Mouth of the Langosta Estuary

This is the mouth of the Langosta Estuary. The beach chairs are property of the Barcelo Resort. People can walk across the estuary mouth during low tide and walk for miles on a very uncrowded beach, as you can see in this photo.

The beach on the other side of the estuary is part of the Hacienda Pinilla property, a gated, masterplanned community of 4,500 acres. The J.W. Marriott Guanacaste Resort is a couple of miles down that beach. You can walk along the beach there, but if you drive from Tamarindo it would take about 20 minutes, and you would have to talk your way through the guard at the gate.

In Tamarindo and Langosta, there is a road that runs along the beach, but it is only 2 - 3 miles (3 - 5 km) long because there is the Tamarindo estuary on the north side of Tamarindo and the Langosta estuary on the south side of Langosta. There is no road across either estuary because the estuaries are left as mangrove forest wetlands and wildlife habitat.

To go from Tamarindo to beaches south or north of town by car, you have to drive inland, then take a road either north or south and then drive back to the coast. It is only about 15 minutes or so, but it is much quicker so simply walk or swim across the mouth of the estuary, as you see in this photo, and reach the same area in about 30 seconds.

This week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site we are showing photos of three locations on the Riviera Maya: the Mayan ruins of Tulum, the eco-park of Xelha, and a resort on the beach in Cancun.