Costa Rica - Sept 2009

This year's relaxing vacation was a week at Tamarindo Beach on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. After our flights to Miami and San Jose, we had a four hour car ride to the condo (pictured above). The ride wasn't really that bad, except for the last half hour on a dirt road. The condo had a fantastic view of the ocean and beautiful sunsets (see below).

This is the waterfall in our pool.

No - I did not go surfing. I leave that to my sister. The waves were not very high, but there were plenty of surfer boys showing their skills. We didn't really spend much time on the beach - since the rental chairs were too uncomfortable to sit in, and the umbrella was at least 15 years old - not providing a lot of protection.

Here's one of the many sunsets we saw each evening. It rained most afternoons, which helped to bring the temperature down.

I don't know how I got this affect, probably after too many gin and tonics. It was fun walking the beach, especially in the evening.

This was the sunset on the last night of our trip.

The hightlight of the trip was our ziplining adventure. We drove to the rain forest and managed to find a small hotel with ziplining - not the one we were looking for, which was about an hour and a half from where we ended up. The last time we went to Costa Rica I paniced and would not go ziplining. This time we were both pros - flying from tree to tree at at least 50 mph, or was that kph. It was a lot of fun - and I hope my niece Rachel gets to do it one day.

This final picture truly describes our trip. Our meal - every night except one - was rice, beans and chicken, which always came with a small salad and squash. We call it the standard dinner in Costa Rica. It was just as good as we remembered it four years ago. We also had it the first night we were home.