I so wish I could sleep in. Even while on holiday I am up at 6:00am. Instead of running this morning, I took my computer outside on the patio of our room and stared at the ocean water. My princess Cindy slept until 8:00am. Good for her I am jealous.
By 9:00am we went to eat breakfast at Mansita, a restaurant here at the hotel and where we ate dinner last evening. We actually sat at the same table as dinner. For breakfast, I ate mostly traditional or western type breakfast. However Cindy took the adventurous route. Here are some of the food items Cindy ate.
Buneelos (sweet fritter)
Cheese Empanada
Cassava Cakes stuffed with meat
Granadilla (a fruit where you eat the inside seeds, very yummy by the way)
Guanabana (fruit)
I also had a country favorite called Gallo Pinto. It is a rice and bean dish with a Lizano sauce, really yummy. The coffee is absolutely awesome. It makes Dunkin Donuts coffee taste watery. I heard before leaving the states that Starbucks is selling a cup of coffee from Costa Rica for $7.00. The coffee
is good. The only downside to breakfast is the cost. Oh well, it is a resort right.
After our yummy breakfast we visited the concierge desk to look at tours for the rest of the week. There are a few things everyone tells us to do here. They include a volcano trip, hot springs, and zip line. The concierge booked us a tour for Wednesday, our anniversary day to do an all day tour including a great lunch overlooking a lake, boat ride on a volcanic lake, hike in a tropical rainforest, sit in thermal water springs, and capping off the day with dinner at the base of a volcano. We also asked about zip lining which we will probably do on our last day.
Our hotel had a transportation service to a small town about 30 minutes from here called Tamarindo. We took the 11:00am shuttle into town. The airport driver explained it is the Vegas of Costa Rica. We paid $28.00 for a round trip ticket. There was a couple and a family of four in the van. The family was Cleveland, Ohio and the son is a senior at Ohio State. After our 30 minute
journey to Tamarindo, we were dropped off in front of set of shops. I had an expectation of Tamarindo being a busy place with fairly large building with shops, hotels, and casino, however to much our surprise the area was very small and more of a surfing town with very old and some rundown buildings. I attached a photo of the main street area. We walked down the main street that was lined with surf shops, surf lesson businesses, tourist offices, and craft or tourist shops.
Before we started shopping we walked to the beach area to see what activity was happening there. On the beach side there multi restaurants, all in palm tree shaded areas. What an awesome sight. It was so relaxing looking. Looking at the ocean, the small harbor area had several boats, people swimming, surfing, and jet skiing. Cindy and I had the Ohio couple take photos of us with the Pacific Ocean and mountainous terrain in the background. What an awesome site for photos. We both commented that this in some ways reminded us of the Caymans. After the photos we returned to the main street area and did some shopping. We purchased local
gifts for family members. There were some pretty interesting items for sale in the stores, many around body parts. Enough said on that, pretty hilarious though.
After shopping we walked around looking for a place to eat, enough we ate a late breakfast. We wanted to eat at a restaurant overlooking the water. Before arriving at a restaurant, we noticed a lot or message parlor businesses that set up one or two message table directly on the beach. The prices were very reasonable, $40 an hour. We settled in at a hotel restaurant. The hotel was Tamarindo Diria. Here is a link to the hotel, http://www.tamarindodiria.com/en/. The restaurant was on the beach and named Diria. It was located under a canopy of tropical trees and filled with a cool Pacific Ocean breeze. For lunch Cindy had Fajita’s and a Diet Coke and I had a burrito with a Sprite. That is right, no alcohol during lunch, I know we were crazy. After lunch we just sat there for about 2 hours just staring at the surfing schools, people swimming, and relaxing. This was an excellent place.
After our two hour relaxing lunch, we headed back to the main
street on a mission to buy a few groceries. We wanted to purchase bug spray for our tropical rainforest hike, breakfast items for our early morning Wednesday, snacks for when we get the munchies, and most importantly Sprite and Vodka for our enjoyment at the hotel. After walking off the main street, we located a super market.
After our grocery store visit we headed back to the main street area to meet the shuttle back to the hotel. The next pick up time was 5:00pm. We arrived about an hour too early so we headed back to the beach to sit and wait. While sitting on a set of rocks, within a few feet of me a large fruit looking similar to a coconut fell to the ground. Good lord, I am glad it did not hit me or the trip would have taken a detour. That would have hurt. At 5:00pm we met our shuttle and heading back to the hotel. Prior to leaving the shuttle boarding area, there was a discussion whether we should buy a Subway sandwich and have this dinner. I veto’d that multiple times because I wanted to enjoy our hotel restaurants.
Before
arriving back at the hotel, the driver had to stop for us to take pictures of a business called the Pot Barn. Are you serious, a business selling pot on the side of the road? Wow. Cindy and I got off the shuttle to take photos. Cindy was the adventurous one and went inside the building to investigate. The business actually made pottery. She said there work was beautiful.
We arrived back at the hotel around 5:25pm, just missed the sunset that is OK, we will catch it before the end our trip. Once back in the room we enjoyed our newly purchased adult beverages. We were just able to sit and relax listening to the ocean crashing on the beach.
Before dinner, we returned to the concierge desk to book a dinner that we have never had before. Thursday evening we will dine on the beach, at sunset, surrounded by candles. We asked for one of the cabanas on the beach. This will be a memory maker for sure. I am so looking forward to Thursday evening.
We ate another JW Marriott hotel restaurant. This restaurant was Asian fusion. We both had a Japanese rice dish,
Cindy had beef and I had chicken. We were able to sit outside this evening and enjoy the tropical sounds our resort.
We decided to go to sleep early this evening because we had to get up early because our tour started at 7:00am and ended at 10:00pm.
Today was a fun day, not rushed and did everything on our own schedule. It is really enjoyable just taking on a slow pace, something neither of us are accustomed to during our holiday trips.
