Costa Rica - Day 7

As you may have noticed in the pictures up until now, I uncharacteristically have a mustache. The reason for that is because I was participating in Movember, a month-long event in which brave men grow mustaches for the purpose of raising awareness for men's health issues such as prostate cancer. While I had semi-enjoyed my monthlong attempt at growing a mustache, as it was now December, the time had come to shave it off (much to Roanne's delight).

And, dear reader, while I have your attention, let me quickly explain my rationale in growing a standard-issue, no-nonsense police officer's mustache as opposed to something more elaborate. My explanation is motivated by criticism I have received along the way, particularly from my lovely wife who complained that I wasn't growing a "funnier" mustache. The reason for that is, in my opinion, by growing an obviously "funny" mustache with handlebars, soulpatches, or other accoutrements along for the ride, you are immediately communicating to the world that your mustache is intended only as a joke. By making your mustache so clearly ironic, you are dissociating yourself from it, as if you had an accompanying sign that said "don't worry, I never normally have a mustache". To me, it takes more bravery and courage to grow a "serious" mustache, so that when people see you they think maybe you always have a mustache and it is just your standard look. Anyway, enough pontificating about the philosophy of moustaches, here it is enjoying it's last few rays of tropical sunshine before the appointment with my razor and shaving cream (actually, with Roanne's pink disposable razor and some soap since I had brought neither a mustache nor shaving cream on the trip):

Here I am spreading the soap and getting ready to whip out the lady bic:

And finally, the pink scythe goes into action and makes quick work of the fruits of my Movember labours:

With my newfound cleanshaven look we were off to the beach, which was just across the road from our residence. Along the way we passed a pretty sizeable lizard:

And then made our way along a nice boardwalk through a lagoon:

To finally reach the beautiful white sand beach of Playa Avellanas:

Upon reaching the beach we had a stroll up and down it and then set up shop in some shade under a tree where Roanne set about her chosen activities of alternate reading and snoozing:

And I rented a surfboard and headed out to get pounded by the waves:

The surfing was a lot more fun here than the previous day in Playa Carmen, as it involved trying to paddle into real waves instead of just riding white water (which is pretty easy and not legitimate surfing). It was a lot more difficult and a lot more work, but there were lots of waves and not many people out so there was no pressure and on the rare instances when I did catch a wave it was really fun. Here I am paddling for a wave:

And here I am riding in to shore on the white wash, unfortunately the odds of me catching a real wave at any time were sufficiently low that it was never caught on camera:

We had the entire day at the beach so I was able to surf for an hour or so then come in and recover while lounging on the beach, and then repeat, broken up in the middle of the day with a delicious lunch at a beachside restaurant called Lola's (so amazing, I forgot to take any pictures but everyone should go here if they get a chance). The afternoon brought more of the same, here is my freshly shaven face posing with my approving wife during some relaxing:

As the sun began to drop the tide was nearing its high point which made for better waves in this location, as evidenced by the increasing numbers of local rippers out in the waves:

So, it was clearly necessary to don the rash guard one more time:

And head out to catch a few last waves on our final full day on the beach:

Good times! After returning the board we made our way carefully back across the boardwalk in the near-darkness, and headed back to our Villa. For dinner we headed into the nearby beach town of Tamarindo and ate at an amazing French restuarant called the Langosta Beach Club, also highly recommended. We then headed back to our Villa with the final notable event of the day being the discovery of a frog staking out the tap in our open air bathroom: