And the Doctor said. . . (no, this post has nothing to do with monkeys)

Yuppers.  I already took a trip to the doctor-  1.5 weeks into my trip.  We can thank surfing for my visit.  Although, it's probably not what you think.

For starters, surfing is going fairly well.  Day 3 saw major improvements.  I correctly popped up on more waves than waves in which I wiped out, I did a switch (a 180 body flip whilst up on the board), and I learned how to turn the board whilst standing up to ensure a longer ride.  I have a great instructor, but I think the pop-up practice on the extra bed in my room helped.   :)

Mattress surfing = good pop-up practice.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200342660465596

Hopefully this link will get you to my day 2 highlight reel.  I feel a lot more comfortable now, after day 3, than I looked and felt on day 2!

However, my ear got clogged with salt water yesterday, which made Spanish class a bit tricky today . I only understand half the stuff the teachers say anyway, so minus hearing in one ear, I did a lot of nodding, smiling, and responding with only 'si.'

After class, I headed to the doctor. It's located just above the Super Compro, one of the (not so super) supermarkets in town.   I walked in, with my ailment well prepared in Spanish (agua en la oido), but thankfully the doctor spoke English, which made for a much quicker visit.

I went back to his office after only 5 minutes of waiting, and he irrigated my ear the old school way, with a syringe of water and some mostly-cleanish looking tools.  I am not even prepared to talk about the amount of stuff that came out of my ears (this issue was not solely caused by salt water, I can tell you that), but I now have what feels like super human hearing.  Sixty bucks and one prescription of ear drops later, I was on my way.  Best $60 bucks I have spent so far in C.R. 

Doctor Piloto's office: just above the Super Compro, and just below the Rooftop Bar & Club.

Afterwards, I stopped for a Subway sandwich combo deal (it was close to the doc's office), and I even ordered and interacted with the folks in Subway entirely in Spanish!  P.S. 1. ALL Subways smell exactly the same, no matter where they are located and 2. No $5 footlongs here!  In general, the food here is a little pricier than I thought it would be, but Subway takes the cake (or takes the sanwhich, in this case); $9 for a 6inch, drink and chips.  Boo.  But after a visit to the doctor, a nice slice of Americana was worth it.  

Tamarindo Subway.  Exciting, eh?

Prescription and Subway in hand.  Me gusta!

Plus, to top it off, I caught a very lovely pink sky during sunset, as I headed up my apartment stairs after my trusty Subway meal!

Sunset from the staircase

  

The Long Road to Samara

My new friend, Danielle, planned a nice weekend away.  She rented a car for the weekend, and after a 3 hour ordeal trying to pick up the rental car, we were headed to Samara Beach mid-Saturday.  Google maps made the coastal, scenic route look easy and fast, so off we went.   Five words: in Coasta Rica, Google lies!  Our '2 hour' drive was dirt/gravel the entire way, the GPS didn't even recognize some of the roads we were on, and it took us roughly 5 hours to arrive at our destination.  PLUS the coastal, scenic route wasn't that scenic, and it was barely coastal.  But as they say 'always an adventure in Costa Rica.'

The road wasn't too busy (for obvious reasons), when it comes to vehicles, but there were plenty of other things on the road along the way: people on bicycles, roosters, chickens, cowboys hearding cattle, dogs, monkeys, big lizards, and A RIVER.  Yes.  At one point, the road went right into a river.  We got out to investigate and thought 'no way.' So off we went to find another crossing with a bridge.  Ps that does not exist.  We found a more shallow crossing, and took the car for a swim.

Just some cows heading down the road....

Scary narrow bridge

The only, very fleeting, coastal view of our 'coastal, scenic' drive

The part of the river we were NOT going to cross.  Yikes!

The part of the river we thought we could handle.... and we did! 

A semi-scenic view from the road

All was worth it though.  We stopped for yummy grapefruit sodas along the way, ended up at a nice little hotel right on the beach, ate some super spicy fish tacos at a local Mexican joint (holy hot mango salsa), and spent most of Sunday lounging on the hotel hammocks and in the hotel pool.

The hotel had a bunch of little haciendas, so this was our cute little casa for the evening. 

View from the hammock (ps there is a lizard on the tree)

Sunset on Samara Beach

 

More from the beach

View from the hotel restaurant 

Needless to say, we took the inland highway back to Tamarindo.  That ride was only 2 hours.  Plus, we saw 2 18-wheelers and a Burger King on the highway too.  Felt just like home....not really.  Haha.