Adventures in Tamarindo

Ahhh… finally! We don’t have to get in the car first thing in the morning! It felt sooooo good to know we were settled for at least a few days.

Our first day in Tamarindo, we both had to get back to work. We had taken two weeks vacation time to make the drive, and now it was back to the grind. Only it didn’t feel like a grind, because we were working from Costa Rica! It is truly amazing, and we feel very lucky, to be able to work remotely. Plus, it had been raining pretty consistently since we pulled in, so there wasn’t a lot of walking around town we’d be able to do.

After working for most of the day, we had an appointment with a realtor to look at a place to rent, so we hopped in the Jeep and headed to a town about 30 minutes up the coast from Tamarindo.

We had been looking at a lot of rental properties online (Facebook was a great resource for this – there are lots of groups you can join specifically for rental properties in your desired area, if you’re looking), and we knew that Tamarindo was at the top of our price range, so we were already open to looking at other towns.

Interestingly, though, as we were driving through the day before and this day as we drove out to our meeting, we felt pretty quickly that Tamarindo wasn’t right for us. It definitely has a “touristy” feel to it. There are a lot of shops selling souvenirs, the restaurants are geared toward an international audience, and almost everyone speaks English. This isn’t a bad thing, especially if you’re vacationing here, it just wasn’t what we were looking for.

The town that we pulled into to look at a house that afternoon, was much more our style. Potrero immediately gives off a laid-back vibe. It’s quaint and charming, and there weren’t a ton of people everywhere. The realtor took us to the house and we gave it a tour. We really loved it!! It was on a huge lot with tons of fruit trees, had a great little kitchen, and was bigger than we expected.

After viewing the house, the realtor gave us a tour of the area. She was awesome – showing us where to eat, how close the beach was (walking distance! yeah!!), and where to shop.

As we bid goodbye to the realtor, we headed back to Tamarindo. The sun was starting to set and we hoped to get back to see the sunset. Our Google Maps navigation showed a route with a “similar ETA” off to the right… so we thought, what the heck? Let’s go for it!

What Google Maps doesn’t take into account, is that it has been raining for days. Dirt road + rain = mud. Lots and lots of mud. Sticky, thick mud. All of a sudden, we were 4-wheeling through the mud, the sun was going down, and we were in the middle of a rural part of Costa Rica with no people anywhere. I was sure we were about to get stuck. “Great,” I thought, “we make it through all of Mexico and Central America, and this is where we get stuck and robbed.”

But Nikk is a whiz when it comes to 4-wheeling and Chivo handled like a boss. Soon enough, we were out of the mud, and laughing at our own stupidity. Maybe next time we take the “similar ETA”, we should do it during dry season or daylight!

After that wild ride, we decided to stop for a beer and some dinner. Nikk had been following a new brewery on Instagram for a while, and it was right on the main road, so we parked Chivo (caked with mud) and headed to the bar. We just can’t pass up a brewery!

The next day, we received some awesome news – we were accepted to rent the house we looked at! Even though we had only looked at one place, we knew this was right for us. It had everything we wanted (except for a pool), and a bunch of extras that we never imagined we’d get, all within our budget and within walking distance to the beach. We were ecstatic!! The pics below are of the front of the house (with a cameo of Chivo) and the “yard” with fruit trees, coconut palms, and so much space!

That afternoon, the weather started to clear up a bit, so we decided to go down to the beach. Bosco was apprehensive when we put his leash on, but was all tails when we walked past the Jeep and didn’t get in! All three of us put our feet in the water and enjoyed walking up and down the beach.

We decided to grab some drinks and food while we watched the sun set, so we grabbed a beach-side table at El Vaquero, which is right next to Volcano Brewing. We had a couple of adult-beverages (another Volcano IPA for Nikk and a margarita for me) and some chips and dips. The drinks were cold and the dips were tasty, but being on the beach made it soooo much better! Unfortunately, the clouds were too thick, so there was no real sunset. Good thing we have lots more sunsets to look forward to!

The next few days were similar – working, walking to the beach, and trying to stay out of the rain. I went to a yoga class down the street from our Air BnB – it felt so good to get back to my mat! – and one morning we worked at a local coffee shop called Nordico. Walking down to the beach one day, we saw a family of red and blue crabs – about the size of a large fist – walking down the road! It was so cool!

If there’s one thing we’ve definitely learned on this whole journey so far, it is to be able to change course at any second. Three weeks ago, we were sure that we wanted to be in Tamarindo, but four days after landing there, we headed out of town and moved into our little rental house.

And best of all, we FINALLY, FULLY unpacked the Jeep. We were home.