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After a disappointing stay in San Jose, Mark and I were keen to get back to the coast and hopeful that the Pacific side would bring much nicer weather. It was sad to finally farewell Kate and Jane as they planned to move on to Mexico. Saying goodbye meant our trip was nearing the end...very scary, but also exciting.
Mark and I caught a bus to Tamarindo, via Liberia, at 11.30 and arrived at about 6pm. This bus arrival time was always a favourite, bang in the middle of happy hour! It was a very crammed bus and stinking hot so we were pretty tired when we arrived but very excited by the clear weather. We had a slight miscommunication when it came to carrying our bags off the bus. Both of us thought the other had one of the small backpacks and it wasn't until we were gathering all our bags outside the bus to leave that I asked Mark where it was. We both mirrored the others worried expression when we realised neither of us had it and the bus had started off down the road. Mark sprinted after the bus waving his arms and yelling. He was assisted by the cars behind the bus that beeped their horns and was eventually able to flag it down and retrieve the bag..my hero! The bag didn't contain anything important just both our passports, both cameras, back up bankcards etc! A small catastrophe avoided....
This made arriving at our accommodation and our first drink much sweeter! We found a great place to stay called Villas Maconda. Its run by a German guy and reasonably small with all rooms surrounding a pool and lovely gardens. We braved the first night and had a room with only a fan but after falling in love with the area and our accommodation negotiated an air con room for a further 6 nights. It was definitely worth it.
The town of Tamarindo is fairly developed and a major holiday spot for tourists and visiting surfers. There are plenty of shops and restaurants but given that most tourists were only on 2 week vacations and mainly North Americans the prices were much higher than we were used to. We were fortunate our accommodation had a great kitchen and supermarket next door so we were able to make a lot of our meals ourselves. When we did want to go out we went to a small restaurant called the Taco Stop that served very simple and cheery meals in an informal setting. The owners dogs and children roamed freely, mingling with each guest, as did the Christmas (June) beetles!
We met a few people where we were staying and also on a sunset cruise that we did. This cruise was an afternoon that consisted of taking a catamaran to a small bay with a private beach (that we could access) and snorkelling for the afternoon before returning to Playa Tamarindo whilst the sun set. It was great fun and came with a full bar! Bring on the fruity cocktails. The snorkelling was amazing as we saw all kinds of bright and colourful fish amongst the shallow rocks and I will never forget the feeling when a sting ray passed under me skimming the ocean floor. Just beautiful!
Our time in Tamarindo didn't consist of much else other than swimming, reading and generally relaxing. There were some great people around and we savoured the good weather whilst we could. Originally we had ambitious plans to continue as far as Nicaragua but once we saw that sand, surf and sun we were happy campers that didn't want to leave. Even our intentions to see wildlife faded but luckily a few wandered across our path (mainly big lizards) and we were satisfied enough...so lazy! After the 7th night I suggested to Mark that we at least go to another beach along the coast and so we moved a massive 7km to Brasilito....which I will describe in our next blog! xx
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