Our First Full Day in Tamarindo!

To pick up where I left off this morning, after Bryan and I were swimsuited and sunscreened up, we went outside and found ourselves a couple of beach chairs that were positioned in a patch of shady sun, thanks to the beautiful palm trees.  We laid out, reading of course, and enjoying the beautiful view and the sea breeze.  The beach right in front (behind?) our hotel is actually fairly rocky.  We'll have to walk a little bit to the left or the right if we really want to swim.  Of course, if we just want to get wet, we can follow the kids' examples and go sit in the tidal pools lol.  We stayed there about an hour, alternately watching the ocean and the people and dogs (there are so many dogs!  and they're ALL trained off lead! it's amazing!) and reading out books.  I love that we both enjoy reading the way we do :-D.

At about 9:30ish we started looking for breakfast and ended up at Buon Apetito--an Italian-esque cafe next door to La Palapa (well, to the parking area anyway).  I had a bowel of fruit--mango, banana and pineapple--with yogurt and granola, and a batido (shake) of water, pineapple and strawberries.  Bryan had a jellied croissant and a bowel of fruit, along with a batido of water, pineapple, strawberry and mango.  Breakfast was about $14--prices here seem to be on par with home, which is probably due to Tamarindo being such a touristy surf village--there's a Subway, a Pizza Hut, and a TCBY to boot!

After breakfast, we went back to our chairs and read a while longer, until Hunter and Amber came back from their beach walk, which included breakfast at El Pescado Restarante.  We discussed the tours we were interested in, and they went to book theirs while Bryan and I went back to our room to look at our budget and make our final activity decisions.  We had already decided to take surf lessons with Cherri's novio (boyfriend)--he's giving us a discounted price of $35 a person (normally it's $40-$45).  That's at 9am tomorrow.  We looked that the catalog of activities from the tour booking place right next door--Destination Adventure Tours--made our decisions, and went and booked!  We're going on a horseback ride-snorkeling-mangrove tour on Monday for $75 a person.  Hunter and Amber will be going as well--that's from 8am until about 2:30pm.  Then Hunter will go to his resort certification dive class at 3:30pm ($50), so that he and Bryan can go on the Catalina Island Dive on Tuesday ($100 per person, as long as both have some type of certification, all gear included!).  Wednesday, we're all going on a full day tour ($125 a person) to the Rincon de la Vieja volcano--there will be canyon adventures and jungle adventures, hot springs and the volcano itself, of course.  Then Thursday we fly out--I'll be sad to go, I think.  Of course, I'm always sad to leave new places we've traveled abroad to see.  I am glad that, even with everything scheduled, we'll still have plenty of beach time!

This afternoon, Hunter and Amber went to see the neighboring beaches of Conchal and Langosta, and Bryan and I kicked back and--you guessed it!--read.  We also walked down the beach quite a ways--almost all the way to the estuary.  I'm definitely going to have to go seashell hunting at some point--there are the spiral shells that are everywhere, and very pretty stripy shells too!  After our walk, we reapplied sunscreen (I am NOT getting burned and miserable this trip!) and went swimming/body surfing a bit down the beach to the right of our hotel.  Bryan's glasses were actually knocked off within two minutes of being in the water.  We were both pretty upset, though Bryan was definitely mad.  We stayed in the water for a bit longer, figuring since we just got in, we might as well.  After about five minutes and several more waves, Bryan was dragging his feet along the sandy bottom when he felt something odd.  Reaching down, he grabbed the object and brought it to the surface.  It was--his glasses!  We were both happily shocked and very relieved.  Needless to say, the glasses immediately went on our beach towel for the duration of our swim!

After our water time, we returned to La Palapa.  I used the outdoor shower under the tree house to rinse off and then Bryan and I passed the time reading in the sun until Hunter and Amber returned.  Once they got back, the three of them went to the dive shop to get the boys fitted for equipment and fill out paperwork for Tuesday's dive. I took a wonderful hot shower in our beautifully tiled bathroom and brushed out my hair.  Bryan came back and showered.  Apparently Hunter and Amber were showering at the same time he was, and, since our showers share a wall, they got all the hot water while Bryan got all the water pressure.  As Hunter pointed out, better split those two up than have a cold water shower with no pressure as well!

I put on my awesome brown sundress and got ready to go to dinner.  Once Bryan was ready, we went outside to wait for Hunter and Amber and to enjoy the beautiful sunset.  We all went to the restaraunt next door and enjoyed a delicious dinner, though I much preferred La Palapa's ceviche to the "Mexican" nachos.  Amber and I had glasses of red wine while the boys had beers.  Bryan and I had spaghetti with mariscos (shellfish/seafood), Amber an Italian sandwich, and Hunter some kind of pasta with shrimp.  We then came back to La Palapa for the end of happy hour--Amber had two wonderful daiquiris and I stuck with wine.  So far, I especialy enjoy the La Palapa restaraunt and bar--particularly the 15% discount we get for being guests!  lol).  Now Bryan and I are turning in to get enough sleep for our surf lesson tomorrow!

That said, Bryan has had a headache, sore throat and a cough.  I'm hoping I didn't pass on my bronchitis to him, and that its just some sort of allergy/sinus thing, but I am a bit worried.  I'm trying not to worry, or hover, but I'm going to keep a close eye on his symptoms.  There's a farmacia (pharmacy) across the street if I need to go get him some medicine.  Other than that though, things are idyllic.  I'm loving speaking Spanish OUTSIDE of the classroom context regularly again--and I'm loving having people speak Spanish to me!  I've gotten one or two compliments on my Spanish, which always boosts my confidence.

Particularly, I've enjoyed talking with Cherii, even though she and (it seems) the majority of everyone else we've spoken with are very concerned with my being "very white" (as one of the tour booking guys put it lol).  They keep reminding me to wear bloqueador (sunscreen)!  At least my mom would be happy.  Really though, I don't mind it at all--it's touching that strangers care about whether or not I get sunburned  That's just one example of how friendly and nice eveyone here seems to be.  On that note, to bed!  I must have enough energy to make a fool out of myself with a surfboard tomorrow!!!