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 at 12:18 pm by taryngirl, on September 27, 2024
7/5/24
We woke up to this amazing view! It was so peaceful at 7:00 a.m.
We weren’t quite ready for breakfast yet, so we decided to take a stroll on the beach until the other families were awake. Our sleep schedules were STILL whacked out!
Walking from our room out to the beach:
30 minutes later, the sun was coming out! We hadn’t seen it very much so we were soaking it in.
The view looking from the path towards the resort rooms and pool:
There were so many interesting shells on the beach!
This was low tide. You can see some rocky formations in the water that you can’t see during high tide. This was important to know if swimming!
Looking back from the beach to the resort:
That white wall is what separates the private property of the resort and the public beach.
Looking back at the resort and this is to the left:
These ladies set up on the beach to give 1 hour massages for $35. They were nonstop busy! They must be good because they consistently had patrons!
I spotted a giant iguana!
It was almost 8 a.m. now and we were getting hungry. We decided to head back to the resort to the complimentary breakfast buffet.
This is outdoor seating for either the bar or you could bring your food here. It was right next to the beach.
FRESH MANGO! I couldn’t get enough of it! And of course my rice and beans.
After our delicious breakfast, we went to get some seats for a beach day. You could go horseback riding right on the beach! You could just approach the men with the horses. I’m not sure of cost, as we didn’t do it.
Another funky shell my daughter found!
Such a variety!
The view looking up from my chair:
Here you can see the chairs that were available. We did pull them up closer to the wall. It was very hot and humid!
My girls knew they wanted to take some surf lessons, as Costa Rica is a very popular surfing spot! We didn’t book anything in advance, but there were several vendors right on the beach or on the street right next to the beach. We gathered pricing from a few different places and ultimately decided to go with Iguana Surf. These four participated in a small group. Everyone was given a rash guard to wear and they were matched up to the correct size board. There were lockers to lock things up, showers, changing rooms, and water.
After everyone had their boards, we headed back across the street to the beach. There were 6 total people in the group. Completely by chance, the other two participants were in the cooking class that our family did when we were back in La Fortuna!
This was the area on the beach where the lessons took place:
They had some instruction before they entered the water.
Everyone was able to get up and catch a wave multiple times!
At some point my oldest daughter’s nail got ripped off. So she had to make a visit to the lifeguard station.
The solution was putting bandages and then a rubber glove on top.
In total, the session was about an hour long.
We thought it was fun and well worth the money! There were also stations that would just rent you the surfboard for the day if you didn’t want lessons. The lessons were helpful though.
After surfing, we went back to hang with with the rest of the family on the beach. It started raining again…surprise!
We decided to head for cover at the resort restaurant and grab some lunch.
Tacos:
Grilled Chicken:
Pizza!:
Everything was delicious!
Since it was still raining, we decided to chill here for awhile and eventually started playing cards. It was a lazy afternoon.
We were going out for dinner in the town. This was the view while leaving the resort!
Our group!
Patagonia Argentinian Grill & Restaurant was just a five minute walk from the resort. I did make reservations through Facebook since we were a large group, and they were very easy to work with.
We started with some bread and drinks.
(The restaurant was open air! They did have several fans going though.)
This was SO FUNNY! My father-in-law ordered the Provoleta (grilled provolone cheese), and he doesn’t really like cheese! He thought it was going to be like mozzarella sticks and was pleasantly surprised when this arrived:
It was a HUGE portion and I think everyone got a dip in.
I was ecstatic when I saw empanadas on the menu! Of course I ordered one!
This was SO GOOD!
Here are a a variety of steaks and sauces:
We were celebrating my father-in-laws birthday! The staff at this restaurant was amazing. The food was delicious. And I would highly recommend if you are in the area!
Overall, our day was perfect. A little bit of beach, surfing, hanging with the family, and a yummy dinner. We weren’t going to let the rain ruin our time!
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.)
The pricing was in USD.
We went with the chicken nachos.
They were very good!
Fries:
Also good.
And my youngest got a cheese pizza:
We were pleased with everything we ordered.
This was our view during lunch/dinner:
We checked out the beach when the rain stopped.
For dinner, we decided to just get ice cream at a little shop right outside of the resort!
It was delicious.
The resort looked so pretty at night too!
We were exhausted from the long travel day, so decided to go to bed early.
Taryn Travels 