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| It's the first time I've ever had paparazzi ;) |
Today we went on a beaches and towns tour - we honestly weren’t really sure what this one was about but was one of the few “shorter” tours and Chris wasn’t super into a full day one so all good (this one said roughly 9-3 or 11-6). And it was private which most of the time is an amazing luxury but on March Break almost critical. There was another one I wanted to do but there were only 3 seats left on the bus and I get motion sick and, well, Costa Rican roads are an adventure ;). So sadly we had to opt out of that one for now - another trip.
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| This stop was just for the view - literally side of the road, nothing else around. |
Anyways - back to today’s adventure. We booked w Frank the Tank. I’m not even kidding 😂 but reviews were excellent and I’m pretty over Sunwing so why not 🤷♀️ It was also the closest we could get to a guide and driver for the day that came with some level of security (aka a step up from random taxi driver).
Our driver / guide, Noelvin, showed up exactly on time and off we went. He gave us the rundown of a much longer day, saying we’d leave our last stop of Tamarindo about 4, but sure why not ;)
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| Definitely an ex-pat town. Pretty, but nothing Costa Rican about it. |
Stopped for a few good views along the way to our first, very gringo, town of Las Catalinas - which was not really even on the original tour. Interesting spot of all expats and air b&bs, but, while in there, we found some hiking trails ;)
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| We also found a slack line?!?! Unrelated: this has reinforced my desire for a slack line in our back yard ;) |
So we checked in w our guide that we wanted to do the shorter one and he could relax and have some coffee while we did (didn’t want to make the poor guy go on a hike in 35 deg weather up a mountain 😂). He didn’t seem thrilled about it but went along w the idea.
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| The start of it all... |
The hike was *amazing* and very well signed but we pretty soon realized it was not the hike we thought we were going on as we were well over the half-way point and the path hadn’t turned around yet oops 🤷♀️ However, C was playing Pokémon and could see the trail did an abrupt turn slightly ahead so instead of going back, we followed it (those who know…)
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| Any trail that starts with a beach is likely to be good in my mind. |
Long story short - it was a loop trail but not the one we thought we were going on. This one was significantly longer, and the terrain was not really appropriate for the sandels we were both wearing or the complete lack of water we had with us. We skipped the very last part of the trail because we found a road we could see provided a shortcut and we’d been gone about twice as long as expected.
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| Remember the beach? It's the one waaaayyyy down there. |
And when we got back, we couldn’t find our guide :(. We checked the car was still there so he was around, so we got ourselves some drinks, and maybe an ice cream, and hung out for a while. Eventually he reappeared, turns out he’d gotten worried when we didn’t come back so he got a copy of the map (good to know, there’s a map ;)) and did the route we said we were taking backwards, but didn’t find us. From the timing he gave if he’d waited 10 mins more we would’ve been back but oh well. Said at least now he knows a new trail to bring future clients on ;)
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| The terrain changed abruptly at one point |
But omg I loved the trail. Proper footwear definitely recommended but it was just a stunning trail, clearly marked, with lots of fabulous views. Significant elevation gain though for sure - we earned that ice cream / beer (I feel you can prob guess which of us had which treat ;)
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| About 2/3 of the way around |
Anyways - that put us prob an hour behind schedule ;). 😂 but C and I weren’t fussed - there was only one place on the schedule I really cared about seeing so if we had to leave others out to get in an amazing and unplanned hike, so be it.
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| Stunning views from all parts of the trail |
However, we did not ;). 😂 we powered through the next couple stops including a marina with some gorgeous yachts that I can’t even afford to take a photo of, and Flamingo beach (super pretty and white sand - our beach has black sand which is too hot to walk on).
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| Yachts to rival those in Miami |
Some nice houses near this one too! Then we drove to Brasilito, opted to skip the tourist shopping but walked the whole length of the beach because *after* it - which was lovely in itself and had a dog supervising its owner swimming 😂- was Conchal Beach which is protected, so you can’t drive to it, and was the one I really wanted to see.
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| Flamingo Beach was super pretty; |
This beach is effectively all seashells. When I mentioned it to C, the comment was “aren’t all beaches?” 😂 not quite like this one. Chris loved the feel of it under his feet, but since I had burnt my feet on the pool deck the day before they were super sensitive and I found it painful to walk on in bare feet. However, the feel of it IN the ocean was amazing. So we swam there for a bit - not nearly long enough - and had ourselves a lovely pineapple beverage (which was negotiated entirely in Spanish - including Chris’ pineapple coming loaded w my share of the rum ;).
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| C enjoying everything Conchal has to offer :) |
We made the long hike back to the car before heading to Tamarindo - which really was where we were supposed to spend most of our time but all we did there was have lunch/dinner and take a photo 😂. The beer Chris ordered and quite enjoyed ended up being called Gato Malo (bad cat), which given his love/hate relationship with Moriarty seemed wildly appropriate.
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| Lots of our friends went here the first time, but we never made it before |
After all that we ended up back at the resort 6 or 6:30ish - a much longer day than expected but also far more interesting. Had quite a laugh when I heard a shout from the shower followed with “I have seashells stuck to my a**” 😂 under the category of “phrases I never thought I’d hear”.
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| The entrance to the magic seashell beach |
But yeah - great day, w lots of CR info / education along the way, and our guide took a ton of photos along the way - some set up and some candids - which were emailed to me this am. So that was awesome. I was half expecting a “view and purchase” model but no - legit just here’s the pictures I took. 127 of them ;). Alas, I can’t dl them till I get home cause wifi challenges but I love the concept!
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| Gratuitous beach photo, since they're lacking other days |
So yeah - if you’re heading to CR - Frank the Tank for the win. It’s legit. The only extra pitch was for reviews which I did write because it was earned, not because it was asked for.
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**edited long after to add -- turns out that trail was on AllTrails lol. Not that I had internet anyways, but if I had... ;)
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