El Mono Loco Tamarindo

... from paddling and its been like a week now! Finally, and this is terrifically tragic...we saw real bonafide sex on the beach and I don´t mean the drink. I´ll leave out the details because they are not appropriate for my mother to read...and I´m pretty sure she´s the only one reading my blogs. I´ll just say, that it was a trainwreck that I could not quit looking at! Wow! <br><br>We made the most of our evenings hanging out at the hostel. A few ...

... than I got all last year, so I had a great week. I know what I need to work on before next years trip. Did I mention how bad im sweating? Seriously I don't sweat this much in a sauna and I don't leave for another 2 hours!!! I now once I go into the gate area, they don't have AC either but its more outside so there will be a breeze. So I check in and its nothing like leaving the US, you don't have to take off shoes etc..I go to my gate and its this big ...

... missed Anna, Raf, Maya, John..everyone, remember all the crazy pics we took there last year? LOL.. well we waited and waited it was after Midnight and Brendan still didn't know when he was going to sing, so we just left, we wanted to be smart cuz we had to get up early for a 630am session.<br><br> So we get back to the hotel last night and we were starving, nothing was open of course and no street food? ugh so B and I ate the rest of the pringles, goldfish and I remembered ...

... and then, bam, finger grazes one!!!! Ok, ok, breathing, breathing. Chanting to myself, you are ok, you can do this. And then it happens again! I yank my hand out of the water, totally freaked. It does not feel that bad, just squishy but I know what it is!! Then I cupped one as I was paddling!! ugh ugh ugh!! Thankfully, there are respites ...

... s largest marine turtle: the leather back. Once we had settled in a hotel with a dubious odour, we headed onto Playa Tamarindo for a stroll along the beach. We didn't make it very far before we were lured into Eat @ Joe's by the sign, "Nachos as big as your ass". Who could by-pass a sign like that? The nachos were very good and the plate, possibly platter was flowing over its edges. After our brief respite by the beach we continued towards the Tamarindo Estuary which ...

... in Guatemala. We were also able to see the Arenal volcano that day too which is usually covered up by clouds. That night we ate at the hostel and hung out with some of our roommates and went to a karaoki bar. Day 3 On Tuesday we went to Baldi Thermal Hot Springs with the teacher and the girl from Holland. Unfortunately it wansn't sunny but it was still a good time. There were over 15 pools of varing temperature and some of them even had ...

... a bad word about any South American country from fellow travellers who´ve been down there - everyone simply seems to love and sing the praises of everywhere they´ve been. Anyway , back to the here-and-now of Nicaragua to Costa Rica. It was a relatively smooth if quite long journey to get across the border , starting with a two-hour bus ride from Merida to Moyogalpa on Ometepe and the ferry to San Jorge. Then I shared a taxi with ...

... and surprise, surprise having good chats and making it to the beach after lunch. Also since Dawn and her husband, Sean, have just come from Nicaragua, we've got lots of great travel tips. Today has been the end of the beginner course for the boys and Sean managed to surf for quite a few seconds and Alex managed to get up too....then fell back down. They have also managed to damage 3 smaller kites in their lessons today....scarily they have now rented the 13m kite all ...

Granada is also suppose to be a highlight of Nicaragua. Once again I did not see why... ya so they have a nice central park area with a nice church and a strip of nice tourist bars but I did not see why that makes it so special. In a way, I was kinda glad that there was not alot to do ...

... my life. A contalope cut in half with the seeds scooped out and then filled with yogurt bananas and granola. So delish! After we got kicked out we said goodbye to Tom who has to return home Monday and decided to head to our secret beach. Only it turned out a family the size of a Nichols family reunion already had staked their claim. What a bummer, that blasted Semana Santa! There is another beach if you climb over all these big rocks and we had a great ...