I woke up kind of early this morning, followed by Barry, Hannah then Michael. Barry and Hannah went on out surfing, but Michael and I grabbed breakfast a little bit later with Warren and Torri. Breakfast, by the way, was mostly a bunch of very fresh fruit, and was very good. Soon after that the four of us went to Coconut Harry’s to rent some surfboards. Warren and Torri set up a time for her to take some surf lessons then the rest of us went out to surf. Torri took pictures.
We had so much fun surfing. Michael and I both caught some really nice waves and were able to turn and everything. A couple of the waves I caught this morning were, I’m pretty sure, the best I’ve ever caught. You could get on one and just ride it forever. At one point I was just standing on my board looking around. It was great. I sent a quick prayer to God and thanked him for letting humans figure out surfing. After one wave that I rode in almost to the shore a little local girl smiled and gave me a thumbs up!
After our surf session Michael, Hannah and I got in the pool for a few minutes. We heard howler monkeys way off in the distance! I want to actually see one, especially because Michael keeps saying that if he sees one he’s going to slap it in the face. The mental image of that and its aftermath is just awesome.
We came back in after a bit and jumped in the pool then just wasted a little time until lunch. I took some pictures around La Casa Romantica at that point, wherein I saw my first wild iguana. Warren pointed it out, up in a tree. After I finished taking some pictures I went to the place by the pool where Barry and Michael were and sat in a hammock. While I was there I saw another iguana. This one was much smaller, but it did eat a flower. After just a little bit we went to lunch at The Guilded Iguana and afterwards Barry, Michael, Hannah and I had some ice cream at Robin’s.
When we got back Michael and I found the Duke at Carolina game on Justin.tv. There was a little over sixteen minutes left in the first half and Carolina was up four points. Long story short, Carolina won 79-71 though the game had stayed closer than that the whole way. Tyler Hansbrough did miraculously foul out on his senior night. It was disappointing, but I think it would have been even more disappointing had I been watching it at home. I hadn’t had a chance for this game to build up for me, and really with the injuries Duke has had lately I wasn’t expecting them to win anyway. The fact that they kept it that close the whole time was encouraging to me too. I do owe Warren a beer now though, and he even gave me five points.
The only thing that really sucks is that if Duke won, they and Carolina would split the ACC regular season title, but Wake Forest won too and they both have the same record, and I think Wake somehow gets a two seed in the ACC tournament.
Anyhoo, after the game we went back out surfing. Michael, Hannah and I all got burned despite having put on suntan lotion earlier in the day. My face is pretty red, in fact. Barry gave me and Michael some SPF 50 to put on. Hopefully it won’t hurt tomorrow, because the waves should be like they were today and even though Barry and Warren want them to be bigger, they were much better than what we get at Wrightsville Beach and Michael and I both did well with them. We had fun with this evening’s session as well, but the sun was in our faces for quite a while.
I happened to catch Amanda on Facebook after we got back in, so I talked to her for a while, which was great to be able to do. I’ll post a transcript of it. Not long after I finished that we went to eat at… I forget the name of the place. It was a bit more American than other places, but it was good. Barry ordered some Chilean red wine which both Tori and I drank as well. Last time Barry had some of it he’d had some very vivid dreams, so the three of us are supposed to meet up in the dreamscape.
On the way back Hannah, Michael and I decided we were going to come up with a special chocolate candy. I can’t go too much into detail, but the jingle for it will go, “Good morning, Chocolate Starfish, good morning, good morning!” We had a pretty fun time with that.
Semi-speaking of, Hannah was able to go today, but I still haven’t even had to. And the whole putting toilet paper in the trash can, even though it has a lid on it, literally stinks once the day gets a bit warm. Kinda wish the cleaning crew would come earlier than they do. Michael posed a pretty good question when he asked what they do with the toilet paper. My suggestion was fertilizer.
Zach Dotsey