Sandpiper Inn Playa Hermosa

... long. Today we discovered that our skin was itchy and I had a number of red spots from some sort of sea creature that comes in with the tide occasionally. If is fairly harmless and was gone by the evening. We're staying in a Spanish style small hotel, right on the beach which is lovely. There are palms all around, outdoor cafes and a small pool. This is our vacation within a vacation time. There isn't much in this small place but we have wandered around and found some small ...

... hotel, tomorrow. The people have been very nice, I'm working on my Spanish, and the evening rains are delightful. It gets dark at around 6, and with no TV, I have been able to go to bed normal time, and wake up at 5:30ish to go seek waves. Sort of like keeping my normal schedule - the tides change, so my schedule may as well. OK, well, I am off to run the beach and then jump in the pool before presumably eating, doing some reading, and falling asleep by 8:30. See you soon.

... recherche d'un bar pour se rafraîchir. Sur le chemin, un autre type s'arrête en voiture, nous demande ce qu'on fait et nous dit d'attendre là, qu'il va demander à un ami de nous emmener à la prochaine ville où il y a plus de bus. Il s'en va, et nous ne le croyant pas, on s'en va également puis ne trouvant pas de bar, on retourne à l'arrêt de bus pour faire du stop. Finalement une navette d'un hôtel nous prend, c'était en fait les amis du gars en voiture qui avaient ...

... of palm trees for shade. At the hotel we met a man travelling on his own named Patrick. He is from Montreal. He said he would like to camp but didn't know a good place. We told him about our special beach that is really hard to get to. He suggested we all go together in his rental car for a few days.

... would probably never get to since it's so deep in the jungle, other than with this waterfall rappelling tour. And there were no hiking trails along the waterfalls. The jungle was so thick that the only way to get down the falls was to rappel down them! It was quite an excursion, and we absolutely loved it!

... while we surfed. Mandy watched on and took photos of the little fellas making their way across the beach to the water. About fifteen minutes later all these little heads started popping up around us out in the surf. They were everywhere. One swam up to me so I put him on my surfboard to give him a rest. Turtles are cooler! There are quite a few Americans that live in Costa Rica. One of them, Joey, told us about a waterfall nearby. He gave us some directions and we were off. One of the ...

... enough, it did feel like a completely different country from the one that we had left that morning. Sweatshirts that we had hugged to our bodies only four hours before were flung back on the buseta and pant legs rolled up. The air was steamy though it was only 9 am. Everyone looked around them in astonishment with even the most mundane things...but these weren't just any trees or rocks, these were trees and rocks in Guanacaste. After acclimating ourselves to our new surroundings ...

... on surfboards watching the breathtaking sunset that today was without a doubt one (if not the) most amazing days of both of our lives. Hopefully each day will only get better. Pura Vida. 3.18.2007 Hello again from Tamarindo. The past few days here have been extremely chill. Our days have consisted of waking up around 8:30, walking to the market right beside our hostel and getting fruit for breakfast before we head out to surf until lunch ...

... I didn´t know what to bring, so I brought a pineapple! ha! It was really funny... After, we went to my fav pub in Jaco - Tabacone. There was a 70´s American band strumming away, so we played pool and downed some Germain beer. It was a pretty worldly night for sure! All the new experiences of spending Christmas outside of your own compounds. what more to come...

The Pig Episode was REALLY the last in my extended stay in Nicaragua & once I'd recovered, I said more goodbyes (they didn't get any easier despite the practice I'd had!)& began to head south towards Panama. After a comfortable night in Granada surrounded by loads of ex-Bigfoot guests & feeling quite famous, I crossed into Costa Rica alone. Costa Rica's long-distance buses are proper coach-types with tickets but totally oversold, soooo crammed full of people standing it ...