Costa Rica - The Whale's Tail

I woke up Thursday wen the house was quiet. I got ready and then folded some laundry. We had decided to head to the Whale’s Tail but I wanted to let Chris sleep as long as possible, since he wasn’t feeling great.

We drove about twenty miles north to the Marino Ballena National Park, parked in a parking lot in town, and then paid the $6 admission and wore our masks long enough to enter the gates.

We arrived just after low tide, which is when the water recedes to reveal a marvelous formation of rocks ad sand in the form of a ‘tail’. See the picture below. We entered the Park on the right side of the picture and then walked through the jungle to the beach and then followed the beach out to the end of the whale’s tail. The whale tail itself is a result of converging currents. It was fun to walk out on the narrow beach with waves splashing up on both sides.

I didn’t mind the mile or two walk out to the tail - especially when turning around to see such gorgeous views of the ocean with Costa Rica mountains in the background. Along the way we collected tiny shells and sand dollars.

Jon, Romney, Megan and Luke headed to the ocean past the tail to snorkel but getting over the rocky terrain was no easy task. They were able to see a few fish but they all cut up their hands a bit from the sharp rocks so close to the surface.

We knew that we could only be out on the Whale’s Tail for about an hour before the tide would come in and cover our path back. We played for an hour and kept our eyes on the tide. When the water was flowing completely over the sand we gathered our things and started to head back. We were surprised at how quickly the water came in. Matthew started to really worry about me with my camera bag — which was cute. The water was almost waist deep as we walked through it and we had to carry most of our bags over our head. Then when we were on the other side, we helped to rescue a few piles of peoples clothes and keys who had left them thinking they had plenty of time to return. It was a fun morning.