Costa Rica Summer 2012

 

Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica
June 2012

How did I end up in this beautiful place? Same old story-girl meets boy, after second date boy invites girl on a trip, girl has 5 new friends and a new man in her life.

When life presents an opportunity, a chance, an adventure-I have to take it. And while I said to all how I simply shouldn't go-wouldn't go-how irresponsible and irrational it all would be-my mental ticket had already been bought.

Enough of that-lets get to the specifics.

Tamarindo is a small town on the west coast of Costa Rica. The beach has a long flat stretch of sand-beautiful shells everywhere. Tiny crabs would wash up and hunker down in the sand to hide from our feet. You definitely come here for surfing-even if you are a beginner.

     "Tamarindo has two main breaks for advanced surfers: Pico Pequeño- a rocky point in front of the Hotel Tamarindo Diriá and the excellent river mouth break across from Cabinas Tsunami called El Estero. The rest of the beach breaks are perfect for learning. The biggest waves can get up to 12 feet, although only during November and December."-Thanks be to Wikipedia

Nogui's Sunset Cafe

This is where we had our first meal.
Most of us had the red snapper-you
betcha it came with the head! Really
great seafood and margaritas.

We stayed in a beautiful 3 bedroom house with a pool. It was a cheap split between the 6 of us. It was only 300 for a whole week. The best part of my stay was the company, but the howler monkey that walked along the second story porch rail as we swam in the pool, he was pretty cool too.

Playa Avellanas

A half hour south is Playa Avellanas. We rented a SUV, big enough for all of us-well sort of-if you count the trunk as a seat :) This was much cheaper in Tamarindo than it was at the airport. I saved 500 on the deposit and about 200 on the rental, so I recommend taking a taxi from the airport. Plus, if you like driving on dirt roads-dodging pot holes and hitting giant mud puddles-you are going to love driving here!
Anyways, as you can see Avellanas is beautiful. The mossy rocks on the shore looked like a model of the Irish coast. I did have Ireland on the brain since that was my next trip...anyways- Here we surfed and laid about on the beach all day by a great restaurant named after a pig! A big pig named Lola-who was a present from the owner to his wife. If you go you will meet her successor-Lolita-as Lola has passed into the Great Beyond.
Imagine my surprise when coming back from the bathroom I see a giant pink blob resting in the muck of a pen. I was more surprised that she wasn't the main course of an upcoming celebration. I don't recall any pork on the menu-the food was great and the drinks-even better.     Lola's Restaurant

                                                       Andrew & Lolita

  Playa Negra

Joe

Found this beach and a stable at the end of a concrete path that runs alongside Hotel Playa Negra. A beautiful white horse had his muzzle out that we were all eager to pet. We simply wandered the beach, sat in the trees, and played with hermit crabs until dark.

Andrew

Negra at night

Nosara

Chris, Danielle, and Matt

Just four of us headed to Nosara. The journey there was fun. Nothing but muddy roads and little bridges, surrounded by green :) Chris had recently been there for a yoga retreat and decided to return, and Danielle thought she would join him for the rest of her time there. Lot's of yoga and fresh foods in this health and wellness focused area of Costa. It's actually considered a Blue Zone.
Our first stop was Frankie's-an all natural food place that you wouldn't know was there unless you were a local. Frankie had plenty of dried fruit, fresh coconuts and even ice cream.

Frankie's

Then we went to the beach for a wander, which included climbing around a rocky beach.

 

Then after a dip in the water and a walk in the green we came upon this giant sand castle. Well it's actually called the Nosara Beach Hotel



You won't find anyone to check you in though. But we did meet a man just sort of hanging out there with a pack of speckled dogs-that greeted us with growls.

Good thing I'm dog crazy and had treats in my bag for all the little runabouts of Costa Rica.We were soon all friends. So much so that two tried to follow us home.



So needless to say this place isn't up and running but it is quite unique. That's a hand seemingly pulling at that top of the building. And those swirly stairs-too cool.  Apparentlyif was once a functioning hotel. I couldn't find much more about it but Trip Advisor's page gave me a laugh.



We spent most of our time walking and biking through Tamarindo. The people here are friendly and it's very relaxed. I enjoyed giving a very good looking guy a ride to a hostel-hey, he was struggling with a giant box filled with coconuts so it wasn't completely selfish on my part. :)
 Joe and Matt got a lot of surfing in. I chickened out-I've never been surfing. I'm not the bravest when it comes to water. Although, on our last day, I did snorkel in very deep, open water. You see, Andrew and I went out on a Catamaran Sunset Cruise-"booze cruise-"that was to include snorkeling. Little did I know that they anchor the boat a sizable distance off-shore/away from the beauty of the reef. But somehow I managed to swim back and forth. The way back was the most difficult-I went solo. It took a lot of self pep-talk, both audible and in the head-to get me there.

Well, that was my experience in Costa Rica. I'll end this with my favorite picture.

White Horse, Playa Negra