I’m In Costa Rica Where It’s Perfectly Acceptable to Wear a Bikini 24/7

That’s correct friends, I am in the Central of America, where the sun shines for twelve hours a day no matter what and life is ruled by “Tico time,” which I think just means that everything is slower and later than you think it should or will be. Here, you really need to get up early in order to get the most out of the day because the sun rises at 5:45 and sets at 5:45 so that’s a lot of darkness later in the day. Luckily the coffee is stellar pretty much everywhere so far, so caffeine is a handy helper with those early morning times.

Not that I’ve achieved the super early wakeup call. I’m staying at Dreamsea Costa Rica surf camp where I’ll be writing blogposts for the next three and a half weeks, and early nights are not really a thing. Some of these young folks can really stay up late and get up early. My ripe old age of 26 makes me need to choose either early or late. That, or I just haven’t really adjusted to the way of life here yet. It’s a lot to take in.

I flew in to Costa Rica via Liberia where I was picked up by a camp shuttle and brought the hour to Tamarindo. The camp location is actually in the jungle, not on the beach, so I entered the scene beneath the canopy of the trees. Costa Rica is experiencing winter just like the rest of us, which means that the sun is out everyday and it rains very little. This makes the jungle dry up quite a bit, and so while there are still ever green plants and some flowers blooming, the forest is overall quite dry.

Everyday there is a shuttle in a pickup truck from camp to the beach, about a mile and a half drive away. There is also a rancher’s cattle trail through the jungle that can be taken for those of us who enjoy walking into town. The town of Tamarindo is extremely touristic, meaning that there are lots of shops selling tapestries and all the usual “tropical” souvenirs that people love to get a beaches that are grossly overpriced and probably all came from the same wear-house in Singapore. Am I jaded?

I think that I am particularly jaded in this particular environment, but I am also still adjusting. I’ve met a lot of people in the last few days, which has been great and totally overwhelming. I’ve finally figured out exactly how much money I’m spending when I lay down 1000 colones ($2 USD rounding up). I’ve gotten to know the Señora who sells fruits from her truck at a fair price and I’ve bought a fresh mango or avocado from her just about everyday (both cost a total of $3.20, which is pretty on par with US costs- and she’s the least expensive in town! An iced coffee costs about the same). I purchased my second every bikini because somehow the two piece that I own was too hot. I now understand why everyone is shirtless or in a bikini all the time. It’s hot. Hot showers do not exist here because it’s too hot. There is, however, always a break in the night, around 4:00 am when it gets pretty chilly. I’ve finally gotten a killer sunburn (whoops) and I’ve tried out surfing a bit.

Surfing, unfortunately did not go quite as well as hoped today, though. About half and hour in to the horror show that was my surfing abilities, I twisted my knee in just the wrong way and now it’s pretty injured. I am extremely bummed about this. My intention was to spend this entire month learning how to surf. Alas, I will probably loose about a week of that time now due to injury. *sigh*

Luckily I can still walk fairly well, so I might as well use this injury as an excuse to go find out what else there is to do in Tamarindo besides continually ignore the constant stream of men trying to sell me wooden bird whistles. Maybe I’ll just go hang out and speak Spanish with La Señora de las Frutas. She’s extremely kind.

Here’s to a quick recovery for my knees so I can go out and really shred some waves asap.

Molly