My Trip to Costa Rica
Preparation
Thursday night, Dax and I finished up some of our final packing with the exception of what we had to use to get ready in the morning. We were up bright and early; matter of fact, it was still dark, to catch the flight out to Atlanta. The trip to Atlanta was pretty routine, besides having to show your passports and Dax having to pay extra for his surfboard bag. Once we arrived in Atlanta we had to jump on the train or tram, and make our way down to our gate. We really did not have to wait that long before we were boarding the plane and on our way to beautiful Costa Rica.
The Flight to Costa Rica
The flight to Costa Rica was about 3 ½ hours. From my seat I could see the Florida Keys, and west side of Cuba and lots of Ocean. As we got closer to our landing I saw beautiful beaches with what looked to be huge breaking waves. Further inland I saw nothing but green, it was beautiful and a nice change from the constant and new construction in my city. We made our landing at a very small airport called, Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia. We did not land a terminal with a walkway that extends out to the plane door; nope they backed up a truck with stairs that you have to go down and you are out in the open elements. It was raining pretty hard, so the local airport employees were extremely nice by providing an umbrella to every person who got off the plane. From there we had to go through immigration and then back outside where we greeted by a person who held our name up on a piece of cardboard for a ride to the rental car place. I felt so fancy; I had never had that before.
The Roads to Tamarindo
Once we arrived at our rental car place we received our maps and the keys to what looked like a brand new Toyota Prado, the equivalent to the Lexus LX. At first the roads to Tamarindo did not seem to be all that bad, however a little closer to our destination they seem to get worse. It wasn’t anything the rental vehicle could not handle.
Arrival @ Hotel Tamarindo Diria Beach and Golf Resort
We reached our destination to Hotel Tamarindo Diria Beach and Golf Resort; where we were promptly greeted and our bags taken to our room. The Hotel was wonderfully laid out and nestled into the palm trees overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Our particular room faced the Ocean and we had direct access to the hotel gardens area. We got settled into our room and headed out to the Diria Restaurant for a bite to eat. The restaurant and bar is located under a giant native tree called the Matapalo and is an indoor, outdoor terrace that overlooked the reefs, gardens, pool, and Ocean. That night I tried a dish that was listed on the menu as a traditional Costa Rican dish, unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the dish. I can tell you that it was shrimp mixed in with rice a salad of some sort and fries.
Searching for Surf Spots in the Rain
The next morning packed up our cameras and maps and headed out to search for a surf spot called Playa Avellanas. We followed the road signs and our maps, however each time we were led down a muddy dirt road or to a river. I am not kidding the road stopped right at the river. So we decided to search for other possible surf spots. We were looking for a particular beach on the map when, we missed it and drove back onto a one way road that had small houses on either side of the road. The road then narrowed down even more too where we had bushes practically scrapping the vehicle. The road led out to magnificent looking beach. No waves, but it was wonderful. So we took some pictures and headed out to continue our search. The next beach we made our way to was Playa Flamingo another wonderful beach. We decided to hike down Tamarindo Beach going south from our hotel room, we made our way over lava rocks and up a small cliff to check out the beach on the other side, and we were really hoping that maybe we could make it to Playa Avellanas by foot, no such luck. When we climbed up the hill or cliff we could see the waves on the other side of Tamarindo and coming into the bay. The waves had to be at least 12 feet or more! I had Dax grab the video camera out of the bag, and wouldn’t you know it, the camera took a crap on us, and stop working. I forgot to mention that this was all over a period of 3 days because of the rain and may not be in the correct order; but out of all the beaches we came across the one that I liked the most was Playa Grande. To get there all we had to do is; just walk out our back door of our room, hop across the rock wall, walk down Tamarindo Beach going north, to the river mouth, catch a water taxi across and walk to it. The water was beautiful, and it was mostly a sand beach so I really did not have to worry about the lava rocks.
The Wildlife
I was slightly disappointed because I really did not get to see all the wildlife that I had hoped to see. We mostly saw; Humming Birds, some sort of small parrot, large Iguanas, crabs, snails and crazy looking squirrels. I was really hoping to see a 3 toed sloth and a monkey of some sort, but I guess you have to go deeper into a jungle area for that.
Can check out the rest of my photos Here
Here’s a video of one of the roads that was washed out from all the rain, and we actually drove through it!
In all I had a wonderful time, and I am looking forward to returning some day.
