Tamarindo, The Last Hurrah

Saturday, March 22
What a blessing to have a whole night in a cool room, with no bugs, and no cicadas waking up the dead outside!  Strangely though, I still woke up just after 6am, ready to get up.  Friday night trying to catch a nap in the San Fran airport should cure me of this before we get home.   After breakfast, Jo and G walked to town to do some shopping.  I was not worried. After all, we had agreed before we left that due to future downsizing, we would not buy more souvenirs.  My souvenir was an empty Imperial beer bottle.  Jo had already bought a small bowl in Dominical, the one item she did want, so we were pretty much done.  I forgot however that women lie.  She broke down and bought something last week, and when BIL and I met up with the women for lunch on the beach, they both had large bags!  Maybe this is why some people are still opposed to women on office at church.  But, she was not done with me yet.  During their shopping they had found a restaurant for us to go to that evening. When we arrived there, it was a Japanese sushi restaurant.  With apologizes to my friend Wade, my three least favourite restaurants are Chinese, Japanese, and all other Asian restaurants. The setting was very nice, in and outside courtyard, which was the main attraction.  We opened with mixed tempura.  Normally I consider this a good, safe dish, but I was not prepared for disguised calamari.  I chose a seemingly safe dish of shrimp in fried rice, but it seemed to be bathed in soya sauce and, sorry to say, was only so so.  Jo enjoyed her dish very much, which was good.  Oh well, pura vida. Maybe I can get one if those mango smoothies tomorrow.

Sunday, March 23 Beach Day
I believe the number one job in Costa Rica is leaf raking.  Everywhere we went, the local staff spent hours raking.  All the leaves would be raked from grass, under the trees, etc.  they would form little piles everywhere.  Those piles were never cleaned up, so eventually many of those leaves would be blown around again. If you have been trained in the art of leaf raking, like most NHL teams, there is a job for you here.
Since it was Sunday, we took it easy today.  A leisurely coffee on the deck, followed by toast and boiled egg, dishes, and then an hour of emails, Candy Crush or just reading.  This was quite an adjustment for BIL, who was experiencing his first Sunday in years without Cream of Wheat.  We are using up our food supply and C of W was now off the menu.  For lunch we went down for a fruit smoothie and then walked the beach for a little while before renting lawn chairs and umbrellas and hitting the water.  Unlike Matapalo, the water is warm but still refreshing.  After a hike back up our hill, we hit our own pool to cool down before happy hour.
It was another good day, but panic was beginning to set in.  The end of the trip was in sight and we were not ready to leave yet.

Monday, March 24 Sailing Away to Margaritaville
Toast and boiled eggs for breakfast again.  Its okay though. The men enjoyed a quiet morning while the women walked to town to shop.  At 1:30 we had a snorkel and sunset sail trip booked.  We were on a catamaran with about sixty other people.  We motored and sailed up the coast to a bay where we anchored.  There was an open bar, and the crew were constantly bringing drinks and picking up empties. Our drinks of choice were the mai tais and pina coladas.  I will not disclose how many were consumed in our party, but I am sure the alcohol content was not that high.  The snorkeling was poor, but I had expected that.  The water was murky and deep and the rocks had no coral and few fish.  However, following the snorkel, they served a nice pasta salad, delicious salsa and guacamole with assorted types of chips, and cookies.  Jo was happy, as she loved sailing.  Every now and then we saw large flat things, which looked like some kind of sting ray leap out of the water.  A women also claimed to see a snake in the water.  We got back just after sunset.  Having been in the sun all afternoon, brain functions deteriorate.  Therefore a silly suggestion was made that because of the pasta salad and chips we ate, there was no need for dinner.  It is always difficult to know how to react to something like that.  Do you simply ignore this insanity, trusting the normal brain functions will return once we are out of the sun, or try to quell the revolution?  I knew there was little to offer in the way of goodies at home, except toast and eggs, so I protested a little.  I picked up a jumbo hot dog on our way home from the boat.  The picture was large, and it had six toppings, based on my command of the Spanish language.  It only cost 2,000 colones.  I believe jumbo and mini must mean the same in Spanish.  And one of the ingredients was crushed potato chips.  Not totally sold on chips in my dog.  Looking forward to eating tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we want to do one more excursion before we go, preferably on Wednesday, but Henry had not contacted us with suggestions, prices, etc.  I sent him another email.  By 11:30 we were all so bagged, we went to bed.

Tuesday, March 25 Welcome to our bank, now hands up!
Today was to be a quiet day, with plans to hang out at our pool in the afternoon.  I was pleased to spot a new bird in the tree across from us as well as seeing another pass over head that I could not take a picture of.  It was amazing to keep finding new species after all this time.  Since Henry did not respond, ( He did send an email late in the day after it was too late), we went looking for a tour desk that could book us an excursion for tomorrow.  Along the way, the women discovered a jewelry store near by.  I held out as long as I could, waiting outside,before I finally made the fatal mistake of coming in.  It cost me!  I also found the local Costa Rica National Bank.  I had a number of colon bills from our trip in 2007, but the government created new, more secure bills since then, and these old ones were no longer acceptable.  I entered the bank after the armed security guard unlocked the door.  I was totally scanned just like in the airport.  Only then did he ask me what I wanted.  He said I could not exchange my old bills for new ones without a passport.  See if I join this bank!  We enjoyed
mango smoothies and lunch on the beach before heading back up the hill.  For dinner we headed back down for pub food on the beach.  BIL had the trip down pat now.  Because it was always hot, both day and night, his shirts were drenched by the time he got to the top of the hill, so now he wore a shirt down the hill, but took it off to go up.  Incidentally, his camera is still having problems.  It may take a few pictures, and then stop.  It probably has too much rice dust inside.