Danger Zone

At 9 AM early on Sunday mornig I standing underneath Lenay's window. Calling out to her 'LENAY; LENAY!,' I saw her peek from behind the window curtains. She had to get up and see this! She opened her mouth, just about ready to speak, and then stopped. groggy apathy quickly transformed into an anxious recognition of the day's activities. I was in the middle of the road with two helmets, sitting on a moto. Her eyes bulged, excited. She knew what the 2006 kawasaki two stroke scooter meant...

ROAD TRIP

Lenay was ready within seconds of seeing that scooter. A new feat by anyone's standards. But She has been itching to ride one of these things since January. And it's not like we have much time left, right?

Five minutes later I pulled into Fast Eddie's scooter rentals. She hopped on her moto and just like that we became road warriors, armed with two stroke dirt bike engines. It's only 100 cc's of power, but we felt pretty unstoppable nevertheless. This was the A TEAM baby. And Lenay, my MR. T. I felt like we could have taken on anything in Costa Rica. Bring IT ON!

After filling our gas tanks and tooling in and around Quepos for the morning, we sped off to the national highway, hugging the coastline of the Puntarenas department. Our destination was Jacó, a world famous surf town about seventy kilometers from Quepos. It's the kind of town where you would find surf bums, stoners, weekend visitors and Ticos alike. Hey, I hear even Britney Spears was there over the weekend (It was big news here). It was a pretty big trip, and there was just one day to do it in. So we took off, anxious, excited, and jacked from that feeling you get from owning the road.

15 kilometers and two questionably viable bridges later I found myself ripping down the coastline. My right hand was wrenched unnaturally from gripping a maxed out throttle for too long. Pacific winds were blasting away at my face. Sunburnt and flying, I was feeling absolutely brilliant! So we were throttling down the highway and making good time, the lanscape seemingly whizzing by, second by second. Imagine Kenny Loggin's 'Danger Zone' as the title track for the day's musical album. I mean, have you ever been locked in a 4 g negative dive with a Mig-28? I have. Lenay describes it as feeling like you're the king of the world, something that I'm unable to disagree with, but let me continue...

I saw a lot of banana trees on the way to Jacó. I saw a lot of different things actually. There were cows, and farms cantinas and soccer fields. I also saw a pack of stray dogs, Imperial beer signs and gringo resorts dotting the road. But what I mostly saw, aside from the breathtaking scenery were banana trees. These things looked twelve feet tall, with long verdent and droopy fronds hanging every which way. And of course...the bananas. And the plantations were all lined up in little neat rows. These damn manufactured forests were hiding the ocean from us!

Lenay and I weaved around cars drawing closer by the minute. Around 2 o'clock we pulled in to a soda (diner). After wiping the dirt off my face I ordered a quesadilla while my wingman (girl) was translating the menu for the Tico owners. We caught our breath, grabbed some lunch, then took back to the road, arriving in Jacó around twenty minutes later.

To me Jacó seems like the typical surf town. It's costa rican, yes i know, but all the gringo surf shops were throwing me a distinct cali vibe. Yeah, there were Tico surf shops and souvenir stands and sodas, but there was also KFC, TCBY and other familiar beasts, rearing it's head thousands of miles away from the norm. It isn't a large town, by any means but tourists make the trip to Jacó for surfing and a reputable nightlife. Lenay and I explored the town, and shifted through the ever present refuse for sale in the souvenir shops. Afterwards, I enjoyed the spanish LOTR while Lenay took full advantage of a 50% discount on VOLCOM clothes at a newly built development. At 5 or so I found myself at the beach, cooling off in the ocean before the inevitable return trip home.

The clouds did not look promising though.