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| Picture of me RIGHT NOW, in my blue striped hoodie, complete with unshaved, red goatee and acne breakout due to sunscreen. Hot stuff. |
It’s been MUCH too long since I have endeavored to post on
my blog! I would say that I don’t have
the time, but the truth is, I have dedicated the time I normally use for
writing to other things (which is roughly synonymous), such as
yo-yoing (yeah,
yo-yoing) and my last semester of high school. Many exciting things are coming up in my
life, including just
one more month
of school before I
move back to the USA ahead of the rest of my family. (Oh, and
my family is also moving back! But if
you’re reading this, you probably already knew that.) I highly expect this next month to be
incredibly jam-packed with essays, tests, projects, and things to get done, not
to mention packing my things and taking a senior trip in the middle of it
all.
Luckily, I’ve had a bit of calm before the inevitable storm
ahead of me. Our family just got back
from a WONDERFUL beach trip with the Twitchell’s, our long-time co-workers and practically
an extension of our already-big family.
Needless to say, we had an incredible time, and it was a blessing from
God to be able to rest up and have so much fun together these past five
days. During our time in Playa Hermosa,
Guanacaste, we did quite a lot of snorkeling, swimming, and just lying around
inside to get out of the sun. We hunted
some octopus, and I found a sea-horse while snorkeling, which was by far the
neatest part of the trip for me. We
rented a boat that day, because Austin had just turned 17 the day before, and the
first order of business was to go get some octopus around a (dead) coral reef
just off a beach on a Four-Season’s resort. (In Costa Rica, it’s illegal to own
a beach, so resorts must give anyone and everyone access to the sand. This didn’t matter, though, since we came by
sea.) I say “get some octopus”, and
you’re probably thinking, “Why in the
world?”, so let me explain.
The men we hired to take us out snorkeling were locals there
at Hermosa. They earn their livings not
just by taking tourists like us out to snorkel, but also by going out and
catching octopus, lobster, oysters, clams, and conch shells to sell to the
markets—or to cut up and serve as ceviche. (If you haven’t tried it, it’s
delicious. My second-favorite way—after
sushi—to eat raw fish.) All that to say,
we went out with these guys, who kindly let us watch, and even help, as they
pulled nearly thirty octopus out of the ocean—what seemed to us like thin-air
(or thin water…)—all in around thirty minutes.
They caught octopus like we catch crawdads. It was incredible. Each guy had a simple tool, literally a small
rod with a fishing hook tied onto the end of it, called a bichero. (Bichero could almost
be translated as “bug-nabber” if you wanted to catch the comic effect of the
word’s sound, though I’m told this is called a gaff hook in English.) Having done this all of their lives, these
dudes would literally dive about every thirty seconds and shove their bicheros under a rock or piece of coral
where they suspected an octopus to be hiding.
More accurately, they usually spotted
an octopus—which proved nearly impossible for us gringos to do—and then grabbed
it with their hooks. Most of the little
guys (the octopuses, that is) were the size of a dinner plate when all spread
out, but there were some that were even a bit bigger—probably about two feet in
diameter. Needless to say, it was a
priceless experience, watching these guys do what they do best, catching
invisible octopus left-and-right with their crazy hooked poles. (They even let Austin do some of the nabbing after
they did the spotting!)
After the octopus-hunt, we went to a live coral reef, where they left us to swim around for about
half-an-hour while they went to harvest some oysters. I had never snorkeled over coral, and I
really loved all the change in scenery!
(Coral’s a lot brighter than rocks.)
We saw a lot of neat fish, including many that we’d never seen
before. Puffer fish, eels, and even
stingrays are fairly common no matter where you go. This trip had a lot of new fish for us,
though, including the beautiful barberfish, the French angelfish, and the
rockfish. My favorite fish, and by far
my favorite moment in the trip, was the bright orange sea horse that I found
blending in with the coral. (It was
right next to a big, ugly rockfish, which also blended in quite well with his
surroundings.)
Rather rough and coral-ey itself, the little sea-horse was
wrapped around a protruding rock in the sand, and, had he not been as big as he
was, would have certainly escaped my notice.
Further scrutiny confirmed that it
was
in fact a seahorse—something I had
never
seen and never really expected to! My
suspicions confirmed, we ventured to pick up the little guy, who, I was
surprised to find, was very hard and bony—not too soft, and not too wiggly at
first. In fact, we wondered at first
whether he really was alive, but he soon began squirming all around and trying
to get out of our hands. As it turns out,
they’re not too fast and can only do a couple of things. Below water, they can float up and down and
sort of scoot in a general direction until they find something to wrap their
long, prehensile tail around. Above
water, they can wiggle, hold still, and then look at you very steadily until
they make a very audible *CLICK* by opening up their mouths, which is smaller
and located closer to their head than you ever thought. (I had just assumed their mouth was on the
end of their long snout!) This guy was a
brilliant orange with thick white bands that faded and got brighter according
to his mood. Without a doubt, that
little guy was the highlight of my whole trip.
Our guides later caught another one—bright scarlet this time—which we
threw back into the coral after snapping off plenty of pictures. (After some research, I’ve concluded that we
found the Pacific Seahorse, one of the largest species out there. The one we found was about half-a-foot
long.)
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| The bright-orange Pacific seahorse we found in a coral reef near Hermosa, Costa Rica. |
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| Here's a better view of the seahorse's white bands. This guy was about six inches long. |
Yes, the sea-horses were by far the best part of the trip for me. I keep thinking maybe I should be sad that I’m going back to the US in just a month, but I’m not really. I know the feelings will all rush in during my last few days here, but for now, I’m still just incredibly impressed with the beauty of the Creation I see all around me in this beautiful country. I love Costa Rica, and though I’m excited to be leaving for college, I’m not all that anxious to be leaving my home of the past 8 years behind me. The way I look at it, though, what with crazy octopuses and sea-horses and all, I only have more reasons than ever now to thank God for ever having given me the chance to live in this beautiful place—and to come back as soon as possible! Yes, I think a few more family vacations are in order for the King Family!
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| I yoyo in a sweet pose with the sunset behind me. Yeah. |
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