Home Again

Our time in Tamarindo was wonderful but, as always, it is good to be home.  

 

When we arrived in Arkansas, the warm winter had allowed the Dogwoods to begin blooming in the woods.

 

Our neighbors have a beautiful Dogwood in their front yard.

 

 

The Azaleas are more vibrant than I have ever seen.

And the Wisteria are gorgeous.

We have unpacked and are acclimating to our little red house in the woods.

 

We love our little house.  We will spend the summer playing tennis and golf and Gail will read and I will do a little more painting.  But we are thinking already of where we are going to go next winter.  We are not sure yet, but I know it will be another adventure and  I am sure it will be another Blog opportunity.  

See you then.

Tamarindo Music-The Fat Lady Sings

We have seen and heard a lot of music here in Tamarindo, all the way from 50's and 60's Rock n Roll to modern Salsa.  But there are three groups that really stand out.

There is a group called Banana Blues who play at Witches Rock on Friday night.  There is a lead guitarist and singer, a base player, and, of all things, a violinist--who also sings. The base player and the guitarist really jam well together.  And the violin just adds that really unique touch.

 

The violinist is Patricia Azhaar from Wales.  Her voice has a sultry, raspy sound that she lends to songs like Crazy and The Girl From Ipanema.

They play on the beach with their feet in the sand and the Pacific Ocean over their shoulder.

Another group with a very unique sound plays at the Nibbana.  They are just two people--a woman who has a computer and synthesizer and a man who is a percussionist.  The uniqueness comes from one of the instruments the man plays.  It is a long "bow" made of bamboo that is strung with a thick piece of wire.  It also has a solid bowl attached to the bow that he rests on his stomach.  This bowl gives it stability and he adjusts it to create different sounds.

Unlike many percussionists, he does not play the drums with his hands but uses what appears to be large chop sticks.  
They told me they are from Argentina but I have looked all through the internet and can not find what the instrument is he is playing.  Their sound is very relaxing with a good beat and you can easily carry on a conversation while they are playing.  The atmosphere of the Nibanna is perfect for this kind of music.

We have also found a local group with a particularly unique sound.  This is a group of four men--a lead guitarist and singer, a base guitarist, a percussionist and singer, and a second percussionist.  Their uniqueness comes from the didgeridoo and the various types of percussion instruments.

The didgeridoo obviously provides a different sound...

 ...but the percussionist also uses everything from normal Bongos to coconuts.  All of the songs are very fast and upbeat.  And, although they are totally in Spanish, I heard some one behind me singing along.  When I turned around to see who it was, I saw this FAT LADY SINGING.

 

It struck me right then that it is time for us to go home.  We have to say Goodbye to Tamarindo.
It has been a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Flamingo Bay

Flamingo Bay is several miles north of Tamarindo.  We took a bus there with several friends from the condos.  It is a beautiful place where you catch a catamaran that takes you out on the Pacific Ocean for an afternoon of sailing.

 



I carefully planned what I was going to take on this trip.  I decided to take my old camera since we were going to be on a boat on the ocean for the whole day.  As it turned out this was a mistake.  My old camera did not work well and I only got twelve pictures.  Plus, the boat was extremely stable, although fast, and there was no fear of getting the camera wet.  (I have used some of Mike Nuyens  pictures for this blog.) We all got on the catamaran  and set sail through a maze of small islands...

...and through some beautiful coves.



There were actually three catamarans that sailed together.  Ours was called the Lazy Lizard.

We passed by this one small island that was solid rock with a flowering tree growing on it.

 

We anchored in a small cove where we were able to use the kayaks.



 

We also snorkeled.

They fed us and gave us all of the drinks we wanted so it was a very “happy” trip.  Gail did her Titanic pose although she never let go of her cuba libra.

 

The very best part of the day was being on the boat at sunset.

 

The low flying whispy clouds looked amazing.

 

You could actually see the setting sun and the moon and Venus  all at the same time.

It was a beautiful, relaxing day.

The Boogie Boarding Blechs

Gail and I have been spending quite a bit of time at the beach.  The wind has died down and the water has turned warm—about like the swimming pool.

 

We went around the point at the south end of the bay and had a lot of fun just playing in the waves.

 

The last several days Gail and I have taken up Boogie Boarding.

Lynne Reilly loaned us a couple boards and the weather has been perfect.  For those of you unfamiliar, a Boogie board is about one-third the size of a surf board.

 

You ride it like a surf board except you lay down on it rather than standing up.  

It is a much more sane sport than surfing for the elder generation.

 

The first day we stayed down at the end of the bay where the waves are not so high and the surf boarders don’t hang out.  We just wanted to get our Boogie feet wet.

 

Then we ventured down the beach where the big boys hang out. 



The waves are bigger and a lot more fun.

 

It is much more crowded with both surfers and swimmers.  The only real danger comes from running into someone or having someone run over you.  You have to watch out for what is behind you and what is in in front you.

I could always find Gail.  She was the one with the long sleeved shirt and holding the board over her head for shade.

 

We would take turns resting and trying to take action shots of each other.

 

 It is a fun time and lots of people were enjoying themselves,

 

especially Gail.

Santa Cruz Lunch



Across the street from the department store (where everything was on sale for half off) was the school. 

 



Since it was about noon, the students were getting out.   The first thing they did was to head for something to eat.
In grade school there are two shifts per day.  The first shift starts at seven in the morning and goes until about noon.   The second shift starts at about noon and goes until five.
When you enter high school, you go all day.
Everyone wears a uniform (at this school the boys had beige pants and white shirts--the girls had plaid skirts and white tops).

We were also hungry so we headed back to our van and set off to find the women’s cooperative restaurant called Coope-Tortillas that we had heard about.  This is a restaurant founded by a local woman to help create jobs.  It serves “tortillas baked the old-fashioned way—on thick, round plates on an open fire”.  It is one of the few places that still serves traditional Guanacasteco food. Our driver turned down an alley and parked by a pavilion filled with picnic tables.  

After getting out of the van, several of us went to see the kitchen.  There were all of these pots arranged on an open fire.

You had your choice of pork, beef, or chicken for your tortillas.

There was also a big pot of black beans.

And...........................something else?!?!?

When you put all of this together and add a little coleslaw and rice, it looks pretty good.

 

Although I took this picture before they served our drinks, we also had Tamarindo tea, made from the seeds of the Tamarindo tree, which is what the town where we are staying is named after.

It turned out to be a very educational and entertaining day in addition to finding a few sales.

Santa Cruz Shopping

When I hear someone talk about the town of Santa Cruz, I immediately think of California.  However, there is a Santa Cruz here in Costa Rica as well.  It is located about an hour and a half by car south and east of Tamarindo in the province of Guanacaste.  It is the second largest city in the province.  The largest city is Liberia where the new airport is located that we flew into to get here.  Rumor had it that there was good shopping in Santa Cruz so eight of us hired a van and decided to see what we could find.

 

When we arrived at Santa Cruz we did not see any high-rise buildings or shopping malls.  Instead we found a town of about 45,000 people who are mostly farmers, fishermen, and ordinary workers.  The shopping district of the town consisted of this one one-way street. 

 

Our van driver, who was very knowledgeable and spoke very good English, drove to the middle of town.  He parked across the street from this old church and by this beautiful park.  

The park was the “town square” with statues on each corner.

 

There was also a nice area where all the old men could gather and solve the problems of the day.

 

Across the street from the park was a beautiful old Catholic church.  (I am not sure what happened to the Methodists and the Lutherans when these countries were being discovered.)  Here is the steeple of the old church...

and the steeple of the new church.

 

The inside of the church was beautiful.

All around the inside were large stained glass windows in the pattern of hands in various positions.

The walls of the church were made with clay blocks, the color of terra cotta.  The blocks were hollow to allow the sun and the air to filter through.

After leaving the church we were ready to do some serious shopping.  We started walking down the street to see what kind of shops we could find.   One of the first shops we came to was a bicycle shop (our Bella Vista neighbor Josh would like this).

 

I had been wondering, if you owned a car here, are there any repair shops?    Our Costa Rica neighbor lady, who has her car for sale, told me it was difficult to find a reputable mechanic.  We did find an auto repair shop, however, located right in the middle of Main Street—it did appear to be break time though.

When we first arrived in Costa Rica, Gail and I went to Villareal and thought we had found a real treasure when we found a small floor fan.  It has been a real boon for us since we do not use air conditioning very much at all.   Wouldn’t you know though, here we found all the fans we could possibly want.

We also found a hardware store jammed full of anything you might possibly need in the way of fix it items.

 

As we continued down the street we found a Fabric Shop,

 

and a furniture store.

 

We also saw a veterinarians office/pet shop combination.

 

Almost all of the stores, just like in the US, were having a sale. (To get the price of these shoes, you just double the colones and remove the last three digits...or divide by 500.)  The cost in US dollars would be about $14.

 

The jeans in this picture are on sale for $5 and $6 and the clothes on the rack would cost $2.60.

 

And you could buy lottery tickets just about anywhere.

We followed this young woman who could hardly walk because the heels on her shoes were way too high for these ragged streets.

 

It was kinda comical so we followed her for a while.  We followed her past this relatively new Pizza Hut.

We followed her all the way to the department store that was the main objective of our trip---everything half price!!!

 

When we left we passed the rocking chair store.  I was tempted to take one of their products for a test ride.

After all this shopping we had a very unique lunch.  But, I will have to talk about that tomorrow.