Semana Santa

...la playa! Finally had the chance to go to the beach. After a big lunch at home with all the family in the area, my host sister Dunia, her boyfriend Damian, and I took a trip out to San Rafael de Tamarindo. Another sister and her husband, Anna and Joaquin, had purchased a lot there and just finished building a house. I use the word loosely, more appropriate for description is cabina, as it was basically a large one-room, open-air establishment with an indoor bathroom (as opposed to the outhouse the neighbors had) and mattresses in every corner (and in the middle of the room as well!) Arriving late on Holy Thursday, we left early the next for Playa Tamarindo, which they wanted to show me, but didn´t want to stick around all day because it is a bit touristy for Tico taste. At midday we packed up and headed to Playa Avellana, with darker sands and fewer people. By this time, I was nicely toasted as I had forgotten to pack sunscreen and so had everyone else. (Instead they slapped tanning oil on me... ugh!) I spent the afternoon in the shade to minimalize my tomate effect!
The following morning we drove down to Playa Ostional, which must have been at least 130 kilometers round trip. Now that might not seem that far, but keep in mind that Costa Rican "roads" are very different from roads we are all used to, especially in more rural areas! We´re talking Guanacaste summer-dusty roads (it´s the driest region in the country), so we´re choking on the dust clouds. If the road actually happened to be paved, cars would often drive on either side of the road in order to avoid the potholes (the word does not do justice to the missing sections of the road)! Finally arriving to an isolated paradise with dark sands and rough currents (no one else would swim with me!), we de-dusted and relaxed from all the road turbulence. Ostional is a turtle reserve and I was encouraged to eat the eggs, an offer which I furtively refused. (I had to... for those from Florida, think about what would happen if mentioned eating baby sea turtles - it´s a crime!) I later learned that a Peace Corps Volunteer lives in the community, and there is truly such an over-abundance of turtles nesting that they are legally allowed to sell the eggs - the only place from which such sales are legal. I caught some great pictures of the beaches and the howler monkeys (they really make some loud noise!) we saw from the dusty road-that-never-ended, as well as the cabina - all of which my little nephew promptly deleted upon arrival at home due to my carelessness! Oh well, we´ll just have to have another beach excursion!