Having spent the last six or so weekends beach hopping I felt I had a good solid handle on the criteria for my last Central American beach weekend: alone, close and tranquil. I was able to achieve all three goals and had a fabuloso weekend!

Since so many of my weekends had started out with five and six hour travel times I knew for certain I didn't want to spend that much time on a bus. I did a little research and asked my mama's advice and settled on the beaches of the southern point of Puntarenas. Previously I'd gone as far as Samara, but had heard great things about Montezuma and other beaches in the area. Friday after school I took a bus from San Jose to the town of Puntarenas on the right side of the map.

I was greeted in Puntarenas by one of the most stunning sunsets I've seen...and I've seen a LOT of breathtaking sunsets here. I only regret I wasn't able to stop the bus and run out and find some sand to sit on, but I stuck my head as far out of the bus window as possible and even took a picture so you could enjoy it with me.

I spent the night at a not-so-cheap hotel ($20...that's a lot here, but there wasn't much choice) the upside being it was super clean, had a/c and cable. Cable! Sure the movies were 13 years old but they were in English!!! The next morning, Saturday, I rose at 6am and walked the four blocks to the ferry stop. The town of Puntarenas used to be hoppin until other towns further down the coast blossomed into tourist havens. Now the town is pretty run down and used mainly as a sleep over for people taking the morning ferry.

This was the first time I've ridden a ferry in a location other than Massachusetts, and the experience was mostly the same except the scenery was better, everyone on the boat was latin and we all drank beer. While I was buying my ticket for the ferry I asked a nice tico young man behind me a question about the beach I was heading towards. He politely answered back and then asked me a question in English. Thinking he was merely being polite I assulted him further with my Spanish. As we conversed this was for a while, me in Spanish and he in English, I finally asked him where he was from. "Canada". Oh. I guess I can drop the Spanish thing, huh?! It was funny. His name was Will from Edmonton. Having an English father, Costa Rican mother and Canadian citizenship made him the most trans-continentially diverse person I've met to date.

Here's the line cueing up for the ferry (check out the guy who impresses the chicks by wearing a lot of hats at once)...

While Will and I were talking and waiting in line for the ferry I was astounded to see two people I knew walking towards me. Neal met Meg and Nick, a mother/son team, while flying from Spokane to Dallas. Meg and Nick were going to Costa Rica too, after a stop-over in Florida. When Neal and I were in the caribbean we ran into Meg and Nick (what are the chances?!) at the bus stop and shared a nice meal with them talking about our travels and marveling at the coincidence. Well how about the freaking chances that Meg and Nick would also be taking the 8:30am ferry to the small point of Puntarenes?! I hollered at them and we all embraced, talking more about what had happened in the two weeks since I'd last seen them. The four of us hopped on the ferry and our gabbing made the hour ride fly by.

Will's in the back, Nick and Meg are in the front...

The view was nice as we manuevered through the little islands that dot the waters between the mainlands.

And of course in order to fit in we enjoyed the traditional tico breakfast of Imperial and granola. Well the granola part might have been our influence...

The mainland we were pulling up to was exactly what I wanted to see...green, secluded and beachy.

While on the ferry I told Will I was heading to the beach town of Montezuma for a little R&R, but he moved me to reconsider by dropping the loathsome word "tourists". He said Montezuma had that unshakable sickness of tourism and that he was meeting up with a group of two Swiss gals and an Austrailian dude whom he also just met along the way and they were going to Santa Teresa and then Mal Pais...two beaches located in the remote Southwestern point of the tip. Sounded good to me! The four of us headed on the same bus for about thirty minutes, then Meg and Nick got off and Will and I traveled for the next twenty minutes to the town of Cobano. From Cobano we had to get to Santa Teresa and had two options: the totally touristy way of hiring a cab for like $12 (no thank you), or the totally cool tico way of hitchin a ride (hell yeah!).

So once our feet hit the pavement our thumbs went out and it wasn't all that long before a family picking up supplies at the hardware store in town gave us a ride in the back of their truck. That's Will hitchin himself up there. Thank GOD no one was photographing me from behind trying to hike my backpacked self into that freaking truck.

We were joined in the truck by two furry friends and one tico friend...

The road was, of course, unpaved. But also I imagine this road has had the dubious distinction of winning the Most Potholes on One Road Award for the entirety of Costa Rica. Of course the guy driving the truck was used to it and his answer was to tackle the road at top speed and we were left to try to hang on. He may have also gotten a little kick out of playing "scramble the gringos"...I would've if I were him.

All I did was my very best to hang on, it was hellafied fun though!!! (Look sympathetically at the cut on my left knee acquired during my not-so-graceful truck entrance)

That family dropped us off at one junction, then we caught another ride (INSIDE a car this time) to our final destination. Santa Teresa was little more than a long, muddy road dotted with occasional sodas and hotels. The beaches were just what I wanted, though...long, lovely and no one but me and the surfers.

So as I said the entirety of Santa Teresa was seen by a trip down the long road.

But we managed to stumble upon Will's friends and they took us to the cabina/camp site they were staying at. What a great place!

Zenida's was a combination of camping ($3) and cabinas ($10) located directly on the beach and inhabited mainly by a campground of hard core surfers looking only for a way to make their money extend as long as possible.

Of course I, not being the EXTREME hard core type, opted for the nice cabina with an actual bed which I thought was lovely. Two windows opened on either side of the bed where you could see the ocean or let it lull you to sleep. I liked the cabina very much.

And as you walk a few hundred feet down from the cabina you come on to the village of tents.

And here is standing on the beach looking back up into the campground and the cabina behind it.

Some people were there for a few nights or a few weekends, some people (like the guy in the extensive tarp room the size of a small house) had more permanent plans.

At the fringe of the campground before you reached the water was a grouping of hammocks. Ohhhhh....I love hammocks. I've purchased two hammocks that I'm bringing home with me and lord knows what I'll do with them but I sure do love a good hammock.

And so, take a good look at this particular hammock...

...because I spent the next two days lying in it and either reading or watching surfers. During the long weekend we hooked up with other groups of people, one group from Texas, other Austrailians, and at night we'd have fires. But during the day there was an endless supply of Imperial and sodas close by to get a bite to eat, and so I spent two days reclined in a hammock swaying in the ocean breeze and getting my final fill of Pacific Coast sunsets. It was just how I wanted to say goodbye to my weekends in Central America....quietly, a little sadly but mostly hugely appreciative of this wonderful, peaceful, friendly little country.