19May14
Just north of Sámara is a small beach called Playa Barrigona. It’s known because it’s only accessible via a bumpy dirt road and because Mel Gibson lives/lived there. Fortunately, he wasn’t around when Jose, Chris and I biked over there.
This is the smoothest part of the road. We also had to bike through a small river. But it was worth the ride — probably 30 minutes, give or take, to get there. I couldn’t tell you how we got there since there was very little that was marked, but we took the main road towards Nosara, then followed the signs towards the Flying Crocodile Hotel, and then went a bit further past it. It’s really not very far, but the humidity encourages you to go slow. It’s like riding through the ocean. But when we arrived, we were rewarded with a nearly empty beach and some cool tide pools with slugs, sea urchins and more.
We were going to go fishing with Jose, but the waves were bigger than he’d anticipated, he said, so we just wandered around the rocks instead.
Afterwards, we ate our lunch and went over to the little estuary by the beach to see if we could do some fishing there. Jose brought a net so we could catch some sardines to use as bait.
He caught some sardines immediately, but once the lines were out, no bigger fish were biting. Plus, we were all pretty worn out from being in the sun for so long. The day started out overcast, but once that sun comes out it feels like you’re dying. All in all, we had a fun day.
Today, we’re in a bit of pain from bouncing up and down on our bike seats. We woke up early to head over to the language school, Intercultura, to get signed up for a couple weeks of Spanish classes. The campus is right on the beach.
They alternate between morning and afternoon classes, which is nice so we can vary our activities. There were a lot of students — more than in our school in Buenos Aires. They also have a firm rule about speaking Spanish at all times while on campus, which we appreciate a lot. More practice!
