Costa Rica January 2007

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updated 3/09/07

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Costa Rica January 2007

Flights on AA looked good on the 14^th, so I woke up at 3am to catch the 0530 flight to Miami, then to San Jose, Costa Rica. At the airport, I did my usual routine of bargaining with the car rental kiosks just past customs (but not outside security). I’ve rented from  National before, and they’re pretty good with price and service but this time they wanted a much higher price. I told them that I only paid around $35 a day last time. They said it must have been during the off season. I told them I thought it was last January. Well, they called my bluff, and looked me up on their computer (man, they’re modern), and they found me. It was last January, and the price was $33 a day! So they matched that price. They shuttled me to the rental office, and I was on my way.

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, I had checked into a hotel, and was walking through the surf shops in search of a rental board. I found a hotel on the water for $70 a night called Hotel Flamboyant. (www.apartotelflamboyant.com) It wasn't very flamboyant (thankfully), but it was clean, air conditioned, and had cable TV and a safe in the room. The owners were an Italian couple and were very helpful and friendly. I would stay there again if I go back. By late afternoon, I was surfing wind blown (i.e. not too good), but warm, shoulder-high waves, and staring at the green landscape, and occasionally dodging formations of pelicans surfing ground effect thermals created by the incoming swells. They would fly very low just in front of a swell, and when the wave broke, they'd all zoom up higher as if they were kicking out of the wave. The surf wasn't great but it sure was nice to be out in tropical blue water without the restraint of a thick wetsuit.

I was told a swell was arriving the next day, but I drove to many nearby places the next two days in search of the swell; Playa Hermosa, Esterillos Oeste, Bejuca. Although the waves were about shoulder high, most of them closed out after about five seconds so I decided to drive up to the Nicoyan Peninsula and check out the much talked about Mal Pais surf spot. But before I continue, I'll mention that construction is still rampant. Just a few years ago ,Esterillos Oeste was the picture perfect beach with palm trees, a couple beach side cantinas, and a flock of red feathered Scarlet Macaws cruising around. Well, it's pretty much the same right now, but there's a brand new housing development being carved out of the red clay hills on the road leading into it - a shadow of things to come, I'm sure. I stopped and talked to the resident salesman (a young American, of course), and got the full tour and the prices. I think this is the link to the property - Hills of Esterillos.

So I drove up to Puntarenas and waited in line to take the ferry across the gulf to the Nicoyan Peninsula. The guide books say that there are some unsavory characters walking around the cars in waiting, and that some of them will try and sell you a service you do not need. Indeed, I was confronted by one young fellow who was wearing a shirt that was supposed to look official. I finally paid him off to get lost, and he stood there wanting more. I told him to move on. Soon, the real guy came by, and told me I had to leave my car and walk up to the booth and buy my ticket. I told him I didn't want to leave my car alone, and he offered to watch it for me. Well, you've got to trust someone every now and then, and when I got back to the car, he was close by and the car was intact. Tip worthy, to be sure.

The ferry ride took about 2 hours, and there was large enclosed air conditioned area to sit and read or watch Costa Rican TV.  I spent half the time outside, and half indoors when it got too hot. If you're going to be hungry, I would advise you to bring some food because the sandwiches that the tiny restaurant was serving didn't look too edible. The ferry in the picture above and to the right isn't listing. My camera was, I guess. The ride was restful, and there's was quite an assortment of people on the boat so there was entertainment in just watching them. Most of the passengers were Ticos (Costa Ricans), but there were about 20 Americans and Europeans.

Once off the ferry, I drove through the small town of Paquera, hoping to stop and get a nice lunch, but there was no restaurant of interest. It's a very small town. Usually, in a decent-sized town, you can get a good casada meal (for about 3 or 4 dollars). So I continued all the way to Mal Pais. It took about one and a half hours from Paquera but it seemed like a lot longer because at one spot there was construction going on, and everybody was parked for about 20 minutes while we waited. Then when the workers let us through, the going was slow as cars, one by one, would pass a car (or two) ahead. That always makes for interesting driving on two land roads curving through the hills. The last 30 minutes, the road to Mal Pais was dirt, rocks and dust. There were very few cars on this road, but occasionally the one behind me would want to get ahead just so they wouldn't eat my dust (literally). Once they passed, the dust they stirred up was so bad that  I would have to slow way down just so I could see. Then, of course, somehow I would catch up with them. I guess they were only going fast so they could pass me.

The two towns of Mal Pais and Santa Teresa make up the small surfing community here on the lower Nicoyan Peninsula. Santa Teresa is just north of Mal Pais, and when the surf is not huge, this is the place to be. Well, the surf was not huge. It was about shoulder high, which is plenty big for some fun, however, when it is only shoulder high here, the waves are concentrated in only a few spots. And those few spots were very crowded. I sat and watched, and decided that I could not compete with the locals and other great surfers for those few spots so I got a cabina near the water and waited to see what tomorrow would bring. There was a very good pizza place where I had a decent meal. It's an outdoor restaurant, as many are in Costa Rica, but it was right next to the main road (as everything is here in Santa Teresa), and, although there wasn't much traffic, every time a car drove by, dust would kick up. It's the dry season right now in Costa Rica, and the Nicoyan Peninsula get very little rain, if any. So, since the roads are not paved in these outpost areas, dust coats everything; cars, tables, houses, tree leaves, clothes hanging on clothes lines, your skin, your tongue. But this place is pretty much a hippie surfer hangout, so, as long as there is surf, who cares about the dust. When I was 20 years old and driving around Central America, I don't think I noticed dust either. But now I'm a little older, so......

When I got my thatched cabina, I noticed that it wasn't screened or air conditioned. But my room (there were four total-two on top, two on the bottom)  did have three beds and a decent bathroom. I had  asked the European girl who showed it to me if the mosquitoes were bad. She told me "no." As I lay in bed, reading that night, I realized that I should have asked her about the flying ants that finally left me alone at about 10:30 after leaving several small welts on my arms and legs. But I did get a decent night's sleep, and drove off (after checking the surf) at about 7 a.m. On my way out of town, shop owners were already hosing the dirt road in front of their establishments to keep the dust down.

So back down the dusty, dirty road I went, but this time there was no construction so I made pretty good time. In about an hour and a half, I got to the main road leading north up the Nicoyan Peninsula, and aimed the Toyota Yaris toward Tamarindo, another popular surf spot that I had never been to. Tamarindo is where some of the first coastal high rises went up, so I've been hesitant to check it out, but I decided that now is the time. The area around Tamarindo is where a lot of surf camps are, so I figured the waves will be crowded. And if there are a lot of high rises, then the Costa Riqueness has probably dissipated. On the main road, I managed to snake by a couple of speed traps without getting caught, thanks to the slower cars ahead of me. The speed traps consist of  one cop car parked under a shade tree along a long, straight stretch of road, with two cops standing outside taking turns aiming a radar gun at oncoming traffic. Cars passing by in the opposite direction will usually flash their lights at you to warn you. But sometimes there's no cars. I got caught a couple trips ago on the longest, straightest, stretch of road in Costa Rica. It was just east of the Tempisque bridge across the northern Nicoyan Gulf, in case anyone is driving there. The cop showed me the captured speed on his radar gun. It showed 95 kilometers per hour. I said, "That's kilometers dude, you've got to be kidding." That equates to 57 mph. Well, he wasn't kidding, although he was nice. He first wanted something like 90 dollars. I pulled out my wallet, and showed him I only had $60 in cash, so he accepted that. From then on, I try not to have too much cash in my wallet in case I get caught again.

             Political Broadcaster or ......                                                                 Music Lover?

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