Day 5: Thursday, April 4: Witch’s Rock and Ollie’s Point

Lynn stayed at the hotel. Her stomach was still iffy and all day in a small boat might not work so well. The boys and I did the Witch’s Rock Surf Camp thing.

We hopped in the 4Runner at about 5:10 in the morning. We turned too early where the map says “Right at intersection.” (Real specific, huh?) So we went about thirty minutes up and back a road for nothing. Eventually we made it to Playas del Coco and WRSC. Here’s the map we were following. This time it was a pre-fab map that had been photocopied. It was actually pretty easy to follow once we got the correct first right turn.

When we got there, they gave us toast or cereal to carry with us, and we got right on one of two boats, about 24’ long but narrow.

Juan Carlos was our skipper. Stephanie and Brian, from Park City, Utah, were also on board. Stephanie had lived on Folly Beach.

Forty-five minutes to Witch’s Rock. The ride was rough but beautiful. Strong current. A couple of peaks, so the surfers were reasonably spread out. The break got bigger as we stayed. I ruined the binoculars here; the ziplock bag leaked. Damn! The binoculars were the most useful thing I brought on the trip. The sand was soft at the mouth of the river. Crocodiles stay up the rivers in the dry season. Good!

Lucas is in perfect position on this wave. Nice ride! By the way, these waves are a lot bigger than they seem in the photos.

On to Ollie’s Point, another 60 minutes further north up the coast. Nice point break. Not crowded at first. Only boats got to Witch’s and Ollie’s. Stayed at Ollie’s for the rest of the day. Nice bay. The boys had fun and got tired.

The ride back was 90 minutes of hell! ROUGH! I had to stand up front for boat balance and hang onto the anchor line like a bull-riding rein. Very difficult and tiring. I had to tell Juan Carlos to slow down at one point.

Once back to Playas del Coco, we drove back to Tamarindo without any trouble. At one point along the way we had to drive through a small herd of steers that were being driven along the road. Elliott rolled down his window and slapped one of the big fellas right on the butt. We made it “home” tired but happy.

last revised 4/14/02