Costa Rica - Day 4

Travel time!  The plan - to go from Tabacon/Arenal (kind of the center of the country) to Tamarindo, on the west coast.  About a three and a half hour drive.  We weren't really looking forward to the road around the lake but it turned out to not be so bad.

We stopped at the German Bakery for breakfast and this part is a little blurry to me, as I was severely suffering from a sinus infection.  But there were pastries and coffee and I remember some cats roaming around.

Our final destination was Captain Suizo.  A beautiful beachside getaway at the far edge of town.  I felt like when we told people we were staying there, they seemed impressed and I couldn't have imagined a better place to stay.  I'm grateful for the recomendations from everyone who suggested it.  The rooms are airy, split-level, clean and sans TV.  The owners are Swedish and have a big ol' philosphy on why things are they way they are at the place.  Everyone was friendly and I am so happy we decided to stay here.

We headed to the beach and I was not expecting to water to be hot.  I got right in!  It was low tide so we got out pretty far too.  The beach is so big during low tide!   The sky got grey pretty fast and it was about dinner time so we walked over to where the restaurants in town were.  The road wasn't paved so it was a muddy, slippery walk and I kinda wish I had brought rain boots. We cut across to the beach and walked along there until we came closer to town.

A beachside restaurant was the first place we saw and there were a lot of people there.   Since we really didnt plan where we were going and the rain wasnt letting up, we settled into a patio seat at Naugi's and enjoyed watching our neighboring table get wasted and teach each other how to surf, on the floor of the restaurant.  (They had just met that day.)  After fish tacos and pork chops, we walked into town and these two dogs were kinda like, "Oh hey, follow us!" so we did and ended up in front of Mato's Surf Shop.  This surfer dude was out there and introduced himself as Eric.  Turns out Bon Ton the dog is Eric's.  The universe could not have been any more obvious to an animal lover looking for a surf lesson!  :)  We talked for a bit and Eric told us to come by at 9AM tomorrow for our lesson. We headed back on the beach in the pitch black and used my phone's flashlight app to guide the way.