The Rich Coast

Life is good in Costa Rica. We’ve spent the last two days on the beach near Playa Tamarindo soaking up the waves and the sun. Our border crossing was smooth, but lengthy. Unfortunately it was the last step in the process which took the longest. We ended up getting in line behind a group of Nicaraguans with incomplete papers but once they got their act together, things went swimmingly.

Costa Rica has a heavy American presence. One doesn’t just see lots of white folks wandering around - you find American brands, stores, and eateries. This is quite a contrast with the countries we’ve travelled in previously. Not even Mexico has such a heavy American presence. I enjoyed a wonderful BBQ Bacon Tendercrisp sandwich at the local Burger King location in Liberia.

After picking my mom up, we grocery shopped and hit the road. Playa Tamarindo is less then 2 hours from Liberia so it’s a fairly busy place. Lots of surfers and other assorted tourists on the beach. Interestingly enough, when we pulled up on Sunday it was absolutely swamped. After some preliminary recon work, we found some public beach access where we could set up camp. The only caveat was that we had to avoid a sea turtle nesting site.

Monday was spent simply, with lots of time spent swimming and relaxing. I did some reading, went for a walk, and swam. The surf camp next door prepared us a tasty lunch and we met some American ex-pats who filled us in on life in Costa Rica. One very cool thing about our campsite was the amount of hermit-crabs crawling around. Each evening around high tide all of the crabs would begin to come out of their burrows and hunt for food. If you waited until after dark, you could find some really big ones running around. Dinner was a simple affair. We grilled some chicken sausages and enjoyed the relaxed pace of life.

The great thing about these small Central American nations is that even on our travel days, we still have time to stop and enjoy the day. Today was Scott’s day and per his request, we stopped and completed a canopy tour (these things are great and I’m pretty sure everyone would have wanted to do it anyway). A canopy tour is simple: you scale a large tree and travel through the forest canopy on zip lines. This one had 11 different platforms and featured one line where you could traverse upside down. We saw some wildlife as well - a massive iguana and some howler monkeys relaxing in the shade.

At lunch we discussed how we should (tentatively) spend the rest of our time in Costa Rica. John and Tammy felt strongly about traveling down the Pacific coast so they are doing exactly that. The rest of our crew decided to travel to Lake Arenal.

The drive was beautiful. It’s very reminiscent of Lake Geneva. There are lots of very interesting small coffee shops. We stopped at a very nice establishment called the Macadamia Farm. After enjoying the leisurely drive to our beautiful campsite on the lake, we had one of the most interesting events of the trip occur.

The group was enjoying cocktails when a dented old truck passes us. Soon a police truck passes us and turns on it’s lights. We speculate for about 20 minutes until the two trucks leave. The police truck stops to talk to us and asks how long we’ve been here, how many people have been here and what kind of cars they were driving. Soon Scott and James receive this message “If you see someone dumping a bag containing a body in the lake, let us know. There has been a homicide. But this is a very safe area to camp. Tranquil.”

Interesting, eh?