My buddy Al and I landed at the Liberia airport in Costa Rica on Wednesday shortly after lunch. Getting through customs and immigration was lightning fast. I don’t get out of domestic flights as quickly as I got through the Liberia airport, which was a really nice change of pace from the usual hassles of international travel. We found our shuttle bus driver, and he told us that we were waiting for one more person, so we should hang out with 2 other people who were riding with us and that he’d be with us in about 30-45 minutes. Al and I took advantage of the window of opportunity to hit the gift shop at the airport and grab a six pack of Imperial beer (the local favorite, more on that in another post) and a medium-sized bag of Doritos. It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the Doritos were $10 and they charged us about $5 for each of the beers. If you have the option, don’t get anything at the Liberia airport gift shop. We stood outside with the other people, hanging out in the nice weather, drinking beer on the sidewalk. We saw plenty of cops drive by, none of whom seemed to care about our open containers. (I love third world laws.) Right around the time that the last rider showed up, Al and I had killed the beer, so we hopped on the shuttle and talked to the other riders and got caught up. I hadn’t seen Al in about 4 years, so it was good to talk about old times and what our mutual friends were up to. Along the way, the driver stopped at a grocery store. Al and I, suffering from a severe lack of beer-in-hand, grabbed another six pack of Imperial and some water. By the time we arrived at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp, we’d killed that six as well. 6 beers each in less than 2 hours. Our vacation was off to a great start, in classic Al and Murali style.
We checked into the resort and we were told that we had a 90 minute surfing class scheduled each afternoon, the first one being in about an hour. When we got to the room, it was warm and humid and generally felt pretty nasty. It was definitely a surfer’s hotel; the room had no clock, no phone and no television. The only electrical outlets in the room were roughly 7 feet off the ground, which would have allowed you to charge your electronics as they dangled awkwardly above the bed. (The cell phone of Damocles?) Once we got the air conditioning and room fan running, the room became a lot more comfortable. We changed into our swimsuits and headed to the bar to knock back a few before our surfing lesson.
For the next few days, we spent a little time in the afternoon surfing, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing. We hung out at the hotel in the hammocks or in the pool, we walked the beach, or we drank at the bar. Off-property, Al an I checked out the town of Tamarindo. It’s a short 5 minute walk to get to Tamarindo, then another 10 minutes to get through the entire town. It’s fairly small with a lot of bars and restaurants and a lot of kitch shops for the tourists. Unfortunately, most of the bars and restaurants were priced for tourists as well. It’s still cheaper than what I find in Washington, DC, but it’s not nearly the cheap trip that I’d expected when I booked Costa Rica. There are a few grocery stores within a 10 minute walk of the hotel, which would be really handy if the hotel rooms had refrigerators. The furthest grocery store is the cheapest, but the closer ones aren’t too pricey. The local beer, Imperial (which we paid $5/can for at the airport), was selling for $3 for a draft at the resort, $1.50/can at the closest grocery store and $1.00/can at the far one. Presumably the grocery prices are similar. Depending on what you need and how far you want to carry it, it might be worth the extra hike. Tamarindo also has some surprisingly decent restaurants, although the restaurant at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp wasn’t one of them.
Gallo Fino serves rotisserie chicken, South American style. Tender and juicy, Al had juice running down to his elbows as he dug into the meal. I had a big bowl of beef soup with root vegetables (I thought the menu said ‘stew’), which was a lot better than it sounds. There’s a small Mexican burrito joint, like a knockoff Chipotle, around the corner that seemed to be very popular with the locals and had good food. Filling, tasty and cheap. Longboard BBQ had some of the best BBQ I’ve had in a while. It was so good, we went back twice in the same day. Lunch was a brisket sandwich that was moist and flavorful. The hot sauce left something to be desired, though, and the onion rings were just meh. Dinner was a large order of ribs that was way more meat than I would have imagined. The platter looked roughly like a full rack of ribs, but there were only 3 bones. The rest was all meat. I struggled to finish mine, as did Al, but we soldiered on and managed to finish our plates. We waddled our stuffed bellies out of there, full and happy. Fantastic BBQ, highly recommended. Also high on the list, surprisingly, is Sharky’s. It looks like a sports bar in a surfer’s mecca, and that’s exactly what it is, but the food is quite good. The patty in the cheeseburger was clearly from the freezer, but it was one of the best sports bar burgers I’ve ever had. The wings were fried well and crispy on the outside. We were there for the Rousey UFC fight on Saturday night, and the place was packed. Service was slow, but the food is good. Go on a non-fight night and get the cheeseburger. There’s a steakhouse called Patagonia that requires reservations that was recommended to us. We didn’t make it there, but the place was packed most evenings. And last but not least, there’s a small little restaurant across from Witch’s Rock Surf Camp that serves local food for a reasonable price. I ordered something from the menu that was listed as beef medallions but came out looking a lot like a hamburger patty. But with some hot sauce and all of the sides, it was filling and reasonably tasty, and it wasn’t too heavy to slow down my afternoon surfing.
If you’re in town to surf, Witch’s Rock Surf Camp is a great place to stay. About an hour from the Liberia airport and a 5 minute walk from downtown Tamarindo, it’s a great place to hang out and enjoy the waves. Tell them I sent you. I don’t think that it will help at all, I just like it when people drop my name.
