Day 15
Woke up at Los Lagos at 5 and went to the lobby to find some internet. Usually resorts of this size have good access, but at this one it’s as rare as a unicorn. I did manage to hold on to a connection for about an hour, before the other early risers hopped on board.
No matter. I needed coffee. I saw two others doing the zombie coffee shuffle from various corners of the compound toward the restaurant. The workers didn’t bother to ask us what our room numbers were, just moved out of our way. They’ve dealt with our kind before.
At a more reasonable hour we ate breakfast, a great buffet. I never get tired of all the fresh fruit. I followed the suggestion to make one trip up for food, but had to go up four times for coffee. If the cups were bigger I could have gone up only once. The alternative was to take four smaller cups at once. It all worked out.
We soaked in the hot springs for a couple of hours. Gonna need a twelve step program to walk away from those cozy pools of warm mineraly goodness. I thought it was hype, but my skin was so soft after the pools.
The waterslides were an interesting mix of super fast and hot. The more we explored the grounds, the more hidden pools we found. It reminded me of Johnson Shut-ins, a place we went to when I was a kid in Missouri.
The drive took us around the volcano Arenal, then around the lake. It was a much larger lake that I thought it would be, and reminded me a little of Lake Como. It was a beautiful drive, but few places to pull over and look at it.
There were many little homemade signs for the German bakery, half way around the lake. With my German baker’s ancestry, it’s not an optional. We stopped, had a coffee, some apfel struddel, and a chocolate croissant (but said in German). The bakery was a favorite spot for tourists and cats.
On the home stretch to Tamarindo, the road was closed due to downed electrical wires. We drove into an area that the GPS didn’t have any recorded roads. We were just a small bluearrow zig-zagging through the solid green mass.
It had no idea where we were going, and neither did we.
We were lost in stunning, lush, ranch country. Wow. There were horses, cattle, dogs, cowboys. Did I mention cowboys? It was like driving onto a movie set of a different era.
Despite the abundant number of horses, not everyone has one. You don’t need a horse to herd your lumpy cows, just need a bike and a stick. The cattle of choice in this area are the Brahman, originally from India. These camel humped steer have long floppy ears which make them an interesting looking cross between a camel and bunny. The car consensus was if we had to be a family cows, there couldn’t be a more beautiful place to settle. Of all the times we’ve been lost, this is one of my favorites.
I was almost sad when we found the main road. The magical ranching valley of lump-backed, bunny-eared cattle and TicoCaballeros would have to be left behind.
We continued on the road to Tamarindo. All the bridges on our road were under construction which meant driving down into the riverbank and back up to the road. But we finally got to the well-known beach town.
Tamarindo was more built up than I had imagined. There were many great restaurants to choose from and even more surf shops. After minimal wandering, we found our house. It came complete with tiki torches, bbq, boogieboards, beach umbrellas and chairs, and pale pink surf board. It’s all there.
We walked down the orange dirt road to the beach. There was a festive atmosphere already in play. Many people and their dogs had gathered to watch the orange and red hues dance on the water, dingys going out to the moored boats in the distance.
Travel days are worth it when you end up in a new place like this. But we were hungry. We walked down the beach where quite a few restaurants have tables spilling out into the sand. In addition to the sound of the waves you can have a mariachi serenade. Young boys are selling flowers folded from palm leaves. They gave one to Cali, which was great end to the day.
