Piña coladas and getting caught in the rain

At the start of last week, we decided it was time for a "vaca" (no, not a cow en español. Bean and I realized I needed to add a Y to the end of that abbrev in order to make it actually read the way it sounds when I pronounce the shortened version of the word "vacation"). We planned a little playa-getaway after a rigorous final weeks of the spring semester (planning and leading debriefing, taking care of host family stuff and details of students living on/leaving campus, airport runs, hosting a conference group Wednesday 11th through Sunday 15th, and more).

This shows the Nicoya Peninsula region,
in the Guanacaste province of CR

The arrow points to where we went.

Doing some quick internet searches, researching some bus schedules, and consulting with the trusty Lonely Planet CR guidebook, we decided on a destination: Guanacaste region, Nicoya Peninsula, Pacific beaches in the Tamarindo/Playa Conchal/Playa Grande/Brasilito area (see maps for reference). Monday at 6:50am, with backpacking mochilas on, we set off in búsqueda (search) of relaxation, sun, beaches, and experiencing a change of pace/scenery off our mountain away from the CRC.

Almost nine hours and five bus rides later...
1. Monte de la Cruz into and out of San Rafael -->
2. Heredia -->
3. San José (most jerky busride ever, courtesy of an AWFUL bus driver!) -->
4. Santa Cruz -->
5. Brasilito
...we arrived in Brasilito, at the Cabinas Ojos Azules (thanks for the reference, Lonely Planet guidebook!): http://www.cabinasojosazules.com/eng/esite.htm, and to see some photos of the area: http://www.cabinasojosazules.com/eng/esite7.htm.

We took a lovely walk down the beach in the late afternoon sun, taking in the beauty of the beach. Unfortunately, my cam pooped out (again... not a big surprise) and so for the majority of the trip, Bean and Em took photos, so unless I say it's mine, all photo credit goes to Bean since she let me copy her photos!

Our $10/night hotel room...
complete with mini fridge and full bathroom!

The foliage in the jardín (garden) outside our room. 

Me and Em walking down the beach in Brasilito.

Sunset as we ate dinner on the beach at Brasilito.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent enjoyably on beaches in the area:

Biking around in the area.

Playa Conchal (crushed white shells)

• instead of sitting down to eat, we sat down to get eaten! ...by mosquitoes the first night while eating dinner on the beach (the most itchy** experience of my life I think, probably excluding the chicken pox a good 15 years ago),
• enjoying other fine oceanside cuisine over the course of the days, 
• bike riding around the small beach towns of Brasilito, Flamingo, Conchal, Potrero on cheapo mountain bikes that had seats fashioned for the male anatomy, which resulted in very sore crotch regions for us during days following our beach trip,
• reading books (one of which was begun and finished on Monday during the bus travels to our vacay destination),
• and SLEEPING! We got at least 8 hours every night we were on vacay!

**Note: antihistamine pills and anti-itch cream are now close to the top of my wish list (they're pretty expensive here!).

Our piña coladas!

We swam, played in the waves, relaxed, took in some sun... as well as some clouds and rain! On Wednesday, Bean and I had biked about 10 km down the road from where we were staying in Brasilito, doing some exploring, having a picnic lunch (and Bean was also burning the bottoms of her feet on hot black sand, regrettably). On our return trip, we stopped for some "smoothies," which ended up being alcoholic, but hey--it was after noon, right? We got back on our bikes just in time to catch the aguacero (this is a dumping-buckets, pouring-cats-and-dogs sort of rainstorm). Bean brought it to my attention that we'd just had piña coladas. And now we were caught in the rain.

The beach and harbor area in Flamingo.

The beaches in the area had signs
warning quad riders of turtles and nests

Flamingo, a highly-developed upscale resort area,
looks over the bay where posh guests and fishermen anchor their boats

The view in Potrero, where Bean and I had biked to Wednesday morning
and discovered a quiet beach in a cove, where we had our lunch...

Our atún (tunafish) and aguacate (avacado) picnic lunch on the beach,
minus the mangos that a nice lady gifted us as we walked along the beach.

The first photo my camera decided it wanted to take,
after it had spent enough time demoisturizing in that
bag of rice that sits on the mattress next to my backpack.

For our bus ride home on Thursday, my camera decided to start working again. (I think it's about time to get an underwater cam that can deal with the humidity better--are you in agreement with me, Alexandria?!) So although the window next to which I was sitting was jammed and would not open more than a crack for ventilation on the incredibly hot and stuffy 5-hour bus ride from Brasilito back to the San José area, I was able to snap some shots of the views I took in of the countryside, all the while listening to my iPod and pondering life. We disembarked the stuffy bus by the airport, hopped on another one back into Heredia, and then took the familiar 1-hour ride from there up to our mountain around 4pm (hiking from the bus stop up to our campus is a bit more taxing on the lungs and calves when hauling an extra 20-30lb. mochila on one's back!).

Scenery out of the blurred and dirty bus window on the trip home.

Friday was a day of relaxation and quiet up at the CRC... without students or other staff members. We hung out and prepped for the onslaught of what was to come with the arrival of our next group (the Wheaton College summer course; more details to come in a later post!)

Bean's compilation of photos and video clips that she put together after our little trip: