I'll start updating now - please be patient as it'll be disjointed. I'll probably switch tenses and insert wrong dates constantly but will get it sorted eventually.

So, to backtrack...first day in Dominical was pretty quiet. I realized early on that I was pretty much the only guest at the DiuWak hotel. There was a Japanese couple next door, Akio and Sachi, but because of the language barrier, we restricted our communication to shy smiles and waves of acknowledgement. Akio spoke enough English for me to understand that he was a shaper from Kyoto, here to deliver a new board.

I dropped by the GI office on my way to breakfast and introduced myself to the guy at the desk, Jorge.

I had a fruit plate and coffee (!!!) at the Tu Lu restaurant and then went exploring. After establishing myself as the most recently arrived tourist by exposing acres of pasty skin and taking photos of basically everything in town, I covered myself in 40 Spf sunscreen and settled at the beach until my beginner surf lesson with Junior at 2:30pm.

There's hardly anyone on the beach. In fact at the moment, there are as many lifeguards as surfers/swimmers. The waves were pretty small (it was about 2.5 hours after low tide) and, after a brief lesson about rips and how they're formed, we went out into the white water. It was great!! I got up easily and was pleasantly exhausted after 2 hours of paddling out, riding in...rinse, repeat.

After the lesson, I grabbed a cold beer and dinner at Arena y Sol - arroz con pollo which, strangely, came with a mound of french fries - before heading down to the beach to watch the sunset. (I think they threw the fries on because I'm new to town & "american". Once I start ordering in Spanish, I never see another french fry)

As I returned to my room after a glorious sunset, I wondered if I'd made a mistake by coming for so long on my own. I had expected to meet people through the surf camp but so far there was just me and another couple who I'd meet at tomorrow's regular lesson. The average age in Dominical was 25 and I am basically invisible (picture a town full of skinny 20-something girls in bikinis). With all the activities we had planned I knew I'd be busy during the day but I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of eating dinner by myself 21 times. As it turned out my concerns were groundless.