We arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica about twelve hours later than scheduled. Our Alaska flight from Seattle landed on time in LAX but sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting for an empty gate. We consequently missed our flight to Liberia. Instead, we caught the red eye that night. Alaska Airlines did put us up in a hotel for the afternoon, so we got a little rest after canceling a hotel and rescheduling our car rental. As it turned out, we were able to transition to Costa Rica better In the morning light. Our original scheduled flight would have necessitated renting a car and finding our beach hotel 30 miles away in the dark in a strange new environment. Instead we were able to rent the car, go to the city, get some supplies and a Costa Rican SIM card and make it out to our hotel by 11am and checked in early.
Our first day was spent in Playa del Coco. The small town has a mixture of northern retirees, along with local and international tourists. The bay was filled with anchored excursion boats; and while we walked the beach, we watched tourists clumsily board small boats in the surf. A tropical sunset and beach side dinning topped off our first Costa Rican day. The next day we beach hopped, stopping for a quick stroll and photos at each one. Hermosa, Flamingo and Conchal beaches all had a different feel. Our favorite was Conchal with its white shell ‘sand’. Our hotel in Tamarindo was very nice. It was a Best Western, but nothing like a US BW. It was more like a luxurious beach hotel with an economy price. We enjoyed cooling off in the pool and some relaxed reading. The town and beach in Tamarindo was bustling with tourists from around the world. We walked by a lot of fancy restaurants and boutiques to a crowded night market and ate paella on a paper plate standing by the street. A balmy beach walk in the dark brought us back to our hotel.
The Nicoya Peninsula is one of five ‘blue zones’ in the world. (highest percentage of centenarians) We are hoping to catch the vibe! The beach towns on the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula are remote and hard to access, and the Waze directional app didn’t want to cooperate with our desire to stay on the coast. Consequently, we spent hours back tracking roads as we visited Samara and then on to Santa Teresa. We saw a lot of beautiful country, rural backroads, small towns and jungled hills. We arrived in Santa Teresa for our two night stay at a boutique hotel between the busy street and the beach. Santa Teresa is a unique tourist destination. The main street is a third world dusty rutted dirt road with open drainage, lined with expensive restaurants and boutiques. The traffic is comprised of gen Z tourists on noisy rented motorcycles and four wheelers with surf boards attached. Pedestrians have to jockey there way over ditches beside rushing traffic. We walked five miles on the sandy beaches dotted with occasional rocks and a sea stack. Surfers and their groupies permeate the beach, but private sections could still be found. We spent a full day in Santa Teresa, walking, swimming and lounging. On Sunday we headed to the mountains for new adventures but stopped in Montezuma for breakfast. This small beach community has a hippie feel. The rocky coast must keep the surfers away!
