The Beach, Surfing and a Pufferfish

Sunday we had to ourselves in Montanita. After waking up around nine we went to have breakfast and then headed to the beach. The weather was beautiful and we slathered on sunscreen like it was our job! At one we headed to the surf shop to pick up our boards and meet our instructor. There was a small language barrier, but with his minimal English and our Spanish we made out fine. The lesson was two hours, and within thirty minutes we had all had at least stood up on our boards once. The waves were crazy strong. After two hours of surfing we were EXHAUSTED! I had swallowed about a gallon of sea water, I had salt and sand everywhere and my eyes were killing me, but it was well worth it. After returning our boards we ate and headed back to the hostal to clean up and nap. Later we explored the town a bit, had dinner and took a walk on the beach. After walking to the end of the beach, Scott found a Pufferfish that had gotten caught in the sand when the tide went out. It showed some signs of life, so we attempted a rescue mission. Knowing that Pufferfish spikes can be lethal, we didn't want to pick it up directly with our hands. Instead I was volunteered by the group to use a large flat shell as a "gurney" and take it to the water. I got it on the shell, with the help of Jill's foot, but when we were almost to the water it squirmed off and landed near some rocks. I was pretty excited because I wanted to see it swim, but getting it to the water turned out to be a bigger project than initially expected. While I was trying to roll him to the water with the shell, a a slightly larger than expected wave caught us off guard, sent the Pufferfish farther onto the
beach, got our feet wet, and caused Scott to slip and scrape his arm. Finally, after five minutes of battling waves and slick rocks, the Pufferfish made it to the sea to live another day (at least that is what we like to hope). All in all, our evening turned out to be much more exciting than anticipated. That being said we were in bed by ten thirty. We leave to go back to Banos tomorrow.