From our perch at the swanky hotel we reserved a place via AirBnB that was just outside of Tilarán, a small town on the west side of Lake Arenal. It looked too good to be true given everything in that area was pricy and this was a 3 bedroom home for $50 (which is basically in range of what we’ve been paying). It was amazing- spotless, fast internet, LAUNDRY, full kitchen…. We were in desperate need of cleaning our clothes and decided to basically wash everything (one whole load). Such a nice luxury.
After some laundry and chillaxin we ventured out to find Michelle a place to windsurf the next day… apparently the west side of Lake Arenal has one of the most consistent winds in the world (many wind turbines serve as proof there might be some truth to that statement). We had dinner at this Microbrewery and Hotel overlooking the lake… and had a beer which actually had some hops which was a nice change of pace from Imperial. An email response from Tico Windsurf confirmed that July is “off season” and the main windsurf place was closed. But the hotel gave us the contact info for a guy named Tom, a true windsurfer, who teaches lessons and rents his gear by appointment… so we arranged for Michelle to rent some gear in the morning.
The next morning we rolled down to the windsurf spot and the guy had already set up a board for Michelle– not sure how he knew the perfect board and sail size, but we literally showed up and she was out on the water in minutes. Michelle agreed with Tom that Lake Arenal is great for windsurfing all year round – after she went out planing on a 105L board & 5.2 sail for an hour. The water was smooth and the wind was blowing steady. She had a blast. Afterwards we went back to our home and arranged lodgings for the next few nights… not having internet (or specific destinations) for a while made us appreciate how nice it is roll into a town and have a place to go.
The Crazy Adventures of Carl & Michelle 