As I said, Tamarindo definitely has a laid-back surfer vibe – and we are settling in quite nicely!

We started the week gung-ho with a major (for me) 4-mile walk to the neighboring playa (beach) and back, catching beautiful views and scrambling over volcanic rock formations.

At this point, I should tell you a little about our hosts. I mentioned before that Larry and Frank are friends from way back.  Larry recently retired, so he and his wife, Candy, are spending the winter down here.  And they are in super shape. Their normal vacations (without us) are to hike across Spain or to travel by dugout canoe with only a back-pack to their tent hotel in Nepal.  So a little 4-mile walk across volcanic boulders is just the day’s warm-up.

But as the week has gone on, we all have mellowed a bit – I’m sure they realized I couldn’t keep up with them and are too nice to say!! But now, everyone seems pretty happy to just enjoying “pura vida” (the good life) here in Tamarindo.  We go to the beach, maybe a little shopping, read by the pool, and then – my favorite – end the evening with sunset dinner on the beach.

There are a number of beach restaurants, from casual to elegant, with their tables and chairs right on the sand. They specialize in freshly caught tuna and mahi mahi, plantains in all forms, anything coconut, and pitchers of sangria.

A roving mariachi band usually wanders by and says “Hola!” (partly because I am a sucker for this and always buy a song) – and at sunset, tourists on horseback canter down the beach.  Pura Vida indeed!