seekingmygreaterperhaps

Pura Vida in Costa Rica!

Tamarindo, or Tama-gringo as the locals call it, is a beach town! My main activities were channeling my inner-Ken and just doing “beach.” I also needed some free adjacent activities because Costa Rica is more much expensive than I anticipated when planning my budget. The hostel I stayed at was beach front, and it was very cool to just walk right out and onto the beach.

The afternoon I arrived was pretty gray, but I walked along the entirety of Tamarindo beach. There were a lot of very neat shells and the sand is soft. I met a new friend who watched my stuff while I frolicked in the ocean, and she is an ex-pat living there (much of Tamarindo is). We even talked about her sons college search which is starting next year (ew, who am I?).

I lucked out, and the next day was absolutely perfect weather. I sat on the beach for two hours before I felt my white skin start to burn no matter how much sunscreen I put on. (80 spf 4x in 2 hours… and I still got burned) so I took myself inside to lay on the hammock in the shade. I walked around the town a little bit and poked around the souvenir shops.

I really just spent the day ambling around, reading my book, and then went back to the beach for an incredible sunset.

The next day, I hopped in the car and went to Playa Brasilita. It had stormed really hard with a lot of rain overnight, and on the drive Google kept trying to take me down dirt roads (probably because there was no traffic). Well I put the 4WD on and said let’s go… and then had to turn around 3 different times because of flooding. I’m not wild enough or stupid enough to drive through that.

Eventually, I made it and stopped to try and figure out where I would park and ordered a fancy green smoothie from a restaurant. I casually asked if I could keep my car parked there while I walked on the beach and she said yes. Win!

I walked along Brasilita and over a little wooded area and made it to Playa Conchal. I believe it is named like this for the fact that the “sand” is made up of broken shells. There were more people there so I decided to put my stuff down in the shade and go for a dip.

Not 10 seconds after I laid out my kanga, dry clothes, flip flops and bag and walked in did I see a larger than what I had been seeing wave come over my ankles and as I turned around saw it try to sweep away all my stuff! I ran like Baywatch and caught everything except a flip flop and threw it higher. I turned around and said, come back flip flop and saw it floating on the wave and ran to get it. All things saved, with just more moisture than anticipated!

When I got hungry, I left and walked back to Playa Brasilita because I saw a soda on the beach. I had lunch and it was quite tasty and then realized I liked this beach much better. The sand is softer and no waves were after my goods.

I walked a little bit and then heard some thunder so I made my way back to the car. I did not take any dirt roads back, and it was raining the whole way.

All night it was dumping buckets! I wanted to go to the Thursday Night Market… but not in a downpour, so I skipped it and stuck close to the hostel. I was fine to read my book and be cozy while listening to the rain.

All in all, I was happy to enjoy the nice time that I could, and I am looking forward to my next stop- Grenada, Nicaragua!