from a surf.

I thought I had caught a big one here but it fizzled out soon after I got to my feet.

Most of my surfing has been done on white wash like this one which I'm pretty comfortable doing now.

I think I need to move on to a short board.

This is when I've had enough and decide to come back in to shore.

It's strange, but the part I am enjoying the best about learning how to surf is the big paddle out past the crashing waves. My shoulders burn out pretty quick, and I've learnt that it's more about endurance then anything else. Hint for all you newbies: paddle with your shoulder rotator cuff, not your arms! The waves on this part of Santa Teresa are big and El Torpe is too thick to be doing duck dives on, so to get past each wave I have to go under and turn the board upside down. It's a workout! And I'm learning to work with the ocean than against it.

We're getting used to having pasta with chopped sausages, with a side of veggies drenched in olive oil. It's cheap, healthy, easy to make, and oh so delicious! Check out the double portion I had for lunch today. YUM!

We've decided to rent an ATV (quad) this week to explore our surrounds. Time is starting to fly. We've got less than 3 weeks left in Costa Rica!