Surf, sun, and read…

So we are settling into our daily habits here… ummm… get up, surf, rest/read/paint, dinner somewhere, sleep, and start over… we’ve also ventured quite a bit around town to see what the area was like; to the south, Playa Langosta is just south of Tamarindo and is a pretty beach but forget getting in the water there… rough rough surf and rocky outcrops everywhere… Playa Langosta also seems the more exclusive alternative to Tamarindo… again, plenty of condos just inland from the beach, either built or in construction, but all very fancy, gated, and guarded (and no messing with security guards… since the police is almost non-existent, security guards come armed with shotguns… ☺)

Tamarindo bay panoramic

Inland from our place in Tamarindo, we saw mostly just more construction… it looks like the town is attempting to double its size by the beginning of next year… construction goes on everywhere and real estate agents make up about 50% of the stores in the town… the restaurants, like the hotels, tend to be owned by foreigners so the culinary variety is impressive: French, Italian, Chinese, sushi, Cuban, Mexican, Pizza Hut, Burger King (no McD!)…. You name it… even Costa Rican restaurants! Those are not on the main drive though…

Let’s see some other things we’ve learned about Tamarindo… your regular pests seem virtually non-existent here… haven’t seen a pigeon or a rat and only two small roaches in the entire town!... there’s hardly a stray cat either… the usual criters here are BIG lizards (“iguanas”), semi-stray dogs, dragonflies, and lots of birds (pelicans, egrets and hummingbirds are the most common…) and mosquitoes. Also, pelicans like to keep you company and fish while you surf, and sometimes, eagle rays do also… since the water is usually cloudy, you only see them if they jump out of the water!

For a change of pace, we had our first escapade by car a couple of days ago, to visit areas south of here, and to look for a place to stay a bit more secluded and quiet… You only need to be a few miles away from Tamarindo to already feel like your in the countryside: lots of pastures and forests and a few houses along the road, some people on horses. Lots of macademia nut plantations also (owned by Mauna Loa… in case you thought your chocolate covered macadamias were grown in Hawaii….).
We went to two coastal areas “Playa Avellana” and “Playa Negra”, both with very little development… Playa Negra was really pretty, very wild, very rocky… the surf was ummm… scary… big barrels ready to crush you on the rocks (and yes, there were surfers)… but the water was so blue, and so clear… so it’s looking like that’s where we’ll be in a couple of weeks.

Playa Negra surfer

Tamarindo

(This is mostly descriptive – skip if not interested ☺)

Tamarindo is a small town spread out along a main dirt road parallel to the ocean. The makai side of the road is planted with higher-end hotels and beach-front restaurants. The other side has surf shops, souvenirs, along with little eateries and smaller places to stay; it’s also the side that is undergoing most of the current construction, several new hotels and fancy condos. The main road is fairly narrow and with the added traffic from construction, it is a rough one to negotiate by car and on foot, especially during the rainy season when the dirt becomes slippery mud and the potholes become little ponds.
Once you step back onto the beach though, the real beauty of the area is really clear. The beach is wide at low tide and the view of Tamarindo, with its Spanish style roofs buried in all sorts of vegetation over a backdrop of lush hills, is really scenic. At sunset especially, the sun lights up the heavy clouds almost constantly present in the back and makes for colorful and fiery displays both in the sky and in its reflection on the thin film of water on the beach.



North of the town is a river (supposedly inhabited by crocs that we have not seen yet) which separates Playa Tamarindo from Playa Grande. Playa Grande, as suggested by the name, is even wider and much longer than Playa Tamarindo. It took us two hours each way to walk the length of Playa Grande. It is an important nesting ground for leatherback turtles, though they are only seen at nighttime. It’s also covered with seashells; which makes you wonder what the ocean bottom would look like in that bay if the water were actually clear. With the wave action right on the beach though and the very fine sand, there is no way to know…

The waves in Tamarindo Bay are all beach breaks; the waves are smaller in front of Tamarindo, not getting much bigger than shoulder-high… the spot we prefer is right by a rocky outcrop which causes the waves to break a little earlier and with better form… unfortunately, it is also the favorite spot of the “better surfers” here, the most dangerous… It is kind of interesting because coming from Hawaii, someone like me expects 95% of the people in the water to be better surfers, and you are also used to a certain surfing etiquette (i.e. you just don’t run into each other)… but here, it’s a completely different story, the majority of surfers in Tamarindo Bay are either very beginners or really not that good… and the “not that good” are really scary sometimes, not paying attention whatsoever to people around them, so it’s a good thing that the waves aren’t so big actually!! ☺ The really good thing though is that there are much fewer people in the water here so that balances things out somehow.

Yeaah! finally in Costa Rica!... It was a bit of a painful route during the last few weeks preceeding the trip: the organization of things back in Hawaii was gruesome, and the last minute stuff was a mountain... but it all went about as planned actually!
At 6 am on Friday morning, Christine had us dropped off at the airport with our little mountain of luggage; the surfboard bag for sure is the worst, 8'6" (almost 3m), and heavy, and an excuse for everybody to charge you extra, but i guess it's also sort of fun to have people wonder if you are carrying a dead body in there :).

Arrival in Costa Rica. We stayed first for 1 day in Alajuela, the second largest city in the country, just outside of San Jose. For such a large town, it really had a small town feel, with 1- to 2-story houses, the main center a small cathedral, and small streets crowded with people and stinky cars :) (no anti-smog laws in CR!). It was a cute town actually, nothing outstanding but very local and very non-touristy.
Next day, departure towards our first main beach destination: Tamarindo in the northwest part of the country. We got there in about 5 and 1/2 hours on bumpy and busy roads and with a crazyyyy driver who only passed people in curves and on hilltops; thank god for the nice view though!

Tamarindo?.... argh!.... first impression was very unpleasant (after everyone, had told us the best about Costa Rica, I should've known there'd be disappointment)... the main street was super crowded with buses and cars and trucks and construction was going on all over the place... eeek! the gringos have taken hold of the place and are intent on turning a Haleiwa style town into Waikiki! scary!
our hotel itself was really cute with little 1-story houses around a pool and quaint rooms, but stuck between 2 construction sites that ran 24hrs - i swear the 1st night i felt like i was back in my apartment in Paris, maybe a little louder... 2nd realization: prices here generally hover nearly at the same level as in Hawaii!!! so if we want our trip to last a bit, we're going to have to get smart!!...

2nd day, things were looking up already... some places were actually cheaper than the rest, and notably La Panaderia de Paris... mmmh... authentic French bakery (no, really, pains au chocolat like home... :))... the beach looked really nice and waves were right off of the beach rather than a long paddle away, the bottom was smooth sand (none of that wana nonsense) and the water was nice and warm... actually, too warm almost! after 2 hours surfing it was just too hot in there :)...