Costa Rica – Coast to Coast June 2005 and August 2006

We took a somewhat better road out of Tamarindo to Santa Cruz where we headed south towards Nicoya. On the highway, I saw a speed limit sign just before a crest in the road and I checked my speedometer. The speed limit was 75 kph and I was going about 70. Just over the crest of the hill were some trafficos and they pointed the radar at the car and then pulled me over. The guy asked for my passport and then told me I was going 89 kph. I told him that there was no way I was going that fast and he suddenly said “no ticket, no ticket” and to drive slower. I thought for sure he was going to ask for a bribe. I thanked him for the warning and continued on our way.

I had been in contact through email with an American veterinarian who lived part time in Nosara. He wasn’t going to be there when we visited but he told me to stop by a veterinary clinic in Nicoya and the doctor there would show me around. I forget to bring the directions with me to the clinic but remembered it was near the central park. We drove up and down every street looking for it. We then stopped at the police station where nobody spoke any English but were very eager to help. They showed me a map of the city and pointed at a few areas but I don’t think they really knew what I was looking for. I finally stopped at a human medical clinic and fond someone who spoke English who knew where the veterinarian was located and give me precise directions.

I finally found the veterinarian. He spoke good English and showed me around his clinic. I was very impressed with his equipment and found that in some ways they do things better there then what we do here in the states. He had a lot of plans to upgrade his hospital and want to make it more state of the art (at least by Costa Rican standards).

After leaving the vet we continued on to Nosara on the paved road to Samara. After the turn of to Nosara the road deteriorated into the typical pot holed road that Costa Rica is famous for. We arrived at the Gilded Iguana at about 3pm. The property consists of three buildings that contain rooms (I think 12 in all) Our room was on a second floor and wasn’t fancy but it was huge. It included a small refrigerator and coffee pot with café Britt coffee. The room had bug screens and louvers on three walls to allow fresh air to come in.

Kat was tired and took a nap so I hung out in the bar and had a few beers with the hotel owner, Patti, and a few expat locals. Everybody was very friendly. The bar/restaurant area is on the ground floor and is covered with graffiti and drawings from past guests.

After Kat woke up we went across the street to Blew Dogs Surf Camp for a late lunch. Blew Dogs is a fun bar with a continuous stream of surf videos playing on the two TVs and also has a pool table. There we met Dave and Phadera who live about 90 miles south of us in California. They were also staying at Gilded Iguana. We all then walked down to the beach which was very pretty. The only drawback to the beach is there are no trees directly on the beach so people have built little shade huts from driftwood that line the beach every 200 meters or so.

After watching the sunset we all headed back to Gilded Iguana and found a small party to be going on in the pool area with some of the locals who work at Blew Dogs. The bartender was making sure that everybody was having a good time by mixing up some really strong drinks! We stayed in the pool area for a few hours before going to bed at around 10pm

After waking up early, I read for a bit and then decided to take a drive around town and scout things out. The Nosara area is pretty spread out and the roads are like a maze. The town of Nosara itself is actually located a few kilometers inland from the beaches where the hotels are located. The hotels are actually located in the areas of Playa Guiones and Playa Pelada.

Driving around I saw how while there were a lot of houses, they were very unobtrusive with many of them hidden amongst the trees. I am assuming that the Nosara Civic Association keeps a tight reign on development and on what can be built. There is a 200 meter exclusion area along the beaches where no development is allowed. There are a few buildings in the exclusion area in Playa Pelada that were grandfathered in since they were there before the exclusion zone was put into place.

I made my way into the town of Nosara and found it to be a typical Tico town with a few stores, bars, and restaurants. Nothing special there. They are building a new modern gas station just off the road into town. It looked to be 90% complete. The nearest gas station is back 45 minutes south on the road to Samara so this will be good for the locals and tourists.

Other things of note – there is a Banko Popular (no ATM though) next to Café de Paris and a mini super with internet café just down the street from Blew Dog’s and Gilded Iguana

After driving back to the Gilded Iguana I ate breakfast at their restaurant. I had the typico breakfast and it was very plain and uninspiring (in contrast to their lunch and dinners. More on that later).

My wife finally woke up and we decided to take a walk up to Café de Paris which was maybe 1km away. It started to sprinkle so we took umbrellas with us. When we were almost half way there it really started to rain really hard so we were forced to turn back and get the car. Once at Café de Paris my wife had a really good chicken sandwich on freshly baked bread (I saw the bread come out of the oven). I was still full from breakfast so I just had a coke. We played some cards to pass the time. I saw a Tico kid park his quad by the bakery entrance and he forgot to set the brake and it started to roll downhill towards our rental car! Fortunately it hit a rock that stopped it before it crashed into anything. Café de Paris has a fast (but expensive $10/hr) satellite internet connection so we decided to take advantage and check email.

It looked like it was going to rain all day so we decided to take a drive to Samara. It’s about 45 minutes over bad road to Samara back the way we came into Nosara. During the dry season there is a shortcut but when it rains the Rio Buenavista crosses the road and you need to take the long way around to get there.

Once in Samara, it had mostly stopped raining so we parked the car and had lunch at Shake Joes which is located right on the beach. It’s a funky place with giant chairs with mattresses on them and tables with thatched covering. Unfortunately, due to the rain they had to take all the mattresses off of the chairs so we had to sit on normal chairs under the awning of the restaurant. I had a really good tuna sandwich with a few beers. After staying in Nosara we had originally planned on heading to Montezuma or Mal Pais but since we had already been to those places last year and I wasn’t looking forward to the long drive we decided to walk around the town and check out a few different places that were recommended in the Moon and LP guides if we decided to spend a few days there after leaving Nosara.

After walking around we drove back to Nosara and stopped at Marlin Bill’s to check out their dinner menu. The choices looked good but expensive. The cheapest thing on the menu was $16. We then took a walk on the beach and watched the sunset. We returned to Gilded Iguana for a dip in the pool and then headed to Blew Dogs where new friends Dave and Phadera and another couple joined us for a yummy dinner where I had chicken enchiladas and my wife had spaghetti.

When we were going to bed we found one of the hotel’s cat hanging outside our door. We invited her in and she spend the night in our room with us (she was very well behaved). We finally hit the sack at around 11pm

Woke up early to the sound of howler monkeys nearby. I went for another drive and ended up at Playa Pelada near Olga’s restaurant. I saw what I thought was a dead dog laying on the beach surrounded by vultures. When I approached the dog it suddenly jumped up and started walking around with me! I walked along the beach for a bit with my new friend but he seemed to get bored and went off towards a house. I then got back in the car and decided to see if I could make it up to Playa Ostenal. There is a bridge that goes over the Rio Nosara but the Rio Montana was not passable. I did see a foot bridge just north of the river crossing so you could probably get there by bicycle in the rainy season

After returning to Gilded Iguana Dave and Phadera were up and invited me to come to breakfast with them at Soda Tica with is located near Café de Paris and Marlin Bills. We walked up there and I had a really good $3 breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, and coffee. We then walked to Coconut Harry’s so Dave could rent a surf board. We then walked back along the beach back to Gilded Iguana. The wife had finally woken up and was hungry for breakfast so we decided to head to Harbor Reef lodge. Harbor Reef looked like a really nice place to stay. Beautiful pool with swim up bar and wonderfully landscaped grounds.

After my wife ordered a huevos rancheros breakfast (excellent by the way) we discovered that her hand purse was missing (along with our passports inside) from my backpack. I went back to the hotel and couldn’t find it so I retraced our steps back to Blew Dogs where we had dinner the night before. Fortunately, the bartender from the night before found it and turned it in. Seeing that everything was still inside (some cash included) I offered a reward but was politely refused.

Since it was a beautiful day we got some drinks at the mini super and headed down to the beach for a few hours. The beach has a pretty good rip tide so swimmers need to be careful, especially at high hide.

After a dip in the pool at Gilded Iguana, we then took a drive up to Playa Pelada and had a late lunch/early dinner at Olga’s which is located right on the beach (the only bar/restaurant on the beach). Afterwards we hooked up with Dave and Phadera and went to have some really good ice cream at Robin’s located near Café de Paris. After a late night dip in the pool we hit the sack.

It was raining heavily when I woke up so I went down to the restaurant area and had some coffee (they put coffee out for guests at 7am) and read my book. Dave and Phadera were headed to Samara to see if they could get a bus up towards Playa Negra. We said our goodbyes and then headed to Blew Dogs for breakfast. We hung out there for a bit playing cards and scrabble. The rain finally let up, and the sun came out so we headed back to Guilded Iguana where Kat took a nap and I took a swim and hung out with Fred the bartender (very cool guy) at the pool bar. I decided to give the kitchen at Gilded Iguana another chance (after that plain breakfast) and ordered a hamburger and was really surprised how good it was! After a few too many margaritas with Fred and some other locals, I decided that I needed a nap myself and went back to our room and slept for a few hours.

After waking up we headed to Gardino Tropical for dinner but found it closed so we headed back to Gilded Iguana and had a really good grilled chicken casaso for dinner. Kat went to bed and I stayed up with the hotel owner and watched part of an NFL game on TV and then went to bed myself.

After waking up and having coffee at Gilded Iguana we drove back over the bumpy road to Samara. On the way we stopped to fill up with gas at the intersection from the roads to Nosara and Samara. The gas station is cash only so keep that in mind if you travel that way. Just as we pulled into town we saw our friends Dave and Phadera waiting at the bus stop. We learned that they stayed at Casa del Mar across from the beach for $55/night which sounded a bit expensive for a room without a pool or a/c. We were still undecided on where to stay so we looked at rooms at Hotel Belvedere and Hotel Gadia. The Belvedere had a nicer property and larger room but it is located on the edge of the town and the long driveway was pretty muddy so we instead chose the Gadia which wasn’t bad. The room was small but comfortable with a/c and satellite tv and a small private deck overlooking one of the two swimming pools (the one in the back of the complex is the nicest with a grass lawn and chairs and tables for lounging). Breakfast was also included in the $55/night price.

Since we didn’t eat breakfast we were pretty hungry so we headed down to Shake Joe’s for sandwiches and some awesome blended icy fruit shakes (they are good with a shot of added tequila!). We saw a topless woman wearing only a thong at the beach who was getting a good share on gawkers. Personally I have nothing against nude sunbathing (and was enjoying the view myself) but I think it’s disrespectful to the townspeople to do it blatantly in the open. After lunch the beach was looking pretty inviting so we went back to the Gadia to change into our swimwear. As soon as we got to the beach it started to rain. So we walked back to the hotel to relax in our room and watch some TV.

After a few hours the rain stopped so we took a dip in the pool and then headed out to walk around and scout out a good place for dinner. Someone had recommended El Lagarto which is a few hundred yards west of where the main street dead ends at the beach. They didn’t open until 6pm so we had some time to kill. We ended up nearby at Las Olas just down the beach. Las Olas is a pretty big Tico bar with a few pool tables. I think they also serve food but the kitchen was closed while we were there. There are also some big tall benches outside that face the beach and is a perfect place to sit and people watch while having a few beers which is exactly what we did for the next hour or so.

At 6pm we headed over to El Lagarto and ordered drinks. Seeing that the menu was a little pricey, I ran back to the hotel to get some more $$ out of the room safe. The restaurant has a giant BBQ along the side and specializes in chicken and steaks. We split a salad and both had big steaks with a large potato and vegetables. Our bill with tax and tip came to $56 but was well worth it. I saw someone being served the chicken which looked pretty good and was only $9.50. After dinner we were full and tired so we headed back to the hotel, watched some TV and then crashed out for the night.

As usual I was up at the crack of dawn so I took a long walk around town and along the beach. I saw the Las Brisas del Pacifico hotel which is located a ways east of the main part of town. The hotel looked very nice with a pool right on the beach. If you had the money, this would definitely be the place to stay in Samara. Walking back I found a great little bakery on the street that parallels the main street to the east. It’s called Bohemia and they have some awesome pastries. I got a pineapple pastry (still hot out of the oven) with coffee for only 400 colones. After finishing a second cup of coffee (free refills) I headed back to the hotel. After my wife woke up we both had the typico breakfast at the hotel restaurant and decided to spend our last beach day at Playa Carrillo.

Playa Carillo is about 5km south of Samara and the road there is nicely paved. The beach is crescent shaped and stretches for a few kilometers. We passed the beach and went up[ the hill into the town which consists of only a few hotels, a school, and a small grocery store where we got a few cold drinks and drove back to the eastern end of the beach and laid our towels out under the shade of one of the many palm trees that line the beach. There are also some concrete tables with chairs under the trees if you wanted to have a picnic or something. The beach was mostly deserted with only a few tico families nearby. The beach itself is very nice but the waves were somewhat brutal. The beach has a late break and a mild undertow so swimmers should be careful. On the far eastern portion of the beach are some tide pools that were quite hot as they were heated by the sun. After a few hours we headed back to Samara, took a dip in the pool and had a pretty good pizza at the hotel’s Italian restaurant (Pizza-a-go-go). My wife took a nap while I went back to Las Olas for a few beers. I ended up talking to a few newly arrived American and Canadian girls who were going to be studding Spanish at the intercultural school. It was their first time in Costa Rica and they were all doing home stays and would be learning Spanish.

After a while I headed back to the hotel and got the wife up so we could go have dinner somewhere. We walked around town but nothing looked too good so we ended up going back to the hotel restaurant and I had some pretty good raviolis for dinner. Afterwards we went to the La Gondola bar for a drink. La Gondola is a cool place with a pool table, ping pong, and a dart board. After a few drinks we then headed to Shake Joe’s for a last beer and then went to bed.

After watching CNN we learned that hurricane Ernesto was passing through Cuba and was due to hit Miami at the same time we were supposed to fly there on our way back tome to San Francisco. This worried us as we didn’t know what to expect at the airport or how we were going to get back home. After breakfast we headed out back to Alajuela. It was mostly a smooth ride until we got onto the pan American highway and were heading up to the central valley. We would get stuck behind a line of slow moving trucks. After leapfrogging ahead we would get in front of the trucks and have a few minutes of unobstructed driving only to find ourselves stuck behind another line of slow moving trucks. We passed the debris of a really bad accident that occurred a few days earlier involving two big rigs and a few passenger cars where three people died. On the side of the road was a wrecked tractor trailer and a lot of debris. After seeing that, we decided to take it easy the rest of the was back into the central valley.

As we got to Alajuela we decided to stop at the airport to check on the status of our flight the next day. We learned that our flight had been canceled but they had no more information available for us and said we had to call American airline customer service from a phone to see when we would be able to leave. On the way back to Orquideas we stopped at the Mega Super in Alajuela and stocked up on coffee and salsa chillero (we are able to buy Lizano where we live in San Francisco). The coffee in the supermarket is ½ what they charge in the tourist areas.

We headed back to Orquideas and my wife made the calls and learned that the soonest they would be able to fly us home would be on Friday morning. This worried us as we both had obligations back at home be we decided to put that all behind us and make the best of the two next days we were going to be in Costa Rica. I called Tricolor to come pick up the car and when the guy arrived, he said the car was too dirty and caked with mud to make sure that we hadn’t damaged it in any way. He said that he trusted us and tore up the credit card imprints what would have covered any damage that the insurance did not. He also didn’t charge us for an extra day even though we returned the car 5 hours late. We spent the rest of the evening in the bar hanging out with other travelers who had just arrived in Costa Rica and giving them suggestions on where to go and what to see.

The Orquideas Inn is also home to a tour company so we had one of their drivers take us into San Jose ($20 each way) and dropped us off at the Plaza de la Cultura which is next to the Teatero Nacional (national theater) and also contains the Museo de Oro Precolumbia y Numismatica (Gold museum) located underneath the plaza. We decided to check out the gold museum first. There is heavy security as you enter (it is a gold museum) that requires visitors to go through a metal detector and you also have to leave your backpacks in a locker at the entrance. The museum is located behind a tick vault door and consists of three underground levels. The first level contains old Costa Rican postage stamps currency and the lower two levels contain lots of pre-Columbian gold artifacts from the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica. All the exhibits are in both Spanish and English. It was interesting but the museum is kind of small (we were through there in ½ hour) and I didn’t think it was worth the $6 admission price.

Next we wanted to see the inside of the National Theatre. We got into a line for tickets but it seemed to be taking a really long time for the line to move so we decided to leave and come back later. We then walked up to the pedestrian mall on Avenida Central and made our way to the Mercado Central. This place has something for everybody: knick-nacks, appliances, meats, vegetables, live chickens, DVDs, you name it and you can probably find it there.

From the Mercado Central we walked back east to a park where we could sit and get our bearings. It turned out that we were right near the Jade Museum which we wanted to check out not so much for the jade but the museum is located on the 11th floor and supposedly offers a great view of the city. When we got to the entrance we saw that cameras were not allowed so we decided to skip it and go get some lunch instead.

We walked back south to the Aveneda Central and after consulting the LP guide, we went to the News Café which is located on the ground floor of the Hotel Presidente. It seemed to be a popular place with Americans and Tico business people. The food was very good and surprisingly reasonably priced. We did see one American “knucklehead” type to had a scantly clad women with him and his buddy. Someone from the restaurant brought her a coat so she could cover up. I’m assuming she was a prostitute.

After lunch, we headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art which is located in a 150 year old building that once contained a liquor factory. The museum ($3) was my favorite place in San Jose and had some really great exhibits.

From there we walked to the Plaza de la Democracia where we found an open air crafts market. It was mostly the same stuff we saw in all the souvenir shops around the country but much lower prices.

Our next stop was going to be the criminology museum which was located in one of the court buildings. We got a little lost but eventually found out way to the cour house complex. We weren’t sure which building the museum was located so just as we started to look around it started to rain really hard. Even though we had umbrellas we had to take shelter in a doorway for one of the court buildings with other Ticos. We had fun watching people brave the rain to make the dash across to the other buildings. Whenever someone would make it people would cheer. After waiting about 30 minutes the rain finally let up and we then learned that the museum no longer existed!

We walked back to the National Theatre and found that the slow moving line we were in before was the line to but tickets to performances and not to tour the theatre itself. We got our tickets, went inside and someone from the theatre gave a brief overview and history of the building. We were free to walk around and check out the beautiful rooms and murals. Cameras were allowed but no flash photography.

After breakfast we took a swim in the pool and a dip in their new hot tub. After that we had one of the hotel drivers take us to Zoo Ave which is a rehabilitation zoo for animals who will eventually be returned to the wild. It’s expensive for foreigners to get in ($15 vs. $3 for citizens) but the zoo was really nicely done. Saw lots of amazing birds, turtles, iguanas, monkeys, some big cats and lots of other critters. We walked around the zoo for about two hours.

Not wanting to go back to the hotel so early we decided to be a little adventurous and took the public bus into Alajuela where we walked around for a while. We wanted to eat at Jalapenos Comida Tex Mex which is owned by Norman from Vida Tropical. I had tried to make a reservation to stay at Vida Tropical but I never got a response from Norman and when checking my email that morning I saw one from Norman saying that he missed us. Obviously, his confirmation email got lost and I wanted to meet him and apologize and explain that I never got his email.

The Moon guide said it was east of the Central Park so we looked all over but couldn’t find it. We then began to look at the other sides of the park and finally found it a few blocks to the east. We had a great taco lunch compete with guacamole, rice and beans ($4.50). Talked with Norman for bit and then headed back to the Central Park to catch a $4 taxi back to Orquideas.

That night we had a good dinner and drank our last Imperials and Pilsens at the hotel bar and went to bead early.

We were told to be at the airport at 7am since our seats were not yet assigned. We speeded through ticketing and checking our luggage and security. Thing moved a lot quicker compared to when we visited last year. They now have x-rays for luggage and carry on screening. Last year they had to hand search each passenger’s luggage at the ticket counter which took a looooog time. We were through ticketing and security in 20 minutes.

Our flight to Dallas and onward to San Francisco was uneventful and we were home by 8:30pm.