Day 8, Saturday May 17, 2008

Early in the morning risin' to the street
Light me up that cigarette and I strap shoes on my feet
Got to find a reason a reason things went wrong
Got to find a reason why my money's all gone
But I got a dalmatian and I can still get high
I can play the guitar like a mother fuckin riot
Life is too short so love the one you got cause you might get
runover or you might get shot
Never start no static
I just get it off my chest
Never had to battle with no bulletproof vest
Take a small example
A tip from me take all of your money and give it up to charity
Lovin's what I got
It's within my reach
And the sublime style's still straight from long beach
It all comes back to you you're gonna get what you deserve
Try and test that you're bound to get served
Love's what I got
Don't start a riot
You feel it when the dance gets hot
That's why I don't cry when my dog runs away
I don't get angry at the bills I have to pay
I don't get angry when my Mom smokes pot, hits
the bottle and goes back to the rock
Fuckin and fighting it's all the same
Livin' with Louie dog's the only way to stay sane
Let the lovin come back to me
- Sublime "What I Got"

Yeah, that song fits.
So...
You really cannot sleep here. It is basically impossible. It is light outside at like 5 a.m. and everyone else is awake, so good luck. So I woke up at like 4, 6, and finally 7 before going to la playa around 8.
Nobody was on the beach (from the school that is) when Dale and I got down there, so we just walked around and found out the price for kayaks before finally settling in to where we usually do (right in front of where you get off the bus) and I bought a cool ceramic pot thing with a toucan and a monkey on it, though I haven’t seen a toucan yet and I did want a pot with “Pura Vida” on it, but it was either that or no monkeys and I’ve seen a lot of monkeys so it seemed like a requirement. A few minutes later, after settinling in, I see Grant and a mini version of the gang a few feet away, dunno if they didn’t notice us or if they didn’t want to sit with us. We joined them either way. So we sepnd a few hours on the beach and in the water while listening to Incubus and Sublime. I bought a box of Cuban cigars (5 in the pack) for $15 after Grant haggled him down for me. Naturally I fucked up and accidentally got confused and gave the guy 15,000 colones rather than $15 (so $30 instead of 15) and then I walked up to the guys and said “that that was a good deal, they were like $20 in Quepos,” I paused. “I think… fuck I gave him 15,000 colones… not $15… be right back!” and I saw the guy hustling around the corner, laughing to himself, but I’m fast so I caught him and got my change back, that was close. This money conversion shit really fucks me up. anyway, so then a little later we leave and Dale and I get out for some shitty pizza, or at least it turned out to be shitty. That was actually because Dale got off at the wrong stop for some reason and we just made the best out of it. After that Dale went home and I headed over to the school to meet everyone for the Catamaran, or the “boat party” which turned out to be “the booze cruise.” It was also Emily’s birthday and so the boat party was really just an ultra expensive birthday party (can you say the best birthday party ever? Lucky kid) and she was already drinking cosmos and shit when I got to the school, that was after she and the rest of the people living in the school went to Mimos to get pizza and drinks that morning. Nice way to celebrate your birthday, seriously, well done by her. So anyway, we get to the boat, see a boat called “The Big Pink Panther” and tried to claim that one, though it looked old and stingy. Finally we got on to the boat and all the drinks and food were “free.” They didn’t know what they were getting themselves into though.
The boat leaves and a few of us start realizing how bad this trip idea was, since those of us all get seasick sometimes when we are out on a boat, and this was the ocean, not Lake Travis, and there was a ton of alcohol. Joe came up with the idea of pretending we were on a luge, or log ride at a theme park, to try and combat the seasickness. So he and I were at the front repeating that to ourselves a few times until it stukc, or maybe the alcohol just fought it off finally. Either way…
A lot happened on that boat, none of it was all that different from a typical boat party I suppose, but I hadn’t ever done that before. We drank a lot, sailed, danced to shitty music and FINALLY to salsa and reggae. When we started to snorkel it was too dark to see for most of where we were, but finally we saw fish by coral reef as it started to pour. After we got back on the boat we drifted off and waited for the rain to stop. When it did we started doing back flips and front flips off the boat. Grant slipped when he was preparing for a back flip and fell off the boat, but he was ok. Naturally I thought this was still a great idea and tried doing a back flip myself, though I have never been able to, and I accidentally did a back flop first (which hurt a bit) then I tried a front flip which was successful, then another successful one. Then I tried to do another back flip but I slipped off the boat and banged into the side of the boat, but only chipped a toenail, cut my thumb a bit, and bruised my knee, so not too shabby. There were a lot of accidents through the day, it was so slippery and we were just wild.
Dinner was great, a bunch of fish kabobs and a bunch of other good food (fruits, onions, some kind of pasta), but it was great and a few of us kept sneaking back to the kitchen for more. Lots more dancing ensued after dinner and the girls lead by Erin I think, finally got Jose and Victor and the boat staff to join the party and dance. Jose ended up getting pretty fucked up I think. Seemed like it at least.
We finally got back to shore and they all jumped in the vans as I just walked home (since I was so close anyway, it was much easier this way), but they apparently all went to party more. Oh well. I went home and had more dinner and lit up my first Cuban with Dale and Jamieson. It was very good, I was impressed. Then we all went to sleep at like 930, so maybe it was ok I didn’t party any more.