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| Costa Rica Honeymoon, Fall 2000: Tamarindo, Day 5
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Friday, October 27, 2000: Making ourselves at home
Today was made for exploring, and David and I spent some more time walking around the hotel grounds and Tamarindo. We discovered the Iguana Surf Shop, sort of a local legend, which actually has two outposts, including one where they rent movies (wow! This really is civilized!). The surf shop at our hotel was closed, so we weren't able to ask about renting boards, but it turned out that for $12 for a half-day you could pick up a longboard at Iguana's. Not a bad deal.
David convinced the two guys that they HAD to try surfing, and we all went off in search of surfboards. Unfortunately, my killer cold was coming back at this point, and I was feeling pretty miserable, so I opted out of the ocean experience. While David and the other two couples hit the beach, I headed back to the hotel for napping and books. David had a great time showing off to the newbies and playing surf god. Tom caught a wave on his very first try (and stood up!), but never repeated the feat. Erik, unfortunately, was hopeless. (Guess he should stick with football.)
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We discovered that our hotel hosted a small menagerie of sort: a peacock and a peahen that had the run of the place (and often ended up in the restaurant, begging for scraps); three tame scarlet macaws that hung out in the trees and called out "Hello! How are you! Buh-bye!" in English to passers-by (a sign of how many Americans visit, I guess); and even a pet howler monkey named Jemma, who lived in a large fenced cage near the parrots. I was charmed by the monkey...she had bright, shiny eyes and was very inquisitive. She was also friendly; she even let me scratch her back a few times.
At brunch, we ran into two couples we'd met the night before on the turtle tour. One couple, Kati and Erik, were from Finland; the others, Tom and Caroline, were from Chicago. Tom and Caroline, like us, were newlyweds on their honeymoon (turns out we were married on the same day). Caroline's the woman who got so horribly mangled by bugs early on in her trip. Tom worked for a global importer, while Caroline was working on her master's degree and wanted to teach third grade.
Kati and Erik were a couple who'd only been dating a few months, but had decided to travel together -- by all indications, it was a good idea. She worked as an executive secretary at a brokerage in Helsinki, while Erik (also known as Nixu) was an ex-European League football player who now owned two restaurants and three clothing stores. He was an interesting guy -- a well-traveled gourmet who told us the truth behind "fresh" fish (don't ask), regaled us with stories of travel in Singapore and various other exotic ports, and weighed in on topics ranging from politics to real estate.
We all hooked up again to go out for dinner and decided to try the restaurant (the "Garden of Eden") at the most expensive hotel in town. I happily ordered lobster soup from the menu, expecting lobster bisque. Silly me. It turned out to be a tomato-based broth with AN ENTIRE LOBSTER standing up in it. It was hysterical. I burst out laughing--unfortunately, I think the waiter felt insulted, but that's the way it goes.
We all had lobster in some way and mixed drinks called Rambos (yum). Had a great time talking and laughing with the other couples, then stumbled home (yes, we'd had a few Rambos each) and called it a night.