A Pictorial Tour of Tamarindo Part II

Yes, the 5:30am surfing lesson was well worth it both in terms of wave consistency as well as instruction! Quick observation - younger surfer dudes at the surf shops are basically working to surf and meet chicks in teeny swimsuits and they are not the greatest teachers. This is a generalization but the better teachers out there tend to be older. Pablo is a 32 year old Tico (Costa Rican) who works at the Matos Surf Shop - much better than the surfer dude I've had from another shop. Took time to go through safety rules and how to navigate your way out to where the waves are breaking. I also appreciated his taking some time to help me understand how to read the waves - breaking left or right and what a "fat wave" looks like. Spent the other day being really frustrated with my ability to barely stand up and then today, I was able to paddle, pop up, stand and ride in about 75% of the time and felt awesome. So now I'm going back tomorrow and rented a board overnight so I can get out there before the surf shop opens. Granted, I'm not particularly coherent by the time I show up for Spanish class at 1pm but what the heck....

Let me continue my pictorial tour of Tamarindo. -- I left off where I showed you the roads and bit of town. Here's a photo of the Spanish school... the downstairs is sort of the "student lounge" with a snack bar where a lady makes breakfast, smoothies and lunch. Upstairs are a bunch of classrooms as well as classrooms off the snack bar.

Ironically, the competition is located just across the street:

Around town are a bunch of lots and properties for rent and sale...

Surfer towns seem to have a particular culture - drugs on the street, homeless people shuffling along and new age treatments and businesses. Here's a sampling of what is available here in Tamarindo in case you are looking for Mayan Astrology, Massage Therapy or Reiki...

These signs are located at the turn off for the school and the road leading up to where I am living.

Finally, what's a town anywhere in the world without the requisite Chinese restaurant.... I don't think I've ever seen anyone in it but they certainly have a nice sign....

Surfing with Patrick who is another student from Switzerland who lives next door (ironically one of the "student houses" if you don't want to do a home stay happens to be located in the next building to mind) 5:30am was a little early for him so we settled on 6:15am. Debating diving on Friday with a German woman, Gabrielle, who has done 2 liveaboard dive trips already in the last 6 weeks . If that happens, tomorrow will be my last day of trying to master surfing - I suppose one never completely masters this stuff but heck, I'm a lot better than I started out last Tuesday when I took my first lesson.

Hasta manana or la manana proxima .....

Lisa | Rincon de la Vieja

I'm actually writing this from the cool and comfort of Minnesota, but I want to tell you about our trip to Rincon de la Vieja, one of three active volcanos in Costa Rica.

We took a two-hour shuttle ride northwest of Tamarindo to the base of the volcano.  Mauricio, our driver, was especially helpful and happy to practice Spanish with us.  Or practice with Mimi anyway, I mostly sat and listened.  I feel like I can understand 60% of a slow conversation, but it's really hard for me to put together sentences in Spanish, beyond "I can speak Spanish," which I really can't very well.  But I've learned a lot this week!

We didn't actually go up up the volcano, though you can.  It's a difficult five-mile hike, no thanks!

We got signed in at the base camp, then they put us into safety harnesses.  At this point I was starting to get a little nervous.  I'm not a big fan of heights, though I really like going fast--which it sounds like you do on a zip line.  We walked up the stairs to the first zip line platform and it's really high.  I'm not sure I'm going to be able to step off the platform, but the guide solved that by hooking me up to the zip line, checking to make sure it's safe, then giving me a shove.  So high but so fast and fun!  Exhilerating!  But then I realize there's another zip line and I have to do it all over again, yikes!  (This isn't Mimi or me, but I wanted a photo of the zip line anyway.)

There were 21 zip lines in total and I did get used to them.  However, I was NOT ready for the "bungee jump" drop down from the narrow bridge over the river down to the close to ground level.  The guide hooked up your harness and lowered you down to the ground.  The brave people then flipped their feet up, let go of their hands and desceneded head first--CRAZY!!! 

Would you believe that by the time Mimi and I got to the front of the line we both flipped our feet up and went down head first?!??  Here is proof that Mimi went down head first, no hands.  Believe it!

I'm sure my brother and sisters will think I was briefly possessed, but I did it, woo-hoo!!!!!

Next we went white-water rafting down the river below on innertubes.  No photos because no cameras allowed, but this was the best part of the day.  The rapids were rapid only briefly and in short bursts.  Otherwise we were floating slowly down the beautiful river in a perfectly quiet and beautiful canyon carved out of the lava rock long ago.

We had a delicious lunch at the hacienda, then it was time for horseback riding.  Not my favorite activity.  My butt didn't like it much either.

The thing that was funny was the "horse rage" that our horses displayed for us.  My horse insisted on going ahead of Mimi's horse, who was smaller and shorter.  Mimi's horse wasn't too happy about that and kept tailgating my horse, nipping at his tail.  When he saw an opening, he put on a burst of speed and tried to edge ahead of my horse, which my horse wouldn't tolerate.  So my horse would move over to cut off Mimi's horse.  Give it a minute or two, and the horses would do the same thing.  Then they picked up speed and started trot while trying to pass each other, which was even harder on my butt.  Not fun.  But watching the horse rage was amusing.  We stopped at a little waterfall, went for a swim, then repeated the whole thing.

The last activity was the mud bath and hot springs--fantastic!  The mud pools had supposedly dried up until the rains started again, so we were painted with mud rather than swimming in mud pools.  Just like a facial for your whole body, it felt really good.  And I thought it was really funny that while all the guides during the day were Don Juan young guys, the men doing the painting were the old guys.  I was happy about that. :)

We washed off the mud in the showers then stepped into the hot springs pools--ahhhhhh.  So relaxing!  They had pools of different temps, so while I stayed in the cooler pool, Mimi ventured to the hotter pools.  They were hot!  A very beautiful setting, right along the little river and landscaped with natural stone.  I think we could have stayed in those pools for hours and hours.

We headed back to the van and the drive back to Tamarindo while watching the sun set behind the volcano, it was gorgeous.

Overall, a fantastic day.  The innertube rafting was the best part, with the mud bath and hot springs a close second.  I can do without horseback riding ever again, but I must admit the zip line scared the daylights out of me. Never need to do that again, but at least I can check it off my bucket list!

Mimi's turn to blog tomorrow, so she can tell you what an ace surfer she's becoming!

Mimi | 1st Week of School Done... May 6, 2011

Hard to believe that Friday has come upon us so quickly. It felt like yesterday that they were trying to place us in the right Spanish class on Monday. So what have I learned this week ? Yes, I have gone to class and actually done homework every night. Sylvia, our teacher has made it fun by having us do a lot of talking rather than correcting every miss of every accent I forget to write For instance, we talked about the differnces in health systems in countries - Betsy, an attorney from Chicago and I talked about the US system and medicare/medicaid but also the issues of having or even obtaining private insurance. Isabelle from Quebec talked about Canadian health care and Gabriela about the system in German. We also learned about how the health care systems works here in Costa Rica, and I have to admit, it's actually better than what we do in the US with making it more available to more people - maybe more like universal medical care?

So..... by Friday, we are able to haltingly broach some interesting topics for our class although we all seem to struggle with when to use the words "por" and "para" and "a la" and "en" in sentences.

Most importantly, its a chance to meet a diverse group of people from all over the world and with very different life experiences that under "normal" circumstances wouldn't have been a social group. Where else would a 19 year old high school student going to college next year be hanging out with a French/German translator who is going to class with the attorney who is doing legal defense work for victims of domestic violence..... The diversity of languages spoken, ages, life experience is vast and makes it so interesting and the thing that we have holding us together is that for our own reasons, each of us has an interest in learning Spanish.

Tomorrow, we wake up bright and early for a 6:30am pick up in front of our adventure to Rincon De La Vieja volcano about 2 hours away. There, we have an "all day adventure" including horseback riding, rapelling, zipline and tubing down the river to be finished with time at the hot springs and mud baths. We won't get back to Tamarindo until probably 6pm. It'll be a chance to see outside of the beach towns and head a bit in to the hills where the climate and animal life is also a bit different.

Lisa or I will need to come back to this blog tomorrow to quickly describe today's adventure at Playa Conchal after our classes and also our meal at La Caracola - the best seafood I've had all week! Whole grilled red snapper, seafood with rice (arroz con mariscos) - all for under US$25 including 2 drinks. Pictures forthcoming of our food too.... stay tuned....

Mimi | Los Animales de Maglares y Selva May 5, 2011

Lisa's last post should have convinced you that we actually do attend school. Hard to believe that it's Friday already and a full week of classes have already gone by. My Espanol has improved in leaps and bounds, in spite of the fact that unlike when I went to Cuernavaca for the week 3 years ago, I decided not to do a home stay with a local family - 2 reasons - one, I found it so stressful to have to speak Spanish 24/7 that I found myself a bit overwhelmed by day 2 - although it is definitely the way to really move the needle on fluency. Secondly, with Lisa here, we found a good deal on this 2 BR / 2 BA condo about 5 minutes walk from the school - and, it has air conditioning! Full kitchen, wifi, small pool, cable - all the amenities of home.... If you are interested, email me and I'll give you the contact of our landlady.

I still need to update the blog for my adventures from my nightwalk in the cloud forest and safari on the river by the volcano but maybe next week - there's just too much to do in the afternoons to get caught up with the blogging. But a quick post about the manglares (mangroves) that we toured yesterday after class.

North of Tamarindo Beach is an estuary that is a national park and we took a 2 hour afternoon tour. The wildlife refuge covers about 1000 acres and is home to 5 different species of mangroves and a ton of wildlife. 5 of us from Wayra got together and hopped on to what was essentially a wooden 12 foot boat with a motor on the back with 6 seats. Motoring slowly up the estuary, we spotted a caiman (crocodilo en Espanol) basking on the shore - probably about 4 1/2 feet -maybe 1.5 metres max. We got pretty darn close to it - Patricia who was sitting closest to it was warily keeping an eye for any sudden movement but we observed without incident.

We also were able to see different types of crabs that make the mangroves their home and various birds that I can't identify. No toucans or anything colorful like that - I guess this area is too hot for them. We did see a tribe of howler monkeys a short walk from the river - the middle of the day, they are mostly sleeping although our guide made noises to make them respond and one of them roused himself enough to "howl" at us - although it was more of a series of grunts. It's hard to take photos of them so high up in the trees but there was one that was completely asleep with it's arms and legs just dangling off the tree - I tried to take a picture of it and am posting it but it's sort of blurry.

No nature adventure for us today - we're thinking about perhaps getting a group together after class to go to Playa Conchal which is about 20 minutes from here by cab and is supposed to have really clear water and sand that is made from shells -- the one thing about Tamarindo beach is it reminds me more of a Minnesota lake with sand that forms a mud like texture when it's wet - plus the visibility just stinks......

Lisa | Wayra Spanish School and Tamarindo

You may not know it, but in between our outings, Mimi and I have been attending the Wayra Spanish School here in Tamarindo.  We study Spanish for four hours every morning, then hit the beach to unwind our brains.  Learning a foreign language is hard work!  But it's paid off by letting us be able to talk to people in Spanish while we're here, which is pretty fun.

The best part of Wayra is the interesting people attending the school.  It's based in Switzerland, so many students from Switzerland, also Germany and a few from the US.  There are two students from Switzerland in my class.  Patricia works in Lucern, Switzerland and Sebastian is a German who has been living and working in Switzerland for the past two years.  And he also looks just like Sting when he was 25 years old.  :)

Patricia decided to leave her accounting job to travel for several months. I find that amazing!  She doesn't have real specific plans, spend 2 months in Costa Rica learning Spanish, then off to South America to visit friends in different cities and finally meet up with her father and brother in Buenos Aires (I think).  How many Americans do you know who would or could do that?  Incredible!  Why don't we Americans feel free to do something as exciting as that?

I also want to describe the town of Tamarindo for you a little bit.  It's a small, sleepy beach town on the Pacific/western coast of Costa Rica.  The houses are very small with tin roofs, open windows and plastic furniture. The shops are small and run-down and no one has air conditioning.  And it's HOT here, I can't imagine trying to sleep in one of those houses.  The streets are all dirt with a little gravel, there is only one brief paved section of road in town.  As a result, cars do not have suspensions.  You can hear a Tico (nickname for Costa Rican natives) car coming a mile away by the noise of the muffler bumping along on the ground and who knows what else dragging and rattling along.  Many people have dogs as pets, and when they're not walking them, they wander the streets.  But they're very well behaved and don't bother anyone, they simply lay on the ground and pant and wait for their owner to return.  The people are very friendly and especially friendly when you let them know you're learning Spanish and want to to try your best to speak to them in Spanish.  They all look very tan and at ease in the heat, while I feel like an albino I'm white.  I hope to come back to Minnesota with at least a little bit of a tan.

Today we took a boat ride up an estuary to see the Mangroves, but I'll let Mimi tell you about that another time.  Tomorrow we hope to visit Playa Conchal (Shell Beach) for a beautiful white sand beach and possibly some good snorkeling.  Then Saturday we head up to Rincon de la Vieja volcano for a full-day adventure tour.  Should be fun!

Hasta luego!

Lisa

Lisa | Catamaran Trip!

WOW! What an amazing afternoon out on the Pacific Ocean today!  We took a 1/2 day Catamaran trip that included a 90-minute sail out to a snorkel spot, snorkeling, swimming, sunning on the tramp, lunch, drinks, then the 90-minute sail back to the beach while the beautiful Costa Rican sun set behind us.  Amazing!

We really enjoyed meeting an interesting woman from Turkey, her name is Melei.  Like many of the Swiss people we've met in our Spanish classes, she is taking several months off work to travel.  (Why can't we get that kind of vacation in the US?)  She's been all over South America, and is now spending a week in Costa Rica before going home.  She speaks fluent Turkish, Spanish, English and German, and a little French and Italian.  She is that engaging kind of person you want to talk to and get to know.  It was so much fun sitting in the sun with her and learning about her travels.  And she highly recommends visiting the Galapagos Islands, in case anyone is looking for an exotic new vacation destination...


I must say that snorkeling in this part of Costa Rica stinks.  There is an estuary nearby which kicks up so much silt in the water that you can't see anything.  That wasn't much fun.  Go to Hawaii for snorkeling, or the Maldives (Mimi's recommendation) instead.

The catamaran cruise also included lots of really loud AC/DC and Bob Marley music, not quite sure why.  We did get the chance to do a little salsa dancing on the cruise back.  Too bad Americans are unable to move their hips the same way Central and South Americans can!

 We were also the very conscientious students and practiced our Spanish with the Captain and crew of the catamaran while on the tour.  Mimi was much more diligent about sticking with her Spanish, I gave up after the "Hello" and "How are you?" parts.  But I must admit I can understand a decent amount of Spanish, but it's hard work.  Harder than I thought it would be!

I have 3 more days left in Costa Rica, and hope to learn a little more Spanish, check out another beach north of here, take a guided boat tour up the estuary to see some animals, then visit a real-live volcano on Saturday.  Lots of fantastic adventures ahead!
(I hope to post photos tomorrow)

Mimi | Pura Vida Surfer Girl - May 3, 2011

Me gusta mucho surfreo!

Took my first 2 hour surfing lesson this afternoon- so much fun. Didn't realize how much paddling is done and how little surfing you actually do - great exercise especially since I have been doing nothing but eating 3 or 4 times a day and drinking beers on the beach.

Here's how it works. Huge boards - must have been like 8 feet long and about 18 inches wide. Evidently, the larger the board, the more stable it is - makes sense in retrospect.... We lug these boards out to the beach where there are lots of folks surfing and a steady stream of waves. There are 6 of us taking the class so they divide us into 2 groups. My instructor, Gerard - a cute stereotypical "surfer dude" grew up near here - skin in blackened by the sun and his hair in dreadlocks.

First we lay the boards down on the sand and he walks us through the basics of where to position ourselves lying down - feet close to the back of the board, head looking forward, arms out on the sides. Then he has us practicing on the command "up" - basically pulling your arms in as if you're doing a tricep pushup quickly coming to a plank position on your hands and almost at the same time shifting your feet so one is in front of the other and hopefully at that point, you're balancing on the board and you're on a wave. Or not....

Easier said than done.... we paddle out 50-75 yards out and line up our boards facing the beach. The first couple of times, Gerard is holding on to the back of the board and instead of paddling and then standing, he pushes us when the wave comes at the optimum time and yells "stand up... stand up" at which point, you're supposed to do that tricep pushup, skooch, position your left foot at a slight angle and step forward with your right - all the while looking forward, crouching down a bit to lower the center of gravity and positioning your hands forward and away.

Of course, at this point, we're doing more falling than standing. Sometimes, it's how my feet are balanced (or not) on the board that make me tip off immediately. Sometimes, I've missed the timing of the wave and sometimes just pure lack of coordination - which for me, seemed to be most of the time.

About 20 minutes of "stand up stand up" and flailing around in the water and then paddling back to Gerard, I was finally able to stand, crouch and ride a wave ALL the way in to the sand. WOWWWWWW!!!!! I was so exhilerated and got such a sense of accomplishment.

Of course, it must have been serendipity and not so much my evolving skills that allowed me to do my first successful surfing. Paddle paddle paddle back and try it again .... and again ... and again...... each time, I'm getting marginally better and finally Gerard allows us to add in the paddling and THEN standing on the board.

Over the course of the 2 hours, I succeeded in getting up and riding on the waves about 4 or 5 times with many half attempts where I'd be able to get up and then fall right off again. Each time, I couldn't wait to do it again.... So much of this surfing is watching and seeing where the waves break and anticipating when to paddle in order to catch the wave at the perfect moment. I was amazed at how Gerard was able to look out into the horizon and see how big the wave was going to be - a couple of times, he actually told us to get off the board as the wave was going to be so big and break right over us.

Speaking of breaking big waves, I ended up being engulfed by one that was so strong that it pushed all this sea water in to my sinuses. I actually sat on my board for a couple of minutes as it felt like my ears were popping. I must have flooded my sinuses so much that several hours later, back in the condo, I leaned down and as my head dropped forward, more sea water poured out of my nostrils - and again throughout the evening - no wonder my sinuses felt blocked!

Something funny to share - Gerard asked me if I was a college student and I told him that I graduated from college over 20 years ago. I told him I was 45 and he looks at me and says "you are older than my mother" - is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I'm definitely going to do this again during the course of the next 2 weeks I'm here. It's sort of like swimming with the paddling you have to do and it's a great way to get some sun without being on the grainy sand with insects flying around.

Oh yeah, school - that is, after all the reason I came here, right? Our second day was spent learning the past tense for irregular verbs. I was.... he was... they were.... etc. Sylvia, our teacher does a nice job of focusing on conversation and speaking rather than exactly where the accents go on the words when writing them. Since we are using the past tense, she had us (myself, Gabriela, Betsy and Isabelle) describe a trip we took. Then she passed around a picture from a magazine and had us tell a story about it. We also did this exercise where we had to first write out 10 events in our lives - like, in 1985, I moved to Minnesota. In 2003, my son was born, etc. All of realized that when we had to read our sentences, we shouldn't have written the years since we now had to say them out loud in Spanish - and so saying "One thousand nine hundred eighty five" was hilarious as we were all botching our numbers. Only Isabelle was smart enough to write her sentences as "When I was 6 years old....." so she got to avoid the spectacle we made out of ourselves.

Lisa spent the afternoon back in the condo as she was fighting a headache. Probably a combination of the heat, dust and the fact that her brain is getting overloaded. 4 hours of Spanish is a lot, especially when even the beginning classes are conducted entirely in Spanish. I hope she's feeling better this morning.

Off to do my homework that's due in about an hour - more past tense stories .....

Pura vida everyone!