The Oakley Girls Road Trip... Continued (Pt. 2)

Jul 19 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
Read the first part of this story...  Click Here to read it first!
   
We spent our final day of shooting at Axel’s super funky beach house. Claudia immediately took up residence in a little shack by the tide line so she could scope out the surf while the rest of us found refuge in the shade of his porch. Kira beautifully hand painted each of our journals, Mizuki taught me how to write my name in Japanese while we enjoyed more hammock time, Roxy read magazines and sent Axel on a mission to get some heart of palm (her new favorite snack) from town, and Niki trotted around on a beautiful horse that she borrowed from the neighbors for a shot. She’s had a lot of experience with horses and did a great job riding it around, but when she tried to take it swimming it wasn’t having it and kept trying to ride home! Finally it ended up tied in Axel’s yard and did a better job of moving his lawn than a John Deer tractor could have.
   
That night Axel lit up a huge bonfire that fried anything within a 10-foot radius and we all melted with relaxation knowing the shoot was over. It was a full moon that night and the woman from the yoga retreat next door led the girls through a series of sun salutations on the beach under the moonlight. My ribs still weren’t fit for doing yoga, but it was very beautiful watching everyone stretch with the sound of the waves in the background. After yoga the local pizza guy delivered a carload of pizzas and everybody dove headfirst into the food (like usual). A conga drum was brought down to the beach but nobody was interested in playing music except for Ronnie and I so we played a few rounds until the marshmallows that Liesl had bought became too tempting to resist. It was apparent that Kira grew up in the outdoors because she had some damn fine marshmallow roasting skills!

The next morning we had to pack up and leave our beautiful Casa Miramar and drive to Jaco, a tourist town six hours north on the coast. Roxy and Kira and the filmers had to leave early for their flights from San Jose, so our caravan was only four cars deep this time. Keeping up with Axl on the gnarly roads made for a bit of a crazy drive, especially when it came to crossing the one lane bridges with missing deck planks, but it was amazing to see the countryside and how many of the villages were built around a single communal soccer pitch.

Jaco was a bit of a change from Matapalo. We stayed in a hotel with walls, doors, hot water, and electricity and there were a lot of American fast food restaurants lining the streets. One curious thing about the Cornel Saunders on the Costa Rican KFC sign was that he seemed to have a much bigger smile. I think that was a direct reflection of how they perceive life there. Happy. We didn’t investigate the KFC though; we opted for the gourmet seafood dinner instead!

The next morning we had a few hours to be tourists and explore the cookie cutter gift shops that lined the streets. We power shopped like true girly girls and then packed up the convoy to drive to San Jose and catch our flight. I drove the last car and followed the car that Mizuki, Claudia, and Niki were in but started noticing that it would really lag on hills. They ended up pulling over and we saw that its coolant needed to be topped up. No problem. We walked to the gas station, refilled it and were on our way. A few minutes later the car started struggling to the point that I had to put my hazards on to warn people behind me that there was a slow, hurtin vehicle up ahead. When white smoke started coming out the tail pipe we knew there was a problem. Niki convinced Claudia to pull over and when Ronnie popped the hood for round two he noticed a desperate need for oil.

Jade and I then went on a mission to find motor oil by following a kid on a bike about a kilometer down the road to a residential garage filled with random auto parts. Once again, their English was worse than our Spanish, so after another round of charades we finally got him to give us an old milk jug full of oil (at the cost of $20 USD!). The car drank the entire jug but when they tried to turn the key nothing fired. The engine was seized. We totaled the engine of a $40,000 car. For some reason though, nobody seemed surprised!

Then came the madness. We had to load a giant bike box, surfbag, a trunk full of suitcases, and three people into the remaining vehicles. It was like extreme Tetris but we made it work and were on our way within half an hour. It was a true team effort!

Finally we made it to the San Jose airport and the nostalgia already began to set in. Our fresh fish dinners were replaced by fast food pizza and our bikinis by jeans and jackets. We all became a little closer and started planning on the next time we could see each other, and by the time we went our separate ways in the LA airport the waterworks had started flowing! Mizuki started crying and then we all got choked up at the thought of the trip ending and having no plans to see our new friends again. I’m sure there’s already a reunion in the works though!
   
Before we left none of us athletes had much clue what we would be doing in Costa Rica. We knew there would be some picture taking, but we didn’t really know what for. We knew we would be doing cool stuff, but we really didn’t know what. I personally knew there would be 5 other athletes, but I didn’t expect them to be such amazing, fun, and talented people that I would bond so deeply with. Everything about Costa Rica exceeded our expectations. It was a trip of a lifetime with a crew of a lifetime in a place that was magical beyond words. We got dirty, we got sweaty, we got sore, we got tired, but we couldn’t stop smiling and loved every second of it!

The End

Our Costa Rica trip was incredible, but the things that made us laugh were the crazy habits of each of us girls. I had some weird ones like constantly dumping water over my head and singing “Everybody Dance Now” in Spanish, but here are a few things about the girls that I learned on our trip.

Mizuki is from Japan and has the biggest smile I have ever seen! She seems quite at first but when you crank up the music she will instantly start singing and dancing. At first we weren’t sure why she wasn’t eating much breakfast, but then she let us know that she normally only eats rice and soy sauce for breakfast. Every meal she would bring her own chopsticks. This girl is tough. She surfs everyday in Japan in freezing cold water wearing a 5/3 wetsuit…and she rips.

Kira is a fashion diva. She brought a surf bag full of shoes to the jungle! Even though she looks gorgeous 100% of the time, she is an outdoors girl who likes to talk about her impeccable fishing record with her dad! She is also an artist. She painted every free second she could on the trip and beautifully detailed our journals. To top it all off, Kira is a health nut and kept us alive on the long drive with her large supply of organic seeds and cranberries. One last thing, she doesn’t like to wear pants…bathing suit bottoms or bust for Kira!

Niki is from Australia and one day I even caught her saying “croiky!” She drove one of the SUVs down the gnarly road the first night and was hooked on off roading from that moment on. Her and Roxy kept pushing some weird looking cream-based shooter on us at the bar. Niki is also a health nut and carried around a little container of pink salt that she would put on everything she ate. If your food was bland she could always help you out.

Claudia hails from Brazil. She is a very intense person and when it is time to surf there’s no use trying to keep her on land. She had two i-pods that she would keep with her at all times, one of which broke because it accidentally came with her into the waterfall! Claudia sleeps as much as a newborn baby and can (and will) nap anywhere. She claims that her grandma who she lives with in Brazil cooks the best food in the world. She invited us all down to be the judge and it’s an offer that we are all probably going to take up.

Roxy is from South Africa and is a soul surfer. She makes beautiful jewelry and was always collecting shells from the beach that she could use for her next creation. First thing she would do in the morning would was plug in the kettle for coffee and tea. She fell in love with heart of palm and couldn’t get enough while we were there. She also kept asking what goes into a burrito because she wanted to recreate all the food we ate at home. Roxy was the one that Liesl blamed when animals came into our kitchen, ate all of banana and left the peels on the counter!

Did you miss part one of this story?  Click Here to read it!