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All posts for the month December, 2014

Our last day at the beach

Our last day at the beach

After Mark’s last post we spent a couple more blissful days with Vlad & Alex around Playa Langosta. Like the first part of the week it was all about hanging out, exploring beaches, doing some cooking and a lot of eating. All in all it was a pretty great way to spend a week and more evidence that you don’t have to have a permanent home to spend great, quality time with friends.

Alex & Vlad walking on one of the many beautiful isolated beaches we enjoyed

Alex & Vlad walking on one of the many beautiful isolated beaches we enjoyed

But some people needed to go back to work so we drove them to Liberia, the main airport in northern Costa Rica to bid them farewell and then Mark & I continued down to San Jose, the capital, for our last two days in the country. The best part, of course, was as we were getting ready to leave the airport and I turned to Mark and asked, “Do you know the way to San Jose?” I’ll bet no one ever thought of that before!

We were pleasantly surprised by San Jose. Not a lot to see, but a cute city with surprisingly good food. Lunch on Sunday was a wonderful Turkish restaurant, while dinner was a very nice Italian place. Even more excitement was a cozy bar we stopped in before dinner for a drink. It seemed normal enough until, a few minutes after we got our drinks, we realized that there were a bunch of … ummm … prostitutes there. Never a dull moment in our lives.

Now it’s off to San Diego where we’ll spend a few days at my brother’s house and then a few days at a house Mark’s family is renting not far away. Christmas with family – quite the unusual move for us!

Food doesn't get much better than this Turkish appetizer plate

Food doesn’t get much better than this Turkish appetizer plate

Mark's time at the beach

Mark’s time at the beach

This was the common view at Tamarindo - lots of sun and sand along with a line of novice surfers

This was the common view at Tamarindo – lots of sun and sand along with a line of novice surfers

And look who we ran into on the streets of San Jose!

And look who we ran into on the streets of San Jose!

Dinner in town with Alex and Vlad

Dinner in town with Alex and Vlad

After eight wet days in the Costa Rican interior, we were good and ready to head back down to the coast for more sun and higher temperatures. It felt like everything we owned was damp.

So we returned to Tamarindo, where we spent a few leisurely days warming up and drying out. Then we picked up our friends Vlad and Alex from the Liberia airport and settled into a nice little rental house for a week.

A couple weeks ago, Jim and I invested a day to go out and look at rental properties for Vlad and Alex’s visit. We settled on a three-bedroom house with a pool at Playa Langosta, just a twenty minute walk from the center of Tamarindo. We all really like the place. Jim has cooked up some great breakfasts, and has now cooked dinner for the first time in 19 months. Tonight Alex is inspired to cook and seems to be working on a real feast.

All four of us have been in a pretty relaxed mood, eschewing any plans for exotic activities, and sticking instead to a pretty standard beach bumming routine. The area around Tamarindo boasts a wide variety of beaches, each with a radically different personality. So far we’ve spent each day at a new one, getting into whatever vibe fits. And not doing too much else until it’s happy hour back at our wonderful little house.

Lunch at Lola's, the stylish beach shack named after a pig at beautiful Playa Avellanas

Lunch at Lola’s, the stylish beach shack named after a pig at beautiful Playa Avellanas

Vlad and Mark at Lola's

Vlad and Mark at Lola’s

Jim, Vlad, and Alex take in the gorgeous turquoise waters at Playa Conchal

Jim, Vlad, and Alex take in the gorgeous turquoise waters at Playa Conchal

Happy hour before another great dinner at our place in Playa Langosta

Happy hour before another great dinner at our place in Playa Langosta

A toucan right outside our cabin

A toucan right outside our cabin

Sayeth the guidebook, “Best time: November-March for the dry season.” We were off to the area around the Arenal Volcano, one of the newest volcanos in the hemisphere and most active volcanos in the world. So let’s go when the weather is supposed to be at its best.

This is the Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately it's just a picture I got off the web. It was completely clouded in the four days we were in the area so we never really saw it.

This is the Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately it’s just a picture I got off the web. It was completely clouded in the four days we were in the area so we never really saw it.

Well. We can’t really complain; the place we chose to stay at was the Chachagua Rainforest Hotel. I mean, you’d expect to have some rain, right? We thought, though, that it would let up at least occasionally. The four days there were pretty much like the four days in Bajos del Toro: wet, with intermittent really wet.

Still, we figure we can make the best of it. TripAdvisor said the hotel’s local tour guide, David, was great, so we booked a two-hour hike on the paths around the hotel. It turned out to be the most aimless, uninteresting meandering “tour” we’ve ever done.

Then we figure the next day, during a break in rain, we’d take off on the bikes available through the hotel. Off we go … for a mile. When my front breaks quit working and Mark’s back tire went flat. So that didn’t work out so well either.

Sitting in the hot springs was as good as it looks. And it made me really want to find time to go to Japan, where they do this stuff well.

Sitting in the hot springs was as good as it looks. And it made me really want to find time to go to Japan, where they do this stuff well.

Related to all the volcanic activity in the area there are hot springs all through the region, and we figured if we can’t hike or bike at least we can lounge in the hot springs and sit in the naturally heated pools. Finally we found an activity that we’re good at!

Of course, when things start going wrong it kind of escalates. Rain, lousy hikes, and broken bikes; what else could go wrong, you ask? How about bed bugs? Yup, for the first time since we started this adventure. We’re ready to drive back to the beach, where we’ll be spending the next 10 days or so.

Yes!

A butterfly we spotted on our "hike"

A butterfly we spotted on our “hike”

We had lunch one day in La Fortuna, the tourist center of the area. It can be hard to find good food in a town like this, but we managed. This was a great arugula salad, even though Costa Rica is not Italy.

We had lunch one day in La Fortuna, the tourist center of the area. It can be hard to find good food in a town like this, but we managed. This was a great arugula salad, even though Costa Rica is not Italy.

One more shot of the toucan, this one with solid evidence that toucans eat berries

One more shot of the toucan, this one with solid evidence that toucans eat berries