Costa Rica

I had the privilege of spending the last 2 weeks in Costa Rica. There were a lot of amazing Costa Rica hammock spots. It was an unforgettable experience. From zip lines and water rafting next to a volcano in the mountain jungles to cliff jumping. Followed by horseback riding on the beach in the rain on some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Each of these beaches contained hundreds of trees, perfect for strapping up a hammock and hanging in the afternoon breeze for a nice Hobo Hammock nap.

I was there for just 9 days, but each of these days was packed absolutely full of adventures. One such adventure came one night after some fine dancing at a club on the beach. Our crew decided we needed to get some midnight skinny dipping in so we all ran down the street towards the beach at a full spring.  As we approached the water we ripped our clothes off and ran across the pitch black midnight sky into the water, which immediately began to light up from the bioluminescent plankton residing therein. Then we turned our eyes toward the sky to see shooting stars falling every few seconds. As I stood naked in the ocean, surrounded by bioluminescent plankton and shooting stars, I realized that life is pretty cool.  We left the water after about a half hour of swimming.

Immediately after coming out of the water, we ran into 4 local police officers. These officers were a bit on the corrupt side and began bullying us, telling us that this was not a nude beach and that we would have to give them our passports and be detained for at least a week. I was the only one present who spoke Spanish, and I told them that a week was not a possibility as people had jobs to get back to. They told me the only other choice was to pay the “fine” to the 4 police officers, which happened to be a nice round $400. We were taken into the police station and asked us if we had any drugs on us. They had a bag of marijuana on the counter top in their police station. We were legitimately concerned that the police were going to try and plant the drugs on us and say it was ours. They searched us for drugs, after which we told the police that we only had $190, and they said that would work.

I asked for a receipt, but they couldn’t find any violations under the swimming naked category so they told me they couldn’t print a receipt for us. We walked away that night $190 poorer, but now possessed an incredible story to share with the world. It was worth the trade-off!

Another highlight was when I branched off on my own to go for a 6 mile run on the beach. I was 2 miles in, and I came across some locals playing beach soccer who asked me to join in. We played for an hour and had a blast just blending in with the locals doing what they do. I then finished my run and ended up on a majestic rock overlooking two huge beaches at Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Hammock Spot

As elegantly illustrated by a member of our Costa Rica crew, here’s a summary of the trip:

Costa Crew 2015. We white water rafted class four rapids, and zip lined through the foggy jungle. Afterwards we sang our hearts out at karaoke, and drank more smoothies than we could count. Nelson knew us by name where we ate our weight in casados. The crew galloped horseback on a beach, and made some new friends. We danced the nights away, paddle boarded in the ocean, and kayaked around islands.

Somebody also stalked us for a while. We took a friend to the hospital. The police charged us a fee for skinny dipping (Bribery), and crashed a rental car into a semi. And everybody had diarrhea.

I think it’s safe to say we’ve had the real Costa Rican experience ????