Monday, March 9, 2009

As Luck Would Have It

This weekend was probably one of the best weekends I've had at the beach since being in Costa Rica. This weekend my friend Kirsten and I went to Playa Tamarindo, a 6 hours bus ride from San Jose. Not too bad of a ride, but long enough to not want to be on the bus a minute longer after it arrives at said destination. We left at 11:30 on Friday and were more than stoked, especially since it had been a little chilly and cloudy in San Jose all week. We were definitely ready for sun and beach. When we arrived we were approached by an American that lives there who asked us if we had a place to stay. Prior to arriving we had made reservations at a hostel and told him so. He told us that he rents out apartments here and had one available and offered us a ride to our hostel if we looked at his apartment first. We agreed, I was under some impression that maybe he was trying to get us to invest in a timeshare or something. We arrived at the apartment that was furnished, had a private bathroom and kitchen with dishes at our disposal. The best part was he was going to rent it out to us for $10 a night. The hostel we were going to stay at was $12 a night that was in a dorm room with 3-5 others we didn't know and possibly a private bath. Plus this apartment had a sweet pool as well. We decided to take the apartment with it's amazing view of the ocean because it was such a sweet deal. We were excited to start our weekend off with an awesome start.

After we settled we went to get some groceries to make meals so we could save money on eating out all the time. Kirsten made some macaroni and cheese and I had a cup of noodles because it sounded so good. Plus, if you know me you know my appreciation for ramen noodles. Our new friend we met from the bus came and visited us later that night to hang out. We also ended up testing out the pool and all it's amazingness. At night there were 3 frogs that decided to swim with us in the pool as well, which was kind of fun. The night was topped off with Batman Begins on TV, which we could not miss.

Saturday was dedicated to beach day. The apartment also rents boards for $5 which we only rented one since they were so massive. We trekked our long board down to the beach to catch some waves at some point in the day. Our new friend, Chris met up with us on the beach just after we arrived and caught some rays with us as well. Kirsten and I attempting to do a bit of surfing but the waves weren't very strong nor were they very consistent. We were content with just hanging out and enjoying the cool water to cool off. Saturday night we went to dinner with Chris at a nice Mexican restaurant. The food took forever to prepare but it was delicious and totally worth it, a bit on the spicy side too, which is a first here I think. After dinner we hung out at Chris' hostel before we met up with Sarah (our friend from ISA) and her boyfriend. We all went to a bar nearby that seemed to play just about every 90s rap song I happened to know. It was a done deal for me. Another late night swim was cut short due to it being a little chiller at night and a neighbor wanting to sleep because he had to work in the morning.

Sunday we had to check out before noon but we were able to keep our things in the landord's apartment. We headed to the beach to meet up with Sarah and her boyfriend, Zach and hoped to meet up with Chris as well. No sign of Chris but plenty signs of jellyfish hanging out in the shallow water. It was kind of cool seeing them swim like that but we were afraid of being stung. This was the first time I've seen jellyfish in the ocean and not at the zoo. Then we got to observe some cool mussels that were washed ashore by the tides. I also discovered I have some kind of fascination with sea animals because I was perfectly content just watching the mussels attempt their way back into the sand after being washed ashore. We caught our bus back to San Jose at 3 p.m. We had to buy more expensive tickets because the public bus back was already sold out on Saturday and this was all that was available for Sunday. That ticket set me back finacially a bit more than I hoped, but I'll just have to save somewhere else so I can still enjoy the heck out of my last month here. The bus back was nice though, more like a van and had AC. Can't complain.

Now I feel like I'm still recovering today. I'm still tired from the weekend. Being at the beach and in the sun, a lot is taken out of you, that's for sure. Not much major going on this week, just working on a few projects for class and just soaking up the culture even more. Below are links to photos if you are interested. Hasta luego!
Album 1
Album 2
Album 3

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