Villas Cerca del Mar #9

04/09/2024

We get a lot of questions about shuttles from LIR to Tamarindo (and other places).

So I just wanted to do a quick post on the company I tend to use most often for myself.

https://tamarindoshuttle.com/transfers/shared-shuttles/

Happy Travels.

29/08/2024

Well done Tamarindo!

16/08/2024

13/08/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/dhHDVaKdzNzpjoFU/

Estamos súper emocionados de invitarlos a la apertura de la nueva y mejorada biblioteca para niños, Tamarindo Children's Community Library, en el DB Building en Playa Langosta (donde queda Bistro Langosta) de 10am a 2pm el Sábado 31 de Agosto ✨

Vamos a tener pintacaritas para los chiquitos, juegos divertidos dirigidos por nana Family Support y lectura de cuentos infantiles por The Bookstore of the Waves. Con el apoyo de ADIT Playa Tamarindo y de algunos de los negocios locales vamos a tener rifas con buenos premios 🌞

Vengan a ver la nueva biblioteca! Nuestros generosos patrocinadores Danny y Vanessa, dueños de Bistro Langosta, The SideBar at Bistro Langosta y The Sno Shack están construyendo un espacio super lindo para la biblioteca, con espacio para más libros que antes, luz natural, rampa para coches y un área verde en frente de la biblioteca para juegos para los chicos. Por favor apoyen este proyecto para nuestros pequeños lectores, nuestro objetivo es crear un espacio mágico para los niños de nuestra comunidad 🌈

22/07/2024

Congratulations to Tamarindo community and ADiT on another year of winning the Blue Flag Ecological Award!

For those that do not know, the The Blue Flag Ecology Program, locally known as el Programa Bandera Azul Ecológica, is a collaborative effort between multiple Costa Rican agencies, including the Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the Ministry of Environment, that recognizes participating entities for outstanding efforts in sustainability and conservation.

It is an award that must be re-earned every year, and it is a good measure of things like ecosystem health (40%), sea water quality (20%), environmentalism (20%), drinking water quality (10%), safety (5%), and administration (5%). Only beaches with a 90+% score succeed in acquiring a distinction and receiving the Blue Flag - and to keep it they are monitored on a monthly basis (if they ever slip below the criteria they will lose it).

Out of roughly 300 beaches that apply every year, only about 1/3 meet the rigorous standards for the award (this is not a quota, but rather a statement on how tough the standards are to meet in order to gain the award).

The Blue Flag represents a huge commitment to the environment and a significant, ongoing, community effort to earn and keep it. For visitors, it is an assurance of quality, commitment, and sustainability to the ecosystem and environment. It means the waters and the land will be clean, healthy, and sustainable and are among the best Costa Rica has to offer visitors.

(This award also applies to Playa Langosta - for those not familiar, the north part of Playa Langosta is shown in the first image, and Playa Tamarindo is shown in the second. Playa Langosta also extends a mile south and runs alone side the Los Baulas National Park. I also expect that Playa Grande will announce shortly as they also quality every year and are an excellent beach and community).

07/07/2024

Hurricanes and Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is on the Earth’s equator, and one overlooked benefit of being close to the Earth’s equator is that the Coriolis Effect is weak, this means for storms such as hurricanes, they are forced to turn north into increased Coriolis Effect to maintain themselves - mostly missing Costa Rica in the process - or dissipate in energy become weaker tropical storms.

Cumulative tracks of all retired Atlantic hurricanes (1953–2018)

(Costa Rica Is that little section toward the bottom of Central America that is consistently missed.

25/06/2024

This is one of the first photos I took of Las Baulas National Park near the San Francisco Estuary (those are the tributaries that feed into the estuary). I don't think I've posted it before - because without context I don't think it tells much of a story to the uninformed viewer. Never the less it is one of my favorites, and I thought I'd share it here because it is a view most people don't get to see.

Enjoy.

02/06/2024

Saw these and thought I'd share. Might be a fun way to announce a family trip to Costa Rica - just by one for everyone going, wrap them up, and get to get together for the opening!

If you miss Costa Rica, then this is the perfect design to express that. Features cute symbols of Costa Rica in a vintage style. Makes a funny gag gift for anyone who loves to travel and can’t wait to hop on a plane.

09/05/2024

Just FYI - the US CDC is updating the rules from bring dogs back form Costa Rica.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/health/cdc-dog-import-rules?cid=ios_app&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2FmJ9HVdpGf_hk7J_qLv90QzxwpP7lUACMB2soWMJYIMaXzTXdSVKwFjY_aem_AdQnCauXgRsPFDxv78V0RgzP9bF2UoIp4Vh0qZOYoGLMUl3t9hh6cHrsUYl6gSupOr5NmkHAh42MIswbFil1AVZg

The United States has new rules for how dogs are brought into the country, and they go into effect in August.

29/04/2024

I love Mytanfeet.com - they have great information - and I have to say while the weather is perfect in Dry season (less humidity) green season has my heart because everything is blooming, and the number of visitors is down so the wildlife makes more appearances.

Rainy season is upon us soon here in Costa Rica. It's already starting to transition from dry season to rainy season in some places, such as the mountains, rainforests and the Central Valley. We're still waiting for rain here in Guanacaste but it's been getting a bit cloudier and darker in the afternoons so fingers crossed it rains soon as we really need it!

For visitors, rainy season is NOT a bad time to visit despite what you may read or hear. It's actually a magical time to see Costa Rica! Wildlife watching glory, epic surfing waves, tropical lightning storms, cooler temperatures. Here are more reasons to visit Costa Rica in the rainy season and our tips for a stress free vacation: https://mytanfeet.com/costa-rica-travel-tips/visit-costa-rica-in-rainy-season/

11/04/2024

I constantly get the question, are there any good Sodas in Tamarindo? So today I want to highlight a few Sodas in Tamarindo. Sodas are the local family restaurants that cook traditional Costa Rican foods.

Full disclosure, I've only eaten at one of them (The Red Van Lady), but the others are on my list - and my good intentions to try them just seem to evaporate when I see The Red Van Lady on the way to them and her Casado Mica calls to me. The Red Van Lady, like The Blue Car Lady, sells from the back of the Red Minivan that she parks near the "Y" in the center of Tamarindo close to lunch time. Generally just west of the Y, under the shade trees on the south side. She is a bit of a legend, and the food is excellent. It tends to run about 3 colons for a plate.

The Sodas are (and there are probably more):
-Soda Buffet El Estero (near the entrance to Tamarindo)
-Sazón Criollo Tamarindo (In the Ally behind Rumors near the center of Tamarind)
-The Red Van Lady (Near the Y in Tamarindo by Rumors)
-The Blue Car Lady (Near the Casino in Tamarindo)

I feel this is also a good time to give a shout out to the local street food vendors who grill various things on small barbecues along the street, and sometimes on the beach. Also to the local Coco Loco vendors who sell their drinks on the beach in Tamarindo (they will not be on Playa Langosta), as well as those vendors that sell their foods in Places like the Thursday Night Market and the Saturday Famers Markets.

All told, people say there are over 200 places to eat in Tamarindo Costa Rica, and they really do run the full range from the very basic to the very fancy - and they do it with all kinds of cuisines fusing with the local flavors.

10/04/2024

Just a quick update, Los Jobos, which is the back road to Villareal is closed because it is being paved (which is really great).

Because Google maps is what it is, the road is shown here as a walking path (the grey path not the blue one - in Googles defense, sometimes that road feels like it was a walking path rather than a road).

When they finish though, everyone in Langosta will be able to bypass the congested part of Tamarindo and get easily to Villareal. :)

25/03/2024

The San Francisco Estuary (December 24th 2023).

I often get the question what it is like to swim in it and do I think it is safe for kids, and I thought I'd post this short video as one possible answer to let you judge for yourself.

Enjoy.

19/03/2024

Today, I'm going to do something a little different.

We had medium term guests stay at our Villa for 2 months January - February of 2024. As they integrate back into their US life I asked them if they would share some thoughts from their stay as they were now experienced as locals and there is always something to learn, good or bad.

I'm putting their response here, unedited less our email header being removed, in case it is useful to you. I will also add for context they were older and have mobility issues, and we worked with them to secure a golf cart prior to their arrival for the duration of their stay.

And finally that I whole heartedly agree with their recommendations on Waffle Monkey and Little Luca (which is next to the Tarmaindo Night Market which happens Thursday nights). Also Noi's has an amazing homemade condiment sauce which is more than a little addictive when applied to eggs and other breakfast foods.

Happy Travels.

29/02/2024

Lately I've seen a lot of questions on keeping your valuables safe while you travel around (I realize Villa9 may not be the only place you stay - or even the place you stay, and I'm okay with that, I appreciate you following us and the consideration you have given us).

In today's post I want to cover a little bit about how we keep our valuable safe when we travel - because we travel with a number of items that are important to us and often do not fit in a guest safe even if a working safe is provided (by the way, there is a programable guest safe provided in our Villa, and there are also others steps we take to keep you and your valuables safe in our Villa, and I'll cover that in another post).

There are typically 2 strategies used to by travelers for keeping things safe.

The first is to hide things - I'm not a big fan of this, partly because I forget where I've hidden things, and partly because you can never tell what is on the cleaning agenda for the maids. I've seen everything from money in chapstick tubes to putting it in your dirty laundry or under the mattress or hanging in back of the drapes - you name it, people offer it as an idea.

The second is to leverage your own travel safe - this sounds harder than it is. Really there are 2 easy ways of doing this.

Before we cover those methods, it is first recognize that zippers are the weak point in your luggage security.

Locked luggage that uses zippers can be quickly and easily be opened by using a ballpoint pen to apply pressure to the zipper (unless the zippers are specially built - and most luggage doesn't use these as they feel harder to zip and unzip which makes people think they are cheap zippers). More, if your zippers are self healing, as most are, they can then be resealed after opening so that you never know your locks were bypassed and that the suitcase was opened in the first place.

So for method one, we travel with luggage that has no zippers. We use hard sided luggage with a frame seal (that is what is called) instead of a zipper. These cases have built in combination locks (we have luggage with 2 combination locks on each suitcase - set to different combinations).

As a side note, TSA compliant locks are not great for security because they all have a TSA key bypass access - and TSA bypass keys can be purchased on Amazon for $5 by anyone (with no security verification), and a lot of hotels and property mangers buy them in case guests forget their combinations or lose their keys to help save a trip. The TSA locks do however help deter crimes of opportunity and are better than leaving things in the open.

Step two is a security cable & lock which is used to tether the luggage to something bulky or secure - this prevents the luggage itself from being easily and quietly taken.

The idea then is to lock the laptops and tablets and drones etc into the hard sided luggage with no zipper, and cable that luggage to something in the place you are staying. You have then created your own travel safe.

If you want to take that a step further you could also either use the cable to wrap the luggage so it has to be removed before opening or buy a non-TSA security strap to wrap around the luggage. We never do either of these things as they are a bit of a pain in the ass when you want access to your stuff or what to put stuff away - really we are just trying to prevent easy crimes of opportunity understanding that we will not defeat a skilled and determined criminal.

The second method of a Travel Safe is to actually buy a produced intended to be a Travel Safe such as the Pacsafe Travelsafe X15 Liter Portable Lockbox for Travel. This is essentially a bag with a locking top and cable for security it to something ((the sides are a steel wire cage covered with a soft fabric). You put the items in the travel safe, draw the top closed and secure the cable to something bulky. These can be handy as you can easily replace the TSA lock they come with to a non-TSA lock. Better yet they can be taken with you and used in a way your hard sided luggage cannot be (they often come with shoulder straps). For example let's say you want to go swimming and have things you want to keep dry and locked away. They can be stowed in the bag securely and the bag can be tethered securely to something immobile while you swim. The downsides are 1) cost (about US$200, 2) you've announced to everyone you have things worth stealing and that you don't trust them, 3) added weight (about 2 pounds), 4) they may not fit want you want. I've also seen them used to secure things in vehicles (cabling them to the seats).

Finally while we are talking about it, when buying a combination lock, be aware these are often easy and quick to pick with no tools. Ideally you'd really like one with 4 digits (to defeat brute force attacks), and ideally with false gates (which at least will require a specialized tool to pick). They certainly do make more secure combination locks (see Abus Locks), but these tend to go up in price and weight. A good compromise here is the Abus 183AL and a more secure version (recommend by locksmiths) would be the Abus 190CS/60 series 2.

Security is really about picking a series of compromised of easy over difficulty. There are no perfect solutions, so what you have here are some of the ideas we've employed (hard-sided no zipper luggage and a security cable). As the old saying goes, “locks are to help keep honest people honest.”

On other thing I'll add here is that where it makes sense we leveraging electronic payments via our phones and watches rather than handing over physical credit cards.

Also we have water resistant iPhones (yes I go swimming with my iPhone 14 tethered to my pocket which is also zipped - be aware it will diminish the sound quality for uptown a couple of days as the water needs to dry out of the microphones and speakers, but since I mostly leverage WhatsApp chat and messages, this is to a big deal to me. I don't suggest doing this if you have not backed up your iPhone and aren't prepared for the risk of damaging it. I'm simply saying what I do, and that I'm not responsible for the risks you accept and take.

As always I wish such topics were not something that needed to be talked about, but an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure.

Happy Travels.

18/02/2024

Since we have many new followers, I thought it was worth mentioning that I maintain a pretty comprehensive Google Document about Costa Rica and our area. I started it as research before we bought our place, and then it morphed into a Onboarding Document to help family and friends come visit us, and finally it has become a document aid for our guests and people visiting the area.

It's made up of both my writings as well as everything I could scrap from the web (but organized so that the duplicate stuff is mostly removed and it is more searchable that Google these because there is no SEO in it).

It's currently about 800 pages (mostly pictures and spacing), and broken into 3 Parts.

Part 1: Know Before You Go - all the information you want prior to your trip from entry and airports to weather and holidays to why the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica is less salty than just about anywhere else in the world (this also means you aren't caked with salt after you get out of the ocean as you would be in Florida - 302 pages)

Part 2: Things to Enjoy - Food Tourism, Fruit Tourism, Drinks, places in and around Tamarindo, tours, etc (472 pages)

Part 3: Data & Statistics on Costa Rica - things you may want to know if considering moving or investing (114 pages)

If you think it might be help and would like access to it, send me a message with your email and I'll cause Google Docs to share it with you.

Happy Travels.

13/02/2024

Found a wonderful playlist on YouTube of Tamarindo and thought I'd share.

Looking for places to go in Tamarindo? Look no further! In this playlist you'll find the best activities, tours, places to eat and accommodations in Tamarind...

13/02/2024

Nature Happens in Costa Rica

Just silly little video with an honest reaction of us recording xmas videos when a visitor entered the area and we spotted him. He's since been named Irving and we are happy to have him as a neighbor as well as when he comes to visit.

Dec 2023.

10/02/2024

I created this image for a discussion with someone on Facebook of La Fortuna vs Tamarindo.

Hopefully the pictures say a thousand words, and to it I'll add just a couple of extra numbers.

To these I will add that Tamarindo is roughly 5,000-6,000 people while La Fortuna is 15,000+.

It is estimated that La Fortuna gets 10x the traffic of Arenal Parks yearly visitors (Arenal gets 150,000 visitors yearly) which would be upwards of 1.5 million visitors (Costa Rica gets between 2.4 Million and 3 Million visitors yearly).

07/02/2024

Beach massages are a popular past time. You can find them on both Playa Langosta (you have to know where to look) as well as Playa Tamarindo (everywhere).

They tend to run between $30-$75 depending on where you are looking (the southern part of Playa Tamarindo is cheaper than the northern part where it is more visitor dense), who you are talking to, and what time of year it is. If you are friendly and make an effort on Spanish (and there isn't a lot of demand), $30 - 45 can be had year round (do keep in mind that the per capita of Costa in 2023 was US$15,000 when you are negotiating - $30 is a lot of money.

If you are using US money make sure it is not damaged or torn in any way (no one in Costa Rica accepts damaged US Dollars because they have no way to exchange them to non-damaged dollars).

The people working beach massage tend to pack up and be gone by 3pm.

For Playa Langosta, Aleyda has a spot hidden inside the trees. You can find it by walking south on Playa Langosta toward the Estuary San Francisco and looking for her pink sign - which will be there when she is.

For Playa Tamarindo they are everywhere. - though again they become increasingly expensive as you move north up Playa Langosta in our experience. :-)

Of course you can also arrange a massage in the VIlla or go down the street to Cala Luna's Spa, or to half a dozen other locations around Langosta and Tamarindo.

05/02/2024

Trying a new informational photo.

(September 2023)

31/01/2024

I often get questions about seeing Sloths when staying in the Tamarindo area (sloths inhabit rainforest areas).

Thanks to the wonderful people at MyTanFeet.com I now have detailed answer, writeup with pictures and video, and tour from Tamarindo I can point to - The Bijagua Rainforest and Sloth Tour.

It's about a 2.5 hour ride from Tamarindo to the Bijagua area for this tour - and yes they will drive you round trip.

More information here:

https://mytanfeet.com/activities/guanacaste-rainforest-sloth-tour/?fbclid=IwAR3s69o2w58l2WjmuYRN0wBUG5a3VnYVR8dAgtJdK_u3bT25-4gcVPvH9ok

(Also worth saying, while I recommend MyTanFeet - this tour is also available for others if you want to shop around).

Complete your Costa Rica beach vacation with this Guanacaste rainforest sloth tour day excursion to experience the primary rainforest & sloths

30/01/2024

Today I got the question, “Is Playa Langosta swimmable? I hear it is rocky.”

Short answer is yes - and the longer answer is also yes, but less so in the north section of Playa Langosta - which is the section most are familiar with.

(It may be helpful to refer to the pictures here which I've included for you to judge for yourself. To my tastes, all the beaches are wonderful, and I enjoy having access to variety).

So lets start with the most important feature of the area, Punta San Francisco (I'll call it PSF)

The closer you get to PSF (which divides Playa Langosta from Playa Tamarindo) the more rocky [and “tide pool like”] Playa Langosta becomes - PSF breaks the majority of the Pacific Ocean waves coming from the open waters and protects Tamarindo Bay from them. The further south you move from PSF the more sandy the Playa Langosta becomes for both the beach area and under the waterline itself. And this is generally true across all tides - where in the section closer to PSF tides matter more.

Playa Langosta extends about a mile or more south from PSF and as you approach the Estuary San Francisco (ESF) where the silt from the river is dumped into the Pacific it becomes increasingly sandy (fewer people are familiar with this area - for which we are all thankful). South of the ESF Playa Langosta is at its’ most sandy. This middle and south area are where I prefer to body surf when the waves are right. For swimming and soaking I’m fine on both the south and the north ends of the Playa Langosta (I know the spots in the north end) as well as in the estuary itself.

Of course Playa Tamarindo is also a short walk and a wonderful option (as is Playa Grande which is a little further and requires a water taxi - but hey you are on vacation and have time).

This pattern of rocks being increasingly covered with sand essentially applies for Playa Tamarindo in reverse direction - as you head north from PSF toward the Tamarindo Estuary/delta it generally becomes generally more sandy.

There is a beach walk video short I did on Youtube I'll link here where you can see the different types of sand and shore as well as an extended view of Playa Langosta toward the end of the video - so you can judge for yourself because I know we all have different expectations and definitions.

(Beachwalk Short video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/aaLyA0PKR60

You can also see more of the water areas in this video:
Area & Villa Overview Video (80 seconds)
https://youtu.be/DwkkJFzj6lk )

Lastly I want to say that in all beaches in Costa Rica (even MA), like most Volcanic areas including Hawaii, there is going to be volcanic rock that is exposed or covered up depending on tides, seasons, weather and so on. And this is a good thing for the sea life - rocks provide shelter and anchors and so on, sea life gathers around rocks in a way that never happens with just sand.

I hope this answers any questions you may have, if not ask. :)

27/01/2024

Helpful information for your travel to Costa Rica

Things I’d add to this post.

1) if you select pay in colones when using a credit card instead of dollars you may incur a foreign transaction fee - check with your credit card company before traveling. Picking US Dollars avoids these fees.

2) US cash is accepted but must be undamaged (no tears etc).

24/01/2024

There is a brand new page, Costa Rica - Travel Concierge, from someone with lot of experience with Costa Rica.

He's offering free tips and advise that you may find helpful. Here is his first post.

23/01/2024

Part of the older part of Tamarindo and shopping area.

Dec 24, 2023 @ 6:30pm

19/01/2024

Saw this and had to share it. :)

14/01/2024

Tamarindo is lucky enough to have a wonderful Famers Market every Saturday morning (roughly 8am - 1pm), even in low season. It is about a 25 mins walk from the Villa #9, or a 5 mins public bus ride, and is located behind skate park.

Generally the earlier you show up the better in terms of selection. Vendors will sell out and leave early, typically by noon there will only be a few vendors left.

(We also recommend the smoothie truck).

Many of the non-food vendors also show up to the Thursday Night Market. So if you kicked yourself for not grabbing something Thursday Night, you might find it here Saturday morning (or vice versa).

Here are some videos from YouTube that will help give you an idea of what you might find.

Nov 12, 2023:
Excellent video. Time: 4min 25seconds.
https://youtu.be/QIOXnK6MrAI?si=-afD8tKtV609TCVA

June 14, 2023. This is one is 30 mins long (if you are short on time, it plays well at 2x speed since his pace, pans, and dialog tend to be pretty slow - find playback speed under the setting icon on youtube). You can also get a good idea of prices (though remember to try to negotiate, especially in high season).
https://youtu.be/avZR_cQo-XM?si=O4fC3tdBDqjwJ4ze

March 6, 2022 Time: 10:31
https://youtu.be/bhJu2pyAZ-w?si=PynNflqQng39z2ei

Experience a world of flavour and tradition at Tamarindo's farmers market. Uncover the beauty of diversity and the richness of culture with every step you ta...

10/01/2024

I was writing an email of some suggestions for a guest staying our place for an extended stay, and I realized that many of you would also like that window into the area. Some of these you may have seen before, but there is some new stuff here. I do plan to eventually do a write up on each of these things. Eventually. (Pictures are inline in the email, but here they have to be separate. I've captioned them to help - and hopefully they are in the correct order).

Because tomorrow is Thursday, I started off with:

Thursday Nights, there is the Thursday Night Market and it is a lot of fun. There is music, food, a bar, and shopping. Also picnic tables to sit and socialize at. Generally I shoot for around 7pm arrival myself which is when the food tends to be ready. It is roughly up the street and across from Little Lucha's new location (in Costa Rica we do not use addresses, we use Landmark directions).

Saturdays are the Farmers Market which is behind the skate park.

Sunday is Sunday Funday at the Grateful Hotel in Playa Grande. There are either really good live bands or they play Grateful Dead bootleg tapes with a Live Saxophone player - sort of Saxophone Karaoke and better than it sounds. There is also a deep pool, good food and good drinks (I'd bring bug spray to be on the safe side).

To get there you take a free Water Taxi from the Water Taxi station just at the Entrance to the Tamarindo Estuary - you can WhatsApp ahead to confirm the taxi, and it needs to be the Water Taxi with the Grateful Dead flag to be free.

Also if you have not yet discovered them, you should try:

Waffle Monkey - for breakfast or lunch

Nogui's - tables on the beach, I'll spend the whole day right past sunset which they have happy hour for. Meghan likes their passion fruit margarita, I like their Tamarind Margarita. For food if you want to try Costa Rican, I recommend "Chifrijo"

And the Food Truck Park (across from Boca's)

Also Sunset at the Wyndham Hotel on the hill - they have an infinity pool, a bar, food and tables. Drinks were about US$10, and they do have a limited happy hour as well.

(And now is where I get in trouble for offering some thoughts on the Wyndham Hotel because I'm sure people want to know. For myself, I think the sunsets are better on the beach and elsewhere as the trees and hill interrupt the sunset at the Wyndham - see photo - also the Wyndham is also a long distance from anything AND at the top of a large hill making walking up and down less enjoyable than walking otherwise would be. They do have shuttles into and out of town, but these stop running early - so that is not great. I think they also offer free access to the Langosta Beach Club which is on the beach and has a pool - if you are curious you can take a tour of it, or eat on the beach with them for free. Access to their pool and gym and such can also be had as a day pass for US$75 - but again I think there are much better and cheaper options out there. If you have the time and want the variety, I think Wyndham Hotel is worth a visit - if you bring a swimsuit ;) - however I would not prioritize it over other things if your time is short.

06/01/2024

Tandor Indian Restaurant Playa Langosta Costa Rica