Boil in a bus - Tamarindo

Another long day on the buses - this time made far worse by the stifling heat! We got a taxi to the bus terminal and got the 8am bus to Tilaran (2,795C; 2 hrs) - beautiful scenery through the jungle around the huge Lake Arenal. The bus was slightly late so we missed the 10am bus to Canas. The next one was an hour an a half wait. A taxi said it was $25 so we settled down to wait. After half an hour another taxi driver said he'd take us for $2 each, which seemed far too good to be true so we assumed it was a scam. However he said he was from there and was returning back, hence the low price, and 2 other women were going so we went along. Once at Canas he tried to convince us to pay him $20 more to take us to a close by place where he said we could get a direct, quicker bus. We weren't convinced and declined. He then tried to drop us off under a bypass saying the bus would stop there. There was a woman there who confirmed this but again we insisted on going to the bus stop which he did. I think he was just trying to be helpful (the bus did actually stop there) but it was a bit weird - I'm not convinced half of CR isn't out to scam tourists, which is a shame as we haven't come across it much before.

We got on the midday bus to Liberia (1,525C; 1 hr) which was packed and stiflingly hot. We then had a bit of a wait and a pricey ice cream before getting the 2:10pm bus to Tamarindo (1,500C; 2 hrs). The Tamarindo bus was absolutely roasting!! The wall next to me was boiling to the touch and hot air blew in through the windows. Luckily after an hour or so the sky became overcast and it called off somewhat.

On getting off the bus, an American guy and his son (Kurt & Tytan!) asked if we had a room...we didn't, so he drove us in his battered car up a hill to his house where he has four studio apartments (Soles & Margaritas; $30). The studio was big, complete with kitchen, hot water and most excitingly you open the sliding doors and can not only see the sea but there is a pool - bliss! We were expecting to slum it here as prices online were high for anything half decent so we happily accepted. We promptly dumped out bags and jumped in the pool - bliss :)

Kurt confirmed the stories we'd heard that while half the country is having storms, the West coast is having a drought. He recommended we don't drink the tap water due to this.

After our dip, we wandered down the hill to look at the beach- beautiful, long, surfy beach - and the town - very modern and Americanised.

Most restaurants looked pricey so we looked for the falafel bar but it was sadly closed in the low season. We considered cooking for ourselves but weren't sure how to light the cooker and couldn't find Kurt. We found a tiny BYOB Mexican place called El Chilito so headed to the supermarket and bought a can of Bamboo mojito and some iced tea to share. We both had a veggie taco which were only $2.50 each and fresh and delicious. I think we'll be back! The mojito in a can was surprisingly good! We headed back up the hill, it was still really warm, so we jumped in the pool again to cool off!

Tamarindo is the most developed of the hundreds of beaches up the West coast. It seems to invoke a love-hate response from different people. We were expecting it to be very expensive but so far are pleasantly surprised to have great but cheap food and lodgings. The beach looks stunning and I think we could happily stay a week if we had the time.Read more