Goodbye’s are hard. We are anticipating ours – one month from today.
It’s difficult not to “go there” yet, considering we have had so many happy Hello’s as of late. We have been blessed over the last five months in Tamarindo to have made so many new friends while also welcoming friends from home to Tamarindo.
Prairie and Tom and their three kids – Will, Sydney and Kate visited Tamarindo two weeks ago. With three kids under the age of five in tow, they still enjoyed the surf, horseback riding and a river trip with dangling chickens and jumping crocs, (LOVE CR). We were lucky enough to have time with them here at the house, another amazing evening at Bamboo and sunset cocktails on Playa Tamarindo.
Uncle John arrived a few days later. Oh, those late night flights into Liberia. The kids had a hard time going to bed knowing that Uncle John would be arriving late that evening. After a long flight from California, through Denver, then Houston, he arrived in Liberia and was shuttled to Casa Colorado by 10 p.m. While sleep deprived and exhausted, he was ready to decompress out by the pool. It’s always fun to welcome someone in the dark, (thinking back to our arrival in Tamarindo), knowing what they get to see and experience when the sun comes up in the morning.
The kids were excited to have John here for their surf competition on Saturday and to watch him catch some waves of his own. Prairie and Tom inspired us to finally take the trip to Palo Verde today. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), we didn’t have a guide who baited the crocs with chickens. Nor did we have the coveted white faced monkeys jump onto our boat. But it was still a great river trip down to the Nicoya Peninsula, including a visit to historic Nicoya, and a visit to Guaitil to see how local pottery is made.
During the last week, we made some new friends and said goodbye to some new (old) friends. Yesterday, we said goodbye to Frank and Elsy. Besides Luciano, (our driver), and Pino, (the hotel owner who opened our door), Frank was the first person we met in Costa Rica. He showed up to our door early our first morning in Costa Rica. We were so white, and so “green.” We didn’t know what was going on, but he got all three kids in the Luna Llena pool that first morning. Ben and Jacob were taught how to practice covering their head while falling off a surfboard. Abby was basically taught how to swim.
Before we knew it, he had us all in the ocean learning how to surf. That evening, he took us on our first walk to watch the sunset on the point at Langosta. Little did we know at this time that he and his family would become part of our Costa Rican family. Frank, Elsy and Omar were such an integral part of our first months in Costa Rica. They taught us how to surf, took us to the most amazing beaches in Guanacaste, helped us with our Spanish, invited us into their home and so much more.
Today, they returned to Venezuela to start their own surf school, Aloha y Olas. We plan to visit and surf with them on Isla Margarita, off the northern coast of Venezuela. We are so thankful to have met them upon our arrival in Costa Rica and to say goodbye to them with our new friends Amy and Brian, Uncle John and friends Carrie and Brian.
