Abbey's Road

Except for the years I lived in Austin, I’ve always been in cool or cold weather areas for Christmas so being at the beach at this time of year was a strange experience for me. Being in a foreign country made it even stranger. We did see some houses decorated with lights, but nothing like you see in this country. In Tamarindo, which is a beach resort (I use the term lightly), Christmas was even less obvious. The funniest thing was hearing Santa Claus is Coming to Town in Spanish. Well, that was almost as funny as hearing Billy Joel’s The Piano Man in Spanish and hearing the waiter sing along with it. For a place that is not easy to get to and one that has one cobblestone street and a bunch of dirt ones, there are quite a few new buildings going up and quite a lot of tourists. There are many beaches up and down the coast but we got the feeling that most were pretty remote, even compared to Tamarindo. I don’t think it’s the most scenic of the beaches, though it’s not bad at all, but it probably has the most to do. At first I was a little turned off by the dirt, dust and slightly grimy feel (it didn’t help that it was a holiday so the garbage wasn’t picked up for a few days), but I really started to take a liking to its unique charm. It’s funny how places like this spring up all over the globe from time to time and they attract a certain sort of people. Most of the businesses in Tamarindo seemed to be owned or run by expats from places like Germany, France or who knows where. We stayed at Villas Macondo which was owned by a young German couple. He had traveled all over the world, but ended up staying when he reached Tamarindo. On a later visit to his home country he met his girlfriend and she made the move too. They were quite laid back as far as Germans go, but the place was clean, comfortable and friendly. It was a collection of apartments and rooms encircling a pool area that somehow seemed secluded and private even though it was right in town. We got more use out of the pool than we had imagined because it was pretty hot and very humid there too. In the morning, we usually let the kids sleep and Michael, Sandra and I would go down to the French bakery, owned by a Frenchman of course, and have an espresso or cappuccino. We usually couldn’t resist the temptation to also try one of the pastries. It pays to get up early. They also had great things for lunch so we went back there a few times so the kids didn’t miss out completely. She couldn't do anything without her calculator.

Tamarindo is known for surfing so when we found a special deal on surfing lessons we couldn’t pass up the chance. If you go to Tamarindo you have to go to the Banana Surf Club and talk to Guchi. He’ll take care of you. Our instructor was a CR guy named Elmer (go figure) with blond-tipped highlights in his hair. When we rented a board the next day and tried to do it on our own we realized how much of a difference Elmer made. It helps a lot if you have someone holding your board, telling you when to paddle, giving you a good shove and yelling “Get up!” at just the right time. Rachel won the surfing queen title. I didn’t do too badly, but Michael and Sandra won’t be hanging ten any time soon. On the other hand, Michael won the body surfing title. The beach at Tamarindo was great for body surfing and on our last day there he was unstoppable. I don’t think he missed a wave all morning. The rest of us could barely catch one. If you know Michael, you know that he certainly wasn’t shy or humble about his self-proclaimed “best day ever” of body surfing. One of the days we drove to a different beach that was supposed to be good for snorkeling. The “road” to the beach actually was right on the beach in parts. It looked like it was good enough for the locals so we figured we’d be fine as long as we stayed away from the deep sand where someone else was busy trying to extract their car. We rented snorkel gear right on the beach. It wasn’t exactly like snorkeling in the Caribbean because the water wasn’t real clear, but we still saw quite a few colorful fish and even a blowfish. Most of us managed to enjoy it without sucking in too much salt water.

The Villas owners set us up with a guy named Henrique who took us on a boat tour of Las Baulas National Park. It’s a mangrove swamp that is only accessible by boat. We were worried we weren’t going to see much wildlife, but Henrique didn’t disappoint. The first two crocodiles we spotted swam off before we could get a real good look, but he later spotted a baby croc hiding out in the mangrove roots waiting for its parents. He also took us ashore at a spot known for having howler monkeys and we were in luck once again. He did a great howler monkey call which got the male going for a while. We later tried to repeat his call, but if there were any males around to hear us they certainly weren’t threatened enough to respond. Like most of the places we went we saw quite a few birds, many of them herons. Costa Rica is great place to go if you are an avid bird watcher. We also enjoyed a fresh pineapple on the boat expertly sliced, in a matter of seconds, by the multi-talented Henrique.

Most of the meals we had in CR were quite good. The kids usually were able to find something they would eat too. For Rachel this normally meant pasta or pizza. I decided I didn’t want to leave Tamarindo without trying Pedro’s, a seafood place next to the beach. The kids were a little skeptical, and we had a backup plan of letting them go for pizza, but they managed to find some pasta dishes on the menu so we all stayed. It was quite the interesting place. As Alex said, it’s easy to find. It’s the shack on the beach with a tent and some tables. The menu was on 2 big placards standing on the ground out front of the tent and lit by a bunch of candles. The tables were lit by a single light bulb dangling from a wire in case the moonlight on the water wasn’t bright enough for you. They don’t serve beer but the walk up bar right next door was more than happy to serve you. You just had to make sure to return the bottles if you wanted another. As with many places we found, the service was very slow but the food was well worth the wait. And you couldn’t beat the setting with the waves crashing on the beach. It was definitely the best meal I had on the trip. One thing about the food in CR – it is very reasonable most places and other places it is downright cheap. We never really had a bad meal, though we were often quite starved by the time it was served.

The last night in Tamarindo we walked to a promontory at the far end of the beach to watch the sunset over the Pacific. Next time we go to CR, and there has to be a next time, we’ll have to get up early for the sunrise over the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the sun rises pretty early there. That night we ate at a vegetarian place called Arco Iris. It sounded a bit funky to us and it certainly lived up to our first impression. They stretched the vegetarian theme a bit and served some fish. Luckily beer and wine are made without hurting or relying on any animals so they were fair game (no pun intended). The food turned out to be great and once again we found it was worth taking a little risk.

Mom liked this one so I had to put it in.