Activities

Coastal Kayak on Drake Bay

By Patrick Brunelle ⋅ March 19, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

One of the most memorable activities I have done since arriving to Costa Rica has to be Coastal Kayaking on Drake Bay. My sister, two friends (Dave and Mauren) and I decided to drive up to Drake bay and go Coastal kayaking. We rented our kayaks for $20 a piece for half a day and set out on our own. Whoever was thinking we would go out for a relaxing stroll found out right away they were dead wrong. This was going to be one tough day. We paddled for about an hour gazing at the gorgeous scenery. One of the most enjoyable parts was having an unlimited amount of choices of beaches we could dock at. We decided to stop and rest at one of the largest beaches in our site. Luckily for us we brought some drinks along with us and parked our behinds on the beach for a couple of hours. When it was time to head back we noticed the waves were much bigger than when we arrived. In no time my sister found out first hand that this was going to be one heck of an effort to get out. It happened almost in slow motion, as the first massive wave arrived, almost tossing my sister overboard as we all watched from the beach, then the second came and she somehow managed to stay afloat, but when I saw the third one coming I realized, as I am sure she did, that there would be no saving her now. She suddenly got tossed from her kayak as though she weighed nothing. She literally flew over her kayak and landed head first in the water. As she was gasping for air the kayak, which had landed past her, came back with wicked speed due to the strong current and took her legs out. We had to rush in to save my poor sister before things got worse.

Eventually we realized we would have to work together to get out, and we failed a few times trying as I myself got tossed out. Of course I had said that if I were paddling and not my sister that I would have been able to stay on, but I was quickly taught my lesson. We actually started to get afraid thinking we might not be able to get out and would have to stay in the jungle by ourselves, but we did thankfully managed to get out half an hour later. I think each of us had a little more respect for mother nature after this little adventure.