Vamonos a la Playa!

Merry Christmas! Well our Christmas Eve was blessed with a visit by a large female leatherback sea turtle. She was about 5' tall and goodness knows how heavy (not pictured!). The tracks she left on the beach looked like those created by a small bobcat (the tractor, not the mammal). We watched her finish digging her hole and laying her eggs, but didn't get to stick around to watch her lumber back out to the ocean. She made her appearance at about 11:30 p.m., so just as we had been told. All in all, it was pretty amazing to see such a site.





So I fell in love with Playa Grande. It is slightly north of Tamarindo--a much more touristy and crowded beach--but every bit as beautiful. The sand is soft and there is a rock outcropping to the north full of tide pools. Hermit crabs are everywhere as are a variety of other beautiful shells and "normal" crabs. Further down toward Tamarindo the beach at low tide is chock-full of live sand dollars. I've never seen so many!




The surfing is also pretty good (Isaac was brave enough to rent a surf board, I stuck with the boogie board). The 0.5 km walk from our hotel to the beach was through a short section of jungle complete with parrots, hawks, and howler monkeys.



Luna y Sol is owned by Alex, a very mellow Italian fellow. The pool was immaculate and each cabina had a whirlpool bathtub. So far I'd have to say that if I were going to spend a week somewhere in Costa Rica, I would choose Playa Grande. The downsides are that there aren't that many restaurants (although Luna y Sol cabinas have small kitchens), the beach is off limits after sunset because of the turtles, and, as is the case in most of costa rica, it is not safe to leave your stuff unattended either on the beach or in your car.



After a lovely Christmas, we reluctantly said goodbye to Playa Grande. There is still so much we want to see here and already a week has past. We made the long trek down to Quepos near Manuel Antonio National Park.



The area around Quepos used to be banana plantations, but after some kind of blight in the 70s (I think), they replaced the banana trees with African palms from which to harvest palm oil. There are vast stretches of this monoculture which, to an ecologist, is quite depressing. I'm sure economists would disagree. We managed to have another experience on the way down---a speeding ticket! Isaac got pulled over for doing 80 km/hr in a 70km/hr zone. The police man happily took a $20 bribe in place of giving us a ticket. When in Rome I suppose.



We arrived at a hotel that came highly recommended by our friends, the Browns. The name of the hotel is Plinio (or Plinios) and it is owned by a charming German couple, Hans and Sabena. We shamelessly dropped the names of our friend's step mom and were instantly treated like family. We weren't able to land a coveted 3-story room, but we're quite comfortable in our little 2-story bungalow. I have to say the pool doesn't come anywhere close to Alex's at Luna y Sol in terms of cleanliness and the noise of the highway isn't the same as the noise of the Howler Monkeys, but there is a terrific restaurant with a great bartender, Juan, who graciously allowed Isaac to beat him at chess. Tomorrow we're off to Manuel Antonio National Park!