Bus, Boat, Beaches

Thursday was the other excursion day. Ernani had hired an excursion that picked us up in the front of the hotel entrance and took us the 75K to Las Galeras.

Three other Germans (2 teachers, Andrea and  Brigitte, and Andrea's husband Chris who barely talked) were on the bus with us. As Amelia amused herself meeting the passengers, I took in the scenery. Amelia made friends quickly of course and I marveled at the hills. I was on the hillside and took in the houses, coconut fields, baseball fields, chickens, cows, horses, cement walls and signs to Limon. As we got closer to Las Galeras, the other side of the bus had the ocean and we saw it beating up against rocks with sprays of beauty.

We saw a bridge to nowhere and a wonderful sculpture of a humpbacked whale in town.

At Las Galeras, we meet our tour guide and headed to the boat and driver. We were nervous about Amelia being on a boat on the Ocean. Once we decided to avoid the really big waves,  we were in 5 meter waves on the boat, we were off and headed for three beaches and lunch.

The boat ride was one of my favorite parts as we went up and down again and again. It reminded me how much I miss being on the water. I loved every minute and Amelia loved it too. So we were lucky. Our driver was very good and would slow down and go parallel to the waves when he could.

I cannot remember the name of the first beach, but it was lovely. We motored in and found a place in the shade to drop off our stuff. A coconut tree had fallen into the water and hung just above the waves. At one point our German friends used it like a see-saw, and Ernani and Amelia enjoyed that as well. Amelia was immediately all about the sand, and as Ernani and she played, I walked up the beach away from civilization.

The reef rock came right up to the beach and I saw little fish darting around. I almost turned back time and time again, but I wanted to see just a little more before I got Amelia and Ernani. Together we combed the beach and Amelia found some great shells.

We did buy a coconut sweet bread from a lady on the beach as well.

If felt like we stayed there a long time and I could have stayed forever.

Our next beach destination was actually a freshwater river that flowed into the ocean. We docked on the beach and walked barefoot avoiding glass about 1.5 miles inland to a river. The water was too cold for Amelia, but the idea was to snorkel and swim down the river to the ocean. I stayed with Amelia and we walked back to the beach with our guides stopping along the way to watch to see if our friends and Ernani were coming down the river okay at points along the side of the river.

At one of these points, a group of locals with their 3 boys and a baby were hanging out. The boys were swinging into the river off trees. Crabs and fish were abundant in the rivers.

We meet up with our group at the ocean to motor to our next beach where we had lunch. Lunch was served on a beachside restaurant. We slept, walked up and down the ocean, enjoyed the view of the high cliffs on either side of us that spread out into the ocean, and we got in our van to head back to our homes.