The BEACH!!!!!!!

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We are know at Playa Tamarindo, also referred to by me (Jenn) as THE BEACH!!!! I only have 15 minutes and the computer is giving me trouble, so this will have to be a little quick and not very creative.

Tuesday afternoon we picked up Jess from the airport at Arenal. She was on the plane with one other person on the whole plane, who happened to be Asian! We knew Jess had arrived in Costa Rica when we heard the string of profanities. I think the first thing she said when she saw us was "holy f***ing sh**! She looks like a sweet little innocent well behaved Chinese girl, but she puts any drunken sailor to shame - but somehow its part of her charm. After we picked up Jess, we went for a beautiful walk in the rainforest, went to see the active volcano, and went to Baldi hot springs. The rainforest walk was very beautiful. It was cool to see the volcano, but we couldn´t see much lava because it was so cloudy. But the weather was pretty nice since we´ve been here. The occasional 15 minute downpour, but nothing unreasonable. Yesterday we had plans to get up early and go hiking. We did get up at 7, but instead decided to spend 2 hours having breakfast at our hotel (San Bosco) by the pool. It was wonderful and relaxing. Then we went out to the La Fortuna waterfall (which I posted pictures of yesterday) . We walked the 6k out to the park each way plus the hike down to the waterfall. It was a beautiful waterfall! We spent a couple hours chilling there, and came back. Stopped by this really cool art gallery, where Jess and Vince surprised me with a beautiful sculpture to thank me for organizing the trip (totall unnecessary and unexpected, but very sweet and thoughtful.) Yesterday evening we met up with our new asian friends Jeff, Alan and Steve, and had a good dinner at the Lava Rock Cafe, and went home and crashed.

Today we took an air-conditioned bus (not a public bus) from Arenal to Tamarindo. Tamarindo the town leaves a lot to be desired yet - we arrived to a lot of dust and an obscene amount of construction noise, which we were quite apprehensive about, and a little disappointed. But our hotel is very nice, and a steal at $45-night. After eating a little late lunch, we headed to the beach, which was absolutely gorgeous, and we forgot entirely about the dust and construction noise. We had a really rough afternoon - playing in the ocean and sleeping and reading on the beach. There were a bunch of great danes running around and one of them tried to mount Vince, which was quite amusing. I think someone needs to be neutered, and Im not talking about Vince. At about 5pm it started to pour, so we went into a touristy but nice restaurant called Joes for happy hour drink and app specials . We had nachos a"as big as your A**" which were pretty good!

Well I guess thats it for me today, my time is up and I cant get the stupid pictures to load and I have lots of typos because the keyboard is different. Tomorrow we are taking surfing lessons! Pura Vida, Jenn


Okay, Jenn just left the computer and ran out to get something... so again, don{t tell Jenn (yes, due to popular opinion, I shall spell her name with two n´s) that Ive hijacked her computer (btw, this stupid keyboard has their accent marks all screwy so excuse the lack of or typing errors). So Jenn again becomes the token white girl amongst an Asian crew of 5... when I first moved to Salt Lake City, the capital of white world, I did not expect to find a bunch of Asians... sure enough somehow we now have a group of 10 or so that we regularly hang out with... AND Jenn... our token white girl that we all love and adore... so now that we´re in Costa Rica, deep in Central America we somehow managed to hook up with three more Asians... crazy, I tell you... just crazy... Jenn, however felt just right at home...

Now, you heard from Jen (it´s so tempting to type just one n... oh well, if you must insist... n... now you´re happy?) that Jessica joined us... 5ft and 3/4 inches... full of f**ks (I dont mean firetruck either) and s***s and G** Da** Its! ... shes a fireball... and known to offend a few LDS folks back in town... although in Costa Rica shes right at home with the drunk frat guys. She certainly adds another dimension that we didnt have before she came... 2 hot girls and ME!!!

So we went to La Fortuna to see the waterfall... incidentally the book I[m reading, A Comedy of Dunces, written by the late Pulitzer Prize winning author, John Kennedy Toole makes reference to the goddess of fortune... Fortuna... in the book the main character, Ignatius Reilley feels that he is at the mercy of the rosa fortunae... the wheel of fortune, controlled by Fortuna... this is based on a book written by the Roman philosopher, Boethius about the medieval philosophical concept of La Concepcionae Philosophidae (anyway, I digress)... the point is he is controlled by fate via Fortuna, just as we tempted the fates by wallowing in the warm waters of La Catarata de Fortuna... it was a most spectacular site... one to bathe in the awe and wonder of nature... you{ll see pictures soon... I climbed behind the waterfall and took some pics of it behind the water as well... I tempted Fortuna by doing a most precarious climb, made possible by the wonderful craftmanship of my Keen H2O sandals (found at most major department stores)...

We´ll we finally made it to the sunny beaches of Tamarindo today... got set up for surfing in the AM tomorrow and snorkeling/sailing on Sat. PM... we spent most of the PM today on the beach... as Jess would say, ¨Making like beached whales¨... after blinding the Costa Rican folks with our lustrous pale white skin from years of bathing our melanosomes under flourescent hospital lighting, we waded in the warm waters of the Pacific... we did get molested by a pack of wild dogs... a particular Great Dane took a rather specific interest in me... unfortunately, I could not reciprocate this affection as I am commited to the preservation of the human species, particularly of the female variety... alas, we then ended the night with a most spectacular downpour display of an ephemeral tropical storm as we dined on authentic Costa Rican nachos and ¨Witches Tits¨... I swear I am not trying to be rude... its the actual name of the drink...

Sooo to recap... Animals we have seen: 0 monkeys, 0 sloths, 0 tigers, 0 polar bears, 1 quetzal quivering tail, >100 birds ranging from something crested, something tail bird to as Jenn would say a ¨big bird¨, 1 dead frog, 2 live lizards but 3 smooshed lizards, 1 pack of wild horny dogs, 3 hens and her chicks, and 3 new Asian friends from Toronto and Tokyo...

So what will we see next... only but a spin of Fortuna´s wheel will decide... -Donatello AKA Vince

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Comments

[Lisa]

Yay Costa Rica!!
I'm soooo jealous of you guys! Glad to hear you're having fun! I love Costa Rica...hearing about your trip just confirms to me how badly I need to go back ASAP. If you come across "howler monkeys" in the rainforest (they sound like they're barking), bark back at them. You can have whole conversations. :) Beware insects that look like really huge ants...I had one bite me in a hotel room...it hurt for days. Yes, it's true...I nearly died. Drink lots of the Imperial cerveza...it makes for better memories. Hey Jenn...if you have any room left in your suitcase, will you bring me back a couple of bottles? If you haven't already, you have to take a shot of "guaro" (I think that's what it's called). Pretty potent stuff, but worth the experience. You can shoot it like tequila, with a lime or a lemon, if memory serves me right. My memory's a little fuzzy from the night I met "guaro." You could bring me back a bottle of that too, if you felt so inclined...:) I'll pay you back! Make sure you try "gallo pinto"...it's like rice and beans and pico...big Costa Rican thing. Thanks for the update! Have so much fun!! Lisa