Tamarindo Weekend

After a week of adjusting to our new lives here, we were treated to a weekend beach getaway in Tamarindo. It's a small, very tourist-centered town on the Pacific. We stayed at a great resort, right on the beach. I'm feeling exhausted from the 5 hour bus ride, so I think I won't write too much and will post pictures instead.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the catamaran tour on Saturday. We left at about 8 am and took a little fishing boat from the beach out to the catamaran. Of course, as soon as we got on board, everyone wanted to take advantage of the free snacks and drinks. I had an amazing piña colada to start the day. I don't think anyone really knew what to expect, just some sun, swimming, and cruising on the boat. The weather was fantastic, really sunny (I'm pretty sure everyone has sun burns) and warm. We cruised for about an hour or two, anchored, and then snorkeled. I've been pretty privileged in my vacations, so I wasn't really astounded by the reef. There wasn't a lot of coral, but I did see some cute little neon blue fish. After swimming, we had lunch and more drinks as everyone was just hanging out and enjoying life. I was perfectly content, but things got even better when we saw whales! On the way back, we discovered a pod of them. I'm not sure what kind, but they were beautiful and we got really ( and probably illegally) close. Apparently this was a really rare sighting. We came back at about 2 or so and Jessica and I just played on the beach before our mangrove tour, dinner, and going to a club.It was a fantastic day :)

Drinking Pink Flamingos with Claire from Alabama

Creepin' on Jessica

Oh heyy geckos

Midnight walks and talks on the beach :)

Boat hair.

Touring the mangrove swamp. We didn't see any monkeys,

but we did see a crocodile, and tons of birds....and snake holes

everywhere on the land parts!

The tri-color heron (plus someone's elbow)

A hawk?

Crocodile territory. Seriously, look

how murky and creepy it is.

Crazy tree roots!