I'm Still Alive! Part 3

In which Rachel is indeed saved by a local and perhaps really did narrowly escape crocodiles.

I went down to the beach (Playa Buena Vista) on Thursday expecting some of the sisters to go surfing. I crossed the shallows where the river meets the ocean onto the main beach. The sisters ended up not coming, but I had fun walking on the beach and practicing the ukulele. What I didn't realize, however, was how deep the water gets at high tide since the river has completely reconnected to the ocean. I came back to the beach access to find that the shallowest point was more than chest deep, and I had a ukulele and camera that couldn't get wet. As I paced back and forth feeling but trying not to look like a completely idiotic tourist, I attracted the attention of a couple of local guys playing a board game and a foreign couple who had been watching the monkeys on the other side. All the while, the tide kept coming in and with each wave I felt more and more like a moron. Finally, one of the Ticos (Costa Rica locals) gestured to his friend that they should help me and started walking down the bank while calling to me that he'd help me across. His friend wasn't feeling as charitable and watched us from under the palm trees. The friendlier Tico waded down into the water which came up to his neck, and told me to hand him my stuff. He waded back with my bag and uke over his head while I swam across. “Me siento tonta…. Gracias… Muchas gracias…” “Mucho gusto, mucho gusto.” (“I feel so stupid… thank you… thank you very much…” “My pleasure, you’re welcome.”)

After I was safely back onshore, the couple who had been watching asked in Spanish “ Didn't you see the two crocodiles in the river before you crossed?” I said “No…. better that I didn't!”  

The man appeared to be pointing to some driftwood in the water, so we’ll never know if there actually were crocodiles or not… but there are some that live in the estuary upriver. I’m inclined to think that the Ticos would have seen them, though.

At any rate, I’m still alive and won’t be making any of those mistakes again.

The road to the beach

Playa Buena Vista

"Our beach"

"The earth does not belong to man-- Man belongs to the earth"

The underside of a barnacle?

Howler monkeys... they sound like mournful, demented dogs.

They were eating almond fruit and leaves, I think. 

Bein' beachy.

The Ticos. The one on the left helped me out.

Millipede pillbug thingy.

Banana tree? Plantain tree, maybe?

Mooooooooo

Moo.

First croc sighting! This is much further upriver from the beach, by our cabina.