La Botella de Leche

We left Arenal early Tuesday morning and set out for Tamarindo. It is part of the Guanacaste region in the North West coast of Costa Rica. So far this has been my favorite place that I have been to. It is pretty well developed and a big touristy spot; very Americanized so to speak. We had to take a private bus so that we could at least get there and have part of the day to spend on the beach and explore the town. When we stopped for a small break, we saw a bunch of parrots in the trees. Some of them were content where they were on their part of the tree, but there as ususal, was one parrot which had the pretties blue color wings. He was the trouble maker of the group who wanted the whole tree to themselves. When we finally arrived it was around 2 in the afternoon and we got dropped off at a hostel called La Botella de Leche, which in English translates to Bottle of Milk. A lady from Argentina owns it and it was one of the coolest places we stayed at because it was so relaxed and full of surfers from all over the world. There were hammocks in front of every room, a big common lounge area with a few bean bags, a bench, handmade couches and two computers. In front of the lounge area there was a huge porch swing and a little patio set of table and chairs. Behind the lounge area, a fairly decent size kitchen that was shared by everyone had picnic tables to eat on. There were private rooms, and also dorms. The only thing the lady had available was two beds in the dorm. Going from the place to Arenal to what we had stepped into was a complete 180. There were three sets of bunk beds, and one common bathroom shared by all. In our room, there was a door that led to a private bedroom where the owner’s son, Juan lived. He was very cool to talk to and helped his mom run the hostel. We at least had an air conditioning unit in the room and a refrigerator. In our dorm we had a German couple (Mike and Veronica), and two girls from Texas. When I first met Mike he did not appear nor sound German when he spoke English. His accent sounded more like a mix of Australian and British. They were both 25 years old and he was studying bio economics and Veronica was a nail/spa technician. They were so friendly and very cool to hang out with. We talked to them for a while before we went to bed. He explained to me, that growing up in Germany in school you have to learn English up until the 5th grade and then when you enter into 9th grade you have a choice of let’s say for example: chemistry and English; very interesting to me. After we settled in, we decided to head to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. The beach was absolutely beautiful. It had light color sand, water for miles that was warm, beautiful green trees mixed in with palm trees lined the separation of beach from street, and a sky filled with the bright, hot sun with big puffy white clouds. We ran into one of the guys from my study abroad group and his girlfriend of all places. We hung out for a bit, then, Emily and I decided to walk around the town and get something to drink because it was so hot. We learned that down the road a bit there are huge million dollar homes owned by some of the famous celebrities in Hollywood here. For example, Harrison Ford has a beautiful all glass house located on the beach. It is the time to buy real estate here since everything is becoming so built up.
Eventually, we went to dinner and more than half the hostile all went together. The restaurant Coral Reef had really good and with really cheap prices. As we all sat around the table it became clear how many different countries were represented as we ate dinner. We had: the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, Austria, South Africa, Switzerland, and England. The best thing was to know that every one that we have met so far no matter what country they were from all knew English. It just proves to me how arrogant the people in America are and stubborn as to the fact that they don’t think learning other languages is important, or that it should be a priority in schools. I definitely think that it is important and I know that when I have children of my own they will start learning Spanish when they learn English. I want them to learn as many different languages as they can. The movie “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe was on, but I was pretty tired so after talking with everyone back at the hostel for a while I decided to go to bed since we had to be up bright and early to depart for our next place. For our first hostel experience La Botella de Leche was great and I highly recommend it for when you travel to Tamarindo and need a cheap place to stay. Hasta Pronto…