Costa Rica

Our first stop in Costa Rica was two nights in San Jose. Philipp finally decided that, yes, his toothache was now bad enough to make a trip to the dentist reasonable. Anna and Madlein,our German hosts, were so supportive and even treated us to an evening of "Tatort"- a little bit of "home" in San Jose! :)
The dentist concluded that a root canal therapy was neccessary, which took us a whole day at the dentists and a trip back to San Jose a week later because of complications during the first treatment...Philipp is now well and trying to avoid Coke and sweeties. Yupp, that´s right!

Good old root canal...

Punta Banco
A long bus trip to the southern border took us to Rancho Burica in Punta Banco, near the famous surfbreak of Pavones. The ranch is literally the "last stop" of the local bus and from that point on there is only jungle and the indiginous reserve of the Guaymí. And rain. Alot of rain! It rained every day for 5 days, and the wind made the surfbreak at our front door choppy and unkind. So it was books and Tico home cookin´ that kept us happy- but for the first time also a little homesick!
Highlight was no doubt our horseback ride with Wilber along the deserted beach and into the thick and slippery jungle. We saw parrots, monkeys, and -our favourite- peresosos!
On the last 2 days we finally got some surf in and Philipp was awarded his first in a lifetime barrel for his patience :). 

El Señor Peresoso.

Playa Negra
Our favorite! surfspot as of now lies just north of the Peninsula Nicoya, not far from the well known Tamarindo. The bus driver dropped us off at the main dirt road and pointed us toward a smaller dirt road...which we followed and found a small surf lodge with little cabinas for rent. Just about 5 minutes walk from the surfbreak. And wow, after our first evening surf with the sunset, the following days treated us to shoulder height waves getting bigger and bigger every day to double overhead barrels! We surfed, surfed, ´til we could surf no more and have some progress to show for it (see pics).

Our stay was very quiet otherwise. We cooked for ourselves alomost every night and hit the (only) local sportsbar for the Mavericks final game and some nachos. We befriended the labrador and her two pups at the lodge and Karoline went to yoga regularly in hopes to find the Zen for those big a** waves. Our initially planned 4 days turned into 15...who wants to join us for our next trip to Playa Negra?

Philipp and Karoline

Santa Barbara

It's been two weeks since California, but here are some impressions for y'all: at first culture shock finding ourselves drinking beer and eating hummus on a sailboat at sunset on our first evening! Ole, an old friend of Philipp's from Flensburg, lives in Santa Barbara and he and his girlfriend Sarah were awesome hosts for our 3 weeks stay there. We met up with Karos' brother Henning and his friends for a camping trip to Jalama for a weekend - a campsite at the end of a long winding road to the ocean through the hills. Campfires, Dosenbier, a freezing cold ocean, a very tasty Jalama burger, and too much wind for surf, unfortunately...but just perfect for sailing of course! :) We hiked in the hills of Montecito, took a trip down the coast to Malibu, enjoyed sunset a Lizard's Mouth overlooking the ocean, hung out with Ole and Sarah at the fireplace, snuggled into our tent on the porch in the evenings, and ate way too many hamburgers and others greasy American food!

Sailing on our first evening with Ole.

 At the harbour in Santa Barbara.

 Sunset at Lizard's Mouth.

 Midnight hotdog delight at the gas station.

 Our cozy little tent.

 Sailing on Dr. Laura's boat Katana.

 Camping in Jalama.

 At the beach.

Thank you, Sarah and Ole, for making our stay in California so memorable. Our time was too short to get all the cool things done we had planned...we will be back, for sure!