This last weekend Jane, Stacey, Amy and I all went to Tamarindo. It is on the
Tamarindo beach isn’t the prettiest thing, but on Friday, when we arrived, we just had to be on the beach. Of course, once we checked into the hostel and gotten our suits on, we had to put on our sunscreen. Amy and I are the most fair skinned of the four and as we were lathering on our SPF 85 and 70 Jane says, “I can’t believe I brought the sunscreen twins to the beach!”. Classic Jane, but so true. So once we finally got to the beach it was wonderful to get into the water. The beach itself wasn’t that pretty because it was Tamarindo beach lined with resorts and a lot of people there.
Saturday we got up, had cereal for breakfast and were on the beach by 10 am. We walked down Tamarindo and got on a little boat, for a dollar, and crossed the estuary to get to Playa Grande (everything sounds so much better in Spanish, because this translates to Big beach...how dull). This beach was quieter and FILLED with some of the most beautiful shells. I must have spent an hour just picking up shells to give as gifts and make into jewelry! The water was wonderful and the four of us had a great time riding the waves. For lunch we went to Subway (which, believe it or not was better here than in the states) and then to our hostel to change and relax for a while where I discovered that I had burned the sides of my legs pretty badly and putting on pants was quite an ordeal. Then we went back to the beach for the sunset. We took pictures and a couple offered to take a group picture for us, so we have a couple group shots on at least one of the cameras there. We walked south down Playa Tamarindo to a part the juts out into the water. It was probably the most amazing place to watch the sun set ever. We climbed up the rocks and were able to take some awesome pictures and then just sit together and watch the sun go down. After that we went to a cool bar for happy hour: 2 for 1! After trying to go out and not finding anything worth while, we got gelato which was very overpriced but good. Not everyone was happy with their order, but in the end we got it all worked out.
Sunday Jane woke us up at 8 again (We didn’t come to the beach to sleep! Besides, you can sleep on the beach!) We asked the owner of the hostel how much a taxi to Playa Avallana should cost, so we wouldn’t get ripped off by the first one we asked (Jane is really good at bartering). She actually had a friend who drove a van and so for $10 each we got a ride to an absolutely gorgeous beach! And the best part: there was shade!! I was able to lay in the shade, still wearing my t-shirt, sunscreen and covered by a towel where I was burned, but was very comfortable! The water there was by far the best. The waves were better at
We went to back to our hostel to shower and get dressed for a wonderful last evening on the beach. Fist stop was the bar on the beach for happy hour and to watch the sunset. It was beautiful! Since it was our last night we had a little fun. I was tipsy after one drink and Jane was still fine after 2. Amy was the cutest though. She was giggly and having a lot of fun. Jane and I took it upon ourselves to educate our younger friend about what to do and what not to do when it comes to drinking. Probably not the best time to do it because she wouldn’t remember all the details the next morning, but she was happy to hear it. Jane and I learned some of this the hard way so we were happy to help Amy avoid some of those less than fun events. As the sun began to set, we took our drinks and went to the beach side section of the bar and took some more pictures. In some of them the colors didn’t turn out well, but all of us look good.
Then we went to this roof-top Italian restaurant that we had gotten coupons for the day before. It was really nice and Jane did most of the talking, seeing as she was the most competent one at the time. We ordered the spaghetti, the pesto and the cheese pizza. It was all SO tastey! Real Italian food is a little hard to come by here and it is one of my favorites. The pesto was outstanding though. Some of the best I’ve ever had. Amy was so cute at dinner. She loves French, and takes every opportunity she can get to practice and is worried she is losing it because of how much she is using Spanish (I tell her that is silly, and when she goes to France she will pick it right back up). The funny part is that at the table next to us four French women were having a conversation and Amy was so out of it she couldn’t comprehend what they were saying. It was adorable!
Ok, so the whole reason Jane planned the trip to “Tamagringo” was because her best friend, Toban, was going to be there for Spring Break, starting Sunday night. So after dinner we wandered around trying to find the hotel he was staying at El Escondito (the hidden). When we found it, he wasn’t there. Jane and Stacey decided to wait and see if they came back but Amy and I went home to go to sleep.
The next morning we heard the story about trying to find Toban. Jane and Stacey had been waiting at his place when the owner came out and told them that Toban and his girlfriend, Alexis, had gone to our hostel to find us. So Jane and Stacey go back to our hostel only to find that Toban and Alexis had already been there and left. So they went back to El Escondito to wait for them. After waiting, they decided to leave them a message in rocks they headed home and just so happened to meet up with them. So after about 45 minutes of missing each other they finally got to see each other.
When Jane, once again, woke us up at 8 am, Amy and I got the story and then we headed to their cabin for breakfast. After some FANTASTIC eggs that Toban made, we walked to Tamarindo, and then crossed the estuary to Playa Madera. It was another gorgeous day and despite my sunburn I had a lot of fun. I spend about an hour just looking for the coolest shells I could find (and I found some really pretty ones) and then went into the water to ride the waves with everyone. The waves were better than they had been when we were there last and we almost got “run over” by a couple of surfers. Fortunately they were good enough to know how to control their boards in order to avoid us, but it was interesting.
Subway for lunch one last time and then back to our hostel to rinse off and ride home. I napped for a little in the car and about half-way we stopped at Burger King where for 300 colones (about 50 cents) I got a soft serve ice cream cone. It was so good! About an hour from Monteverde I woke up to Disney songs…specifically A Whole New World from Aladdin. So for an hour we had a Disney Marathon! I even sang Poor Unfortunate Souls (from The Little Mermaid) for them and they were a little creeped out by how well I knew the song (but hey, it has been my favorite since I was a kid, why shouldn’t I know it well?).
Needless to say, my weekend was wonderful, despite the sunburning. It was perfect to get away from Monteverde, where the weather was rather dismal, to a beautiful beach with some of the closest friends I have had in a long time.
Sorry this took so long to put up, and likely the pictures will take even longer since things here are a little insane, but know that I am well, school is good and I am going to miss my new friends like crazy when they leave…the first one leaves on March 25th and the rest are soon to follow. I have never had this many close friends at one time. Due to the fact that we all chose to come here and we were all far from home, we became fast friends. I will miss them so much.
Don’t forget to comment if you like a picture or something…I feel like I’m writing to myself sometimes.
Thanks!
Hugs,
K
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