Tamarindo

I spent this past weekend with Julia, my friend/roommate from UCLA who is studying abroad in Costa Rica. Despite the fact the weekend included three LONG bus rides (one to San Jose, one to Tamarindo Beach, and one back home to Monteverde) I had a great time. It was great to be able to hang out with kids my age. I met Julia in San Jose on Thursday afternoon. I had dinner at her house. Her host mom is a great cook (her platanos dulces were to die for) as well as a wonderful lady. We spent a long time just talking about her life, and even though she had hardly met me she went on and on about how great it was the Julia and I were friends and were such good people. That night we went out with a few other girls to enjoy the UCR campus night life.

The next day we left early to catch the 8:30 bus to Tamarindo (a beach on the Pacific about 6 hours away). Unfortunately that bus had been canceled and instead we had to take a later bus to Santa Cruz, then transfer. Basically it was an all-day affair. But the 13 of us (there are 12 other UC students on the program) entertained ourselves despite the long schlep. The kids on the program were exceptionally sweet and I felt like I fit into their group immediately.

Our Hostel, La Botella de Leche, at Tamarindo was AMAZING. We were split amongst a few different dorm rooms, but everything was clean and spacious. Each dorm room had its own bathroom and the hostel provided towels and sheets for the beds. The common space was
well laid out with tons of couches, bean bags, hanging hammocks, hanging chairs and hanging swings. There was free internet. They had a fully equipped kitchen that everyone did their part to keep spotless. There were tons of other young folk there as well including many Argentinans and Israelis (my Hebrew got a lot of practice this weekend). Half of the guests had brought their guitars and sometimes we would have sing-a-longs. Best of all, the Hostel only $10 a night! What a deal.

On Saturday, we spent the day at the beach. The water was refreshing and we could watch pelicans dive for fish. The waves weren't too big, but down a ways there were surfers
doing their thing. We also did some beach combing and found tons of incredible shells. I collected a bunch and hope to make some jewelery out of them.


I hardly slept Saturday night because I woke up at 4am to catch a bunch of buses back to Monteverde. The people at the bus station said I would have to take between 3-4 buses and it would take about 10 hours to get home. But somehow I figured out a way to get there with only two buses and managed to get home by 11:30. Unfortunately Mom and Abba weren't expecting me until 2 or 3 and I waited cold, dirty, and tired outside of the house for 4 hours for them to get back from their excursion.