We spent 4 days at the beach. It was pretty much amazing. My friend Doug served in Costa Rica a few years ago and he was back for a visit with his roommate Aaron and Aaron's sister Heidi. We also hung out with Francella, one of his friends from here. The six of us pretty much clicked from day one, which was a good thing, because we spent many hours in the mini-van we rented in very close quarters. Monday we planned to take off early, but, as vacations usually go, didn't get on the road until about 1pm after many adventures with car rental companies and internet hotel booking services. 
We drove through some gorgeous places and crossed a bridge to the Nicoya peninsula, and headed down to Samara, a beach town on the south-west corner of the peninsula. Francella's aunt has a house there that they don't live in any more that is literally a block from the beach, and it was great! We arrived, basically dumped our stuff, and headed for the beach.
By that time, though, it was getting dark (it gets dark at 6:00 here, every night), so we went for a little moon-light walk on the beach, and then headed to a little restaurant to eat. The coolest thing about Samara was its authenticity. It is not very touristy, and the beach is fairly empty. It was beautiful, though, and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. 
Some highlights were the wild horses on the beach, swinging from vines, and the many batidos that we drank at the restaurant that faces the beach. Mmmm... 
We spent all of Tuesday playing in the water, putting on sunscreen, walking down the beach, 
putting on sunscreen, taking a boat ride,
putting on sunscreen, exploring a deserted island with huge lizards and thousands of crabs,
putting on sunscreen, snorkeling, putting on sunscreen...it was beautiful. Francella had brought her grill, so we made a visit to the little store, and then to the carniceria, and then packed up the van to head to another beach nearby. We set up, and had a beach barbecue that was amazing! 
We had to wash our produce in the ocean, but don't worry- we cooked most of it.
We even introduced Francella to make-shift s'mores, and we sang hymns under the stars. And got bit by beach fleas. But most of it was as wonderful as it sounds. Wednesday morning I woke up early (not so much because I'm a morning person...more because my feet were really itchy) and decided to go to the beach for some scripture reading. It was so peaceful...me and the waves, and the occasional group of school children walking to school. Across the beach. I don't know how that sounds to you, but to me it sounds a lot better than uphill both ways. When I got back we packed up and cleaned up, and headed north to Tamarindo, where we had reserved rooms at the Diria Resort. It was a little pricey, but it was beautiful! Pool, beach front, air conditioning, free welcome cocktails (we got virgin piña coladas), as many clean towels as you can use. 
It was fantastic. We played in the water (pool-ocean-pool-ocean), walked around the funky beach town (this place was a lot more touristy), and read poetry from the lawn chairs.
That night we basked in an incredible sunset, and Allie and I headed out for one last dip in the salt water, which was orange and purple under the sky.
We decided we were already paying the resort enough for our rooms, so we skipped the restaurant and headed into town for some dinner at what a kind dread-locked young man told us was one of the only inexpensive restaurants in town. He was right, but it was still great food, and even better batidos. After dinner and a little more exploring, the boys decided to turn in for the night. We (the girls) decided we wanted some ice cream, and that began our adventure on the town. We went to TCBY, which turned out to be closed, but which, under our feminine influence, opened again to serve us some ice cream. As we walked down the main street in town, we were approached several times and informed of various ladies nights going on, to which we responded that we didn't drink. This was generally followed by strange looks, and turned out to be a pretty effective way to keep strange men from continuing their conversations with us. We decided to go to a place where they had a live salsa band to try out our dancing skills, and we were successful! .jpg)
The band was amazing, and the place was packed with about half tourists, half locals.
We all got a little dancing in and had a great time before heading back to our hotel/resort. Allie and I thought we would top it all off with one final swim in the pool, and approached the pool, only to find that it had closed at 10:00, and it was quarter after 11:00. Fortunately, our feminine charms worked again, and we were given permission to swim "as long as we weren't too loud". We complied with the quiet requirement until we got the crazy idea to climb the rock wall that rose out of one end of the pool to another pool/fountain (that was purely decorative). One triple-dog-dare later, Allie was climbing the rocks and relaxing into the fountain with the clever plan to reply "Oh, you can't swim in here? I'm so sorry!" to the inevitable rebuke from the guards. Unfortunately, the water splashing into the fountain from the concrete fishies mouths was making such a racket that they didn't even notice Allie sink into the fountain, stretching out and sighing, "ahhhh...". She sat there for a few minutes while I laughed so hard I nearly woke up the entire resort, and then we headed back to our room. (Here she is with the fountain the next morning.)
That night I think I slept better than I have the entire time I've been in Costa Rica, but unfortunately my slumber was interrupted at about 6am when Doug banged on the door and asked why I was still asleep. Hmm...I didn't think that was a very hard question to answer, but I humored them, and got dressed. We ate as much as we possibly could at breakfast (it was included in the price of room, and we had to get our money's worth)
and then packed the van and headed back to good old San José. 
We drove through some gorgeous places and crossed a bridge to the Nicoya peninsula, and headed down to Samara, a beach town on the south-west corner of the peninsula. Francella's aunt has a house there that they don't live in any more that is literally a block from the beach, and it was great! We arrived, basically dumped our stuff, and headed for the beach. By that time, though, it was getting dark (it gets dark at 6:00 here, every night), so we went for a little moon-light walk on the beach, and then headed to a little restaurant to eat. The coolest thing about Samara was its authenticity. It is not very touristy, and the beach is fairly empty. It was beautiful, though, and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. Some highlights were the wild horses on the beach, swinging from vines, and the many batidos that we drank at the restaurant that faces the beach. Mmmm... We spent all of Tuesday playing in the water, putting on sunscreen, walking down the beach, putting on sunscreen, taking a boat ride, putting on sunscreen, exploring a deserted island with huge lizards and thousands of crabs, putting on sunscreen, snorkeling, putting on sunscreen...it was beautiful. Francella had brought her grill, so we made a visit to the little store, and then to the carniceria, and then packed up the van to head to another beach nearby. We set up, and had a beach barbecue that was amazing! We had to wash our produce in the ocean, but don't worry- we cooked most of it. We even introduced Francella to make-shift s'mores, and we sang hymns under the stars. And got bit by beach fleas. But most of it was as wonderful as it sounds. Wednesday morning I woke up early (not so much because I'm a morning person...more because my feet were really itchy) and decided to go to the beach for some scripture reading. It was so peaceful...me and the waves, and the occasional group of school children walking to school. Across the beach. I don't know how that sounds to you, but to me it sounds a lot better than uphill both ways. When I got back we packed up and cleaned up, and headed north to Tamarindo, where we had reserved rooms at the Diria Resort. It was a little pricey, but it was beautiful! Pool, beach front, air conditioning, free welcome cocktails (we got virgin piña coladas), as many clean towels as you can use. It was fantastic. We played in the water (pool-ocean-pool-ocean), walked around the funky beach town (this place was a lot more touristy), and read poetry from the lawn chairs. That night we basked in an incredible sunset, and Allie and I headed out for one last dip in the salt water, which was orange and purple under the sky. We decided we were already paying the resort enough for our rooms, so we skipped the restaurant and headed into town for some dinner at what a kind dread-locked young man told us was one of the only inexpensive restaurants in town. He was right, but it was still great food, and even better batidos. After dinner and a little more exploring, the boys decided to turn in for the night. We (the girls) decided we wanted some ice cream, and that began our adventure on the town. We went to TCBY, which turned out to be closed, but which, under our feminine influence, opened again to serve us some ice cream. As we walked down the main street in town, we were approached several times and informed of various ladies nights going on, to which we responded that we didn't drink. This was generally followed by strange looks, and turned out to be a pretty effective way to keep strange men from continuing their conversations with us. We decided to go to a place where they had a live salsa band to try out our dancing skills, and we were successful! The band was amazing, and the place was packed with about half tourists, half locals. We all got a little dancing in and had a great time before heading back to our hotel/resort. Allie and I thought we would top it all off with one final swim in the pool, and approached the pool, only to find that it had closed at 10:00, and it was quarter after 11:00. Fortunately, our feminine charms worked again, and we were given permission to swim "as long as we weren't too loud". We complied with the quiet requirement until we got the crazy idea to climb the rock wall that rose out of one end of the pool to another pool/fountain (that was purely decorative). One triple-dog-dare later, Allie was climbing the rocks and relaxing into the fountain with the clever plan to reply "Oh, you can't swim in here? I'm so sorry!" to the inevitable rebuke from the guards. Unfortunately, the water splashing into the fountain from the concrete fishies mouths was making such a racket that they didn't even notice Allie sink into the fountain, stretching out and sighing, "ahhhh...". She sat there for a few minutes while I laughed so hard I nearly woke up the entire resort, and then we headed back to our room. (Here she is with the fountain the next morning.) That night I think I slept better than I have the entire time I've been in Costa Rica, but unfortunately my slumber was interrupted at about 6am when Doug banged on the door and asked why I was still asleep. Hmm...I didn't think that was a very hard question to answer, but I humored them, and got dressed. We ate as much as we possibly could at breakfast (it was included in the price of room, and we had to get our money's worth) and then packed the van and headed back to good old San José. It feels good to be home. Doug and Co. flew back to the U.S. this morning, and we only felt a slight twinge of jealousy (or maybe that was just the itchy-ness of all those flea bites). We realized there are a few things we miss. But mostly, we are just grateful to be here, and excited for more adventures to come, with or without the fleas.
No comments:
Post a Comment