I only spent a day in San Jose, a very wet one, walking around the markets and seeing the few attractions there are, and luckily I didn’t get stuck on the bus from San Jose out to the Pacific. I took a 5 hr bus west to Tamarindo, a popular surf spot in Costa Rica and frequented by many tourists, and stayed at the Beach House Hostel – highly recommended to anyone who wants to stay on the beach, with surf a few steps away, for only $10 a night with some of the best staff and guests who all become like one big happy family in no time. My main contact was Murray, a British guy I met in Vancouver over 4 years ago and hearing his royal pronunciation accent came as a shock to me since I had forgotten how proper he sounded like in real life after only being in touch through Facebook.

me with Australia, Netherlands, Sweden and Costa Rica

Like a good host, he took me surfing, with the rest of the Beach House friends and family, and of course the waves kicked my butt. I was riding a nice fishtail but when those points hit you in the thigh on a missed break, they leave very large, purple bruises. I did manage to kind of catch a few, but once I came in slightly sunburnt, tired and salt rinsed, I managed to rip my toenail off on a rock. I am so accident prone to my feet, I don’t know what it is…

I decided that even though Howler monkeys are on the brink of extinction in parts of Costa Rica, I hate the obnoxious, growling sound they make constantly throughout the night, a loud sound that kind of resembles a lioness in labour outside your window. But, I do really like laying around in hammocks with a bunch of laid back surfers whose names I can’t remember, so I call them all by their country of origin since almost ever single person was from a different corner of the world.

a howler monkey with a baby dangling from its tummy strolls past trying to look innocent

I somehow got convinced to stay 3 nights in Tamarindo when I was only meant to spend one or two, but it seems like a perpetual problem with travel – you never spend as much time as youd like to when you find a place you really like. Not a bad problem to have, I guess, I just wonder what places coming up will be receiving the short end of that stick.