central-america | Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures

Tag: central-america

Costa Rica Day 7! Lazy Beach Day

Posted at 11:03 am by taryngirl, on September 29, 2024

7/6/24

When we woke up today, my husband was not feeling well at all. Apparently he was awake all night with stomach issues. The rest of us felt fine, so I thought maybe he was dehydrated from the day before. The girls and I went to breakfast and then went and got chairs near the beach.

Here you can see the vendors who walk up and down the beach trying to sell their items.

We walked down to the part of the beach where they surfed yesterday. It was not rocky in that area, so we felt safer going out into the waves with no water shoes.

This is looking back at that area. (There is public parking here so it was much busier. This is also the area where alot of the vendors were stationed.)

I found this beautiful starfish!

I also found this guy again on the wall right in front of our chairs:

And this interesting insect appeared on my bag:

I had gone back to the room to check on my husband a few times, and he was not better. He couldn’t get out of bed and didn’t anything to eat or drink.

It started raining again, so we moved into the restaurant to a table for some drinks and cards.

We didn’t really have a plan for dinner tonight. One family wanted sushi, and the rest wanted Italian.

The Italian restaurant was attached to the resort, so it was just a quick walk to get there. This is the kitchen area where they made the pizzas and pastas! It was open air, and right where the very limited seating was.

Here you can see the street and how close it was to the seats.

I had the spaghetti bolognese and it was so good!

This wrapped up our trip to Costa Rica! It was certainly a whirlwind. The next day we had breakfast and then boarded our private transportation to the Liberia airport, which was about 45 minutes away.

(My husband was still very sick. He didn’t go to dinner, but survived the trip home. After we got home, my sister-in-laws family all also weren’t feeling great. We think it was due to the water in Tamarindo (traveler’s diarrhea)! Not everyone drank bottled water. My two girls and I drank bottled water. Everyone was back to normal in about two weeks.)

Posted in Costa Rica, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged adventure, Beach, central-america, Costa Rica, Tamarindo, travel

Costa Rica Day 5! Moving to Tamarindo

Posted at 4:25 pm by taryngirl, on September 25, 2024

7/4/24

Today was the day we were moving from the La Fortuna volcano area to Tamarindo Beach. The night before there were torrential rains that caused mudslides and closed some roads. We weren’t sure how that would impact our drive! Originally we knew the drive would take about 4 and a half hours.

We were up very early for breakfast. Our transportation was coming around 9 a.m. to get us. We had one last meal at the amazing buffet!

Quick video of the buffet offerings:

After breakfast, we called to be picked up from our room and taken to the lobby with our luggage. I had a quick talk with our driver and let him know that there were some who were prone to car sickness, and to keep that in mind when driving. We ended up going a different, less windy road because of the mudslide.

Here are some views from our almost 6 hour drive to Tamarindo!

This was a school:

I forget specifics on this tree, but it was a landmark for sure. Many people were stopped here to see it, and there were a few vendors set up right next to it.

This was Rio Celeste area.

Around 3:15 p.m., we made it to our hotel! (It was raining!) The Tamarindo Diria Beach Resort. This resort is located in the heart of Tamarindo, on Playa Tamarindo Beach. It’s walking distance to many restaurants, bars, and shops. Our stay here included breakfast.

This was the private shuttle we had. It was like a whirlwind when we pulled up. A completely different vibe from La Fortuna! We were in the “city” now. Several bellmen with carts immediately surrounded us before we were even off of the shuttle! I went directly to the front desk to check in with everyone’s passports. We were all booked in Sunset Ocean View rooms.

Immediately upon opening the door to the room, there was a musty smell. I wasn’t sure if that was because no one had been in the room in awhile? (The smell did not go away during our stay.)

The room featured two queen beds, and was spacious enough for the four of us.

The view from our balcony:

There was some storage, but we didn’t unpack anything from our suitcases.

(I think the sink is where the musty smell was coming from…)

Overall, we were happy with the room. The location was good, the view was great, and it was clean. It was definitely not quiet like our resort in La Fortuna!

You can see the chairs on the grass that were part of the resort. The beach however was public, and the resort did not have beach chairs there. There were several vendors walking up and down the beach (relentlessly) trying to sell us things. Drinks, hats, sunglasses, shirts, whistles, you name it, they were trying to sell it! Even if you said no one time, they would ask again on their next round down the beach.

One of the resort pools:

(That area closest to the bottom was not a pool! It was fountain water.)

The front desk:

Notice it was open air! Not indoors.

We were starving. Since it was raining, we just decided to try lunch at our resort. This was the same location that would serve our included breakfast. (It was very empty now, but that was not the same during breakfast! It was jam packed with every table taken.)