Monkey Business in Tamarindo

Me and all the gals from CCS traveled 6 hrs by bus to Tamarindo, Costa Rica this weekend. it was an amazing trip. We left Quidad Quesada around 1 PM. We traveled through winding roads in the mts (very slowly since our bus was lacking some serious get-up-n-go), we passed through Cloud Forest and got drench in the Rain Forests. And getting to the beachy part of Costa Rica was a lot of rough road too. I've never see pot holes quite like the ones leading to the beach.

We pulled into Tamarindo around 7 PM and we very surprised to find out accommodations to be so great. We stayed at the Villas Macondo. We loved it! we had 3 rooms and 1 apartment. It was perfect for all of our needs. The Villas Macondo is online: http://www.villasmacondo.com/. I highly recommend it, especially for the price, location and service!

We went to dinner that evening as a group at Nibbana, right in "downtown" Tamarindo, which also means it's on the beach. The food was excellent and we actually ate their quite a bit, since it was reliably delicious for all meals and a good price. After dinner we headed to the Monkey Bar for some Baile! There was a live Salsa band and DJ. We of course all got our groove on and had a blast. Quite a few of the ladies met young men to socialize with. It was surprising (well not really) how many of the people living there were from California or Florida. It is a surfing town after all :)

The next day we all went to the beach and then in the afternoon, about half of us tried out surfing. It was fabulous! We paid $20/ea for a two hour surf lesson from Tamarindo surf school http://www.tamarindosurfschool.com/
Our instructors were very helpful and we all got up on our long boards! It was very tiring tho. What a wonderful work out. If I ever live by the coast I will be surfing again for sure.
In the evening I happily made my famous Lo'Ritas and we all got very happy. We had dinner at Voodoo Lounge and then most of ladies headed to Babylon for some more baile and drinking. I decided to stay in and relax. I had a little dip in the pool, laid in the hammock and then passed out. It was pretty close to perfect.

Sunday morning the rain rolled in, but I could have cared less. Me, Carol, Kari and Karen headed out to mangrove forest (via motor boat) for a tour of the wild side of Tamarindo. We saw all kinds of birds (small blue heron, green heron, Ibis and King Fischer), we saw a few Cocodilo, and the best part: We got out of the boat for a hike through the forest in the pouring rain to find howling monkeys. We ended up taking our shoes off and hiking barefoot to find a large family of monkeys and it was amazing!!!!!!!! Our guide was able to call to them (sounding just like a monkey) and found us a large group to observe. We got really close and it was blissful. I felt like such a natural women afterwards.

Our bus ride home was not very eventful. We were all quite tired and cramped but we made it home safe and sound.

Pura Vida!