Costa Rica - Known Strangers

The sun sets on our last day...

Our last full day was quiet - we snagged another beach massage and at some point I went souvenir shopping, but overall mostly just spent the day enjoying the pool and ocean and my book :)

I’m mildly amused as always about how we “name” people we don’t have names for, and I always wonder what names others may have for us.  For example, on our block I know for a fact that we are either “Sasha’s people” (I’m used to that one) or “the ones w the yard” 😂. That last one surprised me cause it never occurred to me people would notice or care that.   

At the resort we’ve had a few we branded.  The ones I’ve enjoyed the most are “the tall family” lol - Mom, Dad, and 3 teenage girls.  I sat next to Dad and the oldest daughter on the plane, Mom and the other two were one row ahead.  Somehow we run into them often - at least once a day, sometimes more.  Our massage was right after theirs, one day we were at the same restaurant at the same time, today I bumped into them in the souvenir shop, etc.  I’ve genuinely enjoyed them.  But of the 5, know only one name.  So together they remain The Tall Family lol.

Then we have the Insta-Quartet which Chris branded.  Four women who dress in the same colour each day, who I wonder if might be doing a bachelorette type adventure, but always together, always wearing the same colour and general style, and generally always taking selfies.   

Similarly we have the Purple Family who we met in the airport - they literally branded themselves by wearing purple shirts that said “family vacation, Costa Rica, 2025” 😂 We chatted w them for a while.

There were originally “the good parents” so named unironically because I was impressed by how their young children were behaving and how they interacted w them and allowed them to be kids in a way that wasn’t interfering in any way with the adults around them.  They were rebranded the “Fonthill family” though after talking to them cause, well, one guess where they live (which is all of 15 mins from where we live).

The “wild child” who I adored but don’t envy her parents and she was 100% off on her own adventure every few moments and maybe 3 years old?   😂 her poor parents never got a chance to pause but was highly entertaining from the sidelines and again - not disruptive to anybody except her parents.  I think they’ve prob gone home as I haven’t seen them in a bit.

Big Mama named herself - she sold us the drinks at Conchal Beach and those were the only English words she seemed to know.   She and Chris bonded cause he gave her a tip that she turned into a beer ;).  At the same time as I was chatting w Big Mama to acquire our lovely pineapple drinks, Lobster Guy who had zero English but was working really hard to sell Chris, who has zero Spanish, a lobster ;)

So yeah - just some randomness I’ve enjoyed.  I’ve always enjoyed stories about people I consider “known strangers” (eg - the person you wait next to on the train station platform every morning, or the cashier where you buy your daily coffee, etc etc) - it’s always amusing to imagine what their lives might be, but also - whose known stranger might you be and what is your key identifying feature?

Gratuitous Moriarty picture stolen from the auto-feeder
after he hid from the friend who came to check on the cats

TIL - Costa Rica Edition

Today I learned that in 38degree heat wax-based pencil crayons melt.  Plus side - cool effects.  Down side - not at all what I was intending and plausibly not great for the pencils ;)

Costa Rica - Lunar Eclipse

Pretty and Quiet :)

So some interesting things when you go down to the beach after midnight.  The forest horses were galloping about (I think herded off by a security guard, but that def could’ve ended poorly if C hadn’t noticed them coming 😂).  There are lots of dogs - some were playing, some were barking at something, and one came to say hi :).    Drunk people on the beach made it so I wasn’t super comfortable being down there, so we stayed up by the pool which unfortunately meant light pollution.  But we still got to see it, so all good.  

Better photo than I expected from my phone

It wasn’t the incredible blood moon of some of the photos, but still took on a reddish haze.  Sadly at the moment totality kicked in, clouds also chose to cover.  Booo.  

Classic timing

And while totality apparently will last for hours, we didn’t feel the need to wait that long ;)

Peaceful

Costa Rica: Coco Beach

Went to Coco beach this am, mostly cause that’s the closest atm, but also a good excuse for a boat ride :).  Water taxi win - esp on the way out, lots of …. Rays jumping out of the water - fun to watch.   

Any excuse to take a water taxi ;)

Coco beach itself is basically a large tourist trap, but I enjoyed looking at some of the art by local artists (mostly so far out of our price range I was afraid to even look at it too long 😂.  But still, lovely to dream.   And C was on a quest for a particular coffee that he found last time he was here - didn’t get the same brand, but at least the same type so hopefully it’ll be as good :).   A nice lunch and a water taxi back for the win.

I loved the mural

Most of the rest of the day we lounged by the pool or played in the ocean.   Tried to go to the shops for my picture frame (those who know…) after dinner but they were closed!?!?  Yesterday at the same time they were open 🤷‍♀️.   Ah well.  Still 2 days left - worst case I’ll come Sat between checkout and time to leave for the airport.

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon

There’s a full lunar eclipse tonight, and as discovered earlier, the moon on the beach is stunning.  So I’m 100% heading down there at midnight to check it out:)

Costa Rica - More Hiking :)

This landbridge is only available at low tide

Today’s drawing prompt was about drawing animals from life - quick sketches to capture the idea rather than realism of any sort.  So I chose monkeys ;).   And promptly went to where the monkeys always are only to discover that of course today they were not there 🤦‍♀️.    Classic.  Another tourist told me there were howler monkies across the road so I went there and DID find them, but they were sleeping so for an action sketching session less useful - also, they were way up in the trees so mostly looked like black lumps.

We won't discuss how high I jumped when I found this guy by nearly stepping on him

But - in finding the monkeys, I’d also found another trail which ran parallel to the beach, so I followed it to the end and explored the land bridge that is only visible at low tide, as well as waded across to see where the mystery trail on the other side would lead.  I was slightly concerned about being gone too far and alone at this point so I was mostly just checking if it was worth going back to drag Chris along - or at least tell him where I was 😂.   But turns out not so much, it was a very quick dead end and not worth a secondary hike.  

Some lovely ocean views

I did get to see some very cool birds, stunning butterflies, a little snake, and a few lizards on the way though so that was cool.  The birds and butterflies needed a real camera, which I sadly did not have,  but I still enjoyed watching them.  

Watched this little guy fishing for a bit - super cute.  His owner was nearby.

On the way back I did find some capuchin monkeys playing which was great but by this point I was hot and tired so just snapped a couple not great photos on my phone and went back to the resort for a swim :).   I have lots of good monkey pics from previous trips so wasn’t as stressed about the lack of good camera.

I definitely crossed this to see where the trail would go.
Spoiler alert: dead end in less than 2 mins

Ocean was rated yellow again but this time it was tiny waves w fairly strong undertow, so way less fun.  As a result, all but one swim was pool based today.  Still - pretty lovely day with temps in the high 30s and not crazy humidity.

Watched this guy for a while

Mildly amused that the only bilingual person who’s been willing to converse w me in Spanish is the “tour operator” on the beach that we’re pretty certain is also selling weed (at least - which while legal at home is not super legal here).  Lol but unlike all the others on the beach, he’s not pushy - very much waiting for business to come to him ;)

Just kinda love the canopy

There was a foam party at one of the pools today - 100% the opposite of my thing but I did enjoy watching for a bit.   A ton of people in a pool (I’m not a great swimmer) with limited visibility and lots of alcohol somehow just didn’t seem a great idea.  But - the music was amusing, the energy level and enthusiasm were high, and watching the bubbles shoot out of the cannon made me feel like a little kid again :).  Once that part was done though I noped out pretty fast; no interest in sticking around for the aftermath.

Mildly amusing to watch, but zero interest in joining in

Looking into options for what we’re going to do tomorrow - not fully committed yet cause budget is restrictive but I’m sure we’ll find something!   Alas, I don’t think it’ll be sloths on this trip - I’ll just have to make a point to come back!

From the land bridge

Costa Rica - Power Outage

We kicked off our resort day w couples massage.  For both of us they were somewhat unlike massages we had had before but while different, both were excellent.  So much so we’re considering another round on Friday.

The walk to where the massage ladies were

Other than that mostly spent the day bouncing between beach and pool.  Water in each is super warm - like -*really* lovely.  And flag still yellow so got to play in the waves again.  We’ve found the pool that so far seems to be the quietest and no scrapping it out for chairs which is nice.  

This was not a bad view to see every time we left our room

Only sad part is everybody on the resort speaks English so well that every time I try to speak Spanish they immediately switch to English *sigh*.  I get that they’re being polite but it’s both sad and disheartening for sure.  Our driver on the trip yesterday chatted w me a bit in Spanish but wasn’t fair to do too much of that cause C doesn’t speak it so that’s just rude.  But for random hotel staff things….  Ah well.  Plus side - I understand pretty much everything on the radio (professional speakers tend to enunciate more in any language) and I’d say a strong 70% of random conversations I evesdrop on with no context IF I pay attention.  Lol if I’m not paying attention there’s next to nothing, but arguably the same in English.  My ability to laser focus, even while daydreaming, is impressive.

Not a bad way to spend an evening

Dinner tonight led to an incredible evening when the power went out.  😂. Somehow they finished serving (to be fair, we were almost done), and tried to reassure everyone that this isn’t a usual occurrence.  But C and I just took it as a good time for a moonlit stroll on the beach.  Power was out everywhere within sight so no light pollution other than the occasional cell phone, and a brilliant almost-full moon that made it so it was easy to safely navigate the beach without a light (those who were at our wedding may remember similar nights).   No sound but the waves crashing, no lights but the moon and stars, being a mostly nocturnal water-loving introvert, it was basically perfection. 

I love the beach at night - esp when the moon is full

Power came back on about the time I was starting to think I might want long sleeves, and then the rest of the evening flowed as it should.  This resort has a coffee bar similar to the one we experienced in Mexico, and their hot chocolate is amazing!  So as we did in Mexico, we’ve taken to stopping in there after dinner :)

Really enjoyed the little coffee bar

Costa Rica - Playas y Pueblos

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.   

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 ;)

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 ;)

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.

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…)

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.

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 ;)

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 ;)

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.

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).   

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.   

Flamingo Beach was super pretty;

Noelvin captured this as C and I walked the length of it.

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 ;).  

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.

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”.

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!

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. 

 

**edited long after to add -- turns out that trail was on AllTrails lol.   Not that I had internet anyways, but if I had... ;)