Hiking, swimming and ziplining

6am pickup today for some really nice waves and fun surfing!

Zach was feeling well enough to go out to eat after 5 days of stomach issues made him house bound eating white bread, potatoes and white pasta. We went to Fisch down the street, which has good breakfast.

Looking happy to eat real food again:

Back to Jaime Peligro bookstore:

An Iguana hanging out at Villas Macondo:

Feeling stiff from surfing so taking the day off! I like to start my day making a pot of coffee in the shared kitchen.

Great place to meet the other guests. Met a couple Aussies, a couple Germans, Canadian family, a retired British man and a few university kids from San Jose. A few local families have stayed as well. Everyone is friendly when they’re on vacation.

Dr Charles really likes hanging out with Zach. He opens the outside screen door in the morning and waits for Shell and Zach to open the inside door:

Found a new beach access:

And another happy hour:

Found a nice place to eat off the circle in town:

Love the art work here and around town:

Thanks Walter! You gave us the shopping energy we needed. There’s a few nice shops in town for beach clothes and hand made jewelry.

Emily came by to show us her jewelry. Really nice stuff so we both bought a necklace:

Really good huevos rancheros (eggs on a tortilla shell with tomatoes)…I’m wearing Emily’s necklace:

Its been really windy the past couple of days. Good thing this tree fell during the night:

Shell enjoying a cerveza:

The monkeys relaxing at our hotel. They’re so cute to watch:

We wanted to buy a takeout bbq chicken. What to do while waiting 30 minutes for the chickens to cook…what to do?:

Zach is feeling better so decided to add fries to his plain rice tonight. Hiding the evidence since the doctor said no fried food:

Surfing pickup at 2:30 today. The back waves were too big for me and there were no intermediate waves. Just big and small. The set didn’t seem to end and the waves closed out fast so not a good surf day for a beginner like me. Waaaay too many people in the water as well. I caught a couple small waves but couldn’t go far with people in the way. I have zero timing with large waves so got pumelled trying to catch them. Lots of exercise paddling. The current was strong taking everyone north to the rivermouth. Not fun! I’ll skip surfing Sunday afternoon and go Monday morning if the guys go out. Feeling extra tired and waterlogged today.

Went surfing today!!!! High tide at 5:30pm so surfing in Tamarindo is good 3 hrs before and 3 hrs after. For beginners in between is better. I did the 7 day surf camp at this time last year with Costa Rica Surf Adventures. This year they let me join in even though I’m not with the surf camp. Fun day catching intermediate waves with the help of Hietor from Brazil. I’m learning to read little waves.

We had a break in:

He’s the owners cat but seems to like hanging out with us. He spent every the day in Shell and Zach’s place:

Surfing pickup was 2:00 so lots of time to hang out at the pool before the weekend crowd of university kids took over. They came in with a giant speaker and turned the place into a party. Security shuts the pool down at 9:00 though.

Staying indoors tonight to watch Zach who was dehydrated from stomach issues. He’s on bread and rice until he feels better. Enjoying his antibiotics, probiotics and electrolytes I’m sure.

Tonight my dinner consisted of beer nuts, cheese pringles and beer…..all the vegetarian food groups. Can’t be healthy everyday!

Its been 33C (feels like 43c) during the day and 22c at night. Its much cooler at the beach than at our pool so we headed to the beach:

Panoramic:

We ordered a couple drinks and this is what we got:

A live band (young kids)stopped in for a couple songs while we ate. They were really good!

Looking for pizza:

Great pizza and best mojitos: