Almost Paradise

Friday, January 24, 2003

School’s out at noon, and I find Spencer. With me are 8 other friends. He gives me a funny look. I ask him why. He says, “Are you ready?” and points to a little two door taxi he had arranged. His boards are on top of the car. Uh oh, I am thinking.

“I thought this was an open invite? So I, um, told a bunch of people?” I feel uncomfortable and weird. Everyone is looking at me, as they shuffle their bags (and boards).

“I thought we were renting a bus?” I am cringing at myself. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I wasn’t thinking, I guess.

Spencer rolls with it. “No worries. I’ll ask the driver if he has any friends with a bigger a car.”

An hour later a van pulls up and we all pile in, with 5 boards on top of the car.

It’s a 2 hour plus drive to Nosara, and we roll in just as it’s getting dark. I can tell Spencer was not too excited to pull into this little surf town with a bunch of people. But we are all hungry and so he has the driver drop us off at one of the few restaurants in town. Cafe de Paris.

We walk in with boards and backpacks. There is a table with about 20 gringos around it….in yoga clothes and smelling of incense and massage oil. They are drinking juices and teas.

Spencer walks straight to the bar and orders a shot of guaro. I follow suit. And apologize for opening my mouth and inviting so many people. He’s over it. He has moved on to the moment. So we take a few shots of guaro and then eat pizza.

The annual rodeo happens to be in town this weekend. We pay the bill and make moves to try and hitchhike (all 10 of us) into the pueblo. I remember walking on this dark dusty road (I still hadn’t seen the beach) and thinking, Where the hell am I?!”  A car pulls over, only has room for a few people. I tell Spencer and a few other people to go ahead- I just want to find a place to stay for the night. Spencer says he is going to just crash in a hammock at a hotel called Harmony. He knows the security guard or something. At the fork in the road- he hops into the car, and some of my friends and I head towards the beach to try and find a place to stay. We wander around and every place we check is full. They tell us to walk  to a place called Almost Paradise in Playa Pelada. We arrive there an hour later, still haven’t seen the beach. Or a reason why you’d really want to come to this place. Now it’s 10 PM. They don’t have enough beds for all of us….so we crash, some of us on the floor and hope that the morning will shine some light on this place called Nosara.