Sabrosa
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These are a few of the pictures I took on a trip to Costa Rica the summer before last and finally got around to uploading. Unfortunately, Whodini's picture could not be shown....he mentioned something about a potential conflict with his underwear modeling contract... We flew into San Jose and rented a car to drive down to Pavones for surfing. Although the waves there definitely aren't the largest in Costa Rica, when the conditions are right the point break is the second longest left breaking wave in the world.
This is the dirt road you take to go down south after leaving Jaco. It's about 4 hours of driving on a dirt and gravel road with no lanes and telephone/electrical poles all over the place. I think at about hour 3 the antenna on our car snapped off from all the vibrations.
Once you get close to Pavones you have to take this extraordinarily safe looking ferry across a river. It's basically a sheet of steel with pontoons and is attached to each side of the river by wire cables. It was easy enough to cross when we were coming down, but on the way back it had been raining so much that the river was flooded and they were loosing control of the ferry. With the current being that strong it took them going back and forth 4 or 5 times to reach the landing on the other side.
Pavones beach from the mountains/hills you cross on the way into the town.
The actual point break at Pavones is the spot that it is most well known for and is usually quite crowded when the waves are good. We had a friend who lives in town and took us to some of the breaks the locals use. The is an example of one of them after a short hike through the jungle. The break is right around the corner up ahead.
Since it's still somewhat hard to get to and secluded there is some really great land available up in the hills above Pavones. I'm standing at the edge of one of the plots. This could be the view from your back porch...
We met the guy who owns this house hanging out at a local cantina. He lives in this house for six months out of the year and his house in Maui the other six months. He has a 12 year old son who is home schooled and is well on his way to being a professional surfer...slightly jealous...
I don't know if anyone is familiar with professional surfers, but this is Ashley Lopez, Cory Lopez's sister. They have a house in Pavones that her and her mom were staying at while we were there. Unfortunately, she decided to go to FSU over UF because she thought it would be more fun...oh well, no 100 person beer bong for her.
This is a shot of the Poas volcano outside of San Jose. We decided to take the mountain route back to San Jose instead of the dirt trail.