We safely returned from Costa Rica earlier
this week and wanted to update our blog with details of our trip before we
forget them like everything else. I can’t even remember what I did two weeks
ago… I remember wearing a white dress, though…
Anyway, Costa Rica. We departed early on
Monday, November 25.
Day One
We arrived in San Jose around 12:30 PM. We
knew we had to get to the Hampton Inn “across from the airport” because that’s
where the shuttle to our first hotel would be picking us up in a few hours. So,
we walked out of the airport past all the eager-to-getyourmoney-help you
taxi drivers thinking we’d walk. Soon figured out that wouldn’t work, so made a
full lap of the airport back around to the drivers and hopped in a cab. A few
minutes later, we’d reached the hotel and decided to go the neighboring
establishment for lunch. Denny’s. That’s right. Our first meal in Costa Rica
was at Denny’s.
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| A little pricey if you ask me... |
The shuttle picked us up around 4:00 PM. We
boarded and were immediately greeted by a man and wife/woman from Texas who had
brought a full bar onto the bus with them. Thanks for those vodka sodas, guy.
We had to say good-bye to the bar partway through the ride, though, as their
end destination was not the same as ours. Another guy on the shuttle with us,
we learned, was an American who lived in the town we were headed to (Tamarindo)
and owned a bike shop. Fate, you sneak! How did the universe know we wanted to
rent bikes while in Tamarindo? Perfecto.
We got to our hotel around 9:00 PM. The
entrance was dark; we walked in past the office (closed) and down a short path
to an open area where the pool and bar/restaurant (also closed) were. A staff
person was waiting for us with a flashlight. He spoke no English, but had a
piece of paper with my name on it, so I let him know it was me and he led us to
our room. Very formal check-in. The pathways to each room were paved or boarded
and surrounded by tropical plants and greenery, which allowed for an element of
privacy. Our little house was toward the back of the property. It was simple,
but charming.
After we dumped all our stuff into the room, we walked into the town of Tamarindo, found a bar where we ate some food, drank a couple Imperials and watched the Redskins lose. Then we crashed – it was a long day of traveling!
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| Our room at Hotel Pasatiempo |
After we dumped all our stuff into the room, we walked into the town of Tamarindo, found a bar where we ate some food, drank a couple Imperials and watched the Redskins lose. Then we crashed – it was a long day of traveling!
Day Two
We woke up early and enjoyed our first
complimentary ‘tico’ breakfast at the hotel. Ticos are what native Costa Ricans
call each other. So, the tico breakfast is a typical Costa Rican breakfast,
which included eggs, rice and beans, toast and fruit. Pretty good. Also,
delicious Costa Rican coffee. Can’t forget that.
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| Tico Breakfast |
After breakfast, we walked to the beach –
Playa Tamarindo – and stayed for a few hours relaxing and swimming. The weather
was beautiful and the water was warm. That was my first time swimming in the
Pacific Ocean! Around lunch time, we walked back to the hotel so we could continue
relaxing – but by the pool with drinks in hand. That evening we did a “hike”
where we walked a very short distance back a dirt road at the end of town that
led to a “viewpoint.” It was pretty cool, you could kinda see across the gulf.
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| Playa Tamarindo on a beautiful, sunny day |
We went to a place called El Coconut for
dinner that night, which was recommended to us by our
bike-shop-owning-shuttle-bus friend. The food was pretty good. After dinner, we
grabbed some more wine and went back to the hotel. And that was pretty much it
for day two.
Day Three
After enjoying our tico breakfast, we walked
into town to the bike shop. Rented ourselves a couple bikes and started
pedaling toward a nearby beach called Playa Conchal – aptly named for its “sand”
made entirely of shell pieces.
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| Renting our Bikes |
The ride ended up being about 12 miles. It
was beautiful riding down the Costa Rican country roads. Passed a chicken or
two, a tico or two hundred. About five miles in, we had to turn off the paved
road onto a dirt road. Still enjoying ourselves, we bumpily rode along until we
reached a small intersection. We paused to figure out our route. As we slowed,
we noticed a herd of cattle passing to our left. How quaint! There was even a
cattle dog nipping at their heels which made me think of little Romy…
Anyway, then things got interesting for a
minute. To our right, a group of Ticos stood off in the distance. And when I
looked their way, I could have sworn they were pointing a gun right at my face.
I remained calm – shocking, I know – and told Jon what I was seeing. We
shuffled our operation across the street and out of their line of sight. Jon
didn’t admit until later than he was pretty sure it was, in fact, a gun pointed
at us though he didn’t think they were doing it maliciously. Still – wtf?! We
hopped on those bikes and pedaled fast to get the heck outta dodge. Scary.
A little while later we made it to the beach.
It was really beautiful and there were not many waves, which made for nice
swimming. After relaxing and swimming for a bit, we got lunch at a restaurant
facing the beach. We were about ready to head back to Tamarindo, so our server
said he would coordinate a taxi for us that could accommodate the bikes. I was
obviously not going back down that dirt road to find crazy Ticos waiting for
me! It also looked like an afternoon storm might roll in (which it did).
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| Picturesque Playa Conchal |
Then things got interesting again. The “taxi”
rolled up a half an hour or so later – an old, rusty, rust-colored pickup
truck. Jon loaded the bikes into the bed of the truck while I sucked down my
margarita real quick. When I walked over, Jon was climbing into the
non-existent back seat. His seat was the truck’s speaker box. Umm… ok. The very
old driver, who spoke no English, put the front seat back in place so I could
climb in front. Off we went… at 5 km per hour. Poor Jon was stuck on that
speaker box as we crawled down the roads to get back, while our driver fielded
many calls from his horse-neigh-ringing cell phone (which only led to even
slower driving). We’d been told at the restaurant that the taxi ride would be
$40, which we thought was a little steep anyway but figured whatever. Well now
that we were in this interesting situation, neither of us really thought that
$40 was fair. We silently agreed to give the old man only $20 when we got to
our destination.
When we arrived, we handed him the $20. He fumbled
in Spanish (no Ingles, remember) trying to tell us that the cost was $40. I did
take three years of Spanish in school, so I knew what he was trying to say but
didn’t remember enough vocab to express our dissatisfaction. I tried pointing
to the truck and spewing out a few words to give him an idea. But it was mostly
just an awkward face-off. Then Jon, who knows next to no Spanish, just throws
out, exasperated, “TRUCK MUY PICANTE.” If you don’t know Spanish either, then
this might seem normal to you. But if you do know even a little, then you
probably know what he meant to say was the truck was pequeno, meaning small,
but in fact he told the man his truck was hot and spicy. I had to stifle my
laughter for the sake of the face-off, which we eventually won, the old driver
succumbing to the language barrier and leaving us.
The day did turn around after that. We
returned the bikes then walked out onto the beach for sunset. We found some
lounge chairs at a beachside restaurant and ordered a few margaritas and
watched the sun go down. It was very pretty. Afterward, we got pretty ourselves
and went to a place called Dragonfly for dinner. It was probably the best meal
we ate during the entire trip. It was fabulous. After dinner, we went back to
our hotel that was hosting an open mic night. We sat and enjoyed the music and
a few more drinks for a while before calling it a night. And that was day
three.
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| Delicious Dinner at Dragonfly |
That’s all for now – part two coming next!
