Goodbye Monteverde and HELLO Tamarindo

After a solid 7 weeks of manual labor, we headed to the beach to relax a little. Saying goodbye to our families and to the people at the school was hard. We spent most of our last day hanging around the school and talking with friends at our little goodbye party. Then we took our last bus home. On the bus the kids were playing the music from Titanic (or at least trying to) on the new recorders they had all been given, making the ride truly feel like our last one. We met a group of amazing people at the school and although we were excited to travel and get home it was also sad leaving it all behind. There were two funny interns that rachel and I liked a lot. They invited us into their traditional mac and cheese thursday for lunch at school during the last two weeks.
The next morning we woke up at 5 to take the morning bus to liberia and then to tamarindo. Before leaving our families woke up with us to say goodbye. After a long day on 3 different buses we finally made it to tamarindo and crashed in the hotel Cabinas Tsunami. The hotel is a great find in Tamarindo because the rooms are cheap and right across the street from the beach. At night we hang out in the hammocks and chairs that hang from the mango trees all around the hotel. The beach here is beautiful and for the most part empty. Some days the water is calm and green and clear and others there is a small surf with all the amateur surfers trying hopelessly to stand up. On one side of the beach is a small estuary through which we sometimes swim or walk to find shells on the other beach called Playa Grande. Mostly we find Puka shells but there are also these beautiful white spiralling shells that are all over the beach. For meals we eat out by shopping at the Mega super for rice and platanos with the ocasional Mac and Cheese or Pancake dinner. Other than that, life is pretty relaxed although now that the college letters are arriving back home it feels like our break from school and stress is coming to an end.

Lou