up till day... 12?

I spent my weekend on the western coast of the country. A more or less developed beach called Tamarindo, where surf and sun are assured tones of the people who live there. We left early Saturday morning around 330am… went to pick up Christina (an 18 year-old dancing prodigy who won a dancing scholarship to study abroad in Cuba for a minimum of three years, but turned down the offer in reflection of home and her dog. She only now shows few signs of regret, but relieves the discord by visiting different clubs in San Jose over weekends, and has come to make a small name for herself with the club owners). We drove for four hours, me up front (two Dramamine and a juice to avoid nausea), Chris in the back, my uncle playing Ozzy and Boy George in the car: chasing the setting moon to the other side of the country.

When we arrived in Tamarindo, it was a little more urbanized than I remembered. Supermarkets had been placed just outside the town, and billboards showing off new construction plans for oceanside condominiums had been riddled with paint splatters - I only later saw stickers that said “Stop Developing Tamarindo” inside almost every single bathroom stall. My uncle, a few years back, had monopolized on the growing need for the towns internet connection, and in making good business with basically every hotel and restaurant on the peninsula, he had developed quite a large friendship base. It was only when the stickers started showing up, that other companies moved in and took over the networking connections… my uncle only now visits every once in a while, staying at the hotels which managed to survive the swell of foreign business. You should really see how many times he honks or stops on the street to say hello to old friends.

The hotel we stayed at was a restaurant/inn called FTs (or, Frutas Tropicales, for short). This place in particular used to be Tico-own (Ticos are people native to Costa Rica), but when an American business man from Los Angeles came to visit the beach a few years ago, solely on vacation, he fell in love and decided he had enough money to take over a business there. He bought-out Frutas Tropicales, and renamed it FTs. Nevertheless, the owners made a deal with the guy, and continue to work there. My uncle got us a room for two nights for about 20 bucks total… We were lucky enough to be there while the owner was also visiting as well. Young guy, about 28/30. There was a terrible gringa who managed to actually lay in his bed one night… we laughed while eating breakfast the next morning when we saw her stumbling out of the back door, eyes naked and swollen, washing her face in the sink outside the bathrooms. Poor idiot probably didn’t let herself get a wink of sleep.

The town itself is quaint. It has a very rich cultural feel to it. Not overly done where one is puking Rasta by the time they pack up and leave, but its very laid back and uniquely sociable. The food there is one-of-a-kind too, you can tell the restaurants there have been preparing their meals for years and years, each menu and dish has been perfected down to the name. I wouldn’t dare say I had the best pizza of my life there, but I do a good dare once in a while, to be quite honest. Within the two days, we managed to lay out (for both), ride ATVs for four hours along the southern coast of the peninsula and visit other beaches and towns along the way, bought my first (legal) alcoholic drink (giant goblet margarita from FTs, that I managed to completely drink, giggling hysterically as I finished off the bottom pool), danced and sang a little while drinking (my second drink, Mango Daquiri) and listening to live music from a really great performer named Tico Hendrix, had a few really good laughs, got tan, and reflected on the beachside lifestyle… which I now only realize in absence, that I want and need to experience. I’ve been oddly despondent since we arrived back in the city. Too much concrete and too many people. It’s safe to say that after just two days, I feel cheated and weighty, especially while having to comb out the single dread that formed at the base of my head over the weekend.

Im too tired to post photos now, but ill do so in good time. I leave Wednesday night, a 7:30 local time flight, landing in LAX at 11:30. Im somewhat glad my trip is almost over… although I feel like I’ve only been able to experience the city really. Next time I come, im going to stay out of San Jose as much as I can. Tomorrow im doing some last-minute shopping and packing up. Oh, I also just finished watching “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Henry Ford”. Good movie. You should see it if you havent yet.