31/07/2022 From Santa Teresa to Tamarindo
Early shuttle ride
At 6.30 in the morning our shuttle bus picked us up at our hotel in Santa Teresa. The 4.5-hour-ride with a 20-minute-break in between and one bus change on the way was pretty smooth.
What to expect
Tamarindo
When we got to Tamarindo we still had three hours until check-in time.
Relax at the beach
This meant beach time for us! But what do you do when it’s hot and sunny and all the sunbeds cost $20 for 30 minutes!?
Oh yes: sneak into a hotel resort where we could use the sunbeds “for free” underneath palm trees and in the first row to the beach. We definitely weren’t acting as role models here! There were still plenty of free ones, so we didn’t take anyone’s spot – we checked 😉.
Unfortunately, this time it was me who wasn’t feeling well. So in the afternoon I rested a bit in our room while Blake told more of his friends about our engagement via facetime.
Watch sunset
In the evening we watched an amazing sunset, which blew our minds and was so much better than the ones we saw in Santa Teresa! Over the years sunsets have become our thing, so we usually plan our dinner around them.
Have dinner at the El Mercadito food court
The Mercadito food court had everything we wished for: Tonight it was a burrito for Blake and a poke bowl for me – we were in food heaven!
01/08/2022 Tamarindo
New day – new acai bowl!
In the next morning we went out for acai bowls for breakfast and explored the town a bit more.
Hotel Marielos
Our hotel room has a nice veranda. It also has a massive garden, in which you can see chickens and roosters running around freely (the rooster is our natural alarm clock every morning), iguanas bathing in the sun and mockingbirds flying to the flowers. It’s pretty wild.
our wake-up call 
iguana
Dinner at “Wild Panda – Suck my cocktail”
We relaxed a bit more at our place and later at the beach, where we also watched sunset again. In the evening we had dinner at the local restaurant “Wild Panda – Suck my cocktail”, which had a cool vibe, delicious local food and 2 for 1 cocktails 😉.
Tamarindo – a vacation place
At the beginning I wasn’t a huge fan of Tamarindo because there were more vacationers than backpackers and way too many locals that tried to sell you stuff on the beach. But after the first 1.5 days we’ve really come around to this cute little town and decided to stay for another day.
02/08/2022 Tamarindo
Do a sunset sailing cruise
Today we had planned our first excursion: a sunset sailing cruise. In Santa Teresa we were still pretty confident that it would only rain at night. Sadly, this wasn’t the case today. When we went to the beach at 12.30 pm to go on a little boat that would drive us to the catamaran, it was already overcast. We didn’t mind it that much as long as it would be clear for a nice sunset later that day.
Open bar on the catamaran
On the catamaran we were welcomed with a “casique” cocktail mixed with fruit juice and ginger ale.
Cacique Guaro is a sugar cane-based liquor of high purity and is the best-selling distilled spirit in Costa Rica. It is known as Costa Rican liqueur.”
wikipedia
The open bar on board was probably what made Blake’s decision a lot easier to do the excursion.
Turtles on the way
We sailed for about one hour to a private beach. On the way we spotted two turtles making turtle babies and later we saw even more turtles. We had to be a little careful with the free cocktails as we were both starting to feel a bit seasick.
Snorkeling, kayaking and stand-up paddling
When we arrived at the little beach, we could snorkel to the rocks to spot some fish. However, by this time it was that overcast that we couldn’t see anything under water. We still tried though 😉. At least the water wasn’t cold at all!
We then went on the kayak and stand-up paddleboard to explore the area around the boat. Again: lots of grey clouds above us and murky water below us.
After that I swam to the shore, relaxed a little bit on the beach (mainly, because I was still feeling seasick and needed some solid ground underneath me), swam back to the catamaran and chatted a bit with the other people on the boat, that all seemed really friendly (mainly including Americans, Argentinians and Swiss people).
The food on the boat consisted of fajitas, BBQ chicken, salad, rice, fresh fruit, tortillas and banana bread.
No sunset on the sunset cruise
When we were about to start our “romantic sail back into sunset”, the weather got worse: it started raining heavily with lots of lightnings and thunder, paired with huge waves from the strong winds. We were all soaking wet with the rain coming from every side. Blake and I sat in one corner mingled together and covered in our towels (which at this point were totally soaked too), while the Argentinians were still dancing and drinking on the boat – cultural differences.
One boat trip is enough for now
So I guess I take back what I said about the rainy season earlier: it does exist, also throughout the day! In the end, we met some great people, but I guess this was our last boat trip for a while.
Santa Teresa or Tamarindo?
We really liked both towns, but they are quite different from each other. While Santa Teresa has a more chilled yoga-surf-vibe with lots of backpackers and expats, Tamarindo is more for people on “real” vacation that like going on excursions.
Santa Teresa consists of one long dirt road without any side walks, whereas Tamarindo’s city centre is more compact (with actual side walks to walk on).
If you want to learn surfing, Tamarindo has smaller waves, but for advanced surfers, Santa Teresa is your go-to place (no idea why we went surfing in Santa Teresa then).
Both towns – as most of the places in Costa Rica – are not really cheap, but you can still find cheaper accommodations and cheap local sodas or food courts for eating out.
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Man you guys are in paradise!! really enjoying all the pictures!!
Thanks, Billy! 🙂