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Costa Rica: Part 4

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Costa Rica: Part 3

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Costa Rica: Part 1 

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Costa Rica: Part 2 

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Day 8

We checked into our airport hotel, and the group was hungry so we walked across the parking lot to Denny’s. I nibbled on some fries while the rest enjoyed some American fare, before heading to bed and taking the hotel shuttle around 4am the next morning. We flew uneventfully through Panama City and made it back home…just in time for Montezuma’s revenge to set in, forcing me to call out work since I couldn’t leave the bathroom long enough to see patients. Stephen, Shelby, and Devin were also afflicted. Oh the joys of traveling.

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Day 7: Playa Naranjo to Puntarenas

We drove the rest of the way between Montezuma Beach and the ferry terminal in the small town of Playa Naranjo without incident, arriving adequately early thanks to my neuroticism. It was definitely a local affair, with a lot of people lined up to board on foot, food and beverage vendors selling snacks, a mix of industrial and private vehicles, and it didn’t seem like most people pursued a reservation. Stephen stayed with the car and they made the rest of us walk onto the ferry. We boarded without incident and went up to the front of the upper deck to get seats with a good view, and watched as the ferry employees started to board the vehicles onto the boat, packing cars, buses, and trucks full of mangos in like sardines. More and more cars filled the ship and I started to get nervous because there was still no sign of Stephen. I found him idling to the side of the line of cars getting on the boat, for whatever reason the employees had pulled him aside, making me more nervous with each passing car that took its place on the rapidly filling ferry. Finally when the boat was almost full they let him on board and he was able to get out of the car and join us on the upper deck, where we had already gone through the last of our beers that I brought from Santa Teresa, then found the bar on the ferry and were knocking back more cheap beers in a last hoorah.  We continued to enjoy the mild weather on deck as our voyage started, danced to the Reggaeton music playing overhead, and got to see the sunset from the water just as we pulled into Puntarenas on the mainland. 

They again made all but Stephen depart as pedestrians, and reconnecting with our car a block from the ferry among other vehicles eager to get on with their days was a bit chaotic. Finally we were all packed in and finished the drive to San Jose without event. 

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Day 7: Montezuma Beach 

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Day 7: Montezuma Beach 

Retrospectively, I’m very glad we picked a place to stay in Santa Teresa. Montezuma was cute, but very tiny with a small and isolated beach front, nothing like the never ending expanse of sandy beach and surfers we had enjoyed the past few days. There was a small town, more of a square plaza than Santa Teresa’s miles of front street, with a little handcraft/tourist market, lots of hippie looking artwork, tourist shops, and far fewer restaurants to choose from. It was a cute spot for one afternoon but I think we would have been bored there for the several days we had to spend at the beach.

We got lunch at a beachfront restaurant (Chicos Playa) and enjoyed one last meal of typical Costa Rican food and seafood overlooking the water. Typical of Costa Rican meals, service was *not* rushed, and typical of me, I was antsy to get to the ferry early, so I was a little on edge but did take some time while waiting on our food to walk the beach, and photograph some of the tropical crested birds near the patio. 

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Day 7: Montezuma Upper Falls 

From there there was a very steep ascent with ropes up a scrabbly rock face to continue to the top of Montezuma falls, where there was a second swimming hole and a much smaller top waterfall. Stephen and I ended up pursuing this ourselves, leaving the rest of the group to hang out at the more popular swimming hole. Once at the top of the rock face we hiked through gentler forest until we again had to descend with ropes to the upper swimming hole, which was only visited by a few other couples and one giant, completely unbothered iguana perched on top of the rocks. After swimming around a bit, one eye always on grandaddy iguana, we made the trek back down to the first swimming hole and hiked back to the car before going into Montezuma town for lunch. 

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Day 7: Montezuma Lower Falls 

We parked at the entrance to the trail, paid a nominal parking fee, then followed the trail along the river and river bed for sometime. With it being dry season much of the river was dried up but there were still small pockets with little fish, vines to swing on, and rocks to navigate with the help of hand ropes. We eventually came to the first falls where most people stopped. There was a refreshing swimming hole at the bottom and many of the younger kids were jumping from the rocks near the falls. The water wasn’t clear by any means like the ocean or the Pacuare river, but it felt nice and When in Rome.

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enjoying one last day on our beautiful patio 

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Day 7: Santa Teresa

I started our last day at the beach with a morning walk to the south with Stephen. There weren’t many people on the beach this morning, but we saw turkeys at the hostel beside the path to the beach,a dog living its best life lounging in one of the hotel cabanas. After the peace of the early morning beach we walked back on the road, and were startled by troop of howlers in the trees calling to another troop. Continuing our morning safari, we saw a few big lizards, and finally stopped for iced coffee at Cafe Zwart which also has a whimsical art gallery and book exchange library.

We finished our time in Santa Teresa relaxing in our pool before packing up and taking our Covid tests via telehealth appointments. A pain in the butt to be sure, but easier than trying to figure out the testing at the airport during our early morning flights the next day. 

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Day 6: Santa Teresa

We went out to dinner at an indoor/outdoor food hall or cafeteria style restaurant called Eat Street. The highlight for me was two for one mojitos (cucumber vodka, basil, ginger, tonic) that I took full advantage of. Foodwise there were lots of options to choose from, from about 3-4 different mini restaurants, but the food was on the slow side to come out and it was still pretty muggy/hot after dark for the hot bowl of (tasty) curry noodles I got. Josh felt bad at dinner (and really the rest of the trip?), but pushed through, and afterwards I enjoyed more mojito fueled time in our pool. The Power went out around midnight, which left the AC dripping on our heads in bed, but otherwise a pretty solid day in Santa Teresa.

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Day 6: Santa Teresa 

We took an evening excursion up the road toward the beach with El Peñon because I wanted to share the area with the rest of the group. Before we stopped there we  tried to drive up this driveway to a vista in the hills that was marked on Google Maps as a view point, but it ended up being private property, proving that you can’t trust everything you read on the internet. Although we probably gave a very confused homeowner a bit of a startle when the five of us crested the hill to his property, it wasn’t a total loss because we saw white faced monkeys on the walk back down to the car. We retreated back down to beach in time for sunset, this one a good one with deep vibrant red and pink rays, and the local boy there with their families loved Josh's drone zooming around to capture it. Me, I was too mesmerized by the millions of hermit crabs that again came out as the sun went down. 

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Day 7: More Monkeys 

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Day 6: Santa Teresa

We abandoned our beach fort and came back to the house for lunch. The boys, monkeys that they are, knocked unripened mangos from trees on the way back, laughed at by the locals. I made me and Stephen then Shelby and Devin lunches from our rapidly shrinking supply of leftovers, while Shelby drank coronas in the pool. The real monkeys showed up in full force, a whole troop of them: big-balled and bearded males, females with tiny babies clinging to their chests, and they hung out for the rest of the afternoon in the trees above and around the pool. It was very cool seeing them so close, and while we were sending the drone up we got some bonus footage of bright green iguanas on the roof. 

In the afternoon Stephen and I walked to get snacks, stopping at a no frills outdoor restaurant called Los Sabores de mi Tierra, where we got chicken empanadas with sides of excellent pickles and a mango drink ($3200), then iced cold brew coffees from a trendier Peruvian place across the street ($5800). The Peruvian place did have the added bonus of a cute cat and a cute kid from school who stopped by asking for a drink of water.

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