Tamarindo...hoooo!

When we'd wandered back to our hostel on Thursday evening, there had been a few cows eating grass along the roadside. I hoped in the shower (a.k.a. a 1" diameter pipe from the ceiling) for a quick rinse, and I swore a cow was in the alley between the buildings, mooing at the top of his lungs. When we poked our heads outside a bit later, there were 20+ cows in the road - hah!

We had a delicious surf&turf dinner and a few beers before calling it a night... On Friday morning, we took our time getting up and getting going...after all, we didn't have much to go do! We spent a few hours in an ocean the temperature of bathwater, took a nap, enjoyed some beach-beers, and found a tour that we wanted to take the next day before meeting up with Rob's roomie, Benedikt, and his girlfriend, Martha, for dinner. All in all, a super chill day...as it should be when you're at the beach!

Rob 'earned' a few sand flea bites on his feet when he went wandering around an old wood pile...whoops.

Saturday morning started E.A.R.L.Y. Like 5:45am early. Time in Costa Rica is a bit of a paradox, I'd say: typically, if you say something will begin at, say, 3pm, you're lucky to have a handful o' people gathered at 3:20pm. That's Latino Tiempo, no? On this tour, we were told we'd be scooped up at 6:15am, and the guy got there at 6:02am! The same thing happened two other times during my time in Costa Rica...go figure. But I digress.

The driver appeared to be new on the job, because he stopped twice to ask for directions to the Rincon de Vieja, a valley approximately an hour away from Tamarindo. We got to enjoy 6 more kilometers on another pothole-sprinkled dirt road before we arrived. On tap for our day of adventure: ziplining, rappeling, mountain climbing, tarzan swinging, horseback riding (I was juiced, because they don't eat hay - they eat grass), white water tubing (like rafting, but better!), volcanic mud bathing, hotsprings soaking and eating. Since it was the off-season, there were few other tourists around, and only two (odd, so odd) guys on our tours with us. One was a dutchman that didn't speak English or Spanish, but could communicate with the wierdo Italian guy he may or may not have been friends with. Wins all around...

at one point on the tour, they use a pulley to lower you - headfirst, a'la Spiderman - down to a platform in the ravine below...ack! later, we did the same hang as we zipped across a canyon!

Overall, Tamarindo was beautiful, and I can see where it can really shine during the high season. There's lots to do, the beach is gorgeous, and it seems as though lots of businesses are moving in...if they'd just work on that road...