We landed in San Jose, Costa Rica the afternoon of January 3rd and spent oh, about one hour there before hiring a car to take us to Tamarindo - a little town on the beautiful beaches of this little gem of a country.

Our driver's had only been at the airport to drop someone off from their hotel and were not prepared for the nearly 5 hour ride. So they asked if it was okay to stop at the hotel to tell their mom where they were going and to pick up their cousin who wanted to come for the ride. AFter that we were off, Lisa and I and our three chauffeurs.

We were both tired from a long day of travelling (We had been up since 5:30 to catch our flight out of Santiago and we gained three hours in time zone changes - so we were on the move over 18 hours in total). So we find a cheap little hostal and crashed for the night. We got a discount because our room had no locks - the previous occupants had left with the keys!

Unfortunately we arrived at the Beach in Costa Rica in the middle of one of their high seasons so rooms are scarce and prices are higher. We finally did find another little place - reasonable and with locks to boot. And we have been spending our days lounging on the beach absorbing some rays from the scorching hot sun. We rented a moped for one day and scouted the surrounding beaches - at one we were seranaded by several howler monkeys.

The last two days we rented surfboards and tried our hand at carving up some of the famous Costa Rican waves. We are accompanied each morning by a dog that lives in our hostal. I have christened him "Surf Dog." In fact, on our first day Surf Dog showed us the shortcut to the breaks. He even came into the water and tried to hop on our boards! That crazy surf dog.

Totally Tubular!