I’m not sure Tamarindo will be my favorite place in Costa Rica, but it will be fine. I spent part of the morning and afternoon camped out on bean bags by the pool working on posts for the blog and reading a book. It was a pleasant way to spend part of the day after after several days with lots of activities.

Around mid-morning, Bill and I went out to explore town. We found a super neat farmer’s market right behind our hotel. We wandered around there for a while and bought cheese, smoked meat, and empanadas and quiche for lunch. We also found an octopus picture that both of us think would make an awesome tattoo. I bought some of the best mangos I’ve ever had and a really good watermelon. I like farmer’s markets. There are a lot of Americans and Europeans who live here so the tables were managed by lots of different kinds of people. We also found a better grocery store that has peanut butter and an ATM so it was a useful morning.

This afternoon, we wandered around town. There are lots of shops and restaurants here. We found the Sol Bakery that Tracy recommended to us and bought brownies – just regular ones, not the “happy ones” that Bill found at the farmer’s market. We found a place to buy body surfing boards, and I found a super cute pair of palazzo pants. I recently became an Associate Dean and I have almost no professional summer clothes. I’ve been wearing Cuddl Duds leggings in the summer, which are wildly inappropriate outerwear. They are really thin and comfortable so they make good summer leggings because I get cold at school, except that you can see through them. If I wear colorful underwear, it’s almost like not having pants on. It’s only slightly better with dark underwear. I’ve been pretending like it’s not that noticeable, and I’m not promising to stop wearing them, but I probably can’t wear them in my new capacity as associate dean. The new pants will be an upgrade. I may look for an another pair while I’m here. They seem to be popular.

We briefly walked down to the beach this afternoon. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as I had expected. We are planning to go swim tomorrow morning an I’m looking forward to being back in the ocean. We just swam in the pool this afternoon before supper. We ate at a good pizza place close to our apartment. Overall, it was a pleasant, low-key day. Bill has some pictures.

We had a lot of driving yesterday but a super fun activity! Our drive from La Fortuna to Tamarindo was about 4 hours, but we found a driver who was willing to take us to a waterfall on the way. I had planned for us to go to the Rio Celeste Waterfall. I’ve been there before and it’s really pretty, but our guide suggested that we go to the Leona Waterfall where you can swim. I’m so glad we took that option! It was one of the most fun things I’ve done here. There were two different waterfalls and the hike in to see them was beautiful. We did a little bit of rock climbing and caving on the way. We saw some vampire bats and some fruit and insect bats. Our driver was awesome! He’s a young guy building a tourist transportation business. He took his phone on the waterfall hike and took some great pictures for us.

The water was spectacular. It must be part of Rio Celeste because it has the same blue color because of the metal (mostly aluminum) and minerals in the water. There are no fish or invertebrates living in the water because of the metal, but the water is clear and ultra blue in places. We came to a couple of small waterfalls first, then we got to do a cliff jump. I’ve wanted to do one of those but haven’t’ had the opportunity. This one was perfect. It was high enough that it felt like a long fall, but not high enough to be dangerous. The bolder I jumped off of seemed much higher when I got to the top than it did when I was looking at it from the ground. I would have done a second jump but our guide as already leaving for the next location.

After boulder jumping, we hiked a little further, then swam into the main waterfall area. The whole trip was stunningly beautiful and not too crowded. We met a couple from NY that was doing the hike without a guide. I asked if they came a lot and and that’s how they got to go alone. It turns out that the guy had done a waterfall hike in the area a few years ago. He thought it was this one but realized half way through that it wasn’t, so they were on their own to find their way through the trails. It’s wasn’t too hard and there were other groups coming and going, but he seemed relieved to have found the waterfall and hopefully they found their way out okay.

I was wiped out and headachy by the time we go to Tamarindo yesterday afternoon. Tamarindo is much larger and more crowded than I had expected. I had expected it to be more like La Fortuna or Samara, which are smaller, quieter cities. There are bars everywhere and the beach was really crowded last night when we walked down. I’m on the fence about whether I will like it here, but I didn’t feel great when I was trying to evaluate it last night and that made everything seem worse. I’ll have a better idea about it in a day or so. We are planning to wander around town today and find a good way to the beach. There are lots of shops here so I can probably find a coffee cup to bring home. I’m hoping to find a good bakery. I was craving a brownie or some good chocolate last night. We didn’t find anything but I’m sure there are some good chocolate shops somewhere.

It’s Saturday so the beach is probably packed today but it may be better during the week. There are other beaches in the area that might be quieter so things should be okay. Bill and I have had a lot of activity and sun for the last few days. We are both burned so we may use this as a more leisurely day by the pool and out of the direct sun. I have a book to read. We like our hotel. It smells mildly like weed but most places smell mildly like weed these days. Even our waterfall hike smelled mildly like weed yesterday and that was a big, forested space. I suppose there could have been a skunk in the area, but probably not. Our apartment is really nice and quiet. The pool area is also quiet for now and shaded. I’m currently camped out on some big bean bags beside the pool. They have a place where I can get all the tea I want any time so if I can find some chocolate and baked goods, things can’t be that bad.

I am sunburned! We went swimming this morning. It was kind of cloudy and I wasn’t going to be out long, so I didn’t sunscreen. I’m going to pay for that. I’m going to soak in my hot springs pool tonight and hope the minerals will be good for my skin. I’m usually really careful, but I wasn’t today.

This afternoon, we went spelunking. I like caves so I enjoyed the trip, but it was a more difficult spelunking trip than we did in Belize. There were some really tight passages that we had to squeeze, and in come cases swim, through. It was ultra humid. It was definitely an easier trip for the smaller people in the group.

The cave had a good number of bats. It’s probably not really that good to do tours in this cave because people shine lights on the little bats all the time and it disturbs them. Our guide said they were little fruit bats, but when they are hanging upside down from the ceiling, I don’t know how you tell the fruit bats from the insectivores. They were super cute. We also saw a little snake and a big spider. The cave is underneath a river. In the rainy season, there are waterfalls in the cave and the water is waist deep. It was shallow today. Some of the cave is formed from fossilized shells and coral and we saw a fossilized turtle shell. Overall, it was a good trip.

Today is our last day in this area. Tomorrow, we found a driver who is going to take us to the Rio Celeste waterfall on our way to Tamarindo, our beach location. Rio Celeste is more or less on the way. It’s a long drive to Tamarindo so this will break up the trip and give us an activity. I’ve been there before, but Bill hasn’t. It’s a beautiful location so I’ll be happy to go back.

Between my sunburn and the activities today, I’m expecting to crash tonight. I’m posting a few pictures that Bill sent me. He took these with his waterproof camera and they are all screen shots so the quality isn’t as good as usual. It’s hard to take pictures in caves.

I’m starting this message this morning before I’m too tired to write it. I’ve been falling asleep by 8:30 in the evening. I’m currently camped out on some comfortable deck furniture by the pool. I have a beautiful view of the volcano right beside me.

Bill and I had breakfast this morning beside a German couple with a 1 year old. She’s super cute and stares at everyone. One of the wait staff gave her a toothpick umbrella this morning, which we and her parents thought was a bad idea. She tore the umbrella part off pretty quickly, which left her with a stick that was perfect for poking her eye out. Her dad thought so too and eventually managed to take it away from her. She waves at everyone. You can see her thinking “I just learned how to wave, and I’ve gotten really good at it.” She’s getting a baby brother or sister soon.

There are surprising numbers of families here with really little kids. There’s a main pool/hot springs area near the bar/restaurant but there’s another pool area that no one seems to go to, so Bill and I had the pool all to ourselves yesterday afternoon. Hopefully it will be that way this afternoon too.

It’s a sunny, humid morning, but it will be great for rafting.

We just finished supper. Rafting was fun. We decided to do an easier, class II/III rafting trip instead of the III/IV difficulty. I’m on the fence about whether that was a good idea. You get to see more and it’s more leisurely with an easier trip but it’s less exciting and memorable. Either way, it was fun. We saw another sloth up in a tree over the river. After our trip, the tour company took us to lunch at an open air restaurant that served Costa Rican food. It was good. They also gave us a shot of moonshine made with sugarcane. That was awful! You were supposed to drink the shot then chew on the sugarcane piece in your glass to soften the taste. It didn’t help! I was glad I had some juice left to wash that down. I guess it counts as an experience.

Tomorrow we are doing a cave trip. I hope it’s good. I like caves and this one is supposed to have bats in it. Bats are awesome!

Bill might have some pictures. He took his waterproof camera. I never take my phone with me so I have no pictures.

Hello All: Our trip to Costa Rica has started out pretty well. We are spending the first part of our trip near the Arenal Volcano. The volcano is right out our window so it’s a lovely view. We are in the center of Costa Rica and it took about three hours to get here from the airport. I was wiped out by yesterday evening.

Our hotel is lovely! The vegetation here is thick and the hotel keeps the grounds really nicely covered in plants. There are lots of birds. Since we are so near the volcano, there are geothermal hot springs everywhere. Down the road a little ways is a hot springs river. Our hotel has multiple hot and cold pools and I got a room with my own private hot spring pool, which is awesome.

This morning, we took a taxi to La Fortuna, which is the closest town. There are lots of tourist shops. We found a chocolate shop and got some really good brownies for after supper. After we finished wandering around town, we took a taxi to a sloth watching area. It’s run by a family that used to raise cattle. They turned their property into a nature area that attracts sloths. It’s a beautiful property with a little creek running through it. We saw an otter fishing from one of the observation points. The owners of the property have put an enormous amount of money into building trails, restrooms, suspension bridges and hiring staff to spot sloths and maintain everything. We saw three sloths and one of them was really low in a tree so we could see her without a scope. It’s not very hot here but it’s ultra humid and the canopy holds in humidity. We were soaked by the time the trip was over but it was a lovely walk and the sloths were super neat.

After sloth watching, we came back to swim for a while. Tomorrow, we are going rafting and I set up a spelunking trip for Thursday. Both should be fun. Here are a few more pictures below.