Saturday began with a very successful bus endeavor to Tamarindo once again at 8:10. I was gaining more confidence in my ability to take the right bus by this point. We arrived in Tamarindo around 8:40 and immediately headed to the beach to check out the surf and the surfers. Being accustomed to early morning slalom runs on the lake and understanding the sanctity of being the first ones on the water to get the ‘good water’ we made to sure get up early and beat most casual surfers to the waves. While we couldn’t beat the diehard surfers to the water, we did manage to beat most of the local crowd to the waves by having a board rented and sunscreen applied by 9:00 a.m. (The sunscreen proved futile though…I’m a lobster again).
We started surfing immediately and immediately realized that these waves were not for the faint of heart. A recent storm surge made some waves come in around 7 to 8 feet. That meant: (A) Kristen and I weren’t surfing those and (B) we were annihilated just trying to get to the baby waves. Not to be discouraged we still held out for some smaller 3 and 4 foot waves and caught a few before taking a break. Surfing today proved a little more difficult for Kristen as we upgraded her from a soft-top board to a regular surf board. So much so, that the surfboard was used a boogie board for a couple of waves. (I did the same at times). However, she is a trooper and undaunted, would head back out and try to catch the next. We agreed that we probably spent more time trying to figure out ways not to be crushed into oblivion by incoming waves than we did trying to actually catch a wave, but it was fun nonetheless.
Around noon we called it a day with the surfing as the waves were becoming too big for even the more experienced surfers and we turned our board in. From surfing, we headed to the supermercado to buy some snacks before I took Kristen to the surprise I had been planning for her. Although nearly cancelled because of the tide being what it was, we arrived in time to get on the Marlin del Rey Snorkel and Sunset cruise that left out of Tamarindo. The cruise is about 5 hours long and guests are given time to snorkel at a beach about an hour boat ride away.
Before taking off, the thunder clouds began to roll in and the sea became uncommonly agitated. Waves were rolling in that made us feel like we were on Deadliest Catch (a similar experience to our Alaskan adventure but with a bigger boat thankfully). Part way into the voyage it actually began to rain and thunder…not exactly the tropical cruise one might dream of. By the time we reached the snorkel area, it was dark and ominous clouds were surrounding us. Naturally, we grabbed our snorkel gear and hopped in.
We paddled around for a while before heading to a reef area where we saw a lot a different colorful fish. Given the tide situation, we had some great snorkeling. Kristen and I were probably the last ones out of the water because we were less concerned about getting back the free booze served on board and more concerned with just enjoying the water. However, after getting out of the water, it began to rain harder and the wind picked up—best snorkel cruise ever.
The crew fed us dinner as we sailed off to watch the nonexistent sunset and head back to the marina. As we are sailing back to the mainland, Kristen and I begin watching a 50-something year old man take the Freshman-in-college approach to the free beer on board. We watched from the other side of the boat as he made his way from the bar to the front of the boat with numerous cans of beer in hand only to stow them away in a previously empty backpack. The first time it happened we weren’t exactly sure we saw the situation correctly. By the third round, we knew the drill. He would wait around holding an open can of beer until the appropriate moment and would then return to the bar. He would come back to the deck with anywhere from 2 to 3 beers in hand and in look around to make sure no deckhands were around before stuffing them into his backpack. By the end of 15 minutes his pack was full and Kristen and I could see the outlines of numerous cans stuffed away.
We noticed that as we were loading the panga to leave the catamaran that he could barely carry the bag. His wife was less than amused with him and kept rolling her eyes as he struggled to load the goods on the dingy. We also laughed when the crew asked him to get off the dingy because there were too many people on it (Kristen and I wanted to comment that him and that bag counted as 2 people which is why the boat rose 3 inches back out of the water when he got off but thought better of it). Anyway, the operation getting us back to shore nearly left us down a deckhand (he was knocked overboard) and a capsized boat. It was quite the adventure…
We had a blast though and eventually made it safely ashore and in one piece. We wandered around Tamarindo for a little longer and then grabbed a taxi back to Flamingo. Upon arriving to our hotel room, I witnessed one final petty thievery moment. Someone jacked the razor blade off my razor. It was there in the morning and when I returned, the entire apparatus was there, but the blade was no where to be found. Kristen and I had a good laugh at the absurdity of it all before settling in for the night with our chocolate milk, JET bars, and Spanish television.
I am so happy Kristen was able to visit. She and I want to do another trip to Costa Rica to see the other parts sometime. I can’t wait : )
Chao,Jessica Lynn
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