Tag Archives: tamarindo

Under Sail with Antares

Posted on by
Reply
Antares - 1948 Schooner

Antares – 1948 Schooner

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a number of my classmates in the MBA program at the Terry College of Business of the University of Georgia in Tamarindo. We hope to have them back soon.

This was a great excuse to  take advantage of all the great activities that our area of Guanacaste, Costa Rica has to offer and an afternoon on the water with Antares is certainly one of those activities.

Sailing trips have always been a highlight of the area for a number of reasons:

1.  Physical requirements are minimal compared to surfing or canopy tours, which can be more strenuous.

2.  We have some of the best sunsets in the world!

3.  Nothing beats an afternoon on the water with an open bar and plenty of food.

Antares Under Sail

Antares Under Sail

The team from Antares is new to the area, having brought their 1948 steel hull schooner into Tamarindo Bay in 2012. The ship has a long history. Prior its current task of showings visitors the seas around Tamarindo during day sails or overnight surf trips to places like Witch’s Rock, it was used for a time as a treasure hunting boat.

We set out to meet owner, Candy Lagesen, at LeBeachClub in the center of town. She assisted us with boarding a panga to head out to the Antares, moored in Tamarindo Bay.

At the ship, we met the rest of the crew including Captain Hermes Quijada.  He is also a doctor who practices in Santa Cruz, so we felt extra safe.

We got comfy on some of the many bean bags while the crew prepared cleared the moorings and got us headed North towards Cabo Velas. The ships deck is huge so we had plenty of room to spread out. The crew immediately started serving cocktails including local beers and rum punch.

The views from the ship of Tamarindo, Langosta, Isla Capitan, Playa Grande, Playa Ventanas, and Playa Carbon are incredible. The ship often heads to Playa Huevo, on the north side of Cabo Velas but we headed for Playa Carbon, which was sheltered from the powerful winds that day.

Antares Snorkeling Dingy

Antares Snorkeling Dingy

We set anchor and the crew readied the dingy to drop us on the beach with full snorkel gear. The 1st mate ferried us over and we checked out some rock formations and various tropical fish along Playa Carbon.  This beach is basically deserted. The only people there were from the ships.

Heading back to the ship, it was time for a full meal. While we were on shore the crew had been grilling.  The menu was:

UGA MBA Relaxing

UGA MBA Relaxing

  • Chicken kebabs prepared with garlic, olive oil, lemon and parsley marinade.with red onions and green peppers.
  • Vegetable kebabs with cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, eggplant, zucchini and carrots.
  • A salad with lettuce, white cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, green pepper, and cherry tomato.
  • Garlic bread and regular bread.
  • Chips and Crackers
  • Guacamole
  • Pico de Gallo
  • Fruit kebabs with watermelon, strawberry and honeydew melon.

We ate at the table under the aft deck canopy. Delicious!

Tamarindo Sunset

Tamarindo Sunset

While we were eating the crew had put us underway and set the sails. The sun was dipping towards the Pacific Ocean and the views were incredible. We got some great sunset photos as we headed back to the moorings in Tamarindo.

What a great way to spend the afternoon.

Trips with Antares are $80/person and include open bar, snacks, food, and snorkel gear. The boat is often fully booked days in advance, so please contact Cameron prior to your arrival with the number of sailors in your group: info@costapm.com

Local Legend in El Pescador on the beach of Tamarindo.

Posted on by

Tomorrow, Saturday March 2, the best Rock& Roll band of the area, Local Legend, will play in restaurant El Pescador.541_496323727078446_26722389_n

Local Legend exists, for about one and a half year. Except the lead singer Jose Mora and the bass player Paul Marin, the members of the band played in former bands in the area. David Nelson and Brian Holmes both guitar, played in The Electric Storm, a Rock band that had its base in Potrero. The drummer Olman Ovares played in The Electric Storm and in Indigo. Local Legend played a few times in Pasatiempo in Tamarindo, but most of their concerts were held in the Flamingo Potrero area.

Local Legend`s lead singer Jose sings both in English and Spanish. He has a great voice and a professional performance. If you like to listen to and dance on Rock&Roll music, you should take the chance to come to the concertmarlin

El Pescador is an open air restaurant, just a 100 meters south from the circle in Tamarindo, right on the beach.  The Canadian owners toke over the restaurant in January 2012. They made a lot of improvements to attract more customers to this well located restaurant, especially during the evenings.  They improved the menu by adding more international plates to the original Tico menu. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday there is firework on the beach. Wednesday and Friday there is a BBQ buffet with lots of fresh fish, lobster and all kinds of meat.

And now they have live music. I am looking forward to see and hear my favorite band in the romantic setting of the beach of Tamarindo.

Playa Francisco and Playa Langosta

Posted on by

The urbanization just south of Tamarindo is called Langosta. Here you find the more upscale condominiums and prestige big villas. Coastal Property Management rents and manages several condominiums and villas in Langosta. At the end of Langosta is the all-in Hotel Barcelo.  Most people call the beach along this urbanization Playa Langosta. But this beach, which you can reach by walking through the little park called Park San Francisco, is called after this park; Playa Francisco.IMG_3975

If you are on the end of this beach, just were the Hotel Barcelo is, the beach ends at an estuary. This is a great place to let your little children save in the water because in this lake-like estuary there are no waves.

Passing the estuary, which you can do by walking at low tie, you enter a long yellow sanded beach. This beach, which is part of the Hacienda Pinilla, is the real Playa Langosta. A nice well maintained dirt road in Hacienda Pinilla, leads to this very quit beach. IMG_3973You go along the pasture and at the end you get the feeling that you are driving through the tropical dry-forest while you drive along the beach for a little while. At the end is a parking place and Hacienda Pinilla provided a few beach chairs and a shower. It is a very nice place to relax and enjoy the sun and the ocean.

Golf Tournement for Amigos de la Educacion in Hacienda Pinilla

Posted on by

Amigos de Educacion is founded in 2000 by Suzye and Barry Lawson, Amigos de la Educación, is a non-profit educational and scholarship foundation. They provide quality educational services to students and teachers from kindergarten through university living in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

The vision of Amigos de la Educacion is to create a school environment where young people are empowered, self determined and confident enough to achieve their fullest potential, regardless of their background or current circumstances; thus, actively engaging in the future of Costa Rica.

The Annual “Have a Heart” Charity Golf Tournament will be held on Thursday February 14th at the Hacienda Pinilla golf course. The annual Valentine’s Day event is the major fund-raiser for Amigos de la Educación Foundation.haveaheart2

The $ 150 registration for the tournament includes: Cocktail Party on February 12th, Cart, Green Fee, breakfast, gift bag, lunch and a 9 complementary holes of practice on February 13th.

Register for the golf tournament at the Amigos’ office in Tamarindo (2653-1945), Plaza Tamarindo, Suite A-10, weekdays from 9-5pm.

The Papagayo winds.

Posted on by

January, February and March are the month of the Papagayo winds in the North West part of Costa Rica. The winds can have a force of up till a 100 km/h.

Up till now we are lucky with the winds; we did not have days that it was no fun to go to the beach because you have the feeling that someone is throwing nails against your legs. I did not have days that my hair was looking like a Rasta woman or that the umbrellas had to stay closed instead of putting them out on the Tamarindo beach.30047522483762324_9kH182Br_c

 

Sailing boats can go out sailing on the Pacific Ocean every day, the ocean is clean and clear so it is fun to go out for snorkeling and when you are going out fishing, you do not have to tie up on the boat to avoid that the wind blows you in the ocean.

Up till now we are lucky with the Papagayo winds, they blow softly and give some refreshment to our long sunny days on the Tamarindo beach. Let’s hope that it stays like that all the 3 month of these winds.

Rains Gone?

Posted on by

Guanacaste appears to have dried up. Long time locals feel the rains have left already. The winds that typically blow in December have already started, cooling off ocean temperatures.

The road to Langosta is dry and in great shape currently, such good shape that enterprising restaurant owners decided to install their own speed bumps.

Everyone is enjoying outdoor dining in restaurants like Nibana and Copa Cobana.

Although the weather is dry, this is still technically rainy reason and our rainy season discounts are available through December 15th, so take advantage while you can!

Some Flipkey reviews from our clients

Posted on by
Reply

Court Yard 4, Casa Quetzalcoatl

We had a great time in Langosta, the house was clean and comfortable. We loved the terrace on top. Great staff at the Villa Complex. Great Location.
Thanks for everything!

Our family enjoyed the stay at this Villa. My wife enjoyed the beautiful decor and set up of these villas. We all enjoyed having a pool to jump into to cool off after a day in the sun. The hot tub was nice too. The staff was very attentive to anything which needed to be done

Buena Vida 5

The condo was beautiful on the outside and inside. It was very clean and well stocked with kitchen gadgets, beach toys, beach towels, washer and dryer, etc. That made it so easy to pack a small bag. The pool at the condo was also very nice and relaxing. All of the staff at the condo as well as Cameron from Coastal Property Management were very kind, respectful, and professional.
The only thing for our family that didn’t work well was the walk to the beach. It was a little far for our children a couple of times a day. Other than that, it was awesome!!!

 

Casa Muy Grande

Our family of 12 spent a glorious week at Casa Muy Grande. It lived up to all of our expectations. The location was perfect–a beautiful beach that we had virtually to ourselves. The waves were a little wild. We used the surf boards and boogie boards and had lots of fun “rides”, even though we were inexperienced.
The house had wonderful outdoor areas. We enjoyed eating at the big table by the grill, we had plenty of family ping pong games, and we slapped the ball around on the fun ball court. We even had an audience of 3 howler monkeys who watched our fun ball tournament! It was great fun to watch the monkeys hang from their tails, chase each other around in the tree tops, etc.
We were initially disappointed that the pool was rather small, but it turned out to be perfect for lounging around and reading. If we wanted to swim, we just went to the ocean.
Perfect vacation spot for our family. We made a lot of good memories here.

 

Couldn’t have found a better place to call home in Costa Rica. Perfect location. Amazing house. Great separate bedrooms,  6 separate baths, 20 yards to the beach on private path. Minutes from Tamarindo, but in protected area that made it feel miles away.
Great staff, helpful and professional property management.
Will return to Casa Muy grande soon!
Worth every penny. 
Pure Vida!

Thanks dear clients for your nice words.

Notes from the Owner

Posted on by
Reply

Eddie Davis

Just to check in with the readers of our blog here on BeachCondoTamarindo.com, I’d like to share what we have been up to at CPM and my current projects.

First of all, we had an incredibly productive summer.  As many of you know, our executive level staff has changed and the results have been remarkable.  It was fantastic to get to work with them over the summer in Tamarindo.  We had the best July in our history with some units being rented five times.  We look a great deal at year on year performance changes, and other indicators are very positive. Cameron Compton has done a fantastic job at improving our conversion rate and creating a fantastic experience for our tenants.

My personal focus right now is to improve our systems and customer experience for both our owners and tenants. We always receive very high ratings as a property manager as evidenced by our TripAdvisor/Flipkey ratings, but we feel that we can improve as well. Tineke Rademaker has brought a systematic perspective to the company and been a huge influence in studying the way CPM works and looking for ways that we can standardize and add accountability.  Andrea Viquez has done a fantastic job at improving the responsiveness of the company to owners with issues related to bills, taxes, and other financial issues.

For my part, I am heavily studying innovation right now and looking at new opportunities to improve CPM. I have the honor of working directly with David Sutherland, owner of Launch Institute, through my work as the President of the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club at UGA and taking one of his classes on innovation.  I am also doing a lot of work on marketing in terms of branding and communication and what makes staying with CPM in Costa Rica so special.  Additionally, I am working as a grad assistant to the Entrepreneurship head at UGA, Chris Hanks. The insights that these two gentleman have when it comes to how to examine and improve a small business is incredible.

Look for more to come from Coastal Property Management over the coming months.

 

 

Waves Costa Rica

Posted on by
Reply

Andrea Díaz, the surfer who is the no. 5 spot for women over 35 – in the world, is the owner of Waves in the Best Western Tamarindo Vista Villas. She runs the shop together with national champions Gilbert Brown and Germaine “Nino” Myrie.

At Waves, she offers specialty packages designed for women, men or mixed surf camps, as well as daily surf lessons for drop-ins. Packages can also be designed with daily yoga classes, or with excursions such as canopy, estuary or ATV tours. Experienced surfers can get guided tours to any of the many surf breaks located in the area.

Díaz’s status as a national champion and a world-renowned surfer sets Waves apart from other surf schools in the area, but according to Díaz, it’s the vibes and passion of the team that really draws clients. Since Díaz started Waves nine years ago, she has always found it rewarding.

“I believe it’s my instinct to be a teacher or mentor,” Díaz says. “I have always been around sports. I realized that to teach surf is not just a physical thing, there’s a psychological part. I’m a great motivator.”

Never one to remain idle for even a moment, surfing’s cheerleader also works diligently in the community, and recently started weekly surf lessons for underprivileged kids through CEPIA, (Culture, Education and Psychology for Infants and Adolescents). Pro surfers who participated in Díaz’s recent surf contest and activity day, Surf for Youth, donated equipment for those lessons.

When she’s not doing philanthropic work, running Waves Costa Rica or spending time with her family, Díaz can still be found out in the water, power surfing. While she won’t do the circuit anymore, feeling it takes too much away from her life in Tamarindo, there is still hope she will join the Costa Rica National Masters team next year.

“Who knows, I’m pretty settled with my life here in Tamarindo,” Díaz said. “My life, my business and my family revolve around surfing. It is what helps bring food to the table. We love our job to the point where it’s not a job anymore.”

Activities Around Tamarindo

Posted on by
Reply

Tamarindo, Costa Rica is specially know as a surfing beach. But there are a lot of other activities to do around Tamarindo besides of surfing. Some of these activities are:

Canopy Tour. What better way to start your canopy tour than at the top of the Guanacaste tree, the national tree of Costa Rica. You will ascend this tree by a winding staircase until you arrive at the first platform that is 20 meters up. Then you will zip from one platform to another with the use of cables and pulleys, above on of the last unique and impressive dry forests in the area.At these heights you can see and listen to many animals, for example, monkeys, iguanas, raccoons, armadillos, and a great variety of native and migratory birds, as well as a great quantity of butterflies, a part of the biodiversity of plants, trees and lianas.

Sailing or Fishing Tour. In front of the beach of Tamarindo are a lot of sailing and fishing boats. They all bring you offshore. No matter if you are fishing or sailing, you will be able to see a lot of the sea life like the Green Turtles, Leatherback Turtles, Dolphines, Wales, Sail fish and all kind birds. Most sailing tours start in the beginning of the afternoon and end just after sunset. For a Fishing tour you hire the whole boat for a day or half a day.

Day Spa. If you just want to relax and let other people taking care of you there is the possibility to go to a day spa. Two resorts, both up in the mountains, away from the crowd of Tamarindo, open there doors to let you enjoy there beautiful place and there excellent services. Start your day with a yoga experience, relax at the side of the pool or take a  massage or what ever you like to have to take care of your body.