Windsurfing at Lake Arenal Costa Rica

From: Alan Segervall (alans@lan.nsc.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Tue Feb 13 1996 - 13:17:09 PST

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Date: Tue, 13 Feb 96 13:17:09 PST
From: alans@lan.nsc.com-DeleteThis (Alan Segervall)
Message-Id: <9602132117.AA23958@lan.nsc.com-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Windsurfing at Lake Arenal Costa Rica
Cc: robertn@hoodriver.engr.sgi.com-DeleteThis

Fellow Windsurfers,

We had a fantastic time in Costa Rica.
We were there Jan 27 -- Feb 11.

Friendly Advice:

First and foremost rent a 4wd Suzki Sidekick or Geo Tracker if you can.
Rent near or at the San Jose Airport. Do not count on getting a car/jeep
at Arnel. Some folks from Texas tried to and regreted it. We used National,
found them to be the cheepest of the major lines. May be able to find
a 4wd for less but you need connections and luck.

Drive on RED alert all the time, and try not to speed (the Police are
very agressive and will pull you over). The drivers are crazey and the
roads are realy bad down there --expect the unexpected all the time,
even worse at night!.

Bring some long sleve shirts, pants, and a rain jacket to suplement your
shorts/T-shirts. They are having a very unusually wet summer, epecailly
in the mountains. A shorty works perfect on the H20. Hot at the beaches.
And yes the Sun is very strong, don't make the same mistake I made and
not put it on the first AM sailing.

The equipment:

If you rent equipment through Hotel Tilawa they only charge you for the days
you sail. A nice deal since we had no wind for 3 days. Other places if
there's no wind and you signed up for a 7 day package deal, well you're
skunked! At the Tilwala viento surf center they have NorthWave Sails and Watson
Glass Boards 8'3" down to 7'6" (just fine). For biger boards they have F2
(I think better than BIC) which were OK, the F2 264 carbon board was really
fast, recommended if you happen to get a light wind day. Hotel Tilawa was
very nice and comfortable. We would definitely stay there again. The owner,
John Paul totally rips. I swear he has wings.

The wind:

The wind seems to go in cycles (like everywhere). We found that if it
is blowing at night it will blow all the next day. If it as calm or
only a little wind at night don't expect much the next day. This makes
it easy to plan your days activities. There is not much of a thermal pattern,
if it's windy it is usually windy all day/night. We did find that the best
wind seemed to be in the AM. I was usually was on the H20 no latter than
9:00AM. Local folklore says that there is ususally no wind for a couple
three days before a full moon. We found that to be true.

Sailed some of the strongest winds I've ever been in. During a 6 day
strech I sailed 3.7m2 (all day), 3.2/2.8m2 (full nuke!), 3.2m2 (all day),
3.7m2 (all day), 4.2m2 (morning), 4.7m2 (morning). There was a tropical
storm in the Caribian that really pumped things up. Laura was on 2.8 and
3.2m2 a lot! Ivy was on a 2.5 when the wind was not as strong. The 3.2/2.8
day was so strong at times the wind mowed the waves flat and turned into
a full nuke horizontal white spray!! On my last reach of the day there
was a rainbow across the lake --very cool!! Mark and I had absolutly perfect
3.2m2 sailing conditions one morning --fantastic!!

After all that we headed to the beach (Tamerendo) and then to our final
destination (Plyia Polsada sp? 20 minutes from the airport on a beautiful
plantation on the edge of Rio Colorado --very highly recommended!).

You can email me directly if you want more details/numbers etc.,
alans@lan.nsc.com-DeleteThis

We had 3 days of now wind starting 2 days after we arrived (we arrived on
the tail end of a windy cycle). On those days we:

1) Went to the hot springs at Volcano Arenal/Tabacon (20 miles past the town
   of Arnel towards Fortuna) --must do! You can see the lava flowing down
   the sides of the mountain at night. It exploded 3 times the first time
   we went. Very nice!

2) Went to Tamerendo (best, beautiful) and Playa Flamingo (big resort but nice
beach). Tamerendo is 2.5-3Hrs from Arenal, go north thru Liberia. Get
a detailed Guenacasta Prov. map.

3) Hiked the Jungles.

As far as eating:

- Rock River Lodge is good but pricey.
- Mistica Lodge has good pizza etc.
- Equis Bar has excellent BBQ chicken
- Hotel Tilwala (where we stayed) we ate the most often, the food was good
  and not too expensive. Try it, it's a very nice setting.
- We did not eat in Tiliran, we did get munchies and bottled H20 (for while we
  were on the road) from the local mercado.
- We used the rule of thumb that If you would not eat in a place like that
  in the US then don't eat there in Costa Rica.

We did not have problems with the H20 at any of the above. Try the mixed fruit
drinks con Leche.

Can't wait to go back!

Alan

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