Surf's Up!

Aside from getting to partake in all the festivities for Independence Day, we all also got a nice long weekend!  (Okay, let's be real.  I basically get a long weekend every weekend, but not everybody else does, so this was nice).  After our day of hiking together, Rebecca invited me to join her on her weekend trip to Playa Grande.  She had gone to Playa Grande the weekend before to do some surfing, and since I love the beach, any excuse to go somewhere, had fun hanging out with Rebecca, and didn't already have plans, I happily accepted the offer to go with her to PG.  It was nice that Rebecca already knew the lay of the land, because she not only knew how to get to Playa Grande, but also knew where to stay, etc.  So easy and amazing!

Off to PG!
We couldn't leave too early on Friday morning because I had finally been given the name of a Spanish teacher and had an appointment to go take an entry exam with the professora in the morning.  Instead, Rebecca and I met at noon and headed over to the bus stop together, where we grabbed some food and waited for our 1:00 bus to arrive.  Although you can take the Tamarindo bus to Huacas and hop on another bus down to PG, we decided that we would take the bus all the way to Tamarindo, and then take a little "water taxi" over to PG.  (PG is the beach just north of Tamarindo, so they are right next to each other).  We happily hopped on the bus, and when it started to pour about an hour into the ride, we hoped it would stop by the time we reached Tamarindo.


The rain, of course, didn't stop, so when we hopped off the bus around 3:30 it was still pouring so we took shelter in a little pulperia (store).  We weren't staying at a hotel hotel in PG and were instead staying at like a little bungalow.  I don't even really know how to describe it.  But it had a mini outdoor kitchen where we could cook our own food, so while Rebecca and I were in the pulperia, we decided to buy some food too.  Then we headed out to brave the weather and look for our water taxi, which was of course way back up the road.

At this point, it really helps if you look at this map.  PG is the beach north of Tamarindo, and the space between the two beaches is divided by a little inlet which turns into a little mini river type thing.  When the tide is low, you can walk (wade) between Tamarindo and PG but of course, we were carrying our bags and it was raining and it wasn't low tide.  We eventually found the taxi stop and hopped on the boat, but instead of being dropped directly across the way (which, to a person who has never been to PG, looks like the boat is abandoning you on a little tiny island in the middle of a river), we had him go down the river a bit to drop us closer to where our hotel was.  Here are some pics:

Just so you know, the river is bordered by mangrove trees which are super pretty, but also mean crocodiles are around.  Rebecca knows a lot about crocodiles and they are SCARY.  We will leave it at that.

Once we got settled into our amazing bungalow, we decided to head down to check out the beach.  It wasn't raining anymore but it was all grey and amazing-looking at the water.  Also, on the way, off the side of the road, there were all these super bright-colored crabs that were beautiful!  They were also really fast so it was super hard to get a pic of them!

Despite not being able to find many fresh veggies, Rebecca and I had a delicious home-cooked pasta meal. I attempted to help, but mostly Rebecca did the cooking.  :)

 Buen Provecho!

Our room was on stilts and had its own patio and table and hammock.  On Saturday morning, we enjoyed the view while enjoying our instant coffee.  Me with my John Deere mug and Rebecca with her Howard Dean mug.

Our surf lessons weren't until 2:30 in the afternoon, so we spent the morning walking around the beaches of PG and Tamarindo.  We did take a boat taxi across to Tamarindo, but we ended up wading back to PG later that afternoon.  That was fun!  But I was glad I was wearing a swimsuit as the water goes like waist deep (at low tide).

 Such cute beach birds hunting for food.

 High little crab!!!

 Rebecca on the beach:

 Emily on the beach:

 Boat Taxi:

 Three motorcycle cops on the beach in Tamarindo.  Totally normal.

We stopped in Tamarindo to get some smoothies and quickly discovered why we could hear loud music all morning! They had put on a marathon that day, which began at 5 am, and by the time we got to Tamarindo around 10:30, it was almost over.  We enjoyed watching the last runners make it across the finish line.  Watching all the runners made me miss running...

 Eventually we headed back to PG and saw that some kids had been making a heart shaped thing out of some of the shells on the beach.  Adorbs.

Surfing USA (I mean, Costa Rica)

So I had my first surfing lesson at 2:30 on Saturday and it was GREAT!  I mean, I sucked at surfing and I only partially stood on the board, but mostly I just had so much fun floating on the board and trying to surf and messing around in the water that it was great.  Also, Javier, our instructor, was super hot so I mostly enjoyed just chatting with him.  Gary, the owner of PGSC wasn't around this weekend which is why Javier was our instructor (he's part of the "camp" next door).  I don't have any pics because I was just a girl with a surfboard and the ocean, but maybe next time I'll take pics.  I figure I have about three more months to practice my surfing, so I didn't feel much pressure to become a pro right off the bat.  Gotta leave room to grow in the sport.  That being said, Rebecca did a really good job surfing.  Technically it was like her third time surfing and she had had a lesson the week before, but she was still super good.  She like stood up on the board almost every time and it looked super fun!  Yay Rebecca!!

PGSC

This is where we stayed: Playa Grande Surf Camp :)

 PGSC had lots of lizards!  Here's a pretty bright green one!

 And a bigger one in the tree by our cabina:

And another one peaking out from the bathroom roof:

 A pic of the room - my first time ever sleeping under a mosquito net and it was great!

 Our awesome deck!

 The awesome view of the awesome pool from our deck.

My awesome shells that I found on the beach and wanted to bring home but didn't because I was afraid I would break them and I think they deserve better than that...

Hello crazy beautiful sunset on the beach!  Can't even tell you how nice the weather was.  Also, we were luck because while it rained all day on Friday, it was nice and clear and perfect all day Saturday and Sunday until we had to leave.  Couldn't have asked for better weather!

And our last, biggest, lizard friend visitor. He just stuck his head in for a minute to scope out the scene and see what was going on!

 Yep, I learned this from the lizards!!!

 Cheeee-eeeese!

 And the clouds start rolling in...

We got to the bus stop an hour early to avoid getting trapped in the rain, which was a good call (thanks Rebecca!) since it started raining as soon as we got under cover.  At least we had a beautiful view to look at!  Did I mention that PG is crazy beautiful and green and amazing?!?!  Tamarindo is fun because there's a lot going on and lots of people and tourists, but PG was a nice relaxing cover of awesomeness.  Highly recommend!

The trip home was nice and tranquil.  We caught the bus to Huacas, had time to grab a coffee, and then headed on to Liberia.  What a WONDERFUL weekend!  Nice and busy but relaxing busy.  Just what I needed!