April 16, 2001
Subject:  Hola de la Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica


Here we go again...

Hey everyone,

Greetings from the beautiful Playa Tamarindo on the
Peninsula De Nigoya in Costa Rica.  It's a beautiful
little village on the Pacific Coast in this tiny
Central American country.  My girlfriend, Jen, and I
are on a two week (Get away from it all( little
vacation and having one hell of a time.

We flew in last Wednesday and arrived in San Jose, the
capital city around 8pm after a gruelling 13 hour
ordeal changing planes in Newark and Houston.  We were
met at the airport by the car rental company, which was
unexpected.  Driving from the airport into San Jose
was easy, it was the one way streets all over the place
that made finding our hostel quite the experience.

The first morning, we drove to Volcan Poas.  A popular
(touristy) volcano about two hours away from San Jose.
It was beautifully sunny, but as soon as we hit the
higher grounds, it was cloudy.  So cloudy that we were
looking into the mouth of the volcano and we couldn't
see a thing.  We definitely could smell the sulfur
emanating from the crater, but not a site to be seen.
Good hiking up to the crater though.

That afternoon, we drove to Fortuna in the rainforests
to see Arenal, Costa Rica's most famous volcano.  It's
exactly what you would expect a volcano to look like:
a cone shaped mountain peering high up with a constant
supply of glowing red lava dripping from its crater.
Or so we saw in the pictures.  It poured the whole
time we were there (2 days).  Just as you think the rain
couldn't get any harder, it did.  Guess that's why
they call this the rainforest ;-)

The following morning, Jen and I went for a little walk
to a waterfall, followed by a morning in the hot
springs at Baqo Tamarindo.  It was so relaxing.  It
was the Costa Rican Holy week, the week before Easter.
This is the week that all Costa Ricans travel around
their country and everything is pretty much shut down.
Luckily we didn't have too much trouble finding places
to stay, but most of the tourists were from Costa Rica.

That afternoon, we joined a canopy tour of the
rainforest.  This included a horse ride through the
rainforest, a small hike, and zip-lining from tree
to tree.  It was cloudy and raining, so it didn't
seem like much other than fun for the first zip-line.
You're attached by a climbing harness to a pully
on the cable.  Then gravity takes over and you zip
along to the next platform, slowing yourself down
with a leather glove that they give you.  The first
line was fast and fun and you didn't seem too high
above the ground.  But it was so cloudy that visibility
was limited.  All of the sudden you see the silhouette
of a large tree coming quickly for you, you grab
the cable as hard as you can so you can slow down and
stop above the platform.  That was alot of fun.  Then
standing on the platform, the clouds suddenly clear
for a few minutes and you realize the platform is
suspended in a tree 150' above the ground.  There is
no way to get down other than the next zip line.
Needless to say I was a little scared, but love the
adrenaline rush.  Waiting on the platforms we were
getting soaked.  Again, that's why they call this the
rainforest.  On the second last platform, there's a
150' repel, which you control yourself, down to the
ground.  We were a little cold and wet, but all in
all Jen and I had an amazing time and it was well
worth it.  As soaked as we were, we decided to spend
the night in Fortuna again so we could warm up and
put on dry clothes.

The next morning we drove to Playa Tamarindo, where we
are right now.  We spent the last couple days relaxing
on the beach, going for alot of walks, etc.  It's so
hot and dry here, a far cry from the humid and cool
rainforests in the highlands.

This morning we got up at 6:45 am to go on a kayaking
tour of the mangrove estuaries.  It was alot of fun,
and of course Jen and I, being the kids that we are,
soaked each other with our paddles.  We saw crocodiles,
monkeys, iguanas, and tons of birds.  It was a ton of fun.

This afternoon we're off back into the highland
rainforests to Monteverde.  Depending on how we enjoy
it, we'll hike around for a couple days, then most
likely head back to the beach near Manuel Antonio.
Not 100% sure yet, but I'll keep y'all posted.

Hasta luego todos,

Rob
PS - Shouldn't have checked the NHL playoffs before
writing this email :-(