0331-040715 – Tamarindo, Costa Rica
My co-worker found an amazing deal on Air Canada Vacations for a flight deal of $385CAD roundtrip for a week. We tried our best to spend as little money as possible during this short getaway so we also purchased groceries and made majority of our meals.
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We flew with Air Canada and the flight was pretty smooth. 5 hours. It’s bloody humid in Costa Rica – Liberia and area to be more specific. We booked Tamarindo Shuttle and Tours for our airport shuttle then on the road we went for a half hour-hour drive. We stayed at Tsunami Surf Hostel at the end of the main strip. We met Omar the manager once we arrived and paid for the room in cash because they charge $13USD for credit card. We are room 27 all the way at the back; private room with two beds with a/c and ensuite.
We threw our stuff down, changed quickly and went straight for the beach. Across the street from our hostel was a hidden entrance to the beach. We walked a bit and then found a spot to plop down but the wind was brutal and the sand would hit you so hard in the face. I think Hawaii ruined beaches for me.
After a little taste of the hot sun and humidity, we ventured the streets and found a grocery store and a bank. 20000 colon is only roughly $50CAD. We also booked our one-day 9 activity tour with Tamarindo Shuttle and Tours for Monday (040615) for $130USD. We walked back to our hostel and around this time it was only 3PM but felt so much later. Our hostel is on a big plot of land and features an open kitchen and lounging area so we hung outside and had mangoes from the mango tree in the yard.
We decided to head to the beach to watch the sunset and boy it sets early – it started to set at 6PM. We stayed on the beach and watched the sun go down then wandered back onto the main street.
We ate dinner at Nari. It’s a beautiful restaurant that is built around a tree so it looked like a giant tree house with these beautiful lanterns. We both got oven cooked pizzas. I got the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken pizza ($15.20USD) and it was so tasty.
We grabbed a huge jug of water and went back to the hostel. There aren’t any lights that lead up to our room except for one very dimmed lantern. The shower is very basic and there is a little space to put your shampoo but it you knock it down then it will fall down the hole/drain. The knob to turn on the water has no temperature setting so it’s rather cold with not much of a water pressure and if you touch it with a finger or thumb it shocks you. We both fell asleep before 10PM.
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The hostel has bikes we can use so around 8AM we went down to the main strip to see if the bank was open. It was not. Rode back to the hostel then rode back out when it opened at 9AM. Rode back to the bank to be told we need our passport to convert our money. Rode back to the hostel to grab our passport then rode back to the bank. We ended up getting groceries at the closer supermarket but it just wasn’t the same as the further one we went to the day before by the bank.
We got enough food to last us breakfasts, a few lunches and maybe dinner. We decided to loaf at the beach for a few hours before we had lunch. There was an alligator sighting that made people clear out of the water. We left the beach because it started to get hot. We made ham and cheese sandwiches then hung out on our porch out of the sun because it was just too intense to be out in. Around 2-230PM we decided we needed to go back out to the beach. Another sighting of the alligator cleared everyone out of the water as the alligator was swimming really close to shore.
We went back to our hostel to grab money and off we went to purchase groceries at the further grocery store. We got back, showered then used the kitchen to make dinner. We made pasta with tomato sauce, zucchini and tuna.
