Tama-Gringo

January 28^th-30^th, 2015

After the morning surf session in Nosara we returned the surfboard and visited “Burgers and Beers” one more time before heading out.  The drive further north to Tamarindo, which is also known as Tama-Gringo due to the number of foreigners who have set up shop there, took a couple of hours and passed by a number of pretty, yet empty beaches before heading inland onto paved roads.  The main strip in Tamarindo is lined with fancy restaurants and souvenir shops and it definitely has a very Western feel to it.  As per our usual strategy upon arriving into a new town, we went to the beach for a beer.  It was a lovely sunset and we had a pleasant surprise of a 2 for 1 beer happy hour at one restaurant with tables right on the sand.

Earlier Pat and Danielle had made a reservation at a hostel called Higher Ground.  The town’s pretty small so we had no trouble locating it.  It was true to its name, being four storeys up in the second tallest building in Tamarindo.  Unfortunately they didn’t have the private room that P&D had reserved (we were reminded of Seinfeld’s “You’re very good at taking reservations, just not good at keeping them!”) but they decided to put up with a dorm room for one night as the owner ensured them they would have their own room the next day.  So the three of us were in the same windowless yet thankfully air conditioned room with one young guy who was always watched shows on his iMac. 

We walked around to check out the night life and the only real action was some strung out looking drunk woman yelling obscenities at the staff of a bar from the sidewalk.  P&D had a bite to eat but I was still full from the earlier monster burger.  Back at Higher Ground, Pat and I ventured to the top floor which was a bar/restaurant complete with pool tables, foosball, poker tables and even dart boards.  We were joined by a nice young Newfie who three nights earlier started his visit to Costa Rica by losing his wallet and iPhone while out drunk on the town.  Great way to begin.  So he was waiting for a new credit card to arrive.  A few beers, a game of “Half It” on the dart board and “Cutthroat” on the pool table and it was time to call It a night.

So we had heard that there was a good microbrewery in Tamarindo so we sought it out.  About ten minutes after this exciting photo we found out that the only beer on tap was the national Imperial beer.  What?  A brewery with a restaurant bar and they don't have any of their own brew...go figure.  Poor Pat...

The next morning Pat and Danielle decided to look for new accommodations and I was checking out as I thought it was time enough for me to head inland to Liberia, a stopover on my way to Lake Arenal.  P&D lucked out and found a sweet place run by Germans just a few hundred meters away complete with a pool.  It was a gorgeous day out and after lounging with them at the pool I decided to alter my plans.  I figured I could spend one more night at the beach instead of the small inland city of Liberia and just get an early but there in the morning and then straight on to La Fortuna, a town near Lake Arenal.  Poor Pat and Danielle, they probably didn’t think I was going to ever leave them!  Firstly I found a different hostel for the night as Higher Ground wasn’t the cleanest place, then we had brunch and headed to the beach for a relatively lazy afternoon on the beach where the most gruelling activities were swimming in the ocean and playing a form of bocce on the sand with pieces of coral.

The view from Higher Ground:

Tamarindo Beach:

Danielle tossing her coral (is that some kind of euphemism?!?):

We finished with a great pizza dinner and I bid adieu to this lovely couple from Canada.  I’m sure we’ll meet up again someday soon…hopefully to hit the water with our kite surfing gear!