Flight to Costa Rica

We got up relatively early had some breakfast and then made our way to the airport. This was when we discovered that the airport was no where near San Salvador. It was actually closer to La Libertad. It turns out that we had taken the long way around when getting from the airport to El Sunzel. We took one wrong turn on the way to the airport which cost us a bit of time and then I had some difficulty locating the correct carpark. Thankfully it all worked out, Luke had his bag checked, we got the rental car safely back to the rental agency and we even had some time to wait before boarding the plane. 

The great overland drive 

The flight to Costa Rica was a piece of cake, we sailed through customs and Adobe Rent a Car were waiting for us just outside the building. The guys from Adobe loaded us into a van and drove us over to their office. We asked the bloke renting us the car where the best place to get some food was and he suggested we go to a place just down the street called a Soda Mayra where you can order Casados, a typical dish of Costa Rica. We finished filling in the paper work and walked to the Soda Mayra, when we arrived it was full of employees from the rental agency. They helped us to order three Casados which consisted of beans, rice, meat, fried banana and salad, so pretty much the perfect meal, and the best part was that they only cost $10. The Casados were exactly what we needed to fuel our journey, and what a massive journey it was. We drove for hours across Costa Rica through some beautiful countryside looking for our accomodation. 

We stopped at a couple of shopping / service centres along the way where we were able to get meat, vegetables and some other cooking supplies. It was dark by the time we arrived at our accommodation in Playa Grande. We unpacked and cooked some dinner in the fully stocked kitchen. While dinner cooked I recorded a message for my sister Josie for her Birthday. 

Costa Rica Day 14

The near disaster

We got up late and found that the loo had blocked up and the house didn’t have a plunger. We jumped in the car and drove to the general store up the road. Thankfully they had a plunger and we didn’t need to look further afield. We successfully plunged the loo and put everything right with the universe. With that crisis averted we went in search of some fresh fruits and vegetables. Once again there was a fully stocked fruit and vegetable store just down the road. We cooked some breakfast, got organised and then took the vehicle back to the local Adobe office. The vehicle was far to expensive to hold for more than a day or so. It turned out that the adobe office had moved but thankfully it hadn’t moved far. We spoke to a bloke from Ohio in the US who helped to point us in the right direction. Adobe inspected the vehicle and then one of the workers drove us back to the accomodation. 

Local residents

We had a look around our accomodation by day light and found that it came with a resident iguana who appears to be living in a crack in the wall that gives it access to the underside of the house. There was also a large flock of vultures chilling on the lawn, we had seen these guys a few times on our journey out here circling high in the sky. 

Our first surf

We met up with Luke, hired Christine a surf board from a surf shop that was not far from the accomodation and and made our way down to the beach. Unfortunately the waves were not great, with a fair bit of effort I managed to catch a couple of short little rides. I flew the drone for a bit while Christine was having a paddle. I was still getting used to how it handles and trying to find people in the view finder. 

After our surf I dropped the surfboard back and then met up with Christine and Luke in a local restaurant where they had ordered tacos for lunch. It was taco Tuesday and each taco was $2US this worked out at nearly $4AUD for us Aussies so not that cheap.

Afternoon gym session 

After lunch Luke and I got organised and headed to the gym for a workout. The gym session cost $10US and I can assure you it was worth every cent. After our gym session we made our way back to the accomodation to cook some dinner. We cooked up chicken soup and then used the chicken that we had boiled to make honey soy chicken with vegetables and rice. 

The great march 

After dinner we went for a walk along the beach, we were aiming for Tamarindo, a large town at the end of the beach, but we found that there was a crocodile infested estuary between us and the town. Instead we walked into a small group of hotels that were not far off the beach. We had a Pina Colada at $15US and a couple of beers at $5US each. We chatted to the lady behind the bar who said that she was helping out a friend. She let us know that the houses around here were going for around $2 million US each and that she had two, one not far from the bar and the other in Playa Grande where we were staying. We checked in at the real estate agent the next day and found that there were a lot of houses on the market for around $1 Million US. We finished enjoying our drinks and then walked back to Playa Grande along the beach. 

Costa Rica Day 15

A successful surf

We got up reasonably early and found that the surf shop wasn’t going to be open until 8:30. We had some breakfast and then headed down to grab some boards. We picked up two boards and went for a surf. The water was calm, clear and warm with small fun waves rolling through. Every now and again a larger set would roll in. We caught a stack of waves just a bit out from “Main break” a beach break that is directly out from the Playa Grande beach carpark. We surfed for around two hours which was the total time we had hired the boards for. After our surf we came back to the accomodation and cooked up a larger breakfast with the left overs from last night’s dinner. 

Tamarindo 

Once we had had breakfast and got ourselves organised we set out on an expedition to Tamarindo. It was a 4km walk down the beach to the crocodile infested inlet where we paid a boat driver $2US each to take us to the other side. In Tamarindo we found an amazing little cafe, well Luke did with his cafe seeking skills and Google. I had a burrito wrap that was spectacular, Luke had a club sandwich type thing and Christine had a toasted sandwich. The smoothie that Christine ordered was super interesting it came with banana, pineapple, pepper, tamarind, orange juice, ginger and mango. The pepper is an interesting addition and gives the drink a spicy flavour. While we waited for our lunch to be made, we watched a squirrel eating nuts out on the roof.

We ate our lunch and then headed for a lookout that overlooks Tamarindo and the surrounding countryside. We flew the drone off the top and had a play with some of the settings. This is where we learnt that it was probably better to send the drone out over the carpark so that it can see the same view that we can see, otherwise if you send it out towards the view, you end up with a great shot of the carpark. After our drone shots and some salsa dancing, we were lucky that there was a young couple chilling at the lookout playing some salsa music. We made our way to a local supermarket to pick up some supplies to get us through the next couple of days and then went for a walk around the town. 

Pura Vida 

Once we had seen enough of Tamarindo we ordered up and Uber and made our way back to the accomodation. Luke chatted with the driver in Spanish on the journey back, I was super tired after our big adventure and struggled to stay awake. When we parted company with our driver he said ‘pura vida’, we had heard this term a fair bit in Costa Rica as both a greeting and a goodbye, when we looked it up it ment good life and is indeed used frequently in Costa Rica as both a greeting and a sign off. Luke and I cooked dinner when we got back. We cooked up some of the, probably, eye fillet that we had purchased from a butcher on our journey to Playa Grande a couple of days ago. It was tender and delicious, we had it with a tomato, cucumber and avocado salsa, some potatoes, carrots, fried banana and rice. 

After dinner we wrote in our journals, edited videos and did our Duolingo.