Costa Rica 2008

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year to All!!! We arrived safely in Costa Rica. We had a full and eventful stay over in Fort Lauderdale. We met our friend at the airport on Friday evening and had a wonderful dinner and a full night of dancing! We didn’t really get that much sleep Friday evening but was definitely a night to go down in the memory books:)

It was a little chaotic at the airport on Saturday morning as it’s the day of the week where all the cruise ships come in…line ups for days. We made our flight to San Jose and when we landed and were on our way to customs, we met Dave’s mom and dad, (Glen and Elaine), in the line up…what are the odds?:) We had another flight booked from a different airport on an 18-seater dual-prop plane to take us to Tamarindo, Costa Rica. The large scenic windows literally gave us a “birds eye view” of the lush, mountainess country.

Our condo we’re staying at is gorgeous! Located in the heart of Tamarindo, the beautifully landscaped condo offers a stunning view of the walk out pool complete with large mountain waterfalls. We are about a 4 minute walk from the beach.

We got ourselves settled and headed out for a tour of the town. Our first walk allowed us to see a family of 7 monkeys in a small protected forest patch eating some blooming flowers and letting them fall to the ground…like a gentle snowfall…the way we understand the snow has been falling there. They were incredible to watch, the grace and agility they possess. What is also included is the largest grasshoppers we have ever seen! I swear they are at least 5 inches in length (maybe longer) and will typically fly into the patio area for a visit!

The native tongue here is Spanish, and thanks to Dave’s high school classes and incredible brain for retention, it has saved us a couple of times:) The way of life in this particular city is definitely surfer-owned. The majority of the patrons here walk around everywhere in just swimming trunks and flip-flops. Many surf shops flood the downtown strip with the remainder being restaurants, juice bars and souvenier shops. There are local vendors that sell freshly squeezed orange juice at the side of the roads with flavours that ignite your taste buds.

The weather has been incredible. Scorching hot days and extremely mild evenings make it a perfect habitat when you like the warmth as much as we do. Today we went on a nice long walk of the vast beach. High tide being in the early morning, by 1 p.m. the beach becomes immensely wide and miles long. We will be planning a 4 km hike down the beach to another town (Playa del something…lol) later in the week…looking forward to that:)

Tonight we went for a wonderful dinner together at “El Coconut.” For us, it was the best restaurant on the strip being gauged by it being the busiest. Beautifully decorated, we had a seat right in the corner overlooking the restaurant and the strip. Our dinners included steamed mussels, jumbo shrimp, grilled-to-pefection mahi mahi topped with shrimp and calamari, fresh lobster and a Mariachi quartet. Of course we had the liquid trimmings of Mai Tai’s, Mojitos, and Margaritas, finishing that off with a bottle of Chianti. We completed the evening by walking the strip taking in the energy of the nightlife and ending with the sky being filled from all directions with fireworks celebrating the New Year.

On Wednesday we are planning our big outing for the week. A private van will pick us up at 5:30 a.m. and drive us for 4 hours into the rain forest. The day will be filled with a full-fledged tour of the rain forest, lunch, canopy walks, hot springs, live-volcano tour, and zip-line. A must see-and-do for this beautiful country.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year celebration and are looking forward to sharing many experiences together in 2008.

Love to all…