These waves are not for the faint of heart.
Well, let me first tell you that the beach is not nearly as relaxing when you have 20 people under your supervision and you have no idea what their swimming capabilities are. This week has been one of my most stressful lifeguarding experiences ever…and I’m not even trained as an ocean lifeguard. Secondly, let me stress the effects that a hurricane in Mexico has on the tide in Costa Rica. The waves at Flamingo Beach are unlike any I’ve seen here before and the tide sometimes comes in all the way to the road. My point? These 2 factors equal doom.
Day one on the beach was Monday and after we had eaten a picnic lunch that I had prepared at the school, I corralled the troops and we headed to the beach. Upon first arriving, I was shocked. The entire beach had been absorbed by the ocean; there was no dry sand anywhere to place our belongings. I finally found an elevated area that seemed to suffice…for a while. Even that spot was eventually overtaken by water. For those of you unfamiliar with Costa Rican beaches, because Costa Rica is in a tropical climate, there is a lot of growth around the beach; hence there are trees along the beach. It’s not like the wide open beaches we are used to at home. Add to this all of the debris in the water from elevated water levels and you can imagine my elevated stress levels. Someone later informed me that I was in complete ‘Mom Mode’ when the kids were in the water. You would be too it your pint-sized group was getting rocked by 7 foot waves.
Anyway, not 10 minutes into the swim, I hear someone yelling for me and that they need help immediately. Someone was hurt and couldn’t get out of the water. I had been back with the belongings and when I ran out to see what happened, I saw one of my boys holding his eye, screaming, laying in the water/sand and unable to get up out of the sand to safety. As I ran toward him, three boys came to his aid and with my help, we lifted him up to dry land. I still hadn’t seen his eye that was covered. Given his cries for help and trashing about in the water, I assumed his eye was gone and that I would be spending the afternoon in the hospital. You can imagine my relief when he removed his hand and I found only a long scratch below his left eye with minimal amounts of blood. Whew… no hospital today. Thankfully, one of the fathers in our group is an emergency room surgeon so he took over from there. The boy recovered nicely by mid afternoon. What had occurred was that the tide had pulled him all the way into shore and into the trees. It was a tough experience for him, so I understand the terror that was involved with this experience.
Shortly thereafter we decided this part of the beach was too dangerous and half of the group didn’t want to be there anymore either. So we divided up and some students went to a beach resort pool and the other part stayed with me and we headed off in search of better beach space. A little further down we found a suitable area and for the rest of the afternoon seven brave young men spent 3 hours being tackled by the waves. They came out with cuts and scratches and not a care in the world. This was a great group of guys to keep at the beach with. Finally, just when my heart rate had returned to normal, I looked up in time to see one of my kids on a boogie board face plant into the sand as a wave overtook him. Uh oh. I was immediately on high alert and watched as he surfaced holding his nose. I started heading his way and calm as could be he removed his hand revealing a bloody nose. He kind of shrugged and said ‘I’ve got a bloody nose.’ Thankfully his mom was there and she’s a nurse. We stopped the bleeding and although he was sidelined for a while, I was extremely impressed at how well he handled the situation. He was a pretty tough kid. It made my life a little easier too.
So in total, Monday produced 2 casualties of war and extreme levels of stress on my part…not a bad day on the beach.
Tuesday…we took a day off from the beach.
Tuesday was a cultural immersion day for the students in two typical Costa Rican towns. It was my job to take them around to the towns and explain the history and different aspects of the towns. Thank goodness for Google… So we started the day off eating lunch and waiting for the rain to stop. Afterward I took them on a tour of the Santa Cruz parque principal. There are 4 statues there, and while I won’t bore you with details now, I now know more about the 4 statues than you could ever want to know. As my Dad once told me ‘if you can’t win them with intelligence, baffle them with your bull----.’ I was amazing even myself that day. I had all sorts of random facts about this town for the students. I was told that for only being in Costa Rica twice, I was ‘really informative.’ Success!
Anyway, the day finished off in Guaitil which is a Costa Rican town that specializes in making one of a kind pottery and ceramics. We even got a demonstration done for us. The kids loved it. Success…
Today was another beach day, much less eventful than Monday. The kids were still tossed and tumbled by the waves but no casualties to speak of, unless you count my wounded toe that was torn up by a sunken cinder block. No pasa nada.
Anyway, it’s Ladies Night at Las Brisas Bar! Wahoo. Just kidding. I don’t think I can make it that far. I am pooped. It might be a good night to watch Horton Hears a Who.
Buenas noches. Me hace faltan a todos.
Abrazo,
Jessica Lynn
Well, let me first tell you that the beach is not nearly as relaxing when you have 20 people under your supervision and you have no idea what their swimming capabilities are. This week has been one of my most stressful lifeguarding experiences ever…and I’m not even trained as an ocean lifeguard. Secondly, let me stress the effects that a hurricane in Mexico has on the tide in Costa Rica. The waves at Flamingo Beach are unlike any I’ve seen here before and the tide sometimes comes in all the way to the road. My point? These 2 factors equal doom.
Day one on the beach was Monday and after we had eaten a picnic lunch that I had prepared at the school, I corralled the troops and we headed to the beach. Upon first arriving, I was shocked. The entire beach had been absorbed by the ocean; there was no dry sand anywhere to place our belongings. I finally found an elevated area that seemed to suffice…for a while. Even that spot was eventually overtaken by water. For those of you unfamiliar with Costa Rican beaches, because Costa Rica is in a tropical climate, there is a lot of growth around the beach; hence there are trees along the beach. It’s not like the wide open beaches we are used to at home. Add to this all of the debris in the water from elevated water levels and you can imagine my elevated stress levels. Someone later informed me that I was in complete ‘Mom Mode’ when the kids were in the water. You would be too it your pint-sized group was getting rocked by 7 foot waves.
Anyway, not 10 minutes into the swim, I hear someone yelling for me and that they need help immediately. Someone was hurt and couldn’t get out of the water. I had been back with the belongings and when I ran out to see what happened, I saw one of my boys holding his eye, screaming, laying in the water/sand and unable to get up out of the sand to safety. As I ran toward him, three boys came to his aid and with my help, we lifted him up to dry land. I still hadn’t seen his eye that was covered. Given his cries for help and trashing about in the water, I assumed his eye was gone and that I would be spending the afternoon in the hospital. You can imagine my relief when he removed his hand and I found only a long scratch below his left eye with minimal amounts of blood. Whew… no hospital today. Thankfully, one of the fathers in our group is an emergency room surgeon so he took over from there. The boy recovered nicely by mid afternoon. What had occurred was that the tide had pulled him all the way into shore and into the trees. It was a tough experience for him, so I understand the terror that was involved with this experience.
Shortly thereafter we decided this part of the beach was too dangerous and half of the group didn’t want to be there anymore either. So we divided up and some students went to a beach resort pool and the other part stayed with me and we headed off in search of better beach space. A little further down we found a suitable area and for the rest of the afternoon seven brave young men spent 3 hours being tackled by the waves. They came out with cuts and scratches and not a care in the world. This was a great group of guys to keep at the beach with. Finally, just when my heart rate had returned to normal, I looked up in time to see one of my kids on a boogie board face plant into the sand as a wave overtook him. Uh oh. I was immediately on high alert and watched as he surfaced holding his nose. I started heading his way and calm as could be he removed his hand revealing a bloody nose. He kind of shrugged and said ‘I’ve got a bloody nose.’ Thankfully his mom was there and she’s a nurse. We stopped the bleeding and although he was sidelined for a while, I was extremely impressed at how well he handled the situation. He was a pretty tough kid. It made my life a little easier too.
So in total, Monday produced 2 casualties of war and extreme levels of stress on my part…not a bad day on the beach.
Tuesday…we took a day off from the beach.
Tuesday was a cultural immersion day for the students in two typical Costa Rican towns. It was my job to take them around to the towns and explain the history and different aspects of the towns. Thank goodness for Google… So we started the day off eating lunch and waiting for the rain to stop. Afterward I took them on a tour of the Santa Cruz parque principal. There are 4 statues there, and while I won’t bore you with details now, I now know more about the 4 statues than you could ever want to know. As my Dad once told me ‘if you can’t win them with intelligence, baffle them with your bull----.’ I was amazing even myself that day. I had all sorts of random facts about this town for the students. I was told that for only being in Costa Rica twice, I was ‘really informative.’ Success!
Anyway, the day finished off in Guaitil which is a Costa Rican town that specializes in making one of a kind pottery and ceramics. We even got a demonstration done for us. The kids loved it. Success…
Today was another beach day, much less eventful than Monday. The kids were still tossed and tumbled by the waves but no casualties to speak of, unless you count my wounded toe that was torn up by a sunken cinder block. No pasa nada.
Anyway, it’s Ladies Night at Las Brisas Bar! Wahoo. Just kidding. I don’t think I can make it that far. I am pooped. It might be a good night to watch Horton Hears a Who.
Buenas noches. Me hace faltan a todos.
Abrazo,
Jessica Lynn
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