one day dominical

Our 5 day rest in Dominical was exactly what we needed after some very tough riding on the Nicoya Peninsula and right before what was sure to be some even tougher riding in the Osa Peninsula. The hotel that Bill Walton hooked us up with owned by his friends and fellow Dead Heads, Walt and Ross Garrison, was incredible. Walt was out of town but Seth and I really enjoyed some late nights sharing stories with Ross over a few beers (Seth and I were sharing the beers and Ross was telling the stories). Ross is truly an inspiring individual who has been more places and surfed more breaks than anyone I have ever met. Some of my favorite stories were from the time he traveled the entire African coast surfing remote beaches in the early 70's. Over the next few days it became a little contest to name a place the guy had not been to. We are very stoked that both he and his brother will be joining us for the Panama to Cartagena sailing trip so we that we can continue to be enlightened by these two legendary souls. Not only did the hotel have internet and hot water but we were blessed with AC which is a luxury that we have rarely been privileged to in the scorching lands of Central America. Actually, the temperature was quite moderate during our time at Montanas De Agua due to some intense rainstorms. Dominical boasts a beautiful shoreline with some excellent beach break surfing. Unfortunately the surf was blown out for the majority of the week except for the last day when the weather cleared and I had one of the best days of surfing I have had in a long long time. Thanks again to Ross for lending me a board.

Our time in Dominical was not only relaxing but also extremely safe as we were the only two people staying in the lodge that were not medical doctors. In addition to the hotel, Ross and Walt own a number of Spanish schools in Costa Rica and their Dominical school offers a medical Spanish course that med students can receive credit for completing. Ironically it was I who saved the life of a doctor one day while we were out swimming in the surf and not the other way around. Dominical has very strong rip tides and Ross told us many stories of saving people from drowning while surfing out in front of his hotel.

One of the med school students named Carolyn and I were swimming out in the surf about chest deep in water when she told me that the waves reminded her of a conversation she had the previous night with some of her fellow students. The conversation was about the hypothetical question of would you rather drown or burn to death. Just as she finished telling me this she also informed me that she could not swim very well and I realized that we had been pulled out past where we were standing and I could no longer touch the bottom. I suggested that we start heading back to shore and I could see her demeanor turn from calm to fear to panic as she tried to swim back toward the beach. The surf was big and coming in very close intervals which made it hard to catch a breath before being slammed by another wave. I swam over to her and grabbed her arm and started swimming towards shore but every few seconds she would get ripped away by another wave. Each time I would surface from the whitewash I would realize that she was still underwater being thrown about. When she surfaced it was evident that she had swallowed a lot of water and did not look ready to be hit by more waves. After what seemed like too long I finally was able to touch my feet to the bottom and pulled her into shallower water. Needless to say she did not have any strong urges to go swimming in the ocean for the remainder of her stay. While I may have had a hand in saving her from drowning I don't think she would have ever gone out as far as she did if I was not there leading the way. So I will settle with just fixing a problem that I created.