Tamarindo Beach - Good bye Costa Rica

Picture 1- Tamarindo Sunset
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Picture 2- Restaurant on the beach
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Picture 3- Waves at Conchal Beach
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Picture 4- Sand/ Seashells at Conchal Beach
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Picture 5- Sand at Conchal Beach
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Tamarindo beach reminded Scott and I both of Phuket in Thailand. It was a very touristy place, complete with a Subway “eat fresh” location, a sushi restaurant, and multiple smoothie stands. We arrived late on a Friday and planned to spend a full day there on Saturday, with intentions to leave early on the Sunday. On the Sunday our plan was to travel to San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua to start a week of Home Stay and Spanish classes. On the Saturday in Tamarindo we spent the morning walking from Tamarindo Beach to the attached Beach “Playa Grande”. Playa Grande was very quiet, large and backed on a National Park. The two beaches are separated by a small estuary which had quite a current and thus you paid a local with a small boat to take you across the water on a boat for a dollar each which based on watching other people trying traverse made the two bucks well worth it. At 11:20 AM we took the bus to a beach about 20 minutes away by bus called “Playa Conchal”. Playa Conchal was very pretty as the sand was mostly made up of crushed sea shells hence the name. The waves there were intense. They were so big at times they threw both Scott and I onto the beach a couple of times. The water was coming in so fast that it knocked over a BBQ, and almost washed away a few people’s coolers, sandals, and children . After a day in the sun and waves, we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, where the waves would every once and a while reach our table. Back at our hostel on Tamarindo Beach we watched the silhouettes of boats against the sunset. That night we fully had intentions to see a local band but our 8:00 PM nap turned into a full night’s sleep. The next day we got up early grabbed an “energy smoothie” and arrived at the bus stop around 7:50 AM, which was just in front of the strip mall. The bus was supposed to be there at 8:30 but we soon found out that the bus doesn’t have a schedule on Sundays and runs on Tico time (Costa Rican time), and therefore could show up soon or maybe later. At about 10:30 AM Scott and I spoke to a taxi about taking us to Liberia. Just as the taxi pulled up so did the bus. We apologized to the taxi and hopped on the bus as the bus was $6 and the taxi was $40. We arrived in Liberia and luckily got on the next bus to Nicaragua right away.