Costa Rica Trip Nov. 2014

[Phillyrockhound]

Just returned from the wonderful country of Costa Rica. The trip was to celebrate my grandmothers 80th birthday! Being this was a family trip, I had limited time for any "back country" explorations, missing too many suppers would not have gone over well!! So I decided I would take day trips to as many beaches as possible, and consider all info collected for a future trip if anything really caught my eye.

We were staying in a villa in Manuel Antone. I walked the local beaches all the way up to Quepos and paid special attention to low tide coral that would trap anything washed up. The current runs north there, so I focused on areas where the land hooked outward to catch the most debris. Beautiful sea shells, mullusks with opalesque interiors and coral were aplenty, but that is not what I was after. After 2 days and a good burn all I found fossil wise was what looks to me like horned coral encapsuled in a light green limestone. I also came across some small chunks of agate that I will have to cut n polish at a later date.

I felt I had exhausted my search, and had little reason to believe these finds were deposited by any nearby rivers. So I took a bus ride south down to a little surfing village called Dominical. The beach was all tumbled river rock and driftwood. I had lost my boots on a prior drunken evening and was stuck wearing my girlfriends pink walmart beach shoes... Brutal on the feet!!! I rented a surfboard as the waves were pretty nice, and there was plenty of room in the line up to partake. My cash was in a ziplock bag which I brought out surfing, but due to thieves, I had to bury my cigs and lighter under some rocks, and used some driftwood as directionals to find in the future. While squirreling away my possessions I dropped a piece of burnt driftwood on my rock pile to help cover my stash when I noticed something... The sound was all wrong!! There was no thud, but a high pitched clack!!!!

Sure enough, I had myself a piece of petrified wood!!

I surfed to my hearts content, and decided to do some investigating. There was more pet wood, not in abundance, but enough to think the source was nearby! When it began to rain I noticed jasper nodules too. I showed the wood to a vendor who was working on a wire wrap necklace. He said its from the river to the south!! This led to 2 fundamental problems, 1- lack of time, 2- a good potential for crocodiles! I had seen my fill of crocs there already, some locals would feed them chickens for tips from tourists... They are quick!!!! They are mean!!! And I'm in their house!!

I decided I will have to return in the future for a surfing/digging trip. I have a local guide set up for the river, he wants the wood for jewlery. I promised to teach him how to set up cheap lap saw/ polishing units so he didn't have to pay someone else for cutting his jewlery. Airfare is cheap after the new year. I'll pick up on this thread later!!!

[caldigger]

Sounds like you had a good time. What fossils were you going for? Are the top two pictures pet wood also?

Next time you see grandma, tell here Doren says congratulations on the birthday.