Awed already

It is so strange to be sitting here in Central America writing my blog, but wonderful at the same time to be able to communicate like this. The photo on the right is of the Pacific at Punta Leona, on the long drive from San Jose to Matapalo. The Nicoya peninsula is the dark blue landmass on the horizon, and at the point of the peninsula, set in the crystal clear waters is a little island called Isla Coco or something equally idylic where one of the Raleigh project sites is.

The photo below is of pelicans flying over the beach. I was stunned when I first saw them but there are hundreds and hundreds of them. I have seen turkey vultures, caracaras, green parapeets, a white butterfly, a little deer and lots of bushy red squirrels, but the most awesome sight happened when we were all least expecting it.

I had been on the beach all day, bad weather, a bit of rain etc so I had been inside the canopy of the forest, reading my book. At 4, it became brighter so I went onto the hot black beach and watched the surfers for a while before joining them. I met a canadian called Lane, and we were bantering about life and then I asked if he had seen a shark. No, he replied, but he had seen a 16 foot croc in the sea by an estuary. Right. Lovely. We surfed about for a while and then seeing dad on the beach, I caught a massive wave, said hello to the green room (in my dreams) and ran up the beach to have a beer. Sitting there, watching the blue pacific waves, and my new friend Lane catching some waves, I noticed a big boat that I hadnt seen before. It just appeared out of the water right behind him, in a crest of waves that rose as the wave he was on dipped. I pointed it out to dad.

"That isnt a boat, mia cara" he said. "That is a balena."

Dropping my beer I ran back into the surf, not waving at Lane, by now the only one left in the water as I didnt want to freak him out. He surfed over to me.

"I dont want to panic you, but I think you are sharing the water with a whale"

"Yeah right." he said. But announcing he was knackered anyhow, he came out of the ocean with me. We joined dad on the beach and sat watching the waves, and sure enough it rose again, this time spouting water. It had been literally about 10m away from him when we first saw it, which also means I had been surfing pretty close to it as well. For the next half hour, this enormous creature rose and spouted water and crashed back beneath the waves again. It was one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen, the locals said they had only seen a whale that close four or five times in their lives. I am just awed that I have been so close to such a rare and wild creature.