My life on the run in pursuit of health, happiness, & skinny jeans.

Better late than never, no?  What can I say?  I am working a ton, and….working my booty off at home too.  Finally getting the baby room all in order…get my gift registry filled in…and, we have had nonstop social functions.  Whew!  Tired mama over here.

Soooo, after leaving Arenal/La Fortuna area, we headed to Guanacaste region of CR to hit the beach.  We were staying at the Marriott Gauancaste because I had these awesome vouchers from work where I paid $110 and that got us a room, plus breakfast buffet, plus all hotel fees/taxes.  GREAT deal, and couldn’t pass it up.  Honestly, after seeing the pictures, I was excited, but not overly so.  The pictures just looked like any other resort hotel, nothing especially great.  Boy was I surprised.  The pictures were a complete understatement….this place was AMAZING, more on that later.

We hopped in the car and started our drive, which we were hoping would take 3 hours….it was a bit more.  Everything in CR is slow.  Roads aren’t that bad, and you can definitely drive yourself, but just remember, there are a lot of hills and turns, and most of the roads are only 2 lanes (one each direction) with NO SHOULDER.  It just takes awhile.  The first hour plus of our drive was around Arenal Lake  which is absolutely enormous.  We loved driving around it, because there were a ton of cool lookout spots.  If only we would have known how nice it was before, we would have alotted some time for stops.  There were a few little beaches and what looked like hiking trails.

After 3.5-4 hours in the car, we were DEFINITELY ready to get out of the car.  On our way into Tamarindo, one of the more well known surf towns just down the road from where we were staying, we actually got lost and went on an off road adventure.  It was a bit scary!  But we made it.  Our GPS was nuts.

This is an aerial of Tamarindo beach.  Some people think it is lackluster, coming off Caribbean beach vacations, but it is nice, just not white powdery sand beaches….more like So.Cal.

After our scary little jaunt down some dirt “road” back alleys, we made it to Tamarindo and stopped at basically the first spot we saw.  Turned out to be a great choice because it was one of cool/hip surf shop’s restaurant:  Eat at Joe’s.

We sat at one of the tables on the back patio and watched the surfers come and go.  It was very nice….but as with everything else in CR, service was slow by our standards.  I guess you just need to sit back, relax, and get on the CR time zone!

Once we made it to the hotel, which is actually in a private area, along with several other hotels, massively huge/fancy houses, and condos (you have to go through a gate check just to get in the premises, then you have another 10-15 minute drive to the actual resort), we didn’t want to leave.  It was more than we could have ever hoped for.  The grounds were gorgeous, the pool was huge with tons of chairs, and they piped out spa-like music all around the vicinity!!!!!  It was heaven.  We changed and immediately went out to the beach/pool!

That was the view of the property from the beach.  I will say, the beach was kind of rocky and small, but who was going to layout there anyway with that amazing, infinity pool?!?!?!  It was enough just hearing the waves and smelling the ocean air.

We saw tons of tiny crabs, and we stood around for about half an hour trying to be quiet and still enough to catch them out of their holes.  They were so cute….and there were so many of them!  I think I am going to print some of these for our boy’s room!

After hanging at the pool, we went back to our room (which was an upgraded garden room, ya!  We had a cool patio with a fan and a mosquito net, as well as a soaking tub where the “wall” opened up….so we laid in the pool and watching the American Country Music awards, ha!).  We decided just to opt for room service because it was pretty affordable for room service….and it was so dark by 6:45 pm, we didn’t want to drive back to Tamarindo.

The next day, we hung out, enjoyed a really nice workout (this place had a pretty kick ass gym, with all essential equipment AND cold rags for during or after your workout!), then we went to Tamarindo so hubs could try his hand at surfing.  Renting a board at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp was like $35 for 2 hours or something.  Pretty darn cheap.  I grabbed a chair and just sat on the beach….getting a shoulder workout while I aimed my camera nonstop, trying to catch him up on the board.  Got some good shots, and had sore shoulders after that!

Wish I could have had a go at it, it has been ages since I have even attempted to get out on a board!  But, the waves and current weren’t friendly on the way out.  Poor guy was beat after only an hour.  He looked pretty damn hot out there though.  This one might make it in baby’s room too!

We were really cool this night and opted for Subway!  They had a nice one in Tamarindo, and surprisingly, they had most everything one could expect, with the addition of mushrooms….I was all over that.

So after eating, we headed back to the hotel, jumped in the pool to rinse off, and then hit the room. We were just so sunburnt, it was not even funny!  NOTE: bring a ton of sunscreen.  We both tan really well, and were only in full/direct sun for 3 hours, but got blistering red!  I was peeling for 7 days after, even on my legs, which never happens to me.  We took cold baths and just relaxed with some crosswords and tv.  It was awesome.  I think we were asleep by 10pm most nights, and up at 6:30-7 am!

The next day, we hit the gym again, and then went and swam and laid under the umbrella for awhile before we had to head to the airport.  We had 3 nights here, and about 2.5 days, which was enough to relax and enjoy everything.  We decided not to get out too much, since our time was somewhat limited.  But, there are numerous little beaches in the area, you just have to drive kind of inland, and then back to each of the beaches separately as there is no big connecting road.  I think that is cool, because it keeps it really authentic, but, if you are time crunched, not enough time for exploring every beach!

See my sunburn?  Right around my armpits?  Thankfully, I slathered on the craziest amount to my face, because I don’t want wrinkles or sunspots on my face!  But mostly everywhere else….burnt.

It was a great and successful babymoon, and we really enjoyed it!  I wouldn’t say CR was the MOST Beautiful place we’ve been, but it was cool, different, and has a lot to offer by way of adventure activities.  We’d definitely bring our kids here one day when we can all enjoy the white water rafting, horseback riding, surfing, etc!