Remember how I chatted up the lady at the bar the first day we arrived in Tamarindo? Judy, claiming ancient knees, hips and arm joints, got even by sliding down zip lines in the arms of 30- and 40-something attendants who were more than willing to assist her in her time of need. It all ended on a happy note when they started calling Judy their Mama, and indeed one guy was a year older than her own son Jeff.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I sat too near the sangria pitcher last night and last night we didn’t get back from dinner in town before 9 PM so all I could do was sort through the 400-odd pictures from the last two days before falling asleep.

Day before yesterday, which seems a long time ago, was Sunset Sailing and Snorkeling Day, as it turned out. Griffin wanted to go fishing but we couldn’t find a kid-friendly fishing expedition, so we settled on an afternoon trip on a 66-foot catamaran along with 60-ish other tourists. The trip turned out to be a lot of fun and even Griffin approved.  The fellow sailors were a friendly lot and the bar was open. (“Even though we offer an open bar, this is not a booze cruise,” the web site cautioned.)

The trip didn’t leave until 1:30 PM so I cooked up a batch of crepes (cheese and Nutella versions) and we lazed around the pool until it was time to load up the carts and head off.

We set sail from the Ocho beach, right at the foot of the hill that leads to our house. We had to board tender boats in the crashing surf to reach the catamaran moored maybe a quarter mile offshore. We did so without incident, Nana’s bum hip notwithstanding. We sailed for a bit over an hour with all sails set and the ship’s twin screws doing most of the propulsion duty – the sails were just to make us feel like we were sailing.

Upon reaching a somewhat protected cove the crew lowered the anchor and dispensed mask, snorkels and fins for all who wanted them. All eight of us did and we set off to explore. Frankly there wasn’t much to see until we reached submerged rocks a few hundred meters away where fish could be seen. The sunfish population at the Onawa dock has a more colorful and plentiful display if you don’t mind them nibbling at your toes all the time. But everyone had fun experimenting with the gear and enjoying the water, which is very comfortable – refreshing but not too cold.

Then back on board for a barbequed chicken (good), refried beans (good) and rice (dry and bland). We ate like we’d never be fed again, even though Claudia was on tap to feed us dinner four hours later. But hey, we’re on vacation, so eat, drink and eat some more, right?

We arrived back at Ocho beach in time for sunset as advertised. By the time we were ashore it was dark, and we had to find the light switch on the golf carts to make it back up the hill to home.

Here are pictures from our sailing adventure, but keep reading after for the zip line adventure:

One of many good decisions we’ve made on this trip was to engage Claudia to cook three dinners for us. The last thing any of us wanted to do was to find a restaurant and spend countless hours fighting traffic, waiting for a table, waiting for food and so on. And the meals she’s prepared have been really great. As she did Monday night, she prepared two meals, one for the seafood lovers (paella tonight) and traditional rice and beans Costa Rica style for the others. Everyone was pleased and we greatly enjoyed the relaxed at-home meal.

Griffin beat us all at Skyjo again before we hit the hay around 9 PM.

The only event we reserved before leaving home was zip lining through the jungle canopy. The catch was the departure time: 8 AM Thursday morning, a somewhat painful hour for a few of our number. But everyone was on deck with a pickup breakfast and ready to roll for the van that didn’t arrive until almost 9 AM.

The drive to the zip lining facility took an hour and a bit, traveling back toward Liberia before heading off into the hills. No real mountains here but rolling hills, mostly densely covered with trees and underbrush. The facility we visited was El Roble, which means oak tree so I’m guessing many of the trees we saw were some sort of oaks. If we were in Florida, I’d call them live oaks because the Costa Rican variety had that characteristic shape.

The zip line adventure comprised nine runs of varying lengths, some long, some fast, some slow and all passing just above the trees and undergrowth. Beautiful views on each run.

Griffin and Nana weren’t too sure about zip lining. Griffin’s uncertainty came quite logically, I believe, from a lack of knowledge and experience. Everyone else had done zip lining before. His hesitancy stemmed from lack of knowledge.

Nana had never zip lined before and does, indeed, suffer from ailments that, we hope, will be fixed when she gets her new hip joint on January 10. But as I reported earlier, she, with the help of the friendly and competent guides, did just fine. She actually traversed two lines all by herself and she and I went together on another line. And Griffin? He did great, doing several with a guide, one with Mom, one with Carter and a couple by himself.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Back home, we had the afternoon open. Everyone was a bit tired from the early morning revelry call and the adventure, so we kicked back while Rebecca went down the hill to get sandwiches for lunch. Then, around 4 PM, most of us headed for the Ocho beach and some body surfing. We just spread our towels on the sand – no hired chairs nor umbrellas, just sand and surf. Griffin brought his football and played catch with Carter and Uncle Jeff. The kid can really heave the ball and has a mean spiral. Great fun, except that I dozed off towards the end only to be awoken by a wave that crashed and flowed over half of me and my blanket.

We were on our own for dinner and so we headed out to town hoping to find an Italian restaurant. It was dark, the traffic unbelievably heavy but after a couple of false starts, found a really nice place with outside seating in a grove of trees. Very pleasant setting and even though the whole production took two and a half hours, it worked out just fine. There were hammocks and swings and lemonade to occupy the kids while we waited.

Now it’s Friday morning and Rebecca led a group of kids to the beach so as to beat the crowds. Those of us too lazy stayed home, which gives me time to complete this message. Today is Beach Day so we won’t miss out entirely!