Last day in Tamarindo

 Today was another very hot beach day in Tamarindo. We had some excitement at breakfast, with several lizards and iguanas visiting, birds stealing food off the tables and one of our neighbours being pooped on by a squirrel from a tree.

We were back at the beach after breakfast. The novelty of playing in the waves is starting to wear off, so we spent most of the time exploring the tide pools, and making drawings on the packed down sand.

By about 11:00, we were all overheating and needing an indoor air conditioning break. The kids managed to find one channel on the TV that had cartoons in English.

Penny and I went for a walk around town, hoping that she would maybe take a nap.

No luck on the nap, but we did stop for a short and very hot play at the park.

We went for another short swim before dinner, then back to our room to eat up all of our remaining food. It's our last night with a kitchen, tomorrow we head to Liberia and get ready to fly home on Saturday.

Playa Conchal

It's another very hot day in Tamarindo. We spent the morning at the beach by our hostel.

It was low tide, so we avoided the packs of surfing lessons by walking further down the beach to check out tidal pools and make art on the sand.

We needed a few hours mid-day to cool off and get out of the sun, then we drove to Playa Concha, about 30 minutes away.

The beach can only be accessed by walking along the neighbouring Playa Brasilitio, then climbing over the point (or staying at the Westin resort there). 

Instead of sand, Playa Conchal has tiny crushed and smoothed shells.

The kids enjoyed the novelty of playing in this different type of "sand", and now we have shell pieces everywhere. At dinner, Oscar announced "I have a shell in my underwear!".

The beach also had some rocky outcroppings where you could snorkel and see some fish. We didn't have snorkels, but the kids still enjoyed swimming around with goggles to see the fish.

It was nearing sunset by the time we made the walk back along Playa Brasilito. 

We stopped for dinner on the way home at a Soda on the side of the road. We are now spying in on an Abba show happening at the hotel across the road. It is very loud, so we may be hearing Abba in our dreams!

Beach day

 Nothing on the itinerary today except beach. Our hostel has breakfast included, but it doesn't start until 8:00am, so we killed time by kicking a ball around the soccer field across the street.

The hostel also has a set of 3 swing chairs that are far too tempting for the kids to try and swing as high as they can.

We spent a full morning at the beach, playing in the waves and in the sand. At this beach, there are hundreds of beginner surfers taking lessons at any given time, so it can be tricky to find a spot to swim without being at risk of getting pummeled by a surfboard.

After what was probably a bit too much sun, we needed to go inside to cool off for a few hours, and make a trek to the store for supplies. Penny fell asleep on the scorching walk to the grocery store and slept for almost 2 hours!

We were back to the beach for another sunset swim, then Penny's favourite dinner back at our room. The room has a few shortcomings (only 2 forks, mysterious leaks, loud restaurant music and traffic noise) but you can't beat the easy access to the beach, and views from the balcony!

Another Travel Day to Tamarindo

Today was our longest day of driving for the trip.  We had a total of 4 hours driving back past Liberia to make our way to the beach town of Tamarindo.  It was Ellis' turn to barf in the back seat this time.  We pulled over at a soda, ordered some iced tea, and discarded of her shoes in the bathroom wastebasket, as one does in such circumstances. We eventually reached our first planned stop, a river with some minerals in the middle of nowhere that we used to cool off and stretch the limbs. 

We passed through Liberia right around lunch time, so we took advantage of the large population center to get pizza for the kids and vegetarian food for the grownups, plus a quick and cheap replacement pair of shoes for Ellis at Walmart.

We made it to Tamarindo late afternoon and checked in to our beach house.  It is a two bedroom unit on the second floor of a hostel/restaurant, we are directly above the bar and it is pretty noisy at night!  With the temperature in the mid 30s, we headed straight to the beach that is only steps away from our door.  The kids settled in to their standard routines.  Penny collected seashells and garbage for endless potions.  Oscar violently threw himself in to wave after wave.  Jasper alternated between digging holes and sprinting in to the surf.  Ellis acted kind of normal.  Lots of hotels on this beach, pretty busy until sunset.  

 

Finca la Esperanza Chocolate Tour

This morning we drove up into the hills to the Finca la Esperenza farm for a chocolate growing and making tour. It is a family-run operation, and they hire a neighbour as a translator for the English tours.

Oscar got to help the farmer harvest some yuca while we were waiting for our tour to start.

The first part of the tour was a walk through the forest, where we had some of the best wildlife sightings of the trip so far. We saw a sloth relatively low to the ground, two toucans and a hummingbird nest with babies in it.

The farm was a mix of cocoa plants and coffee, and also some pineapples, guava, and a smattering of small livestock and exotic birds.

Our guide explained how they cultivate the cocoa beans and let us try some of the raw seeds right out of the pod.

After checking out the peacocks, roosters, ducks, turkeys and other birds, we went back to the main area to learn about the process to make chocolate from cocoa beans.

The kids got to try different methods of grinding the beans, and we sampled the beans at different stages of the process.

We got to taste some very fresh hot chocolate and at the end got to try the finished chocolate product.

After the tour, they served us some Costa Rican snacks, including some very yummy yuca fritters.

Penny made some new doggy friends at the farm, who followed her around for scratches.

Back at the house, we did an easter hunt with chocolate soccer balls and mini chocolate bars, and had a swim in the pool to cool off.  Tomorrow, we have a long drive to the beach!

Kalambu Hot Springs

 Today we spent the entire day at Kalambu Hot Springs, an attraction that is part water park and part hot springs soaking pools.

There was a little kids splash area with a giant bucket and a few small waterslides,

a section with 5 big waterslides, where Jasper and Oscar spent most of their day,

and a bunch of hot pools, at different temperatures and in different shapes. 

The hottest pool was 42 C, which was pretty toasty under the Costa Rican sun. Luckily, the day was partly cloudy, and we managed to avoid sunburns.

Penny wasn't big enough for the slides, so she spent about 6 hours straight swimming. She is a bit too confident in her swim abilities, but she is definitely improving. She can now take a breath and continue to swim without drowning. She also loves to float face down and do her best impression of someone who has drowned. 

It was a long tiring day for all of us, and I think everyone will sleep well tonight!

Arenal National Park and El Salto

This morning we drove back through La Fortuna to the Arenal National Park to go on a hike to see the old lava flow. The spot we visited was from 1992. 

The kids did great hiking the 4km Las Coladas trail, though Penny did need some shoulder rides. The big kids wanted to check if Pat can still carry them on his shoulders. Not for too long, but he can still do it.

At the Arenal lookout, the volcano was mostly hiding behind the clouds. We did catch a better glimpse of it on the drive home.

Penny wanted us to take a picture of her "P" she made out of a stick.

We came back to our house for a swim and a wander around the property. The place we are staying is an old farm that was turned into tourist lodging. There are about 8 little houses, 2 pools, a pond and trails through the forest.

We found a giant rope swing and even saw two sloths. The sloths were sleeping, so we set a timer for 1 hour to go back and check on them.

Penny is getting pretty confident in the water.

Later in the afternoon, we went to check out El Salto, a public swimming hole with a rope swing.

Pat was the only one brave enough to go off the big rope.

Oscar especially loved playing in the water, jumping in off of some of the smaller rocks and swinging on a vine.

Even Penny got in on some of the jumping action.