Highs and Lows

Sally woke up on Monday morning with adventure in her eyes. Playa Grande was to be the destination and we were going to walk there. Somehow. Apparently there was a boat that would take us there but we are simple folk and decided to be at one with the crabs instead. After sauntering along the length of Playa Tamarindo in what we hoped was the right direction, we came upon an estuary. This presented a problem. We had heard rumours of crocodiles and there was a boat just sitting there waiting.....we swallowed our pride, handed the guy a dollar each and announced grandly "Playa Grande por favor!". The boat journey lasted all of 30 seconds. Apparently Playa Grande is just the other side of the 10 metre estuary. Never mind, we thought. Playa Grande was sure to contain fun and, most importantly, somewhere to have lunch. A little information we may have found useful before setting off: Playa Grande is as good as it's name -big. Having arrived at about noonish we discovered that there was no shade. At all! Oh yeah, and there's nothing there but big fancy hotels who don't let scruffy travellers such as ourselves sully their pristine appearance. Hungry and desperate for some relief from the baking sun we headed back to Tamarindo. Upon reaching the estuary we grew brave, braver than the crocodiles who I suspect don't actually exist in that particular section of water. With our new found invincibility we waded through the waste high waters, bags above our heads, and emerged feeling triumphant. We were consequently laughed at by the locals who splashed past on an unseen ankle depth path. Hmm....
After eating our body weight in mangos and watermelon we decided to give surfing another try. After Trent and Ron's legendary lesson (me- "What do I do?!" Trent- "Just stand up" *shoves me into a wave*) we felt confident we could make it on our own. Oh how cool we felt as we strolled to the beach with our GIANT foam beginner boards. By this point the sun was going down. I honestly don't think I've even seen so many different colours in the one sky before. Seeing it all from a surf board floating in the Pacific made it all the more special, definately a highlight of the holiday so far.
The next day we took a bus to Montezuma. It was a 5 hour trip and was one of the worst journeys I've ever taken. To say the roads were bumpy is an understatement! We were weaving in and out of pot holes, stopping occasionally to saw up and move fallen trees in the road. By the time we reached Montezuma I was unable to move for fear of throwing up. I had the Spanish phrase for "Stop the bus I need to be sick!" on the tip of my tongue but I suspected that talking would only make things worse. Emily was in a similar state behind me and only Sally 'iron stomach' Deverill emerged from the journey unscathed. We booked into the nearest hostel which turned out to be pretty grotty but by that point we just wanted to go to bed and forget about how awful we were feeling!
But today's a new day and it's amazing what sleep can fix. The first thing we did today was move to a different hostel which is nicer and cheaper too. It's on the beach and has a nice balcony overlooking the sea. After wandering around the town in the morning we decided to do a horseriding trip to the nearby waterfall. We were introduced to our horses and set off along the beach. I've never really ridden a horse before so I was given the dunce of the group. He was prone to stopping randomly and refusing to budge. After a little while I started to suspect my horse had taken a dislike to me and was trying to kill me. He would lead me under low branches and try to head butt me (I'm not paranoid!). However he wasn't a patch on Sally's psycho horse! This fiesty creature would take off at a canter (I think that's horsey speak for running), usually in the wrong direction. Despite all this we had a good giggle and even I managed a bit of cantering (clinging on for dear life of course).
This pretty much brings us up to date. We had fish for dinner. It was nice.