Costa Rica – Coast to Coast June 2005 and August 2006

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

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

Another overcast day. After eating breakfast and consulting our Lonely Planet book, we decided to drive to Montezuma and stay at least one night before deciding on where to go next. We took a different route out of Tamarindo that wasn’t ... [Continue reading this entry]