After 3 nights in the Lake Arenal region, it's time to move on to the beaches.

We head westward across northern Costa Rica, through Liberia (which apparently has a pretty big airport and lots of rental car places, FYI) through Tamarindo to Playa Grande. It's a straight, flat drive and we get to see a lot of the non-jungle northwest countryside.

Playa Grande is an important beach in the conservation of leatherback turtles, and is a site of The Leatherback Trust.

We drive into town and almost immediately -- definitely before our driving instructions expected - run out of road and hit the oceanfront parking lot of the Marino Las Baulas National Park. So we turn right to make a quick loop on the unpaved streets of this little town, and find a good deal of construction on large vacation homes. (A quick check shows most are in the 400s and 500s, and there are also a number of lots for sale.) It's way too early to check in, so we backtrack along the main road toward Tamarindo, passing small shops right and left, catering to casual beach lifestyles.

At the end of town we pop into the local Wil-Mart... yep, you read that right, Wil-Mart... With the little star in the logo and everything. Apparently these guys have Friday night jam sessions out front, and even host an annual Wilstock music festival. As Wal-Mart has broken into Costa Rica, I cannot imagine how this guy has not gotten sued. But I digress.

We pop into Wil-Mart to recharge my phone and get recommendations for food. They have a little soda attached on the side, so we ate there - yummy fish casado, which has become my go-to-meal in CR. While eating we listen to the sound check for the Friday night Wil-Mart jam and overhear the local (macro!) Gringo micro brewer telling his friends in Trumplandia that his first commercial kegs are ready to tap and there's a party this weekend to get 'er done. And the waiter gets pissy with me 'cause I feed the restaurant cat, but hey, live and let live. At least, that's what the cat and I think...

Then we headed back into town to check in. Such as it is. I mean, it's not really a town so to speak. It's a long paved street sprinkled sparsely with well maintained shops and restaurants, with unpaved road cutting off on both sides to who knows what... Commerce isn't done on unpaved, is it?