Third Excursion: Tamarindo!

This weekend, I finally got to see why Costa Rica translates rich coast. On Friday, I went on a field trip to el Parque Diversiones in Spanish class. We went on a scavenger hunt through a life-size recreation of a colonial Costa Rican town. My group actually finished first, so we all won free t-shirts. After returning from the field trip, I left for a five hour bus ride to Tamarindo in the Guanacaste province in Northwest Costa Rica. The drive was absolutely incredible, because we pretty much drove up the Pacific coast and through many towns and ranches. The Guanacaste province is known for its cowboys. It is the driest province, and there are many dry forests and some savannas.

About an hour and a half away from Tamarindo, our bus driver stopped along the road so that we could get out and see a group of Howler monkeys in the trees along the road. It was really cool to actually see them in the wild. We reached Tamarindo by the evening, but it was too dark to get a good look at the beach.

These are some of the monkeys we saw. There were about ten total
in this particular group including a couple of babies.

On Saturday morning, my friend and I woke up early to take a walk on the beach before it got crowded. It was absolutely gorgeous! We spent the rest of the day on the beach walking around, swimming in the ocean, playing soccer, shopping in town, attempting to surf, and swimming in the hotel pool. I even caught a crab on the beach. It was a beautiful blue and purple color, but it got its revenge when it pinched my finger and drew blood.

This is the crab I caught right after it relinquished my finger.
The picture does not do the colors justice.

The beach in the morning. It looks rather calm here, but
the waves were incredibly strong and the tides came in very fast.
Tamarindo is known for its extremely dangerous rip tides.

 My resident director's cousin owns a restaurant in Tamarindo, so we went there for lunch. I had a fruit sandwich with banana bread, kiwis, bananas, strawberries, mango, watermelon, oranges, and of course pineapple. I also had pineapple juice that was probably the most delicious drink I have ever had.

Later, in the hotel pool we heard howler monkeys. It turns out they were hanging out in the trees around the hotel. There were also a number of iguanas running around in the gardens. Before dinner we went back to the beach to wait for the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous (and I will post the pictures as soon as my friend posts them- it was too humid for my camera )

This is the hotel we stayed at, and where I saw some of the monkeys.
The pool was very nice, and somewhat shaded for a nice break from the sun.

This is one of about six iguanas that I saw around the hotel.

For dinner, we all went to a fancy restaurant together. This meal was paid for by the program, so a lot of us were able to get seafood. I also had a different kind of juice called jugo de cas. It was green and had a kind of tart/sweet taste similar to a pineapple. It was amazing! After dinner, we took a walk on the beach and saw the stars.

On Sunday morning we woke up early to walk on the beach again. After breakfast, we drove out of town to a ranch for horseback riding. I got an awesome horse that was meant for riders with more experience. The horse was really good about trotting, cantering, and I even got to gallop a couple of times. Of course, I am really feeling it in my legs two days later. The trails were beautiful, and we got to see more monkeys in the forest. The trail lead us back to Tamarindo and let out on the beach. My horse seemed to really enjoy galloping in the sand. Overall it was an amazing trip!