Flamingo Beach, Costa Rica – April 30 – May 7, 2011

We took an early morning transfer from La Fortuna and arrived in Flamingo Beach around noon.  The transfer over was a private van and very comfortable.  The first hour and a half was very hilly and windy as we went around Lake Arenal.  Some of the views were fantastic but the winding road was making me a bit queasy.  The weather was cloudy again so we could not see the top of the volcano but the lake was beautiful anyway.  There are many wind turbines on the ridge behind the lake and they were turning continually.  Costa Rica is definitely trying to use green energy.  The wind is quite strong in this area all of the time and wind surfing is very popular at the end of the lake.  The breeze definitely keeps the area cool, which is nice. 

The last half of the trip was totally different.  We suddenly left the rainforest and green area and entered a very dry flat area of the county, almost like the South Okanagan in a dry summer.  We crossed canals on several occasions and these bring water from Lake Arenal to the drier area for irrigation.  Strangely enough, one of the main crops in this dry area is rice, which grows in fields of water.  Go figure.  Another important crop is watermelon and I can attest to the fact that the watermelon is good here.  The cattle industry is also very strong in this area.  The river beds are quite deep and wide in some cases but there is literally no water running in the basin.  One really good thing about this part of the trip was that you actually got almost straight roads – something that’s very unusual in Costa Rica!

We went through many small towns.  I didn’t know most of the names and have forgotten most of those that I did know.  I remember going through Nuevo Arenal, which is the new town that was established after the eruption of the volcano destroyed the old town – the one now at the bottom of Lake Arenal.  That was pretty early in the journey.  And I remember Liberia, which is close to the end of the journey.  Liberia is a much larger centre and has an airport.  Next week we fly back to San Jose from here and it is about an hour’s drive from where we are staying.  Just before arriving at our hotel we hit some of the famous beaches on the Pacific Coast and they really did look very nice and not very busy. 

The Flamingo Beach Resort is right on the beach.  Well, technically it is across the road from the beach but it’s not a very busy road so it almost seems like you’re right on the beach.  All of the beaches in Costa Rica are public so the resorts cannot claim any private piece of beach.  Flamingo Beach is about 2 km in length and it has soft white sand.  The beach slopes gently into the water and, depending on the tide, sometimes you have to walk quite a distance before it gets deep.  The waves are very irregular and not very large.  The water is refreshing but certainly not very cold. 

There are animals right at the resort so we shouldn’t have to pay to go on a tour to see them.  Last night coming back to the room there were four raccoons by the steps.  At lunch there were several birds hanging around looking for scraps and one of them was a beautiful blue bird with a white belly, a black head crest like a quail’s and a long blue tail feather.  He was pretty bold and it was no surprise to learn he was of the jay family.  There are lizards and iguanas around the grounds and some of the iguanas are really large.  There was one down by the pool trying to get someone’s food today and he was probably four feet long from nose to end of tail.  And when he opened his mouth to snap at the container his mouth opened at least five inches.  You definitely wouldn’t want to argue with him if he was trying to get your dinner.  The employees do try to move them away so they don’t bother people but most people seem to find them interesting.  I thought the young guy today was going to try feeding the iguana but he was just trying to get the food away and off to the garbage. 

The guard one morning at breakfast was trying to scare away squirrels.  What caught our attention was a coconut falling to the ground.  The guard came over and picked it up and it had a hole in one end and was virtually empty.  Then we saw the guard trying to chase away a squirrel.  It didn’t work and we later saw at the top of the tree a squirrel hang upside down by its back legs and grab a coconut with its front legs and then start biting into the bottom of the coconut.  Pretty soon the liquid was running out of the coconut so the squirrel just hung upside down and drank it.  Then he started pulling out the inside flesh of the coconut and started eating that – all while hanging upside down.  

For the first afternoon at the resort I simply sat on the beach and read a book.  I went in the water a couple of times to get cooled off but basically I just sat in the shade and relaxed.  Around 6 p.m.  I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset out over the Pacific.  They say their sunsets here are always beautiful so I guess I’ll have to check it out every night and see if it’s true.  The weather here is very hot at close to 40 degrees Celsius but it’s quite bearable as there is always a breeze and the humidity is quite low because it’s dry season.  They will soon be entering rainy season and there are indeed clouds in the sky in the afternoon and it look like it could rain anytime.  The clouds are actually really nice just to cut the heat from the sun.

On the second day I went for a walk from one end of the beach to the other between 7 and 8 a.m.   The sun was already hot and I should have had sun screen on but I didn’t.  I guess my tan will just get darker.  Of course it couldn’t get much lighter as I’m still pretty white.  After breakfast I sat around the pool in the shade until about 2 p.m. when it got just a bit too hot for my comfort despite several dips in the pool.  I then went to the room and had some lunch and tried to get caught up on some blogging and travel planning.  That actually became my routine for several days the week.  It’s just too hot to do anything else.  The humidity is still low, which is a blessing, but the temperature is always in the high 30’s and feels like the low 40’s.  That’s about 100 degrees Fahrenheit in case you’re wondering and it is hot.

Lunch and dinner on arrival day were at the resort and the food was good.  Breakfast the next morning was also very good.  We have a fridge and toaster and blender but no stone so will be buying some specific groceries so we can at least have toast and peanut butter for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch to save a little money.  There are other restaurants around the area so we may also have to go out and try some of them for dinners. 

On the 2^nd we went on a boat trip.  Some people went snorkeling and others went diving.  We went out to the Catalina Islands, which are just off the coast of Flamingo Beach.  There are many small islands in the area and some of them have quite unique shapes.  Hat Island, as our guide called it, looks like a low brim and then a high hat.  The other guide called it Sombrero Island and that seemed more fitting so I think something was lost in the translation from our guide.  I believe the guide said the islands were formed by volcanoes, which would seem appropriate in Costa Rica.  The shore line of all the islands is very rugged looking and there were no sandy beaches. 

The divers in the group went down in one spot and the snorkelers went around to the other side of the island.  We snorkeled for 30 minutes with a guide and he was very good.  He would dive down to the bottom and bring up different star fish for us or point out round stingrays.  I might not have noticed these things otherwise.  There were other fish swimming around but not a lot of them and not many brightly coloured ones.  There was very little coral but some tiny colourful pieces were visible.  I guess more will grow in the future.  The current was very strong and the rocks didn’t look very inviting so it was a tough snorkel for me but okay.  The other tough thing was seeing jelly fish swim by and trying not to panic as I tried to avoid them.  I have a healthy respect for jelly fish and normally like to avoid them totally.  However, the guide said these ones were basically harmless and no one got stung so I guess we didn’t have anything to worry about – despite the fact that I worried anyway.  When the snorkelers were all back on the boat it then went back to pick up the divers.  We then drove to another spot and repeated the same routine.  Their air tanks were good for an hour and we snorkeled for 30 minutes so with the change in location for divers and snorkelers it worked out well.  I should note that the divers also saw seahorses but we snorkelers did not.  Apparently there was a white seahorse and it was the first the guides had ever seen. 

Along the way out and back we did see other sights such as a beautiful dolphin that swan right alongside of us and then crossed in front of us and disappeared.  There were birds following the boat and at first I thought they were seagulls but then I saw one dive into the water so I knew it wasn’t a seagull.  I still don’t know exactly what they were but they would hit the water full speed and supposedly pick up some little fish that was swimming close to the surface.  The birds did not go very far into the water so the fish could not have been very deep.  It was actually quite funny watching these birds do a nose dive into the water and then bounce right off it because their bodies weren’t streamlined enough to continue into the water.  We also saw what looked like very turbulent water where it was rushing over rocks or something.  However, when we got closer it was obvious that it was fish jumping about.  At times there were three or four huge patches of white caps and froth and it turned out just to be tuna jumping.  They were definitely small tuna only a couple feet long, but they were really active and churning up the water.  It was quite amazing to see.

Did you know that pelicans fly in group and use a V formation much the same as Canada Geese use?  I didn’t know that but it was first noted in Chile and I’ve noticed it a few times since.  The pelicans here definitely fly in V formation and there can be twenty or thirty of them in flight at once.  Who knew?

We discovered there really isn’t much in this area to do.  However, the beach is great and the pool at the resort is great.  There are books to read in a book exchange at the resort and there are blogs to write.   And that is how I passed most of my time – sitting at the pool or beach reading until about 2 p.m. and then  moving indoors to get cleaned up and do some work, then dinner and more reading before bed.  It’s a tough life but I tried my best to survive it – at least for one week.

Food wise we definitely survived the week although the toast and peanut butter for breakfast and the cheese sandwiches for lunch were definitely getting a bit boring.  We went down the street to Marie’s Restaurant one night and I had ribs.  They were delicious.  We went back another night and I had the red snapper.  It was also delicious.  Another night we went to Angelina’s Restaurant and it was also good but more expensive.  I think I had tilapia that night.  I had red snapper again another night in Amberes Restaurant and it was also very good.  The chocolate mousse there was delicious!  And one night we went to the local pizza place where the food was good and the price was even better.  Other meals were at the resort.  We were the only people in some of these restaurants so it’s definitely low season and there aren’t many tourists around. 

I have to say that, although I didn’t see all of them, the sunsets were always very beautiful on Flamingo Beach.  The Catalina Islands are just off shore and the sun always set just between two of the islands.  I took way too many pictures of sunsets but who cares.  They can be deleted later if needed.  The last night was very windy and cloudy and I didn’t go down to see the sunset and someone said it was the best one of the week.  Oh well, I still saw some good ones.

So what else happened this week?  Well, I took a cheese sandwich down to the poolside one day and an iguana jumped up on the chair and then up on the table beside me.  I quickly grabbed my sandwich and jumped off my chaise lounge and the iguana jumped down and wandered all over my towel looking for food.   I was not impressed.  On the last day two other girls were having the same problem and the iguanas just didn’t want to leave.  Yes, they had two iguanas after them, one from each side, which was even worse than my experience.   I guess the other discovery is that there are not just little waves here on the beach.  Sometime they get quite big and look like you could surf on them except that they break really close to the shore.  I got hit by one and it was a lot of water hitting all at once and not a very nice feeling.  My bathing suit and hair and ears were totally full of sand and I’m still clearing it out.  I never went in the ocean again.  The pool looked much calmer and more inviting.

Well, I guess that’s just about it for Costa Rica.  Tomorrow we’re off for the airport in Liberia to fly to San Jose and then on to Guatemala City, Guatemala to start that adventure.  We certainly didn’t see everything there was to see but I think we did a good job at visiting a lot of places in just two weeks.  We’ve visited the capital of San Jose, toured the rainforest of Tortuguero on the east coast, visited the Arenal volcano area in the centre, and walked Flamingo Beach and went snorkeling on the west coast.  It was all interesting and beautiful, and the people were wonderful.  It would definitely be a place I would recommend to others.