After another amazing night's sleep, I was up and at 'em early and headed out for a stroll on the beach. After a nice long walk, I decided to check out a German bakery right around the corner from where I was staying. Lothar, the owner of the lodge had suggested it. Now I know you're thinking, "why would you go to a German place while you're in Costa Rica?". Well, to be honest, I was just not in the mood for gallo pinto again! Plus I needed some carbs (like I'd had a shortage of them the last 7 days...haha!) for my big run the next morning.
Once again, and lucky for me, the owner spoke English. I told her I was pretty hungry, she smiled and looked at me and said, "I make you German breakfast!". Umm...OK? She headed back to the kitchen and I realized I never told her that "no me gusta carne" (I don't like meat). I suddenly had a vision of her bringing out a plate of disgusting German sausage or knockwurst, or whatever they eat over there! So I told her, and it was no problemo.
She brought out a plate of fruit and a glass of some sort of papaya/orange concoction that was amazing.
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| Banana, pineapple, apple, papaya, fresh coconut...holy moly! |
Then she brought me an egg and a plate with cheese (cheddar and queso crema - which is hard to describe, similar to cream cheese but WAY better), avacado, and some sort of salsa that was outstanding.
This German woman would not stop bringing me food! After she dropped off that stuff, she was back with a basket full of bread and three different types of marmalade.
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| I don't know what these marmalades consisted of, but they were all delicious. One was papaya, I know that. |
I felt like I wouldn't need to eat for the rest of the day after this breakfast. It's a good thing I'm not counting calories while I'm out here. :)
After my huge breakfast I hit the beach for a while. Walked around, lounged around, people watched, etc…a typical beach morning. I needed to be checked out of the lodge by 10:30, so I headed back, got cleaned up and packed up and asked Lothar if he knew when the next bus was coming. He told me 10:30, I had time so I trekked it down to the bus stop. Of course when I got there, there was nobody waiting at the stop, so I asked someone in the shop across the street and they told me it had just come at 10:00…why am I not surprised? I get the feeling that busses just kind of come and go as they please around here! Next bus was at 12:00. Ugh.
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| Yep. That's the good ol' bus. |
Finally board the bus to Nicoya. It was a hot, stinky mess, but it was $3, so whatever. Once in Nicoya I needed to find the bus to Santa Cruz. That was an adventure. You see, the thing everyone fails to mention when they tell you to use the bus system in Costa Rica is that there are MANY different bus companies. One would probably assume that when you exit the bus from Samara, you would just walk a few feet down the bus terminal and hop right on another one to Santa Cruz. WRONG. It was a totally different bus company, in a totally different section of town. Not sure how I found it, but I did. Busses departed every half hour to Santa Cruz, so I was good to go.
Holy shit. I thought the first bus ride was hot and gross…this one was worse. Every seat on that thing was packed and there people standing up. It was about a 30 min trip and it felt like an eternity. When we finally arrived in Santa Cruz, I now had to find a bus to Tamarindo. God, this whole “I’ll just take the bus” thing has turned into a complete nightmare. Santa Cruz is a huge town and I had no clue where I needed to go. I took a taxi to Tamarindo…
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| The bus station in Nicoya had this Farmer's Market type thing setup outside. |
On the ride to Tamarindo it started pouring and thunderstorming…the worst I’d seen since I’ve been here. Great…and the ½ marathon is in the morning. I got checked into Villas Macando, which I had booked way in advance due to the fact that I’m sure the town would be busy with the run going on. It wasn’t the nicest room, but it had a ridiculously large shower with hot water, a mini fridge (perfect for my hydration & breakfast stuff), WiFi, and most importantly, it was right around the corner from the race start. Awesome.
I headed off to the “expo” to pick up my race packet. Yeah…I’m not sure why they called it an expo. There was nothing exposition-ish about it. I got my stuff, picked up some supplies from the supermarcado and headed back to the room to get everything ready for the morning. By the way, it was still raining…hard.
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| Who is God's name needs a shower that big??? |
It was getting late and I needed to eat, soon. And I had to be sure it would be something that my stomach could tolerate. So I walked around town checking out my options. Man, this place is a joke compared to the other places I’ve been. Everything is geared toward American tourists. I now know why the locals refer to it as “Tamagringo”.
Well, I wasn’t overly excited about any of my choices so I ended up grabbing some sushi to go. I knew my tummy could handle it, because I had eaten sushi the night before the Rock n’ Roll ½ less than two weeks ago.
On the walk back, I watched as they set up the start line for the race in the morning. It was still raining hard.
Alarm was set for 4:00 a.m. Race stuff laid out for the morning. I was in bed by 10:00.
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| Number 885! Holla! |
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