Laid Up On The East Cape

The fog around our truck as I write this

There's nothing like a foggy, windy day to inspire an uninspiring blog post.  Our last post was over a month ago, so I thought I would check in.  For the most part, the past month has been spent either watching people surf (me doing the watching) or surfing (Scott).  Last month, the day before we posted our most recent blog update, I smashed my foot while kiteboarding.  I tried to jump over a breaking wave and upon landing, one foot came out of the footstrap, leaving the other in a twisted contorted mess as I hit the water.

This jump was more successful

A week later, getting sick of sitting around watching people enjoy the water and waves, I decided to try paddleboarding in the seemingly small waves.  During an unfortunately big set, the 10 foot 30 pound paddleboard struck the inside of my knee.  I am still recovering from both injuries.  Just last week I was able to start kiteboarding and surfing.

Scott surfing, Heather reading, recovering, and hanging out with "Whitemeat"

We've spent 90% of the past couple months at a surf beach called "La Fortuna".  Due to the fact that it isn't the best wave in the area, it doesn't get very crowded, which is why we chose it.  As we were camped there, we met lots of local surfers as well as people who flew in for short surf vacations.  We met Justin and Mary, a young couple from Ventura -- Mary is a pro surfer and Justin is a photographer for Patagonia among others.  Pretty nice way to travel and make a living, huh?  We also met Fred, a hydrologist from Sacramento, who has been going on Latin American surf trips since before I was born.  I wish I had gotten a pic of Ben, Bo, and Scott, the "LA guys" who have been traveling to La Fortuna for the past 20 years, and are good friends with a guy we surfed with in New Zealand--small world! Ben surprised us with a bag of Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Pretzels after I went on and on about how much we miss TJ's and the PB pretzels.  We never got a chance to say goodbye to them -- such a bummer.

Scott chatting with Justin and Mary, Fred saying goodbye after his whirlwind 1-week vacay on the East Cape 

I know how you feel buddy

"Whitemeat" is the name we have given to the local, sweet-natured pitbull who visits us when his owner is out boogie boarding.  I asked his owner, Juan, what his name was but couldn't understand and/or pronounce it, so "Whitemeat" it is.  He howls and moans when Juan is in the water and occasionally makes the swim out through the waves to be near him.  So precious.