Little California

After three long, hot, tiresome days of traveling, Matt and I at long last made it to Costa Rica. Leaving Utila was extremely hard and already we're planning on going back. Yes, it's that good there.

We are now in a small town along Costa Rica's Pacific Coast called Playa Tamarindo. We didn't realize when we planned to come here that this place is the furthest from a natural, traditional Costa Rican setting that there is in this country. It is quite literally a tiny California. The town is filled with Americans. Some young travelers but mostly retirees with condos here. Word to the wise, when deciding travel destinations, don't use a 10 year old Lonely Planet as a reference, it will be sorely outdated. We chose here because of the incredible surfing, and the 10 year old Lonely Planet made this place sound amazing. I'm sure ten years ago it probably was something beautiful and magical to see, but now, it is filled with newly renovated condos, malls, cafes, and boutiques at every turn. The beach is packed with wannabe surfers (us included) and wealthy tourists frying in the sun. After we arrived is when I decided to look at the internet (and up-to-date) version of what the Lonely Plant has to say about this place now..
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/costa-rica/peninsula-de-nicoya/playa-tamarindo
Made me laugh. It pretty much sums this place up to a tee. Anyway, with only 5 days left on our trip, we're not about to go scouring the countryside looking for Costa Rica. Not to mention, we asked around and it seems that the tourism industry has had a major impact in Costa Rica and development is booming everywhere. So, we're spending the last of our trip in a beautiful, clean and first air-conditioned room of the trip and enjoying every minute of it. Today we rented surfboards and gave our best attempts. I got a delightful farmer's tan (burn) from the rashtop and a few cuts and bruises. The waves here are extremely rough and it's hard to even get out to the waves, let alone stand up on them. But tomorrow we've planned a private lesson with one of the guys who works at our hostel, so who knows, after 2pm tomorrow, we might be pro? (HA!)

I should get going, Matt's hovering over my shoulder to play some ping-pong.

Much love, Christine (and Matt too)