For the final day of our Costa Rican Anniversary Spectacular, Kent and I hired our old friend Gustavo, from two days earlier, to give us the "locals" tour. He picked us up early in the morning and took us in his "four wheel drive" over the Congo Trail. (A little local secret). Our first stop was Flamingo Beach. It was gorgeous! We spent awhile enjoying the beach and the sun before heading off to our next spot, Playa Conchal. This beach was on our list of must see locales because it is home to the Westin All-Inclusive Resort, which we were strongly considering as a future vacation destination. It turned out to be a little less than we might have desired, and costs a lot more than we desired, so I think it is now officially OFF the bucket list. No worries though, we have a new Costa Rica vacation plan in mind! Playa Conchal was pretty cool, because like most beaches it is made of shells, but these shells are not ground into a fine sand yet. The whole beach is made of small shells, and yet it is still super soft to walk across. Pretty cool.
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| Kent at Flamingo Beach |
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| "Imperial" on Playa Conchal |
We spent a while snorkeling on Playa Conchal, then headed over to Tamarindo Beach. This is one of the largest and nicest beaches in the Guanacaste province. We were excited to check it out! Kent had high hopes of taking a surfing lesson, and somehow I caught the bug and decided to try it out too. We went to a cute little shop called "Iguana Surf" and signed up! Our instructor Mao helped us get outfitted with our surf shirts and our boards, and then we carried them across the molten lava (sand) to the shoreline. Mao gave us some instruction on the beach while we attempted to prevent the boards from flying up and cracking us in the head in the strong winds. Apparently Tamarindo beach is well known for its small waves that are excellent for surfing instruction, as well as frequent high winds. I should mention... I HATE wind! We finally got into the water after about an hour, and I very quickly annoyed our instructor Mao with my lack of coordination, and my tendency to try to plug my nose as soon as I felt myself starting to lose my balance. No matter how hard I tried, my hand went straight to my face. Every. Single. Time. I did eventually get up, (twice even!) so I consider it a success. Fortunately Kent had better luck (and skill) than me, and he was able to surf several waves to shore. Our instructor Mao had a rough day dealing with his two less than fantastic surf students, and suffering some sort of illness which caused him to shiver and look absolutely miserable while playing in the ocean on a 98 degree day. Poor guy! I'm just glad we didn't take that souvenir illness home with us!
By the time we finished up, it was after 2:00, so we went out hunting for some lunch. Gustavo took us to a cute little restaurant right on the beach. It looked fantastic until we realized they ONLY served seafood, with a specialty in ceviche (raw fish!). Sadly we had to pass on this gorgeous setting (we are both a bit picky when it comes to raw fish...). Luckily Gustavo had another friend in town who served us a fantastic Portuguese lunch.
After lunch and a little final souvenir shopping in Tamarindo, we headed back to our hotel for a whole lotta packing for our return home in the morning. We were sad to say goodbye, but oh so happy to say hello to Taylee bug!
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| Bye Bye Costa Rica! |
