Costa Rica 2012

Tuesday in Tamarindo

Tuesday in Tamarindo

We got picked up at 6:30am and they took us inland by the La Vieja volcano which is actually right by where we are staying the second half of our trip.

We got to rappel down a canyon wall and rock climb back up. I CANNOT rock climb, so mine was more of a reverse rappel where I held onto the rope and walked up while my poor belayer pulled me!!!

Then we loaded our rafts which basically looked like an inflatable (but completely sturdy) kayak and we went white water rafting!!! The Colorado River is in a canyon with really narrow and high walls formed years ago by the volcanic lava and lush vegetation all around it. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's impossible to try and describe how beautiful Costa Rica is! The whole time rafting we saw butterflies (even my MOST FAVORITE morphos ~ with the blue wings!!!!) and birds. We saw bats and really big freaky spiders!!! The rapids were pretty much class 2 and it was just fun and easy. I sat up front taking pictures and video and enjoying the view while my guide paddled!!! Hahaha!!! So fun!!!

We stopped to swim, cliff jump and rope swing into the water for a while. Seriously!!! Suuuuuuuper fun and gorgeous!!!

Then we went back into town and I swam and body surfed for a while. Christina and I also saved like 20 sand dollars from drying out on the sand ~ I'm sure they would've been fine without our help, but we prefer to think we saved them! SAVE THE SAND DOLLARS! This was after I picked one up to bring it home and had regrets about killing a sea creature so I put it back in the water and watched it burrow itself back to safety!! Then the ocean paid us $4! (Found money floating in the water!!)

Our dinner was at this typical Tico restaurant and my favorite meal yet. Mmmmm. Lomito con gallo pinto & papas cocidas with quesadillas. Y. U. M!!

We went to sleep early cause we really only slept 4 hours Monday night ~ but the disco across the street was playing some tropical music that ~ seriously I can sleep through anything, except apparently that!!! Had to put in earphones and listen to my own. Christina had a horrible night :( not able to sleep and with a stomach flu.

Oh! Our last sunset in Tamarindo was perfect. With some clouds ~ this place has the prettiest sunsets!!

I so don't want to leave!!!

Sunset time

Tamarindo ~ sunset

Sunset & a Coke!

Hotel Zullymar

Our hotel in Tamarindo ~ across the street from the beach

Hotel Zullymar

Walk ...

I haven't had wifi for like a day!!
Right now I'm sitting on a very deserted beach. It's 8:30am and I just walked down the coast to the point, past the point, to the next point ... It's kind of addicting. If time wasn't an issue, I'd end up in Panama!!

It's our first overcast day since we got here. The weather has been amazing. It's gonna clear up by later and be sunny but we're leaving Tamarindo in a couple of hours. Super sad face!!!

I was going to sit here and write about yesterday but instead I'll just write about sitting here! I wanna enjoy the ocean instead!! I can't get enough.

Monday ~ Tamarindo

What a fun day!!! On the itinerary it said: free day at Tamarindo ... Here's how we spent it! We took kayaks from shore to this little island. The water was pretty rough and it was windy ~ it was a little intimidating knowing there are crazy currents and rocks to crash into. One option was to go around the island on the kayak but its open ocean with waves and rocks ... Didn't wanna risk it. So we parked our kayaks on the island and went to explore. It was basically a giant tide pool!! It was gorgeous and it was fun just climbing on the rocks and enjoying the view. One side of the island was covered with these white shells, looked like a shell graveyard. Awesome!!

The way back was tricky because the wind was picking up and it was kinda rough!!! I had to kayak through two breaking waves ... I was so worried they were gonna tip me over!!

Back at shore, you also have to surf the waves ~ and I made the first but got dumped on the second! Hahaha.

Best thing: I swear we were out for like 2 hours and they only charged us $20!

We had just enough time for lunch, and then we went on an ATV tour to a pretty beach and to watch the sunset from some place called Pirata rock!

We decided to share an ATV instead of each getting our own and when we started going up a couple steep things, I gunned it too fast and almost lost Christina ~ so we decided it might be a better idea for her to ride with the guide instead of with throttle-happy me!! It was a good call cause on the next uphill, Christina said my front wheels left the ground for a little bit. Eeek!! And, I'm sure the guide was NOT bummed to have Christina behind him, hee hee!

Riding the ATV's was fun!! At one point we heard this loud growl. I thought, was that a bear!?! So we stop and its some howler monkeys. SO COOL!!! Later we found a tree with a whole FAMILY of howler monkeys!!!! Sooooooo coooooool.

We rode for like an hour. And got to this gorgeous beach. We had some time to swim and enjoy it. The sun was almost setting while we were there. It was further north than where the catamaran took us.

Then we took off for Pirata Rock and that sun was setting FAST. He had to take us somewhere a little closer so we wouldn't miss it, and guess what?! We missed it. We missed one of our four Tamarindo Sunsets .... Nooooooooo!! But we only missed it by a couple of minutes and it was still gorgeous and breath taking!!!

I got so full of dirt from riding behind the guide ... It made for some hilarious pictures! HA!!

Then we ended our day with some Sushi and guess what?!? The owner and server were some of our party people on the party boat! We chatted like old friends ;) Costa Rica is the friendliest. Pete (the owner) was cracking up cause we told him he looked good with clothes on!! (He was rocking a speedo and a bow tie on the boat!!)

The restaurant had a disco going on so we checked that out for a minute too.

A++ day at Tamarindo! Tomorrow it's white water rafting ....

The island we kayaked to!

Villa 420

Our hotel is called Zullymar, but I'm renaming it Villa 420. Our neighbor downstairs likes his weed and smokes quite a bit of it each night and each morning. I really like hanging out on the balcony for some reason, and then, oddly, I'm super hungry for some munchies ;)

Day 2 in Tamarindo

I woke up to a GORGEOUS sunny day. We had some free time this morning, so we walked down to the beach (which, by the way, is across the street and from our hotel!) ... And GASPED! Cause the water was so far and there were all these rocks!! It looked like a completely different place from yesterday!!!

I guess there's a very dramatic high tide/low tide. Every 6 hours it shifts - and looks so different, I LOVE IT!!!!

The beach was gorgeous and we walked all down the one side. It's such a huge beach!

Grabbed some salads and headed to our Catamaran Cruise. Wow! So ... We got put on a PARTY BOAT! It was some girls's 21st b-day party and she had half the town celebrating it with her plus a handful of other tourists and us! They brought a Dj and all his equipment on board! Basically, they were these party people from all over the world that live here in Tamarindo. One of the guys owns the big disco here - and, well, everyone in that party was gorgeous and crazy!

Let's just say it was a PARTY! And that we had fun ~ cause we did! It took us to this gorgeous cove with an island to swim and snorkel. We got to hold some starfish a guy scraped off a rock. There was some dancing on the boat ... Light lunch ... And the most loud, party sunset I've ever watched!!!!!

We have the night free. Sure doesn't feel like Sunday ;)

Ohhh, there were two catamarans. One was a church group and one was the party group ... That just made me laugh cause I so should've been on the church one, but I know I had so much more fun on the party one ~ it's just Costa Rica and you've gotta just PURA VIDA!!!! (and we had no choice!)

And yay for being here with Christina cause its more fun than alone!!

Tamarindo Beach

Rocks that were under water yesterday!!

Tamarindo

Catamaran cruise

TAMARINDO

Tamarindo is gorgeous! Got in around 3 and went to eat cause we were starving! Mmmmm, yummy Costa Rican food!!!

Then I went for a swim in the ocean. I can't post pictures right now .... But wow!!! I will post a few, but because I didn't bring my iPad, i can only post the pics I took with my cell, not my camera!!! I'll have to remember to take some cell pix as well so i have some to post here!!

Nice waves, warm water & it was around 90 degrees! We watched the sunset and then went swimming again post-sunset till it got dark!!!! JUST THE BEST!!!

The sky was so pretty and ... Yeah ... It's hard to describe just how pretty it is!!! Plus it was a beautiful sunny day with barely any clouds.

We are both pretty beat. Bed before 11pm is sounding good right now! And if this post makes no sense it's cause of me being tired.

Oh, I let an ATM machine eat my debit card today. Ooops. I have a backup but I was bummed!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT HERE!!!!