Costa Rica 2012 Aug 6-11 Tamarindo

Juan Mora and his wife. This couple owns an apartment complex in Huacas. A small town outside of Tamarindo.

We rented a furnished apartment for the week. Clean, nice and simple.

A 5 min walk down the street brought us to the Huacas Kingdom Hall. That week the Circuit Overseer happened to be visiting the Huacas English Congregation. They host the Playa del Coco group we were visiting last week. Between the Cong and the group there is a total of 38 publishers. The majority are regular pioneers. The have a total of 62 bible studies!! A service minded group for sure!

Census work. But them not speaking English didn't slow us down. Jason's loving it cause the guys don't wear ties.

Oh you know. Just riding my horse to work.

We're looking for anyone that speaks English. Oh. There's no one at the Happy Garden preschool with the English Bulletin Board? Wait. What?

We learned quickly that the beaches in Tamarindo don't have public restrooms.

We got rained out pretty bad a couple of days. We also quickly learned that just because it's raining where you are, doesn't mean it's raining right around the corner at another beach. So we would take random drives. Found this awesome (yes Grandma, awesome) beach. Playa Avellanos. Filled with beautiful unicorn shaped shells. I couldn't pick them up fast enough.

Playa Avellanos. A restaurant was built just for this beach. Hammocks, lounge chairs, all for your relaxation. Oh so nice.

The shells that were found everywhere.

Bougainvillea. It's growing wild everywhere. This is on the path down to Playa Negra.

Playa Negra

Tide pools galore.

These little guys never get old. Walking back from the beach you'll see or hear a mango drop to the ground. You look up and these guys are just hanging out eating. There was a bigger male monkey too. But he was a little ummm....indecent.

J surfing the crazy but fun waves of Tamarindo. It may seem like we're going to a bunch of beaches. And really we are. But everything is in crazy driving distance. We did all those beaches in one day. And still we went to the meeting that night. It's amazing. Sun starts setting at 5:30. Dark by 6:30. Easy to go to bed early. By 9:00 it feels like midnight anyways.

Playa Grande. We headed out here to meet an old high school friend of my Aunts. And fell in love with the beach.

Tides out.

Pipas. So yummy. Young coconuts. You drink the milk and then get them cut open and eat the young flesh. Delish! People walk up and down the beach selling them. Excellent after being in the hot sun.

My Aunts friend Bobbin and her husband Bill. Their awesome dog Cody. He loved the water!

After the Pioneer meeting the group gathered to watch the sunset and eat pizza. We love how close they all are!

Came home, took a shower. Looked down to find this little guy walking around my feet. My hero killed it instantly.

Playa Pan de Azucar. Sugar Beach.

We kept getting told about a cool beach called Playa Conchal. Named after the Conch shells. Millions of conch shells have washed up onto the beach over the years. Being crushed to pieces they make up the sand. And it's known for excellent snorkeling. But we couldn't find it. Until one day. Yes the adventurous (or insane) juices started flowing. We followed a guy. Drove onto the beach. Figured if he could do it, so could we. Yes yes i know about the whole if your friend jumped off a bridge would you? story. And you'll be happy to know, the car turned around when it came to the end of the beach and all that was left was an opening in the trees, a dim path and a red arrow crudely painted onto a tree pointing to the interior. At which point we became the friend you hate your child to be around that jumps off the bridge first. We drove in.

And found the beautiful beach. Just a handful of locals and a couple of wise tourists. It was incredible.

The storms that roll in never cease to amaze. The lightning and thunder storms are spectacular. You can actually watch the storm travel across the sky by the lightning.

Playa Tamarindo. When the tides out, it's really out.

This container of sushi? Only $18. Some Hormel smoke turkey meat from the Deli? $28 a kilo (2.2 lbs)!!!!! Some crazy stuff you just take for granted at home is outrageous. And the locals here naturally think that is what you go and buy all the time while you are visiting or live here. Yeah right. Haven't had a sandwich in a month.