Tamarindo - Day 4 - Heading Home

On Friday, we left Hotel Pasatiempo before the sun had risen, around 0530. The bird songs at that time were amazing, so many and so loud. The only other person up and about was the hotel guard. We left our keys in the lock box, loaded up the car and headed home.

The sun rises early here. Note: do not drive east when the sun is coming up! We needed gas and we needed breakfast and we needed to be able to see the road. We drove on to the town of Santa Cruz, fueled up, then found a soda that was open 24 hours. They must do a good business to be open day and night. No menu at this soda, nothing written on a board. Just the server appearing with her note pad, so you had better know what you want and know how to order it in Spanish. We are not fluent by any means but at least we can order breakfast. We had black coffee, rice and beans, fried plantain and scrambled eggs (cafe negro, gallo pinto, platano frito, huevos revueltos - my keyboard won’t put in the stress symbols). As usual at the sodas, the food is inexpensive and good. As we were sitting there, I said to Lance that this is what living/travelling in a foreign country is all about - immersing in the local culture and adapting to their ways. It’s good to be challenged.

By the time we finished breakfast, the sun was high enough in the sky that we weren’t blinded by it and we could see the road (or Lance could, since he was driving). The locals seem to have no trouble driving with the sun in their eyes - I guess they know the roads.

At the intersection of Ruta 1 and Ruta 18 (the Interamericana Norte, Guanacaste Province), you will come upon Restaurante BBQ Tres Hermanas (three sisters BBQ restaurant). Interamericana is now the more popular name for the PanAmerican highway. We saw signs for this place all the way to and from Tamarindo. When I was researching our trip, I remember that one article said “turn left at the big bull”! We used Waze to navigate and when I saw this enormous bull, I said to Lance, “turn left, turn left”!

On our way home, we decided to stop and take photos. When I say enormous bull, I am not kidding:

The restaurant has good reviews and there is a Pops ice cream shop on the premises:

They have a large piggy statue also:

A few miles before the intersection, we stopped at the Tempisque River bridge. This was built to link the Nicoya Peninsula to southern Guanacaste. It cuts travel time to San José. It was opened in 2002 and was a gift from the Taiwanese government. The Tempisque River is 144 kms long, or 80 miles.

Believe me, I won’t.

The rest of the morning was just driving, splitting wheel time between the two of us. Driving in Costa Rica is sort of tiring, because you have to be on the alert all the time. The mountain roads, the weather changes (we ran into cloud at ground level at one point), the other drivers who don’t seem to mind passing on a curve. We arrived home at around 1000, so not bad.