Costa Rica, Part 3 – Tamarindo/San Jose

Otter and i had a few days left on the Costa trip.  Rather than stay in Mal Pais, we devised a plan to drive to Samara.

Getting from Mal Pais to Samara during the rainy season (of which we were in the tail end) required driving quite a ways inland and around a little mtn. range rather than driving along the coast.  According to all the locals we talked to the trip would take 3 hours.

Five hours later and three or so sketchy creek crossings, we were in Samara.  It was raining hard and the town was dead.  Waves were tiny and shitty–didn’t bother paddling out.  We got food at a pizza restaurant and while we sat and ate cars started pouring in.  Cars with mtn bikes on em.  Like 20 bikes on top of a van.  There was some 50k bike race the following morning.  The town went from eerie quiet to packed streets in a couple hours.  We bailed quick the following morning as to not get trapped in the Costa Rican bike race frenzy.  Man, even those guys are all about spandex.

Samara was a bust so we headed north for about an hour to Tamarindo.  I was itching to surf but the waves at Tamarindo were shit.  I paddled out anyways.  For the low season the line up was ef-ing packed.  50 dudes in one spot.  Im used to surfing with 50 dudes so paddling out didn’t even phase me.  Surf was waist to chest, and being as this was a river mouth break the water was murkier ‘n shit.  I couldn’t even see my board 6 inches below the surface.  To be fair, Costa Rica did see some flood inducing rains lately–that im sure, was the reason for the murk.

Tamarindo was hands down the most surfy town we’d been to–by far.  There were probably six surf shops complete with all the freshest new Volcom and Lost gear.  Luckily it was the off season.  I’d hate to see the town during the high season.  One day we ate at this little ‘sushi’ place.  I got some tuna nigiri with meat slabs the size of my hand.  I wish the sushi chefs in Seattle would hook it up like that.

We stayed in Tamarindo for a couple days.  On the last day we’d scheduled our flight out at 1pm or so.  We didn’t want to get screwed with the surfboards so we showed up a hour and a half early.  On Sansa air, there’s only room for a couple boards–and it’s first come first serve.  We didn’t want to risk it.

The taxi guys were on us like flys on shit once we walked out the hotel.  After 13 days i was pretty much over these fuckers.  Dick was trying to charge us 18 bucks to drive 5 minutes.  Fuck that.  We walked a couple hundred yards down by a bus stop and just stood there for a while.  After 5 minutes or so, a small dodge neon looking taxi pulled up.  This taxi was an amazing piece of shit.  I asked the female driver if she could fit the boards and she assured me they’d fit.  The did after she tied the trunk down with a ripped shirt.  Whatever, get me outta this bitch.  I got in the whip and noticed in her door was a huge freaking sword/machete thing.  This Tica didn’t ef around.  We were at the airport 5 minutes later.  I paid the $4.5 bucks she charged and even gave her a dollar tip.  Costa Rican Taxi Drivers=50, Me=1.

We waited around at the airport for a good hour and a half.  The plane showed up early and we all boarded.  As we were taking off 20 mins early we looked off the run way at the boarding gate and noticed a couple gringos running out, waving widly, suitcases in hand.  I guess Sanasa Airlines wasn’t kidding when they said to show up at least 45 minutes early.  That was the last flight of the day, those dudes were not stoked.

We got to San Jose an hour later, hoped a taxi and headed to Pangea Hotel.  I stayed here the last time in San Jose.  Not a bad place, but not the raddest place either.  They seem to have a paranoia issue and tell ya to not leave the hostel at night and don’t trust the taxi drivers when they tell you the hotel is full.  We weren’t gonna be there long.  It worked.

That evening we asked the bartender if there were any casinos close.  Dude replied, “they’re everywhere!”  The closest one called the Horseshoe was 4 blocks away.  Otter and i started off on Craps.  I put in 20 bucks and Otter put in 40.  We were the only ones playing.  I think we kept it going with that same amount of money for a good hour.  After that we switched to Black Jack and did pretty good also.  After Craps and Black Jack we decided to quit while we were still relatively ahead and bailed.

Right across from the Horseshoe was a bar that seemed to be going off.  There was a ton of people milling around outside, some good looking girls.  Seemed like thats where the party was.  Let’s go check out the Del Rey.  For some reason the Del Rey rang a bell with me.  After i went in and walked around a bit, it clicked.  At 1st i was like “wow, there’s a ton of girls in here.” Then i was like “wow, why are they all staring at me?”  Then i was like “I don’t feel comfortable.”  Then i bailed.  Full on club/casino/whore house.  Wow.

On the way back to the Pangea Hotel, we stopped at a little dive bar.  It was a Sunday night so it was pretty quiet.  The bartender was a cool lady from Italy.  One of her friends was in the bar with her husband–both of which seemed to be in some sort of mini argument.  We ordered a couple Imperials and they went into the bathroom together.  The bartender came over to us and said that the husband didn’t know that his wife was a “working girl” and couldn’t understand why she’d bring him to the bar where she picked up clients.  Huh, weird night.

We had a few more beers, then called it.  Flew back to ‘merica the next day.

Here’s a Google Map of our general route.  Google Map Link

The End.

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