Golf!

Good day!
To start things off, I’ll just mention that there were 2 main things that contributed to the tardiness of this posting. First, it was a long weekend for me, between Spanish levels. Remember, if you will, that this caused me to be late with my entries back in early February. The second thing that hampered my progress is the sudden lack of internet in my house. It’s funny now without it how much of an annoyance it is to check mail and get these entries up. But it should be back by next week (I hope).
Speaking of next week, I have come to the startling realization that I only have just over a month left in Costa Rica. Que lastima! The time has flown, as always happens on trips like these. But it is also nice realization, in the sense that I think of how much can be accomplished in a month. But you’ll hear all about that month after it happens.
As for last weekend, t’was fantastic! I knew coming up to it that it was a long weekend, which kinda opens up your options as to where to go, since you have a full extra day for the travels home. I decided that I’d spent enough time in a warm country without golf, so I headed out to the Nicoya Peninsula to a place called Los Delfines.
To start out, I was heading up there with my friend John, since he was the only one who wanted to golf as badly as I did. He is with another program, CEA, and when I stopped by his residencia to meet him, he informed me that his director had just told him that our plans to head to Playa Tambor and golf were flawed. Originally, we had planned to head to Tambor and stay in the hotel there, in order to use the course at Los Delfines since the latter doesn’t have accommodations for people in our price range (neither really does Tambor, but it was golf, so we were gonna splurge for a night). But Lisa, the CEA helper-person, told us that we would need a reservation in order to stay at Tambor. Whoops. So she told us to talk to a travel advisor at Veritas, Luis, who could maybe work something out for us.
On our way to talk to Luis, John told me that this guy knows people everywhere, and John has found a knowing nod in several places upon saying “I’m with Luis from Veritas.” As it would turn out, we got lucky using it this time too.
After we told him our plans, he firstly told us we were idiots for waiting this long. Then he told us that Tambor was all-inclusive, which was nice, but didn’t include the golf, which was not. Wouldn’t have mattered anyway. He told us about a place down the road from Los Delfines, Paquera, which has a small hotel with a pool and a nice lady named Dona Maria. He couldn’t promise us a room, but said that we would have better luck there and would certainly be spending less money. Especially if we told her we were with Luis from Veritas.
So off we went. We hit Puntarenas at 4, and saw that the next ferry wasn’t till 5:30. Fine by us, there was a nice little bar that overlooked the bay, and we needed some beer. It was bloody hot that day. So we grabbed a couple cool ones, and talked about how sweet it was that we were golfing in less than 24 hours.
We made it across on the ferry without incident (well, aside from the Spanish karaoke that was pretty funny. They love that stuff down here!). On the other side, it was 6km to the town of Paquera. We decided to take a cab. Our cab driver turned out to be a cool guy named Eduardo, who was real friendly and helped us find the hotel even after we gave him brutal directions. He gave us his number and told us he’d take us to the golf course in the morning, to just give him a call when we want to go and he’d be at our hotel in 10 minutes. Nice, eh?
So we went in, and asked for Dona Maria. First problem – she wasn’t there. Ok then, that’s cool, can we just have a room then? Second problem – no rooms available. Whoops. Well as we tried to explain that we were with Luis from Veritas, they got Dona Maria on the phone and just happened to find a room that was cancelled that afternoon. Haha sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be good, I reckon! He said it was all good, but that we wouldn’t be able to stay the next night since they were for sure booked solid. We figured it would have been nicer to stay 2 nights, so that we wouldn’t have to take all our stuff to the course with us the next day, but we had planned on heading up the Peninsula to another town later that weekend anyways, so it was no big deal.
Next morning we were up and in the restaurant by 7:30, ready for some food and some golf. While we were eating, we heard a couple talking to a lady that we immediately knew just HAD to be Dona Maria. This lady was ballin! She looked like the typical, I-run-this-town kinda lady, but in a motherly kinda way. She topped it off with those huge European-style sunglasses that, I don’t know how, are so popular these days. So anyways, this couple just finished telling her that they had originally booked for 2 nights, but didn’t want to stay for a second (what was that I was saying last post about when something needs to happen, it will? This weekend was full of that). So we went up, introduced ourselves, and asked if we could have the now-vacant room. No hay problemas!
So we went to the golf course sin bolsas, which was nice. The course was beautiful, right in the jungle, and nice and lush. The director there talked to us before we went out, and when we told him we were students, he informed us that should we want to come back, he would throw in the rentals for free. Which would drop the price to 60 bucks… you’re hard pressed to find a decent course in Calgary for that price, especially when a power cart is included.
We played 18, of course. The golf course was just a 9-hole layout, but it was a challenging track with narrow fairways and a lot of doglegs. It also had a giant cage on the second hole, where they were in the process of releasing a bunch of scarlet macaws back into the area. 35 had been released so far, and I’m pretty sure we saw most of them! It was incredible; you’d be lining up your shot and 3 gorgeous, fiery red birds would be gliding across the fairway. Or watching you line up your putt from the shade of one of the towering trees that were all over the course (without a left-oriented drive, hole 5 had you stuck behind a massive tree that completely blocks the green. And I slice right).
So golf was great, and getting back to that pool was even better. This whole weekend, I think the temperature had to have been around 30. It was scorching. We were sitting there sipping some icy Imperials (the national beer), watching the neighborhood kids playing in the pool. This was kinda neat, Dona Maria lets the kids in the area come and swim in the pool, since the town is tiny and there wouldn’t be much else for them to do. Well, there would, but nothing as sweet as playing in a pool on a hot day, right?
A guy walked out of the restaurant, holding a beer, and wearing a Molson Canadian t-shirt. How could I not say hello? Turns out his name was Derek, and he was down for a few more days with his significant other, Nadine. It also turns out that we had just met half of one of the most interesting couples I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Nadine joined us after not too long, and the four of us spent the rest of the afternoon (and well into the night) sitting at the same table, chatting about everything. Seriously, everything. It was great! We covered everything from religion, to sports, to Costa Rica, to spirituality, to anything else that one might want to ponder about their lives. In fact, Nadine had just finished self-publishing a book about all that great stuff, and had some very open-minded and fresh outlooks on all of it (sidenote to my family – she kinda reminded me in some ways of Auntie Judith. Which, as you know, is a pretty high complement). The book is called “In a Nutshell”, and we bought a copy.
We had such a good time in Paquera that we decided not to head up the coast as was originally planned. So we booked up our room again for Sunday night, and spent all Sunday relaxing by the pool. It was so nice - just reading a book, swimming, and enjoying the sun. Then came round 2 with Derek and Nadine! They wandered up after a day of checking out the park close by, and we invited them to join us for a couple again. And again, it turned out to be more than a few, with the night devoted to some of the best conversation I’ve found in a long time. You know that feeling, when you just instantly click with some people? It was like that big-time for all of us, and when it happens, you just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The last real nice thing that happened to us was the realization that by staying, we were able to take advantage of the offer of free golf club rentals. So Monday morning, we made our way back to the golf course and played another round. I couldn’t help but think about what the weather must be like back in Calgary… which obviously caused me to smile, and sink a 15 foot birdie putt on 7.
Anyhow, we got done that round at about 1:30. We caught a local bus back to Paquera (80 cents each, instead of 8 dollars), and went to pay for our room. Well the power of Luis came into play, and we got off real easy. In fact, we’re thinking about a return trip in 2 weeks.
The return trip was no worries, and we made it back by 8:30 or so. I was asleep by 9, and I had one of the best sleeps I’ve had in Costa Rica thus far.
All said and done – just a great freakin weekend.

Thanks for reading!

Couple quick things:
- Gotta give a shout out to Derek and Nadine. You guys really made this weekend awesome, and I hope I get another chance to shoot the shit with ya sometime in the future. In a nutshell, you’re great people.
- Like I said, I’m leaving here in about a month. I miss all of you back home, and it will be nice to see you again. Driveway night April 21st.
- I’m currently reading a book called “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. It’s about hiking the Appalachian Trail in the US, and it’s a great read. If you’ve never read any of his stuff before, you should. The guy is hilarious.
- Aaron can’t think of anything clever to say. But he wishes he could.