Iguana in a tree (2)

It has been a while since I have posted a photo of an iguana.  Iguanas are common in Costa Rica, and can be seen even in the middle of town in Tamarindo.  Sometimes they walk in the grass beside a sidewalk, but usually they can be seen in a tree.  

Some iguanas are grey, some are orange, and some are green.  As you can see from this iguana, the green iguanas can match the color of the leaves quite well.  

My adult son, Stuart, took this photo, as he is much more fond of and knowledgeable about reptiles than I am, and is more prone to see and photograph them than I am.   

The new Kahiki Restaurant

Last year I did a post and showed a photo of the Kahiki Restaurant.  Sadly, it burned to the ground.  The Kahiki Restaurant has re-opened in a new spot, which is the location of the former Pachanga Restaurant.  The owner of Kahiki is a young woman from the Netherlands, and I am glad her business has recovered after the terrible fire.  

Many of restauranteurs and shopkeepers in Tamarindo are Europeans.  It brings diversity to the community and, fortunately, most of the chains have not yet arrived in Tamarindo.  There are no McDonald's or similar fast food burger places.  (There is subway and a Pizza Hut). 

I apologize that I did not take a photo of the delicious food at Kahiki this time.  As is evident by the expression on my two sons, they were rather annoyed at my picture taking, and it was time to put the camera away. 

Lunch at El Balcon de Marisco

After showing a person fishing yesterday, I thought I would show a seafood restaurant today.   The top photo is the stitching on the placemat El Balcon del Marisco.  The second photo is the seafood paella I had for lunch, before they mixed it up and served it on my plate at table side.

The third photo was taken by the waiter and shows my two sons and me in the restaurant.

El Balcon del Marisco translates as "the balcony of the sea."  I suspect that is an idiom in Spanish, although it could be a reference to the location of the restaurant on a balcony over the water feature of the Garden Plaza Shopping Center.  The shopping center is located on the outskirts of town and is anchored by the Auto Mercado supermarket, which is comparable to supermarkets in the USA.

It is good to start a visit in Tamarindo by sleeping in late, having a refreshing seafood lunch, and stocking up on groceries for the week.

Fishing in the surf

Who said fishing is calm and tranquil? Fishing in the surf, particularly standing so close to the breaking waves, can add an element of excitement to waiting for fish to take the bait.

It is a good thing that this guy was wearing his swimming trunks while fishing because at times the waves would splash over the rock were he was standing.

I took this photo on Playa Langosta. Part of Playa Langosta has a volcanic rock flow into the ocean, so there are great tide pools, and the rocks magnify the sound of the crashing waves.

Dogs playing in the surf

These dogs probably saw the beach volleyball players jumping around on the beach, as I have shown during the last few day. They must have decided that it looked like the people were having fun, and they decided to jump around and frolic in the sand and surf. This photo was also taken in Playa Langosta.

Volleyball match and refreshments

Beach volleyball players may look serious, like yesterday, but to keep matters in balance, several of them kept some refreshments nearby in case volleyball makes them thirsty. As you can see, the beverage of choice seems to be beer. Imperial cerveza is the most popular Costa Rican beer.

I have to confess that although I claim St. Louis, Missouri, home of Anheuser-Busch, as my home town, I do not drink beer. It is an acquired taste that I never acquired. I enjoy wine, but I doubt that wine and beach volleyball is a natural pairing.

Volleyball game

Volleyball can be very competitive, even if it is a pick-up game on the beach.  I took a few photos of the people playing beach volleyball at the Barcelo Resort on Playa Langosta and quickly concluded that I am not a very good sports photographer, as this photo will attest.

Beach volleyball game

Beach volleyball is popular behind the Barcelo Resort in Langosta, about 50 yards south of our condo on Langosta beach.  The beach is public property, like all beaches in Costa Rica, so people who live in or rent the condos in the area share the beach quite harmoniously with hotel guests. 

The tourists playing volleyball always seem to be enjoying the game and each other.  They are not too serious or competitive, unlike some of the beach athletes that you see on the beaches of Los Angeles.

This is the same volleyball net that I posted yesterday.  Yesterday's photo showed the ocean in the background.  Today's photo shows the mouth of the Langosta estuary.  Across the estuary is an unpopulated stretch of Langosta Beach that is part of the 5,000 acre Hacienda Pinilla property.  We can walk for miles with very few, if any, people until we reach the new J.W. Marriott Guanacaste Resort. 

Beach volleyball

Are you ready for some beach volleyball?  This beach volleyball net is set up on Playa Langosta by the Barcelo Resort which is about 50 yards to the left of our condo.  Guests at the resort always look like they are having a good time playing or watching beach volleyball, and meeting each other during a game of beach volleyball, as I will show in some upcoming photos.

I took this photo in the morning.  The beach volleyball games pick up in the afternoon.

Driftwood log

This is a huge driftwood log that washed up on Playa Langosta near our condo.  The ocean surge that I showed yesterday carried with it what had at one time been a large tree trunk that had been floating in the ocean.  The ocean receded and left this large log on the beach as a souvenir, only to be washed away again.

Don't worry about the loss of tree.  Costa Rica planed 7 million new trees last year as part of its reforestation efforts to combat global warming and become the world's first carbon-neutral nation, a goal for 2021.

Ocean's fury

This is a surge of the ocean at high tide.  I love to walk along the beach because it is always in motion and changing.  At low tide the beach is wide.  At high tide, there can be a few spots where you watch for waves and either walk between waves or walk on a little path on the higher part of the beach.  I have rarely seen waves like this crashing up on the beach. 

Surfer at the crest of a wave

I have shown some surfers in town recently, so it is time to show another surfer catching a wave. This surfer was balanced precariously on the crest of a wave that he was riding at Playa Langosta.

Rooftop wave

There is a wave on the top of this store.  This building was visible in the corner of yesterday's photo, so I decided to show a photo of it today.  Someone decided that a store that backs onto the beach and that sells swimming suits and beach clothes should have a wave built on its roof to emphasize what it sells.  

This type of vernacular architecture in which buildings are designed to imitate the products they sell was a trend in California decades ago, and perhaps that was the inspiration for this building.  Are any readers familiar with the Randy's Donut Shop near Los Angeles International Airport?  There are other buildings in L.A. in which camera shops were shaped like a camera, hot dog stands shaped like a hot dog, and similar "kitsch."

I wonder how the architect told the builder to construct this wave.  It looks rather tricky.

Surfers in town

It is common to see surfers walking in the middle of town, as I mentioned a few days ago.  The beach is behind the row of shops at the end of this street, so these surfers have only about a block left before they reach their destination and start surfing.

The street on which these surfers are walking is supposed to be paved within the next few months.  The new buildings, street paving, storm water drainage, and other improvements have been transitioning Tamarindo from a fishing village and funky surfing town into an international resort, which Forbes Magazine described last year as Costa Rica's most popular beach resort.

Playa Flamingo and Costa RIcan beach real estate

This is a view of Playa Flamingo.  I have shown some other views of Playa Flamingo that you can access by clicking on the label in the left margin for Playa Flamingo.  This photo also shows the development of homes on the hillsides overlooking the ocean.  The real estate market has cooled down in the past year due to the worldwide recession.  There was a boom for about 5 years before that, sparked by the addition of international flights directly into Liberia, just one hour away.  

Home sites and homes and condos with a view of the ocean will bring a much higher price, of course, than other property, and in this photo you can see homes built high on the hills, similar to what you would expect to see in California.  My wife and I decided for our two condos in Tamarindo that we wanted to buy places right on the beach or directly overlooking the beach so we could enjoy the beach and the ocean without having to get in a car.

Ocean view property and property near the beach in Costa Rica can be purchased for a fraction of the price of land near or overlooking the ocean in places like California, and the ocean is warm enough to swim in all year around.  Real estate in Costa Rica is more expensive than in neighboring Nicaragua and Panama because Costa Rica has much more of an infrastructure for visitors and is much more attractive for foreigners to buy property because it has such a long history of stable democratic government. 

The price of single family homes is not much more than the price of condos.  The reason for that is there is greater peace of mind for Americans and Canadians to buy a condo rather than a home when selecting a second a home or vacation property.  Particularly if the property will not be used part of the time, there is greater security in buying a condo where there is a security guard, and others to take care of the yard and exterior maintenance.

Tamarindo bay and condos

This is a somewhat closer view of Tamarindo bay and beach than yesterday's photo. Above the trees that line the beach, you can see some of the condo buildings that have been built. The height of the buildings is now restricted. The developers obviously built them tall to give ocean views to the people on the higher floors, as people will, of course, pay premium prices for a view of the ocean.

The tan colored building in the center of this photo is the condo building on the grounds of the Tamarindo Diria Resort. My wife and I have a condo on the 4th floor of that building. It does indeed have a nice view of the beach and ocean, and the beautifully landscaped grounds of the Diria Resort. Sometimes we stay in our condo right on the ocean in Playa Langosta, a quiet residential area about a 10 minute walk to the center of town, and sometimes we stay right in the middle of town at the Diria Resort condo. Some guests and renters prefer one location and others prefer the other. It can be difficult, but pleasant choice.

Tamarindo bay

This is the main part of Tamarindo beach, viewed from a  boat in the bay.  The southern end of the bay is protected from the ocean by an offshore island and reef.  That causes the water to be calm enough to enable boats to be moored in the bay, as you see in this photo.  

The little boat in the foreground of this photo is an example of one the small boats that is used to shuttle people from the beach out to the fishing or excursion boats that are moored in the harbor.  

The area of the beach on the left side of this photo is not protected by the island and reef at the southern end of the bay, so that part of the beach is popular with surfers riding the ocean's waves.

Surfboard on the main street

This is a street scene in "downtown" Tamarindo.  I took this photo on the main street and about a half block from the main intersection in town.   My guess is that this looks different than the main street in your town.

In Tamarindo, it is not unusual to see surf boards in the middle of town.  In other towns, someone might think that this man is taking up a prime parking spot by doing some maintenance or repair work on a surfboard in the main street of town.  This man is in front of one of the many surfboard rental shops in town.  In the background, you can see some all terrain vehicles available for rent.

Seasons Restaurant by Shlomy

One of Tamarindo's leading chefs, Cordon-Bleu trained Israeli Shlomy Koren, has opened a new restaurant, Seasons.  The top photo shows the restaurant, the second photo is my entree (filet mignon in red wine sauce, with fresh vegetables), and the third photo is my desert (entitled "chocolate collection").

With all of photos I have posted recently of activities in Tamarindo, I have neglected to show one of the major reasons that my wife and I decided to buy our two condos in Tamarindo -- the excellent and diverse choice of restaurants.

Shlomy has been one of the top chefs in Tamarindo for years.  His new restaurant, Seasons, features seafood and other entrees, with Mediterranean influences.  For example, there is red snapper filet that is pan seared with eggplant and red pepper coulis; mahi-mahi with peanut ginger cilantro lime tapanad: Middle Eastern chicken; and a vegetarian Moroccan couscous, with butternut squash, zucchini, onion with turmeric and cumin.  The menu also includes shrimp scampi, seafood pasta and pesto rigatoni with spinach.

When I dined at Season's recently, the menu offered a choice of any appetizer, any entree and any desert for the combined price of $24 USD.  While most prix fixe menus offer only one or two choices per course, my family appreciated that we could have the choice of anything on the menu for the combination price.

Here is a link to the website for the restaurant.  Seasons is a little hard to find.  It is located at the swimming pool area of the Hotel Arco Iris.  There are signs to it on the right side of the main road leading up the hill from the beach, just a block past the turnoff for the road that goes to Langosta.

My wife (whose food tastes are much more highly developed than mine) and I were big fans of Shlomy's previous restaurant, Pachanga, and we are delighted that he has opened Seasons.  It offers a fine dining experience at a price of about one half what one would expect to pay in the USA for a comparable dining experience.

Sunset filtered by the marine layer of clouds

This is a later view of the same sunset as yesterday.  The sun was filtered by the marine layer of clouds, which muted its colors, but provided a marbled texture to the sun. 

We enjoy the infinite variety of sunsets from our balcony/patio.  The variations in color, texture and saturation, which can turn the entire sky fiery red or can be confined to a red ball dropping into the ocean, is a nightly work of art by Mother Nature.

The sunsets are a daily reminder that we humans are mere guests on this planet, and we should behave like good house guests, always cleaning up after ourselves and leaving everything in better condition than when we arrived.