Costa Rica Return
December 2006
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When we returned to Costa Rica we took a slightly different path, sticking to the coast to the south. The camping south of Dominical near the town of Uvita was beautiful and empty which was a total change from camping in Dominical with Noah before. From Uvita, we drove up the decent coast road to Manuel Antonio and towards Playa Hermosa. The road from Manuel Antonio to Playa Hermosa was quite good for Costa Rica and we chose to camp for one night in between at a buggy little beach just south of Esterillos. When we pulled into Playa Hermosa Eric was practically in tears remembering his time in Hermosa almost ten years ago learning to surf. We immediately found some of Eric’s old friends including John O’Toole and Mary from Cabinas Las Olas. We spent a couple nights at Cabinas Las Olas surfing and hanging out before migrating to John’s house. John was so nice to let us crash and hang out with him, he and Eric went surfing every morning and evening while Sarah watched people getting hammered in the heavy Hermosa surf.
From Playa Hermosa, we headed up to try our luck at Boca Barranca again but didn’t find any surf so we moved on to the mountains. First we checked out Monteverde where we stayed at the park’s front gate ranger station and explored the reserve. We found that even with the ability to camp, it was cheaper to stay in the ranger’s lodge because you got admission into the nature reserve as a part of the lodging. We saw some amazing wildlife including a Resplendant Quetzal, Tarantula, Millipede and countless plants, trees and flowers. Thanks to our guide, we were able to see and learn many things about the unique cloudforest of Monteverde. After our visit to Monteverde we took dirt roads to the area around Lago Arenal and Volcan Arenal. We were able to camp at Arenal’s ranger station thanks to a nice ranger named Carlos. We had a ball visiting with him and telling stories. We spent the next morning hiking around the volcano and taking pictures of this very active beast.
Our next destination was Mal Pais on the Nicoya peninsula, another one of Eric’s must see destinations from his previous trip to Costa Rica. The drive from Arenal to Mal Pais was long and we ended up camping on the side of a dusty road en route but made it to Mal Pais without a problem. While Playa Hermosa had stayed more or less the same, Mal Pais had completely changed, for the worse. It is still a beautiful place with great surf and nice people but there are tons more houses, hostels and hotels as well as annoying ATVs screaming up and down the dirt roads all day. We had fun surfing for a few days and camped at an Austrian owned place called Pachamama. We asked around and decided to go for it by driving up the rugged roads of the Guanacaste coast all the way to Playa Avellanas. The drive was a true adventure with some really neat and exciting river crossings. One of them required you to drive down river about a quarter of a mile before bogging up the muddy road on the other side. We tried to take pictures but were so excited with the adventure that we didn’t get many. We spent a night in the cool little town of Samara and then moved on up the road to Ostonial where we met a really nice couple traveling in their camper from Powell River B.C. They were camped out waiting for the arrival of the sea turtles for the phenomenon known as the Arbada, when sometimes hundreds of sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in one night. We totally lucked out and basically tagged along with our new Canadian friends Mel and Chris that night and saw one of the most amazing sights on our trip. The next morning there were still many turtles coming ashore to lay there eggs and we were able to take photos. Since the turtles are so sensitive to light, you cannot take pictures at night or use flashlights so the night before we were lucky to have the quarter moon so that we could watch the turtles work their magic.
From Ostonial we traveled to Playa Avellanas where we spent a week or so camping at Azul Escondido with Chris and Mel. It was super fun to visit with Chris and Mel who were on their way to Panama and had many similar stories of their trip from Canada. You can read about their trip on their website www.4friendsandadog.com The waves weren’t great at first but after the first two days the swell picked up and the winds changed for the better. Sarah had some amazing sessions at El Estero and continued to improve on her new board. With time running out, we decided to head inland to see Rincon De La Vieja before crossing back into Nicaragua to meet Eric’s sister Alison in Managua.