90 Days in Tamarindo: Day 20

Twenty days into the adventure already? I can hardly believe it. The concept of time feels different here than it does at home. Some days feel like we have been here forever and other days feel like we just arrived. I guess that's the interesting thing about time - you create it yourself. It's a man-made phenomena. Humans are the only species who think of a day as 24 hours and think of all things in relation to time. When we rid ourselves of this concept, our days escape us and the only notion of time we have left is the rising and setting of the sun we adventure under.

With the sun as our time keeper, we have been collecting adventures like seashells in a bag. One by one. Perfectly glossed and imperfectly flawed. Some adventures were everything we expected and others required some tender love and care. But all of them are worth looking back on.

On Saturday morning we packed a few snacks and some bottles of water and headed to the beach. Kayaking was the agenda for the day. We talked to one vendor who didn't have what we needed. He walked us to a shop that did. Two kayaks - a double and a single. Perfect for the three of us and our things. We haggled a bit, he threw in three sets of snorkel gear and we were off. We swerved through the boats anchored in the harbor and were on our way to the island covered in shells, and boy was it covered! Conch shells, all broken into smaller, spiral-looking pieces covered the island like a blanket. Walking on them almost felt wrong, like we were stepping on something sacred.

After we explored the island a bit and picked some shells to bring back home, we grabbed the snorkel gear and made our way into the water. The current was so strong we could literally just float in the water with our heads looking down and let the waves move us along. A snorkel tour in neutral, if you will. We saw bright blue fish, yellow striped fish, and schools of average looking, less exciting fish. Then it happened. After exploring a large area and gaping at the underwater clarity, we heard a gargle-muffled shriek. Niesha came above water, took the mouthpiece out and said, "I saw something cool and want to tell you, but I also kind of want to get out of the water. It's a sea snake."


Krysti and I looked at each other, then under the water and immediately pulled our feet to our chest, wading high above the ground and laughing at our fear. After looking for a few minutes, we didn't see the snake so we carried on with our exploration. It took about two minutes and BAM. Right in front of our faces was a fairly long, bright red and yellow sea snake. And instead of gaping at its awesomeness, we shrieked, choked on sea water and thrashed our arms and legs as if this thing was already attacking us. haha (Can you picture this?) As I am sure you can guess, we exited the water immediately and prepared for our trek back to the mainland. Like I said - an adventure that required some tender love and care, but one that we surely won't forget.

Other than our kayaking and snorkeling day, we have been pretty relaxed. We found a quaint little coffee shop we like with all hand-made, wood furniture and delicious cappuccinos. We found a restaurant with (so far) the best guacamole, salsa and chips in town. We have ventured to the quirky book store a handful of times to talk to Jim and read the books we picked out. While I am in the middle of two books on my Kindle App, I am currently reading the hard back version of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I am hooked. Between working at the hostel, completing my remote assignments for the agency at home and exploring, it seems like I am doing a pretty good job at setting aside some time to read and relax. When we finish the books, we can return them for half the price we bought them for in store credit for a new one. Pretty good system if you ask me. A few days ago we took our books (or sketch book in Niesha's case) to a new coffee shop, Cafe Tico. This coffee shop is all outdoor seating under a gazebo, which boasted perfect front row seats for the thunder storm that rolled in on our way. We enjoyed fresh fruit smoothies, listened to the thunder storm, read our books and sketched for two hours. It was a perfect way to spend our break. I have a feeling we will be back again soon. 

Today, after watching the beachside fireworks, we are heading to the Crazy Monkey for some dancing.  It won't be too late of a night, since our shuttle to Montezuma leaves at 7am. For Krysti's birthday we are headed to an even smaller town in Costa Rica for a weekend of relaxation and waterfall jumping! Photos, videos and a new blog to come, of course! 

Ps. Twenty days in and I have already added a nicely bronzed, sunscreen-protected layer to my skin. SCORE! Living la Pura Vida here, as we should be! :)

90 Days in Tamarindo: Day 10

Here we are, ten days later, and we are starting to figure things out. We know the location of the businesses that we like to visit, which is a huge feat since there are no such things as addresses here; we know that when you are this close to the equator, one application of sunscreen isn't enough for an hour; we know that surfing can give you more bruises than kickboxing; and we know that even after multiple attempts with the broom, sweeping will never get rid of the sand in this hostel. 

It has been a wonderfully fun-filled ten days in Tamarindo. We attended Karaoke night at Sharky's (the most popular bar in Tamarindo) and we plan to return tonight for another round of song and dance. We partook in the national drink (Cacique Guaro) during Ladie's Night at Pacifico, a bar with neon lights, a fog machine and a homemade balance board on a roller that almost made me eat sand. 

We ventured to the other side of town for the best dance party on Friday nights at a place called Crazy Monkey. For the first few hours, a salsa and meringue band plays and the people move their hips smoothly. After a while, a DJ sets up shop and gets the people going with a slightly faster-paced, rasta-style set. Later into the night, the fist-pumping American songs surface and you'd be surprised how quickly the mixture of languages turns to English. It was at the Crazy Monkey that we met and danced with some crazy Canadians, who were nice enough to give us a ride back to the hostel and very loudly serenade us with the Canadian national anthem along the way. 

We attended a small bonfire on the beach and against all internal signs and signals saying, "NO," we waded into the water for a little night swim and our first experience of light-up plankton. That's right, if you move the water around, plankton appear in a bright, yellow-green color and then disappear. It was definitely worth the scare of the dark water. 

The most recent adventure was a full day in the sun. In the morning we had surf lessons with our hostel coworker. It is much harder than it looks but very rewarding when you stand up on the board! I never realized how tough you have to be to take the waves though. We were beaten up, bruised and Niesha came home with a busted lip, but we are absolutely going to try it again! After surfing we headed for the catamaran booze cruise, which, as the name states, was full of booze, Costa Rican food, snorkeling, swimming, and a beautiful sunset cruise back to the bay (pictured left). This is a tour company we suggest to our guests here at the hostel and after experiencing it ourselves, we are full supporters and promoters. 

A few extras: 

1. We found a quite little nook in the loft of a bookstore where we will probably spend quite a bit of time. Jim, the owner, has been here for almost 13 years after leaving his management position at a winery to follow his dream of owning a bookstore in paradise. He is interesting, full of stories, and is more than happy to offer the loft and a cup of joe for our reading pleasures. 

2. I am very tired of hearing "eyyy mami" in the street. It's a hot and humid beach town where 80% of the people here are in some form of a bikini top and shorts. It should not come as a surprise that I am too. Knock it off.  

90 Days in Tamarindo: Day 3

Buenos días from Tamarindo!

If you haven't already figured it out, we made it to the hostel safe and sound. We are in the beautiful city of Tamarinado, which is unfortunately full of tourism but fortunately still full of culture and beauty.  This small town boasts a mix of paved and unpaved roads, locals (Ticos) and tourists, mom and pop shops, tourist boutiques, hand made goodies, wildlife like you've never seen, and Subway. Yes, subway - the only American fast food chain here.

It's day three here and we have already experienced many notable cultural differences. First and foremost, the driving is horrendous. We were picked up from the airport by a friend of Shelley (co-owner of the hostel). Her name was Anne and she is from the States. She mentioned the drive time being "usually three and a half to four hours" but since we were driving with her, it would be much shorter. We laughed because we sometimes have led feet too and could relate.

This was just not the case.

We landed in San Jose around 7:50pm and arrived at the hostel around 11:30pm. This included deboarding the plane, going through customs, finding Anne, trying and failing to exit the underground car park a couple of times, and driving from San Jose to Tamarindo. Fast is an understatement.

The police here don't care about speed as much as they do having the correct registration stickers. Tailgating is a normal occurrence on Costa Rican roadways, as is passing the vehicles in front of you using the lane designated for traffic moving the other direction. Pedestrians do not have the right of way and it is not seen as a courtesy to slow down if a person happens to be in the street. If you are walking in the street and not paying attention, it is not uncommon to be involved in a hit and run accident. Accidents of this nature can happen anywhere due to the highly common occurrence of people walking in the street, on highways, alongside freeways and on unlit, curved roads in the middle of the night with nothing but dark skin and dark clothes to warn drivers. Yes, I'm serious. Apparently Costa Rica has the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities in the world. Sadly, it makes sense after being here for a day or two.

The map below can give you a better idea of the distance from San Jose to Tamarindo.

Another cultural difference to note is the dual currency system. While I am very grateful that the Ticos take Americans dollars, converting it to Colones is not the easiest thing to learn when giving change in the hostel. As a receptionist, we take American Dollars and Colones but always give change in Colones. The conversion rate at the bank is about 540 Colones to 1 Dollar. In the hostel, as well as most other local businesses, we convert it as 500 Colones to 1 Dollar. Locals know this already and most tourists are informed upon arrival. Nonetheless, my math skills when taking money and giving change are sub par compared to doing so when just one currency is involved. 

Another thing to note is the sheer abundance of offers for "blow" and "weed" on any given corner in Tamarindo. In just 30 minutes on the beach and on the way to the beach we were asked by four different people. The good news? Once you politely say "no, gracias" they stop asking and move on to the next potential buyer. Pura vida, eh?

Tamarindo has been great to us so far. I've been using Spanish more than I ever have before, going to the beach every day, meeting and making new friends from all over the world (yes, in just three days), and after walking from one side of town to the other, we are learning where everything is. We will see how we adapt as the time goes on. 

Hablar luego.

My Freakishly Fast Decision to Adventure to Costa Rica for 1/4 of the Year

With a recognized Type-A personality and a knack for planning and attention to detail, one would not assume I am very spontaneous. That is just not so.

In fact, I move to initiate a new personality trait descriptor which includes characteristics from both Type A and B personalities. However, since the English alphabet lacks a letter between A and B, I am unsure of what to name this new persona. Type A/B, Type A 1/2, Type -B? Those are starting to sound like blood types, so I digress.

The purpose behind bringing up personality types is this: with all the planning, details, calendar entries, and organization a Type-A person such as my self deals with, it would come as a highly unexpected surprise that I made the decision to sell my belongings, quit my job, leave my house and move to Costa Rica to volunteer at a hostel for three months with no plan as to what I will do when those three months are up. Additionally, this big decision and all of the smaller decisions that went along with it happened within four days. Yes, that's correct, four days. See? Highly unexpected.

The odd part about all of this unexpected, anti-Type-A, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants decision making, is that this choice was very easy for me. Aside from the initial reservations regarding safety, legitimacy of the business, and the "go-ahead" blessing from my parents, it was a no-brainer. Nothing was telling me not to take the opportunity.

So all within the span of four days, I pitched the idea to my friends, got them on-board, pitched the idea to my parents, got them somewhat on-board, researched the country as a whole as well as the city in which we will reside, had an in-depth conversation with the owner of the hostel and our soon-to-be volunteer coordinator, and made the firm decision to take a leap of faith.

So far, I have had no regrets about the decision and have been taking all of the necessary steps to make it go as smoothly as possible (can't hide the Type-A forever). I firmly believe I won't have any regrets in the future either. With a decision as easy as this one, and everything falling into place like it has, what is there to be regretful about?

Those of you who follow my blog might remember a post a while back about a panic attack that was self-induced by my freakishly fast decision to move to Spain. Rest assured this situation is different. Although I don't have a plan as to what I will do when my volunteer contract is up, I think the simple fact of knowing I am not "moving" to a new country is reassuring.

My freakishly fast decision to adventure to Costa Rica for a 1/4 of the year is nothing short of exciting. As of this moment, I can't wait to begin this next adventure, learn more about myself, immerse myself into the Costa Rican culture, and experience life as it comes.

Check back for new and exciting things coming to the blog (hint hint, changes are coming) and more stories as I prepare for and leave on my next adventure!