Tivives Beach

Today we journeyed to Tivives beach. A breathtaking 40 minute drive from the house to arrive to the town of Tivives, not much here beyond the main attraction, the Pacific Ocean. This black sanded beach has a southern border with a lagoon and river mouth. We first arrived there, but with the warning of crocodilos, we decided this wasn’t the beach for us. 

So to the north side of the beach we went, no more crocodile concerns, however, the cove was like a catcher’s mitt and caught a fair amount of discarded broken down plastic trash. “Que lastima” None the less, we enjoyed some body surfing with close watch on ourselves amongst strong currents. Eli recovered a tire from the ocean, Ayden got stung by something? and Kylah took a moment to show us a bit about our use of plastics. Smiles and a few lessons were had. Costa Rica is pretty good about laying it out right in front of you.

Note from Kylah: This beach really had me feeling a whole mix of emotions. We had recently watched a documentary about plastic waste in the ocean. Knowing a lot of the information already, it still was super difficult to watch and had us asking ourselves "what changes we had made and were they really enough?"

 This beach really drove home the fact that no, we were not doing enough and need to change more of our own practices. Our dear friend that grew up here shared with us the efforts that are consistently going on here in Costa Rica to mitigate and clean up the beaches, take care of the wildlife and educate people on the impact of their choices. The choices of all of us - no matter where you live- affect coastal communities - not just those living near them. As Adam said, Costa Rica is really good about laying things right out for you. 

With all of that said, this beach .. with all its complications, was incredibly beautiful as well. Had amazing drift wood from the near by river and was empty save for one other person. We left with a lot of food for thought and motivation to get involved locally.