The afternoon after our hike to the cloud forest, we set off for Tamarindo! But my shoes were so soaked from the hike that we had to stop at the one plaza in Monteverde and pick up a new pair. I ended up picking up a pair of hiking boots for $49 CAD! I was stoked and they have served me well since. I was so thrilled to declare them as a purchase at customs on my way back to Canada.

Tamarindo is a coastal town that is known for the perfect waves to learn to surf. They aren't super big but just right for beginners! We drove in and this is where we discovered my camera's SD card was corrupted. We saw the sunset and pulled up to take pictures from the beach... but it was over. I was distraught and I couldn't enjoy the sunset that day. I had an extra SD card, but those pictures were forever gone. I went to BestBuy back in Toronto and found out it would cost me $299 to recover them. But in writing this blog, I think it may be worth it… I want to see the sloth!!!

The Selina in Tamarindo was not quite as nice. It was a bit older and there was a ton of construction... it would start at 6 am on a Sunday morning. There were lots of mosquitoes too so you'd think this would have been a terrible three days... but it was great. That night, we went out to “Sharky's” which is the local sports bar in Tamarindo. There were a ton of Canadians in Tamarindo and the bar had an average of one TV per Canadian in the bar... literally, TVs everywhere! We got seats super easily and we showed up right before tip-off (kind of thankful I wasn't in Toronto at this point given how easily we were able to be seated). You know the rest of it... the Raptors win, they get the title, and then I became best friends with any Canadian I met that night at Sharky's. We had surfing lessons the next morning at 10 am but these did not go well.

I ended up taking a nap after that and this day was a bit of a waste… We got some tacos that evening and ran into a few people who we had met in Monteverde.

The next day, we booked a Catamaran tour which took us snorkelling and through some coastal scenery. Really beautiful scenery:

That evening, we were playing cards with some of the other people in our room at the hostel bar and that's where we made some other Canadian friends! They were from Calgary and we ended up spending the next four days travelling together. They had just arrived and introduced us to convenience store beer (same beer, double the size, half the price). We ended up going out with them that night.

My friend who I was travelling with really enjoyed surfing and so he was planning on taking another lesson. I, on the other hand, was already a day behind and not ready to try it again… instead, I heard about this volcano about an hour away that was supposed to be a cool place to check out along with a waterfall. I was ready to drive anywhere in this beautiful country and so I invited our new Canadian friends with us and we headed up there the next morning! It ended up being an awesome day of good driving, swimming under a waterfall and hiking on a volcano! We even saw some cool animals!

We decided to top it off by getting McDonald's on the way back along with the stop at the waterfall. The waterfall was amazing, the McDonald's was alright. The water was crystal clear at the base of the waterfall and you could jump off a ledge on the side!