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 :)...