La Barra de Santiago

Sun, sea, sand and surf – what more could you want from a weekend at the beach? Throw in fantastically fresh fish and marshmallows toasted by candlelight and it becomes even harder to beat! But first came Friday night and a trip to Las Leyendas (The Legends) – a popular bar that was crammed full with locals as it was payday and the start of ten days of national holidays! Saturday morning got off to a predictably slow start, not least for Domingo who was driving us and looking distinctly hungover from too much Tequila the night before. We eventually arrived at the beach in time for a late lunch followed by some surfing (strictly speaking we had one board between about six of us) in the famously fearsome waves of the Pacific – Barra de Santiago is used for training the country’s lifeguards. Even as a strong swimmer I was shocked by how powerful the currents were, and quickly found that the only way to escape the towering waves crashing over me was to bodyboard back to shore which was quite some experience!

All romantic notions of an evening lounging around a campfire on the beach were quickly shattered by the storm that started building at 6pm and continued for the next two hours with amazing displays of sheet lightning flashing through the sky. Meanwhile I was comfortably swinging in a hammoc overlooking the beach, enjoying the solitude and trying to take photos of the lightning – I think I’ve finally found something more frustrating and difficult to photograph than butterflies! Candles were brought out when the power went down, and being resourceful engineers we put them to good use after dinner for toasting marshmallows – not quite as good as glowing red embers but less sooty than it sounds!

Sunday morning started with a jog along the beach up to the tip of the spit which Capricho Beach House sits on, a quick dip in the sea and then pancakes for breakfast. After a couple of hours lounging around in the sun reading we set off on a tour of the mangrove swamps, complete with stories of the ghostly white canoe that can sometimes be seen late at night between the mangroves.

We had a lazy late lunch at a little family-run palm-roofed shack near the tip of the barra before celebrating Alex’ 21^st. On our way back from the hostal we somehow managed to recruit an entire family of 12 to help us blowing balloons, so we arrived with a boatful that were promptly whipped off down the estuary by the wind, to be collected by a host of friendly kids....who also eagerly hoovered up all the sweets out of the piñata!