To Tamarindo!
I informed my host family earlier last week that I was planning a little two night/three day trip to Tamarindo for the weekend, and after getting their approval, went ahead with booking my hotel, etc. I think my family was a little concerned about me going solo because they kept telling me that there are lots of "drugs, robbers and bad people" in Tamarindo. While that may be true, and it did make me a little nervous, I knew that Tamarindo is one of the touristy-est destinations in Costa Rica, so I figured it couldn't be that bad. Of course, when I was looking at hotel reviews, there were a few people that referred to Tamarindo as a "cesspool" so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Regardless, I decided to head out on Friday afternoon.
Unfortunately I didn't bother to check the bus schedule ahead of time and when I arrived at the bus terminal at 2:15, I was hoping the next bus was scheduled to leave around 2:30 or 3. But, the next bus didn't actually leave until 4. bummer. But it's cool. It's times like that when my coffee and Kindle addictions come in handy. I spent my time sippin on my coffee and doing a little reading. Here's the view from my spot:
Once I found my bus and got settled in for the adventure ahead, I did get another reminder text from one of Nieves's sisters again warning me about the bad guy robber druggies, which was unfortunate timing as I was officially at the no turning back point, so I decided to not worry so much about the impending peril to my safety and just have fun. :)
One of the great things about traveling alone is that it sort of forces you to meet and talk to new people. (Unless you want to spend a lot of time being quiet/not talking, which we all know is very difficult for me). When I was settled on the bus, I noticed that a guy that looked like an English-speaking backpacker was sitting kitty-corner from me, so I struck up a conversation (yay me!) and we spent a solid hour relating stories of our travels in Costa Rica. It turns out that Alex was originally born in the UK, but had been living in the US for 28 years (hence the reason he did not have an accent) and had come down to CR three months ago to take a one-month TESOL course in Quepos.
After completing the course, he decided to hang around the country for a while and has spent his time zig-zagging around to all the beautiful places in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. Turns out he's a website designer (for a company based in SF, actually), and is able to work while he travels. Thus, he is still earning a living while backpacking. That is very cool and it made me a little jealous! Alex was headed to Tamarindo to spend a week or so with one of the friends he made in his TESOL course, so upon arrival in our destination, we traded numbers and decided we'd try to meet up over the weekend. (We didn't end up getting to hang out again, but that's okay). It was a good experience for me to strike up a conversation with someone new. Not that I don't chat to random people on a regular basis anyway, but there's just something different about traveling alone and actively looking to meet new people....I don't really know how else to explain that.
SO L.A.
While Tamarindo is only a little over an hour away from Liberia, it takes twice as long to get there on the bus, so by the time I arrived in Tamarindo, it was after six and dark outside. I meandered to my hotel (the Best Western....located at the far end of the "main drag" in Tamarindo), got settled in, and tried to use the free wifi that was supposed to be one of the perks of my hotel. Of course my room turned out to be a dead zone both for wifi and cell service, but whatever. I grabbed my laptop and headed to the bar/restaurant/pool area where I was able to log on. When I had checked in at the front desk, the girl told me it was "ladies night" at their bar so this was also a good opportunity to scope out the location. While it was actually a pretty cute area (half inside with a setup for a live band, and half outside with a beautiful view of the beach/ocean), it was pretty dead at the time, and my expectations for a hoppin scene at the Best Western were pretty low. So after getting my internet fix, I headed out in search of dinner.
After arriving in Tamarindo, my first impression was that A., it was most definitely not a cesspool and B. did not strike me as a place where I needed to fear for my life (though I'm sure there are plenty of robbers...I think the rich tourists attract them in all the touristy places in CR). Tamarindo is by far the "ritziest" place I've seen yet in the country. The restaurants are all really nice, the streets are clean, the hotels look a little fancy, etc. And the place is crazy expensive (I mean, compared to the prices I'm used to paying for stuff in Liberia!). As I was walking around trying decide which restaurant to eat at, I was amazed by how expensive everything was, and by the types of food being offered. It was hard to find a place with casados on the menu (typical CR food), so clearly everything was geared towards out of towners. Also, everyone I talked to spoke English, which was both weird and nice. In Liberia, very few people speak English, so it was really like being on a little holiday to walk around just speaking my native tongue. It was also kind of funny to see so many Americans, because I rarely see tourists in Liberia.
Anyway, as I was walking along, I started talking to Luis outside of the Beach Club and he convinced me that his restaurant was the best and I should definitely eat there. I could get the fish of the day for only $14!!! (which actually was cheaper than most of the prices I was seeing on the other menus!). Once I got to my seat and ordered my food and my brewsky (a treat!), I saw Luis bringing in this guy who was literally ordering his food as he walked in, with very specific instructions about what he wanted on his salad, and the two drinks he wanted and yada yada yada. (This was followed by a particularly awkward attempt to slyly give Luis a "handshake tip" later in the evening when he was seating another couple. That was funny).
I may not be describing it properly, but the guy had that air of someone with lots of money and a definite sense of entitlement/money can buy me whatever I want. He was seated at the table next to mine and he immediately struck up a conversation. It didn't take long to learn that he was from California also - specifically Beverley Hill (shock). No offense to LA/Beverley Hills, but this guy could not have matched the stereotype of a rich dude on vacation any more. It was actually pretty comical because the stereotype was just so true. But in spite of the name dropping and self aggrandizing, he was a very nice guy. He ended up joining me for dinner and when the mariachi band came around, he requested La Bomba for the lady. hahaha.
Our conversation mainly revolved around his quizzing me, as a women, about whether or not I thought it was a good idea for him to marry the woman he proposed to before he left for vacation. He proposed because she was mad at him for taking a trip without her, so for her birthday (which is at the beginning of August)/ to appease her, he bought a diamond ring and proposed. They've been together for three years, but she is 48 (as is he), which makes her just around the corner from 50 and he's been thinking for the last year or so about how he might want to trade in for a "younger model." Also, the guys she previously dated never wanted to marry her, so why should he marry her? Oh good grief. Other topics of conversation included travel, independence, nannys and the environment. And at the end of dinner, he insisted on buying my meal to prove that there are "good guys" out there (not that I ever said there aren't), but whatevs. It was very nice of him, and saved me $25 so that's cool :)
Oh, and he ordered the red snapper, which was recommended to him, and it came out looking like this:
I have never been served a whole fish before, so I just had to take a pic :) It was apparently really good. I ended up with the sea bass, which was also quite yummy!
To the Bars
After dinner, I was asking Luis about Aqua, which is a discotech my students had recommended to me, but he said that Monkey Bar is fun on Friday nights. That happened to be where my new dinner friend was headed as well, so we went together. When we got there, it turned out to be the bar/restaurant at the Best Western, where they were having ladies night! Too funny and talk about extremely convenient! I hung out with LA guy for a little while, but he eventually wanted to move on, so I stayed to hang out. Monkey Bar actually was pretty cool. The inside area had a live band playing Latin music, and then there was a DJ playing popular dance/pop songs on the patio. The main bar area was in the middle, so it was a pretty nice setup. Shortly after LA guy left, I met Donny, who is a tico from San Jose, who speaks very good English, and was traveling with two co-workers: Jon (from the US) and Brendan (from Australia). Donny ended up buying a round of Jaeger bombs (pic below) and then he taught me how to merengue. So fun! So hard! I don't know why, but I am an idiot when it comes to learning these Latin dances, but they are so much fun!!
My first day in Tamarindo was definitely a lot of fun! yay!!
Then, There Was the Hangover
Okay, I haven't been drinking very much since I arrived in Costa Rica, so one night "out on the town" and I was left with a wee hangover on Saturday. But I still had stuff to do and see so I dragged myself out of bed and down to the town. I grabbed some food and some delicious coffee in a cute little cafe, went in a bunch of the tourist shops (which have great souveniers by the way...friends, I will probably be buying many of your gifts there!), bought a super cool (heh, "cool") CR beach towel and a really really good oil painting of a sea turtle from a really cute couple vending their goods on the street, and hit the beach. I obviously brought my Kindle with me, so I spent the majority of the day chillin, recovering from my hangover and reading on the beach. Tamarindo is a surfing beach so there are a TON of surf schools and the water was full of tourists trying to learn how to surf. That was entertaining to watch. Here are some pics of the beach:
By the way, is it just me or do all the pics from all the various beaches end up looking the same? In reality, they are all pretty different, but my lame picture-taking skills and my generic camera just don't do them justice I guess...
The Ride Home
Since I didn't want to get home too late on Sunday, I didn't end up doing much on my last day in Tamarindo. There was just time to grab some breakfast and do a little walking around before I decided to chill at the bus stop. I kept getting different answers about when the next bus would be coming, and since there is less service on Sunday, I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry, so I grabbed a seat at the cute little bus stop just down from my hotel. This guy named Maxi was already there waiting for the bus so we chatted while we waited together. Maxi works at one of the restaurant / surf shops in Tamarindo, but he lives about 30 minutes away. Like many of the locals in Tamarindo, Maxi speaks very good English and as we were chatting, he helped me with my Spanish. I told Maxi that my family is coming to Tamarindo for Christmas and he told me that he'd set me up with a good deal on surf lessons, etc. Amazeballs. Also, he comes to Liberia every once in a while, so we'll have the chance to hang out again soon.
While we were waiting, we saw a cab from Liberia drive by. Maxi told me that I could probably take the cab back to Liberia for about 2000 colones ($4) and I told him he was crazy. When the cab drove back by, we stopped it, and sure enough, Maxi was right. Since Maxi's town is on the way to Liberia, we hopped in the cab and headed out. This was amazing because the bus costs around 1350 colones and takes two hours. By car, the trip only takes an hour, so it was well worth the extra buck and change! :) On the way, we picked up a few more guys heading back to Liberia so there was lots of time to practice my Spanish! Here's Maxi in the taxi: (hehehe, couldn't resist!)
When I got home from Tamarindo, I filled my family in on my adventures and assured them that I didn't get attacked by any bad guys! For a first solo trip, I have no complaints!
Unfortunately I didn't bother to check the bus schedule ahead of time and when I arrived at the bus terminal at 2:15, I was hoping the next bus was scheduled to leave around 2:30 or 3. But, the next bus didn't actually leave until 4. bummer. But it's cool. It's times like that when my coffee and Kindle addictions come in handy. I spent my time sippin on my coffee and doing a little reading. Here's the view from my spot:
Once I found my bus and got settled in for the adventure ahead, I did get another reminder text from one of Nieves's sisters again warning me about the bad guy robber druggies, which was unfortunate timing as I was officially at the no turning back point, so I decided to not worry so much about the impending peril to my safety and just have fun. :)
One of the great things about traveling alone is that it sort of forces you to meet and talk to new people. (Unless you want to spend a lot of time being quiet/not talking, which we all know is very difficult for me). When I was settled on the bus, I noticed that a guy that looked like an English-speaking backpacker was sitting kitty-corner from me, so I struck up a conversation (yay me!) and we spent a solid hour relating stories of our travels in Costa Rica. It turns out that Alex was originally born in the UK, but had been living in the US for 28 years (hence the reason he did not have an accent) and had come down to CR three months ago to take a one-month TESOL course in Quepos.
After completing the course, he decided to hang around the country for a while and has spent his time zig-zagging around to all the beautiful places in Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua. Turns out he's a website designer (for a company based in SF, actually), and is able to work while he travels. Thus, he is still earning a living while backpacking. That is very cool and it made me a little jealous! Alex was headed to Tamarindo to spend a week or so with one of the friends he made in his TESOL course, so upon arrival in our destination, we traded numbers and decided we'd try to meet up over the weekend. (We didn't end up getting to hang out again, but that's okay). It was a good experience for me to strike up a conversation with someone new. Not that I don't chat to random people on a regular basis anyway, but there's just something different about traveling alone and actively looking to meet new people....I don't really know how else to explain that.
SO L.A.
While Tamarindo is only a little over an hour away from Liberia, it takes twice as long to get there on the bus, so by the time I arrived in Tamarindo, it was after six and dark outside. I meandered to my hotel (the Best Western....located at the far end of the "main drag" in Tamarindo), got settled in, and tried to use the free wifi that was supposed to be one of the perks of my hotel. Of course my room turned out to be a dead zone both for wifi and cell service, but whatever. I grabbed my laptop and headed to the bar/restaurant/pool area where I was able to log on. When I had checked in at the front desk, the girl told me it was "ladies night" at their bar so this was also a good opportunity to scope out the location. While it was actually a pretty cute area (half inside with a setup for a live band, and half outside with a beautiful view of the beach/ocean), it was pretty dead at the time, and my expectations for a hoppin scene at the Best Western were pretty low. So after getting my internet fix, I headed out in search of dinner.
After arriving in Tamarindo, my first impression was that A., it was most definitely not a cesspool and B. did not strike me as a place where I needed to fear for my life (though I'm sure there are plenty of robbers...I think the rich tourists attract them in all the touristy places in CR). Tamarindo is by far the "ritziest" place I've seen yet in the country. The restaurants are all really nice, the streets are clean, the hotels look a little fancy, etc. And the place is crazy expensive (I mean, compared to the prices I'm used to paying for stuff in Liberia!). As I was walking around trying decide which restaurant to eat at, I was amazed by how expensive everything was, and by the types of food being offered. It was hard to find a place with casados on the menu (typical CR food), so clearly everything was geared towards out of towners. Also, everyone I talked to spoke English, which was both weird and nice. In Liberia, very few people speak English, so it was really like being on a little holiday to walk around just speaking my native tongue. It was also kind of funny to see so many Americans, because I rarely see tourists in Liberia.
Anyway, as I was walking along, I started talking to Luis outside of the Beach Club and he convinced me that his restaurant was the best and I should definitely eat there. I could get the fish of the day for only $14!!! (which actually was cheaper than most of the prices I was seeing on the other menus!). Once I got to my seat and ordered my food and my brewsky (a treat!), I saw Luis bringing in this guy who was literally ordering his food as he walked in, with very specific instructions about what he wanted on his salad, and the two drinks he wanted and yada yada yada. (This was followed by a particularly awkward attempt to slyly give Luis a "handshake tip" later in the evening when he was seating another couple. That was funny).
I may not be describing it properly, but the guy had that air of someone with lots of money and a definite sense of entitlement/money can buy me whatever I want. He was seated at the table next to mine and he immediately struck up a conversation. It didn't take long to learn that he was from California also - specifically Beverley Hill (shock). No offense to LA/Beverley Hills, but this guy could not have matched the stereotype of a rich dude on vacation any more. It was actually pretty comical because the stereotype was just so true. But in spite of the name dropping and self aggrandizing, he was a very nice guy. He ended up joining me for dinner and when the mariachi band came around, he requested La Bomba for the lady. hahaha.
Our conversation mainly revolved around his quizzing me, as a women, about whether or not I thought it was a good idea for him to marry the woman he proposed to before he left for vacation. He proposed because she was mad at him for taking a trip without her, so for her birthday (which is at the beginning of August)/ to appease her, he bought a diamond ring and proposed. They've been together for three years, but she is 48 (as is he), which makes her just around the corner from 50 and he's been thinking for the last year or so about how he might want to trade in for a "younger model." Also, the guys she previously dated never wanted to marry her, so why should he marry her? Oh good grief. Other topics of conversation included travel, independence, nannys and the environment. And at the end of dinner, he insisted on buying my meal to prove that there are "good guys" out there (not that I ever said there aren't), but whatevs. It was very nice of him, and saved me $25 so that's cool :)
Oh, and he ordered the red snapper, which was recommended to him, and it came out looking like this:
To the Bars
After dinner, I was asking Luis about Aqua, which is a discotech my students had recommended to me, but he said that Monkey Bar is fun on Friday nights. That happened to be where my new dinner friend was headed as well, so we went together. When we got there, it turned out to be the bar/restaurant at the Best Western, where they were having ladies night! Too funny and talk about extremely convenient! I hung out with LA guy for a little while, but he eventually wanted to move on, so I stayed to hang out. Monkey Bar actually was pretty cool. The inside area had a live band playing Latin music, and then there was a DJ playing popular dance/pop songs on the patio. The main bar area was in the middle, so it was a pretty nice setup. Shortly after LA guy left, I met Donny, who is a tico from San Jose, who speaks very good English, and was traveling with two co-workers: Jon (from the US) and Brendan (from Australia). Donny ended up buying a round of Jaeger bombs (pic below) and then he taught me how to merengue. So fun! So hard! I don't know why, but I am an idiot when it comes to learning these Latin dances, but they are so much fun!!
Then, There Was the Hangover
Okay, I haven't been drinking very much since I arrived in Costa Rica, so one night "out on the town" and I was left with a wee hangover on Saturday. But I still had stuff to do and see so I dragged myself out of bed and down to the town. I grabbed some food and some delicious coffee in a cute little cafe, went in a bunch of the tourist shops (which have great souveniers by the way...friends, I will probably be buying many of your gifts there!), bought a super cool (heh, "cool") CR beach towel and a really really good oil painting of a sea turtle from a really cute couple vending their goods on the street, and hit the beach. I obviously brought my Kindle with me, so I spent the majority of the day chillin, recovering from my hangover and reading on the beach. Tamarindo is a surfing beach so there are a TON of surf schools and the water was full of tourists trying to learn how to surf. That was entertaining to watch. Here are some pics of the beach:
The Ride Home
Since I didn't want to get home too late on Sunday, I didn't end up doing much on my last day in Tamarindo. There was just time to grab some breakfast and do a little walking around before I decided to chill at the bus stop. I kept getting different answers about when the next bus would be coming, and since there is less service on Sunday, I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry, so I grabbed a seat at the cute little bus stop just down from my hotel. This guy named Maxi was already there waiting for the bus so we chatted while we waited together. Maxi works at one of the restaurant / surf shops in Tamarindo, but he lives about 30 minutes away. Like many of the locals in Tamarindo, Maxi speaks very good English and as we were chatting, he helped me with my Spanish. I told Maxi that my family is coming to Tamarindo for Christmas and he told me that he'd set me up with a good deal on surf lessons, etc. Amazeballs. Also, he comes to Liberia every once in a while, so we'll have the chance to hang out again soon.
While we were waiting, we saw a cab from Liberia drive by. Maxi told me that I could probably take the cab back to Liberia for about 2000 colones ($4) and I told him he was crazy. When the cab drove back by, we stopped it, and sure enough, Maxi was right. Since Maxi's town is on the way to Liberia, we hopped in the cab and headed out. This was amazing because the bus costs around 1350 colones and takes two hours. By car, the trip only takes an hour, so it was well worth the extra buck and change! :) On the way, we picked up a few more guys heading back to Liberia so there was lots of time to practice my Spanish! Here's Maxi in the taxi: (hehehe, couldn't resist!)
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