Me Gusta Mal Pais

Journal Entry
April 6, 2006
Mal Pais, Costa Rica

Homesickness is finished, at least for the next few days and hopefully for the rest of my trip.

We took the long, bumpy, windy, remote roads down top the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula and Mal Pais, and it took about 20 minutes for me to love it here. The waves are huge, although apparently we arrived at the peak of a big swell. We got here just in time for a beautiful sunset. Big, round and bright orange dropping fast into a clear horizon as set after set of huge waves crashed into shore.


the beauty of a sunset over the surf in mal pais

Checked into Frank's Place and immediately hit it off with our neighbours Mike (Canadian, Toronto) and Hans (Swiss). The four of us have been a team ever since. Mike and I have had a lot to talk about as he's a photographer and our industries, though different, share a lot of similarities. He also just happens to have a sweet camera with a huge (100-400mm) lens that I've been lucky enough to have my hands on every morning as I am now the resident surfing photographer. I haven't slept later than 5am any morning since I've been here and it's made for some long, full and oh so wonderful days. Although it reminds me of the camera I lost in Frisco, I'm absolutely loving this chance to play with such a nice piece of equipment. In fact, at the moment, I'm lying on the beach. The sun rose about an hour ago and I'm just gearing up for another round of shots of the boys, who are already on the water. As much as I want to keep writing the pull of the camera is stronger and I can't deny it!

---------------LATER---------------------

I've been out every morning since I got here taking photos of Mike and Hans surfing, okay mostly Mike cause Hans doesn't seem to be catching many waves, and I have to say I've taken some pretty nice shots. It takes as much patience for me to get a shot as it does for the guys to catch a nice wave, because they have to be riding for me to be shooting. This morning, neither was happening. There were some really nice waves coming into shore but I guess they were too hard to read because none of the surfers on the water seemed to be doing much more than chillin and paddling. So, this morning was an excellent practice in patience. So, didn't really get any surfing shots today but I sure did get some sun. For 8am it was incredibly hot and it looks like it will continue that way for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, Mike rented a quad (ATV) and we tok off for the afternoon on a photo and fruit picking expedition. It was amazing! We went to a little, rural area Rio Negro, about 20 kms out of town. Mike wanted to get some pics of local kids. Of course there's always a challenge in that idea. His thing is portraits but any photographer who wants portraits of strangers has to get comfortable with the idea if approaching people and asking for it, a task only made harder with a language barrier.


mike and the quad on a road in the middle of nowhere

It was a task, however, that we very much relished and completed very successfully. It was the kind of day that I dream about when travelling. We took the quad down some extemely remote roads and found local families hanging out on a beautiful day. The kids will always come out at the sight of a couple gringos pulling up out of nowhere and we were pleasantly surprised at how incredibly friendly they all were. Friendly and equally interested in us as we were in them. We met, and took pictures, with 3 different families of children and with all of them we had a blast. I got to use my Spanish plenty, in my opinion kids make the best people to practice with, and Mike got a lot of really great portraits.

In between portrait sessions we stopped to pick fruits and nuts from the trees alongside the road and drove down into the, mostly dry, riverbed of Rio Negro to cool our feet in the small remaining pools of the season. It was a last minute plan that proved to be a perfect way to spend an afternoon.


pulled up into the fairly dry rio negro riverbed

Today, Hans and Rob have rented quads as well and we are all taking off to explore the waterfalls of Montezuma and, at least for Mike and I, a mission for more photos with that certain "je ne sais quoi" that truly captures the nature of teh country and its people.