Tamarindo
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
36
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Playa Tamarindo **,
Costa Rica
Friday, February 16, 2007
A disappointing day in Tamarindo. The only reason we came here was to see the massive leather back turtle lay his egg.
We originally thought that we would catch this sight on the Caribbean so we weren`t gonna bother going to Tamarindo which has been christened Tamargringo (gringo is a term used by Central and South Americans for North Americans..sometimes used to describe all foreigners..or in Argentina, to describe blue eyed people) but Luis the faithful told us we wouldn`t see any turtles on the Carribean so we had to trudge back towards the Pacific.
The place is crazy expensive (Ten USd for a plate of fish fingers!) and the locals speak Spanish as though it is their second language..They reminded me of myself after three weeks of being immersed in the Gaeltacht..you`d be spouting little link words in Irish by accident for the first few hours after coming home..well the Ticos of Tamar gringo are like that..it`s like they`re more comfortable speaking English-
There were more real estates than restaurants. In fairness, the property when compared with Ireland is dirt cheap so it`s no surprise that every second tourist is digging into the bank accounts to invest. In addition to this, the Development Initiatives coalition (CINDE) estimated that Costa Rica will need 10,000 new guesthouses in the next six years to facilitate all the tourists..so it wouldn`t be a bad investment from that point of view either.
There is a new luxury centre called Tamarindo Heights being built there at the moment. It is going to be a little village that is open only to the elite who own houses there. The public may be able to use the supermarket and restaurants but the bank will be for the sole use of the clients. Rumour has it that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were in Tamarindo a few weeks ago so I`m sure that this sort of a place would be just what they and their friends would be looking for..
Anyway, the plan was to get to Tamarindo in the morn, get rid of our bags, hit the beach, take a turtle tour that night and get the 3.30am bus out of the place onwards to the capital. It all went to plan except we couldn`t get rid of our bags anywhere. Ended up paying bus station an exorbitant rate to hold our bags for three hours.
We hit the beach but the sand flies were bothering me more than Collins! It`s funny, I slag off the LP bible any chance I get and, in some ways, I`m highly reliant on it. Because they didn`t mention the sand flies on the beach, I didn`t bring repellent. Mistake. But the beach itself was lovely and I`m happy to report that there was no litter present like on the beaches in Northern Honduras.
We left beach at 5 and headed on turtle tour at half 7. We were lucky and unlucky that it was the last night of the turtle tours as the season was coming to an end. Lucky if we saw a turtle, unlucky if we didn`t. Usually, if you don`t see a turtle, you get to come the next night for free. But because there was no next night, they were refunding the mulah. But Collins and I would be well on the bus by the time the tour operator reopened his office.
Neway this time luck wasn`t on our side. We sat for four hours in the dark on the beach of Playa Grande but no sign of a turtle. I`m not surprised to be honest..The pre-requisites of any successful turtle sighting are silence and darkness with absolutely no photography. On one side of me, I could hear two Americans discussing Bush`s policies with two Canadians (and I wouldn`t be surprised if Bush heard them himself in the White house, they were so loud) and on the other side of me, I was nearly blinded by two ladies who decided to wear their Sunday whites on a turtle tour. Their white tank tops and silver chains shimmered under the moonlight..lovely normally but not for a turtle tour. And then, there was the man in front of me that kept putting on some machine that had a blue gleam reflecting off it..I couldn`t swear it was a camera but same theory right??
Anyway, came back from the tour at 12 and waited in a bright street corner til 3, then wearily made our way towards the bus station. I snuck into the nearby bar to use their bathroom before our 7 hour trip to San Jose the capital. Everyone in there were off their heads on more than alcohol. I wasn`t sorry to be leaving Tamarindo. A great place to come with a crowd on a package holiday with a lot of mulah. Lots to do but hard on the pockets.
