Day 4: The Howlers are far away today. Still, I get up early to watch the sunrise one more time and walk the beach. It is beautiful as it has been every morning. Is it always like this? Rain comes in the afternoon during the rainy season, so maybe mornings are always beautiful. It’s a nice thought: to think about these early mornings on this beach, with its beautiful sunrises when I’m back home in the cold of February in the great Northeast. There will be no paddling today. We will pack up to leave for San Jose, a six-hour trip, after breakfast.
Eventually, I wander into camp and slide into a seat at the coffee table. I will miss this quiet early morning ritual and the excellent Costa Rican coffee. I munch on my last Costa Rican Ho-Ho (a treat I can live without). Matthew and Cheryl have already taken their places in the hammocks near the beach. They are deeply engrossed in their respective books. The dogs lazily drift in and out of camp as they and we all wait for breakfast to appear. Cris, our guide, appears and tells us that breakfast will be at eight o’clock and that we must be packed and ready to board the bus by nine.
After finishing a second cup of coffee, I head for the tent where Lisa and I begin packing our duffel for the trip home. Many things are damp or wet and will have to come out of the bag when we get back to our hotel. Breakfast is announced and we all gather. That’s when Tara emerges from her tent with her amazing fat lip! We speculate that it’s from yesterday’s sun, but it seems to have affected only her lower lip. She has an incredible pout as a result. (Don’t have a picture. Wish I did. You have to see it to believe it.)
While we were eating, a Windstar cruise ship quietly motored into the bay and anchored a mile or so off the beach. A Windstar is essentially a big square rigged motor sailor – a sailing cruise ship. It was beautiful, silent and stately at a distance. We watched as the crew launched Zodiac after Zodiac, mooring each one in line against the ship. When eight or ten were in the water, everything stopped. We knew that when the guests had finished their breakfast, boatloads of passengers would disembark onto our peaceful beach and the magic of this place would be broken.
It was Matthew’s 40th birthday and Cris improvised a creditable birthday cake from three large pancakes with evaporated milk frosting. He even found a candle! We all sang happy birthday while Matthew blew it out. Then we sampled the cake. To our surprise, it was quite good!
After breakfast, we gathered everyone for a group photo. Matthew and I set up our cameras on timed release and both got some good shots. Then it was finish packing, lug the bags to the bus, take one last look around, then board and head on down the road to Paquera and the ferry to Puntaranas. Thankfully, the cruise ship folks were still on their boat.
The trip back was uneventful. We said goodbye to Cheryl and Tarra in Puntaranas. They were taking public transportation to the Cloud Forest further north. We stopped at the same Costa Rican restaurant, this time for lunch. Lisa and I did some shopping. Top row: Don, Jason, Matthew, Chris. Middle row: Lisa, Cheryl, Cris, our guide, Tarra, Michelle. Seated on the ground, Louis, a guide.
Several people slept as we drove on the last leg of the trip to San Jose. I took time to think about all the folks I’d met; Cheryl and Tarra, wonderful young women, so open and full of adventure; Matthew and Jason, whose behavior helped to normalize committed gay relationships in our eyes; Chris and Michelle, the Montanans, anxious to go home to their two young children after escaping winter for a few days together. And the Costa Rican Crew; Cris Cerdas, our head guide, a man for whom I have great respect; his assistant and life long friend, Louis, a sweet and friendly man who always joined us for meals; Carlos the young hot-shot paddler with an eye for the girls; and Capitan, our panga pilot, fisherman and all around handyman, strong and tough as gristle, and just a little crazy! What great people. If it’s a good trip, people are always the best part. And this was a good trip.
We were each dropped off at our respective hotels, a couple at a time, in the reverse order of our pickup four days earlier. We said our goodbyes, headed for the showers and on to the rest of out trip, different for every pair.
