Right now, I am spending the month of February in Tamarindo, Costa Rica — mostly to get away from winter but also to complete the required SCUBA dives for my PADI Advanced Open Water certification. I have completed six dives over three days at Playas del Coco last week (about an hour from Tamarindo). Two required dives are (1) Deep Dive of 100 feet (think Marianas Trench) and (2) Underwater Navigation (just you, a compass, and the fishies — along with your dive buddy and instructor, of course). Elective dives included (3) Underwater Digital Photography, (4) Advanced Buoyancy Control, and (5 and 6) Search and Recovery. The staff and instructors at Rich Coast Diving in Playas del Coco were extraordinary. Highly skilled and very safety conscious. It was a very pleasant experience and I added another “notch” to my PADI certification belt.

The gem at the heart of my month-long stay, however, is finding the Hotel In The Shade in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. A boutique hotel with 16 rooms, it is new, clean, and safe (walled in, combination lock on the gates) and is within walking distance of virtually everything. The pool you see in the picture above has just been constructed this year and is a wonderful place to cool off after a hot day of walking downtown and on the beautiful beach. Dennis does an outstanding job of maintaining the pool along with his other duties.

The staff at the hotel are amazing. The manager, assistant manager, and receptionist (Vanina, Oriana, and Anna), the breakfast cooks (Benél and Greggorio), the house maids (Yahaira and Lisbeth), and the maintenance man (Dennis) are the most pleasant and accommodating group you could hope to find. The owner (Viktor) has assembled a fine team of people who are warm, friendly, professional and very customer service oriented. I am enjoying my stay in Tamarindo in no small measure due to the very pleasant interactions with the staff.

The hotel is in a quiet and safe area of Tamarindo away from all the commotion of the party crowd downtown. With three nice restaurants right next door, you barely need to the leave the immediate area except for the walks on the beach. Peace and tranquility abound. It is the perfect place to write, edit some audio files for my latest audiobook narration, and simply chill out away from the winter cold.

One of the unexpected side benefits has been the variety of guests who have come and gone during my stay so far. Naturally, folks from the USA and Canada comprise a large portion, however, I have met and talked with people from Germany, The Netherlands, Estonia, Venezuela, El Salvador, England, and Columbia to name just a few. It is truly a cosmopolitan group and has been a pleasure to learn some of their stories.

I recommend it highly !!!