From the day we arrived it was a non stop adventure, we landed, rented a 4WD, checked into our condo, and then hit the road for a clocked 1087 kilometers (675 miles) along the Pacific Coast. It was a week full of "paved" road trips, packed cheese sandwiches and pringles, early mornings, sunrises, sunsets, hablando espanol, sunburns, endless bug bites, toes in the sand, days of undisturbed beaches, critters and creatures of all kinds, and of course, a whole lot of love.
What Costa Rica meant to us....
1. "Pura Vida" (Pure Life) is how the locals respond to "thank you" or a compliment, or a toast. I loved this.
It's more like saying, "It's all good". This will always remind us of our time in Costa Rica. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Costa_Rica
2. No matter how small a town is, there is always a freshly mowed, perfect conditioned football pitch right in
the center. Always. These guys in Brasilito play to the sound of waves in the background...
3. When they say the roads are impassable, they mean it, you can try, but you might end up with some
vehicle battle wounds, or get inches within where you want to go and have to turn all the way back. Trust
us with this one, we have personal experience : )
Overflowing river from heavy rains week before. All of us on this side, not sure whether to go!
Taxi van for these girls decided not to pass so they had to walk...
We watched these guys pass from the other side and then decided to go to for it. We made it but lost a liscense plate, got a flat tire (only realized later!) and got all the way south only to get to a part of the road that from what we hear was as deep as a an entire car! Sadly we had to turn back only 5km shy of our goal that day..
Example of a an overflowing river....
Here is the map, Playa Flamingo is in the center along the coast where we started, Nosara was our goal but could not pass El Oscitinal.
4. "Paved" roads are rocks, dirt, pot holes, and we probably drove 1000 of the km on these "paved" roads.
Hidden beauty is that without the best access, it keeps the visitors low.
5. Casado, married in Spanish, is actual the name of a simple fare of rice, beans, salad, and usually fish or
beef. We had the fish options and it was delish!
6. Soda's are not your carbonated beverage. These are the little open aired family run joints where you can
order a casada for like $5. On any normal day you would not want to eat at such a place in the USA.
Ants on the ground, dogs at your feet, perhaps even a crab will just walk in off the beach.
But here, you pull up a wooden chair in the sand behind someone's house, and eat home cooked food,
listen to the sound of waves (and most often to the sound of a few locals gathered around the one tv
discussing the daily events). This certainly gives meaning to no place like home.
That's the entire menu, I hope you aren't picky ; )
7. The beaches are endless, amazingly private, almost always lined with a forest or palm trees and the water
is so incredibly warm. We drove to as many beaches as we could. We stop and swim (or nap!) and then head to the nxt one.
Playa Junquillal...
Playa Carillo
Playa Flamingo...
Playa Grande...
Playa Ostional...
Playa Andinita...
Playa Portrero...
Playa Samara...
8. In Costa Rica, your friends comes in all shapes sizes, and colors from land to sea....
Crab and his territory....
He makes these little balls of sand over and over. But if he senses anything around, he crawls into the hole.
So we laid low and then I broke out the zoom lens to try and get a good a shot.
Not sure if this is still considered a lizard, he might be small dinosaur ; -)
My bird friend, who religiously came to our window at 6am every morning.
I do not know what this is, but he looks like a giant rodent, he was larger than a house cat.
Coati...
Deer....
And one of the the most memorable moments for us...Monkeys! We randomly found this rescue place for the monkeys and it was awesome! They are so friendly, and their little hands are so warm. One of the little guys actually reached into Rafa's pockets, grabbed his car keys and then ran away! What a mischief!
They really groomed us like crazy, especially for Rafa ; )
9. The Forest and Volcanoes are alive and hot! We went to Rincon de la Vieja and Santa Rosa Parque to
hike, check out the hot spots for the volacones, and then enjoy an actual natural hot springs.
Walking bridge...
Tropical mushrooms...
Just a note, those numbers are in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Wowza, hot!
Ahhhh, hot springs bath.
10. We were completely surprised to see how much of this area is Cowboy Country. There are cowboys,
cows, horses, farms, and farmland for miles. It's lovely to see the natural side of the process...
10. Life in the slow lane. People here are amazingly relaxed. There is no feeling of being rushed
or hurried along. Just a few random pics from during the week...
On the go market....
Bikes, bikes, and more bikes here....
Cart vendor...
The many towns we passed are lined with these small little homes...
17th Century Iglesia in Nicoya....
11. And what we would discovered the most that there was an "us" in all of this beauty, and how thankful
we felt to celebrate our 5 year anniversary here in this wonderful place...
And P.S. I officially became a certified diver! We took 4 dives together (the 4 I needed to complete my certification) and we saw hundreds of fish, eels, lobsters, a huge sting ray, and an octopus! But because we almost literally had to swim to the boat, we ended up not getting any photos because our small camera got drenched! I was able to save this one photo of the dive boat pulling up.
It was an amazing trip one that we will remember for a lifetime. Catching each other with tears in our eyes on the last day, we knew we were leaving a bit of our hearts in this magical place. Adios Costa Rica....
Pura Vida!
I think Danny and I need to take travel tips from the two of you...all your trips look amazing!
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