July 23rd: Playa Hermosa

Not having really discussed the night before what our plan was for today, we decided to make it one more relaxing day and to figure out our plan for the rest of the week. We already knew that we wanted to make a day trip down to Tamarindo to go surfing, but we needed to wake up early for that, so that is where we are planning to go tomorrow. Curious about the best way to get there and wanting to know if he had any other suggestions of what to do, we decided to consult with Tom again on our way back from our morning run. He told us about a waterfall and swimming hole that we could drive to one of the days and he also said he would check on fishing for us (Nick met someone in Santa Teresa that went kayak fishing and loved it... Nick wanted to go more than he let on... and I didn’t pick up on just how badly... and now we feel bad that we didn’t go there). All that aside, we decided to go to Playa Ocotal today. It was the other snorkeling beach we meant to go to yesterday, but we never wanted to leave Penka. 

We drove all the way out of town to find that the road to Ocotal was right in town. We followed the road all the way to the bitter end, only to find that we were still at Playas Del Coco, just down at the other end. Confused as to whether or not the same beach had two names or if we never found Ocotal, there were no signs to direct us anywhere else. We didn’t want to sit at the fishy smelling part of the beach, so we decided to head over to Playa Hermosa, which we saw signs for on the way to Penka yesterday. 

This beach was very calm, with not too many people. We found our own little space across the inlet and layed there for the rest of the afternoon. We shooed away people trying to sell things on the beach, but when the same kid approached us twice, Nick started talking to him. His name was Eduardo. Nick let him run through his whole sales pitch and then continued chatting, using the kid for Spanish practice. We inevitably ended up buying stuff from him, mostly because we just liked him at this point. Souvenirs for free Spanish lessons. 

Feeling salty, we decided to jump in our pool when we got home. We swam around a bit and laid out on the comfy lawn chairs for an afternoon nap. We made some tea and sat up on our terrace to "watch" the sunset. In other words, we took turns watching as we went back and forth playing "dumb ways to die" on Nick's phone and trying to beat each others score.... It sounds terrible, but it's a fun game, and it has an obnoxiously catchy theme song! It gets stuck in your head super easy!

We ended up going to Coconutz for dinner for I believe, the 3rd night in a row. I was pretty excited about it this time, because it just so happened to be karaoke night. I’m still not sure if Nick sang because he wanted to or because I not so secretly wanted him to, but he bravely got up and started the night off with Jumping Jack Flash. It was a good spot to just hangout and people watch. We stayed until the point that it got weird to stay any longer if we weren't going to be drinking as much as everyone else. 

And then I had to make a protective mask to go into the bathroom before bed.... no comment :) haha