Category Archives: Costa Rica 2008

Information on my multiple trips to Costa Rica. Specifically about exploring the Nicoya Peninsula and finding places I might like to live.

Touring the Nicoya Peninsula

Posted on August 19, 2008 | 2 comments

Normally when I travel I like to stay put for a few days (at least a few days) and not keep repacking and moving to another place. I personally don’t find that very relaxing and that’s generally the point of vacationing, IMHO.

This past spring when we went to Costa Rica we (my friend Mark was with me) didn’t sit still. We moved hotels almost every night and probably saw an additional town or two each day while we traveled. Not exactly my preferred way to travel but that’s because we had a mission for this trip…

I love the small town Montezuma, located at the south end of the Nicoya Peninsula (just above Cabuya on the map to the right), but the mission was to find some other towns that I might like. I wanted someday to spend a few months in Costa Rica, my concern was that I’d rent a place for a few months and then realize that I liked the next town over since I hadn’t done much exploring from that perspective.

So we drove around like cRaZy checking out towns and staying different places and checking out different areas to see if there was anything I liked better. Montezuma was still my favorite but it’s definitely more isolated than some of the other towns. Tamarindo was a large town but a lot busier than I was hoping for but it pretty much had everything you need. Samara was a medium to small town that I didn’t get to explore enough. But comparatively Montezuma was a tiny town, but for some reason seems to fit me just right…

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Gary and Mark in Manzanillo

Posted on April 27, 2008 | 4 comments

Manzanillo-CostaRica-Gary-Mark-Pict2359So on the left is my buddy Mark, I think I’ve been on four vacations with him and I think this is only the second picture of us at a destination. I’m pretty sure this is in Manzanillo, Costa Rica on the Pacific side of the Nicoya Peninsula (if not, it’s pretty close to there); it’s the fourth town from the southern tip.

I used my cool new QuikPod to take the picture. Last time we got Carla the waitress to take the picture; it was in a little bar in Jaco that doesn’t exist any more. Since there was no one else around, QuikPod to the rescue. It’s a kind of a stick with a tripod mount and a little mirror so you can take pictures of yourself.

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Santa Teresa, Costa Rica – It’s not my paradise

Posted on April 27, 2008 | 3 comments

So Santa Teresa is supposed to be this beautiful place in Costa Rica (I’m referring to the town in the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula) and while the beaches are beautiful (it is just sand on the ocean) so are a million other areas along the coast. The beaches are great for surfing too, that’s really the appeal for some people. I think there is a few surf camps and lots of lessons when we were on the beach.

Santatesesa2008Img 7758But the town is mostly just a bunch of spread out stores spaced out along a very very very dusty road. You can see from this Santa Teresa Map how everything is spread out (that main road is a “city block” or two from the beach).

We stayed at the Beach Break Surf Hotel, nothing fancy on the inside (2 beds, A/C , TV and a bathroom) but perfectly clean and functional with a nice porch (I think we got it at a good rate), I’d definitely go back. This was the hotel with the great staff that came around with flashlights when the power went out in twon. Actually, the only reason we stayed in that town was it was the day we had to backtrack because we hit the river that we didn’t know how to cross ()read that as we didn’t know where to drive to get across the river).

I’m sure there are a few more hotels on the beach if you drive down a driveway, but I need a town (even if it’s a tiny one) to wander over to to eat and do some people watching. Some people love Santa Teresa but so far, it’s just not for me…

But I will give it another try next trip, it is just “around the corner” from Montezuma….

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More Than a few Power Outages

Posted on April 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

So on day one, we had just checked into the hotel and headed out to dinner and the power went out. The restaurant put out some candles, the stove was gas (probably propane) and they were ready to go. Twenty or thirty minutes later it was back on.

Picture 3I know they have some power problems in the country but that was the longest one I’ve ever experienced (at least at night). I’ve never seen anything last more than a few minutes. But we had a few more as the trip went on, a few short ones and a really long one (a hour or so?). Everyone just rolls with it, it’s semi-expected, but still inconvenient (especially if hot) and as I said, I’ve been pretty lucky on my previous four trips.

It gets really dark out there when there are no city lights even in the distance. I always keep a mini-flashlight in my travel bag, but for places where I want to be outside at night (like CR) I take a few with, so it wasn’t too much of a problem for us. The small hotel we were at did knock on doors and pass out flashlights to the rooms.

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Monkey See, Monkey Doo-Doo

Posted on April 26, 2008 | Leave a comment

MonkeybabySo driving along the side of the road somewhere in the vacinity of Playa’s Lagarto and Pitahaya (I think). There were some money’s alongside of the road. There were a dozen or so at a time but it’s really hard to see them. Here’s an animated movie of a monkey with a baby on it’s back (if that does work, try this MPEG-4 version). I’ve sen a few computers that couldn’t load the previous two options, here’s a YouTube link. I’ll animate a few of the others when I figure out a better way.

I never knew what kind they were; they’re were darker than other monkeys that I’ve seen down there before and didn’t have the white fur on their faces.

Why the silly title of this post? Because one of us got pooped on (and it wasn’t me!).

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Sunday already!

Posted on April 20, 2008 | Leave a comment

I had such good intentions on getting more Costa Rica blogging done (especially some more photos) the past few days and it didn’t happen…

And here I am getting ready to head out to East Lansing to catch a performance of Avenue Q so I expect I won’t get much done today either…

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I’m home!!! (from Costa Rica)

Posted on April 17, 2008 | 1 comment

I made it home! Flights were fine, but it was really really rushed between flights in Charlotte, NC.

I just hit send on a bunch of posts that I wrote while I didn’t have access (or finished while in flight). I’ll try to get more stories and photos up this weekend (and possible add some photos to some older posts).

I miss Costa Rica already, but I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed. Good night…

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Sand Castles

Posted on April 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

So there was a Sand Castle Festival in Manzanillo, we knew about it a few days in advance but we couldn’t find a single piece of information on it, looked in the newspaper and on-line. If we hadn’t seen them building stuff (platforms / shelter) for the festival a few days before, we never would have known about it (we hunted around and saw a single banner).

Sandcastlebannerpict2366We only made it for the first day, which it turns out was kid’s day, they said it’d be busier the rest of the weekend but we couldn’t make it then. Different sand structures were built by local school’s teams (I think the team was the whole school). There were only a dozen different structures but it was fun, they kids had volleyball and soccer (and the ocean) to play with too.

But the whole advertising thing was very strange. Even when we were there it was hard to find out more information on it. It was sponsored by one of the major banks and still was no info (this was actually a bank we went into on the trip and saw about it). There was no information in any of the local towns as far as I saw. BTW, the bank sponsorship was why there was a kid’s day, previously the sponsor was a beer company.

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