Now that I’ve snapped out of my dream, let me break it down for you.... 💭
Costa Rica is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been, and I didn’t even see half the country. It's also rated one of the happiest places on earth. I can see why.
Here are a few of my fav parts or things I found interesting.
A “Tico” is what you all a Costarican.
A “Soda” is a small restaurant or a small corner store. The sodas are the best plate to get a typical meal called “plato típico” or “Casado” which is rice, beans, meat of your choice, salad and friend plantains.
“Gallo pinto” is rice and beans mixed together kind of like a jambalaya and is served with many dishes, not to get confused with the Caribbean sides “Rice and Beans” which is made with coconut milk.
And last but not least Cacique, it’s one of the first things we learned. Cacique is the drink of Costa Rica. It’s made from sugar cane which is produced ALOT, you can smell it driving through some areas, like a burnt sugar and it’s used in the famous Chile Guaro, a Bloody Mary style shot that you won’t be able to have just one.
Costa Rica has very few indigenous peoples as when the Europeans colonized, they literally killed them all. We really wanted to visit a village, but unfortunately they were so far away and hard to get to, it wasn’t possible in this trip. I now know where they live and you can arrange tours, which will definitely happen on our next trip.
Costa Rica has 7 provinces, we were there for a total of 13 days. Which wasn't enough to see the whole country, but we did visit 5 provinces. Guanacaste, San Jose, Puntarenas and Limon. (We drove through Cartago).
First stop... We flew into Liberia as recommend by my friend Cassidy of Five Wild I tend to not be a planner.. which most of the time works fine, but occasionally it bites me in the ass, like this time. Flying from Cancun to Liberia meant a layover in Miami, I later realized if I had flown directly into San Jose we would have saved money and time BUT we wouldn't have learned about the previously mentioned Chile Guaro or seen the gorgeous landscapes we saw driving that route. So C'est la vie.
After a short 1.5 drive from Liberia we arrive at The Pipe House this place, as you may have already seen on my instagram, was amazing. The kids loved it. The Pipe house is located in a small gated community on the tip of a mini peninsula, if that's what it's called. It's right beside the Tamarindo River. As you can see in the next slides, you can cross the river by boat (VERY recommended) or you can risk crossing the croc filled river if the boats are not running.
Playa Grande we LOVED and I can't recommend it enough. It was small and chill and just what we like. We are NOT city people and don’t love towns that are built up, actually we joke that we don't really like people, ha ha. And the surf was AMAZING!
We ventured into the main town a few times. They had a couple small restaurants including "Will Mart" haha and quite a few really yummy restaurants. Our favs include El Huerto which had some amazing pizza, it was SOOO good. Even Victor loved it and he doesn't like pizza.
Cafe Mar Azul and Cantarana Bistro and Boutique Hotel are located in the same gated community as The Pipe House, and have breakfast, lunch and dinner. They were also insanely delish.
We briefly visited Tamarindo and it had a real cool vibe but was also very “Americanized” and touristy and that's not really my jam.
If you haven't heard of a Blue Zone.. Blue Zones are regions of the world where a higher than usual number of people live much longer than average. There are different theories, which include the food, the water and magnetic fields. Either way, I'm here for it.
We drove all the way around the Nicoya Peninsula from Playa Grande to Santa Teresa.
Costa Rica has around 300 beaches (don't quote me) and the beach at Santa Teresa I think is one of the best. One thing I loved about Santa Teresa was the amount of trees along the coast. This helps prevent erosion and provides shade! Despite it being very hot while we visited, it was their dry season and the hottest time of year, It was NOTHING compared to Yucatan's unbearable summers.
Santa Teresa itself wasn't my favourite. The roads were insanely dusty and it had a similar Tulum vibe. Younger partiers and really overpriced food. The food was really good though. We ate the first day at Restaurante Soda la Yunta and Victor insisted on eating there every single day. They had the most delicious fish curry and it was probably the most reasonably priced soda in town.
From there we drove about an hour and a half to Calala Lodge in Cabuya. Cabuya and Montezuma are also musts. Nestled in the jungle but right along the coast you don't want to miss it.
We were awaken each day by growling monkey's and birds. We walked down to cemetery island and through the tiny fisherman's town of Cabuya. We honestly didn't leave the Calala Lodge, as we just loved it so much. The kids played in the pool, we drank a few (too many) drinks and just relaxed.
It was a perfect reset before we continued on exploring.
Onto Jaco pronounced (HACK-O)... we took the ferry from Paquera to Punta Arenas, super cheap and quick, vs. the long drive around.
The Vibe changes immediately on the other side. I can't really put it into words... there's more jungle/greenery on the Nicoya side. Puntarenas (at least where we drove through) just seemed drier.
I'll just say i'm in love with the Nicoya Peninsula.
Jaco is another well established town. Lot's on restaurants and a big long strip. Unfortunately they didn't save the native trees along the coast and it's just a few palm trees in the bay.
The tide goes in and out in Jaco so you can only surf from about 1pm - 5pm. Victor said he loved the surf there. I got my period during this portion of the trip and was testing out a new menstrual cup, AND some of the surfers were saying there was a "bicho" (nickname for shark in Spanish) So I opted on the safe side.
We were only in Jaco for 2 nights, and I probably wouldn't go back. I would like to get all the way down to Ojochal and Domincal, also I heard great things about Manuel Antonio.
We planned to stay there for 3 nights but had an extremely long journey to our last destination, Manzanillo, Limon. So we headed out early morning and decided to hike to a waterfall as Matteo had been asking to hike since the day we arrived. Turns out he hates hiking as much as I do and was whiney and complaining 5 mins in to our 4km hike. Of coarse no one brought the hiking shoes we don't own and half of us trekked barefoot and the other half had runners.
I will say it WAS worth the effort once we arrived at the "pool" we didn't make it all the way to the base of the waterfall as it was another 1km uphill, and I did my best not to complain. We stopped for shite buffet food as my delirious ass couldn't wait any longer for fried chicken and a beer and then continued on to San Jose.
GRATITUDE
We almost didn't make it to Manzanillo, thank sweet baby Jesus we had that night of rest in San Jose and I love Marae, Roger and Alaska SO much that we decided to go.
Remember that we flew into Liberia.. we changed our flight back so we left out of San Jose and had a direct flight to Cancun. I also decided to add a few nights because Marae wanted us to meet them in Manzanillo and well.. why not! We were already here. I emailed the Visa lady and she told me that it was actually a big deal to extend our visas and we should just leave... DIE. After googling I realized in was only a fine and changing our tickets again was going to cost $1300 US, we decided we should just risk it and go to Manzanillo.
We drove for too many hours, I think almost 5 from San Jose to Manzanillo and oh was it worth it. The Caribbean said doesn't have a mother. I don't think that Spanish quote translates well hahaha.. it means it's the bees knees, da bomb, 10/10. Luca got to be in a cloud, part of the highway was nestled in the clouds, we stay in the AMAZING Almonds and Corals this hotel is literally in a jungle and on the beach. The cute little A frame cabins are so cozy and the have sloths on their property. The vibe is my fav, miles of beach that apparently has some of the best surf in the country, although it was super stormy while we were there, we had to keep a close eye on the kids as I worried they would be swept out to the sharks.
The food was different on this side, this is where the had the Rice and Beans, a Rice dish made with coconut milk. We hadn't;t had a chance to try it yet and the people at @coloressefront gave us a plate to try, I'm happy they did. They also made us the biggest Chile Guaro we had and made our last day in paradise unforgettable. Next time we'll be sure to visit Puerto Viejo that we stopped for brekkie on the way home, another sleepy surf town.
~ PURA VIDA
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