Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Getting from San Jorge to the Costa Rican border was pretty exciting. We had initially wanted to take the Tica bus (an outfit based in Costa Rica, with modern buses, reliable schedules, and relatively hassle-free border crossings) but after a very confusing Spanglish conversation with a Nicaraguan taxi driver we met after getting off the ferry in San Jorge, we figured out that although the Tica bus drops passengers off in Rivas, it does not in fact pick them up. He offered to take us to the border for $20, so we said sure, but could he take us to the ATM too? He said yes fine, but that would be $25. The driver was still uncertain that we'd understood the whole conversation about the Tica bus, so as we were driving towards Rivas he saw a friend of his who speaks English and flagged him down. We all got out of our cars, I talked to the friend, and he convinced us to take the taxi to the border and his friend to do it for $20.

We stopped at the ATM...and it did not accept my card. Similarly to Honduras, the ATMs in Nicaragua are either Visa or Mastercard (very rarely both) and our card, which is Mastercard, did not work at this Visa-only ATM. So he drove us to a different bank. I apologized for the extra trip and told him we'd pay the $25 after all, which made him very happy.

The drive to the border was interesting, past dozens of newish looking wind turbines along the shores of Lake Nicaragua. I did not expect to see those.

We made it to La Fronterra (the border), our taxi driver helped us with our things, I paid him, and he vanished. We looked around, and saw no signs, no officials of any sort, just some food stands and a nondescript wall topped with barbed wire and a single door. A young man approached us and in broken English offered to help us. He pointed to the door. We walked through and were greeted by two men in immigration uniforms sitting at a folding table. They looked at our passports, stamped them, and said nothing. Again, no signs or any indication of where to go next. Our 'helper' pointed us at another building. At that building we had to pay a small fee for exiting Nicaragua, then on to the immigration officer. He was quite gruff and took forever to review our passports and give us our stamps. Once again, when we were finished, he said nothing and there was no indication of what to do next. Our helper pointed us towards a long line of trucks, and said we'd have to walk from there. He then asked for a 'propina', or tip. I gave him a couple bucks and we started walking.

We crossed a very long stretch of road with muddy, garbage-strewn shoulders, past numerous trucks waiting to cross the border. After what seemed about 1/4 mile, we came to the border. First, a Nicaraguan immigration official checked our passports to ensure we had in fact checked out of the country, then a Costa Rican officer checked our passports again. We walked a short distance to the Costa Rican side of the border, and it was like entering a new planet--it was clean, neat, and orderly, with signs everywhere directing us. The immigration building was air conditioned (!) and full of modern lighting and equipment. The immigration officials were not behind impenetrable walls of impossible-to-hear-through glass, but just sitting at desks. The woman even smiled when she took our passports! There was no fee to enter the country! We used the bathrooms after checking in, and they too were free! And clean! Everywhere else we'd been in Central America, even public buildings, charged us to use the bathroom, and they were usually filthy and had broken plumbing.

The buses lined up at the border were all modern and apparently in proper working order. We purchased our tickets to Liberia and were on our way within about 20 minutes. It was, by far, the easiest and most enjoyable of all the border crossings we made during our trip.

We arrived in Liberia at the central bus depot and grabbed a quick snack at a fast-food joint (which had WiFi--ubiquitous throughout the country--another shocking aspect of Costa Rica). We needed to take a taxi to the car rental place, which is located to the west of town near the airport. A guy approached us and asked if we needed a taxi, we said yes, and we started walking towards what we thought was his cab, but it was a private car. This seemed pretty sketchy, so we said we wanted a licensed taxi and walked back across the bus station to the line of red taxis waiting for fares. We walked up to a minivan taxi, asked how much to the airport, he said $20. This seemed high, but the airport is pretty far out of town, so we said sure. After we had driven about 3 miles, the driver made a phone call. It sounded like he was talking to his boss, asking for directions to the car rental place. He got off the phone and told us he would have to charge us extra because the car rental place is not actually at the airport, but 5 km past it. When we arrived, he said the fare was $30! That was infuriating. I said it was ridiculous to charge an extra $10 for 5 km, and that I wasn't going to pay it. He said he had no choice, that his boss told him to charge that amount. I didn't feel like continuing the argument and really just wanted to get our car so we get to the beach, so I paid him. This would turn out to be the worst rip-off of the trip, which in retrospect isn't really that bad relative to stories I've heard from other travellers.

We walked up to the rental car office...and it was closed. We had not called ahead to see if they would be open, since this was a Friday, and we assumed that since it was the slow season they would have plenty of cars available to rent so showing up a day early would be no problem. There was another rental office next door, so we walked in and asked if they knew what was up with their neighbor. The very helpful and friendly guy behind the counter explained that since the company we reserved with had no reservations, the guy just decided to go surfing. Fortunately, he just transferred our reservation and we were on our way within a few minutes.

Driving in Costa Rica was a treat compared to driving in Belize. The roads are nicely paved, painted, and signed, and they are not riddled with speed bumps. The rental car company gave us a GPS, which was actually pretty helpful, because despite the relative abundance of signs, they are not quite as consistent or clear as one might wish.

We arrived at Playa Tamarindo after about an hour of driving. Playa Tamarindo is widely known as "Tamagringo" and there is a good reason for it--we saw more white people, primarily of the American persuasion, in this one town than in the other three countries we'd visited put together. It is a cute beach town, very walkable, but also extremely developed. The boys kept saying "I feel like we're in San Diego!" and it sure looks like it, only with a lot more jungle and a stronger Spanish backbeat. We saw a lot of private cars, all of the streets are paved, there are paved parking lots (!) in front of the commercial buildings, and many of the signs are in English first with either no Spanish at all or as a 'subtitle'. The businesses in Tamarindo certainly know their clientelle!

Landscaping...cars parked along the street...sidewalks...

...parking lots...surf shops...no wonder the boys thought we were in San Diego!

We stayed at a nice, smallish place called Villas Macondo. It is a couple of easily walked blocks from the beach, but that distance equates to a much more affordable rate. The weather was beautiful when we arrived, so we dropped our bags, donned our swimsuits and hit the beach. The waves were fantastic! The barrier reef in Belize is beautiful, the snorkeling is superb, and the sailing conditions are near perfect, but there are no waves. Playing in the waves at Tamarindo as the sun set was a blissful experience and we all had a great time playing in the water.

Enjoying the beach

Not enjoying a Bohemia at the beach. That stuff is terrible. Fortunately the other Costa Rican beer, Imperial, is pretty good

Nice waves, beautiful weather

And lots of sand for digging!

The sunset was beautiful

We watched this schooner set sail at sunset

There are many restaurants in Tamarindo, ranging from American fast food (Subway!) to Argentinian to Thai to Costa Rican. They even have a few restaurants that specialize in vegetarian food, which was a delightful treat for us.

We rented four boogie boards for our first full day and just hung out at the beach. The weather was great, the waves were perfect, and it was delightful. The only downside of the beach is the incessant stream of vendors that walk up to the tourists, hawking their wares--bird-shaped clay whistels, ceramic pots, coconuts, beer, you name it, someone is probably going to try to sell it to you. Occasionally we would be approached by people on the beach in Belize, but only one or maybe two at the worst. In Tamarindo, it is totally out of control--we said 'no, gracias' at least 20-25 times each day we were at the beach. We did buy a couple of ice-cold coconuts, which were delicious and cold. The other bummer is we  were beset by camera difficulties in Tamarindo--we forgot one of our bags at the car rental place, and our camera was in it! We were able to use Liam's camera, but I inadvertently deleted a bunch of the photos on there, and then it died.

At the urging of the boys, we decided to go full American and eat Subway sandwiches for lunch. I'm not sure if we were just hungry, or just really sick of rice and beans, but the sandwiches were amazing. They put about half an avocado in each of the veggies and everything just tasted fresh. Clouds had started building in mind-morning, and by the time we had our food it was really starting to rain. We retreated to the hotel and ate lunch while we watched the downpour. We spent the afternoon chilling at the hotel.

My 'office' for a few hours one morning. Not a bad view.

The next day we spent the morning tide-pooling. It was a full moon during our stay there and the low tide was pretty extreme. The boys decided they wanted to spend the rest of the day learning to surf, so we returned to the shop where we rented the boogie boards and signed them up. Their instructor was a very energetic and friendly Spaniard named Christian. While they were getting their boards sorted out with Amy, I returned to the hotel to make some sandwiches in the communal kitchen. When I returned to the beach, they were already surfing waves! It was amazing! Amy said Christian spent about 5 minutes chatting with them, and then BAM! they were out in the water and he had them surfing waves in literally 15 minutes. I watched both boys surfing waves side by side, then one after the other, and they had so much fun. Lochlan got tired after about an hour and a half and bailed out before the end of the two hour lesson, but I was so proud of both of them. They made it look easy!

Lots of family love

Even the old man caught a wave or two

Lochlan totally approves of Tamarindo

Liam riding a wave

Lochlan enjoying a cold coconut

Lochlan catching a wave

Liam catching a wave

The boys and Christian, post-lesson. Unfortunately there was some seawater on the lens when I took the picture.

View of the beach from the water

Another view of the beach

We spent Father's Day on the beach, it was wonderful

Our final morning we spent walking the beach. We took a few photos, then piled into our rental car and headed back to Liberia. The guys at the rental car place had stored our bag and not a single thing was missing! It was quite a relief to get our camera back. We left Liberia, and headed into the mountains, towards Monteverde.