Written by Kate.
It was beautiful! White-sand beaches lined with palm trees. The water was placid and beautiful. There were plenty of spots to find shade or sun. It looked like the perfect beach to have a picnic.
Onward went our traveling. We were headed for a town called Nosara, which was supposed to be the life-line of the surrounding beaches. On the way were more dusty roads, small rivers, odd things that seemed out of place, and of course, many an iguana scampering by.
We finally reached Nosara! Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as that exclamation point implies. We saw a dumpy little town scattered with sodas, tico bars, and of course, a soccer field. We checked out one of the places to stay listed in the book, and it looked somewhat dirty so we decided to head out of there. On our way out, we stopped by the grocery store on the outskirts of town. It was a welcome sight, because we needed food, drink, and a phone card for the pay phone. You can't use money in the pay phones in Costa Rica, you must buy a card. Steve had given us a friend's number who lived in Nosara, and we wanted to check with him to see if he had any suggestions of places to stay. Maybe he would offer up a room to us! Unfortunately, I got the answering machine and could only leave a message.
Unfortunately, we could not stay here long. We continued to drive past the scenery into the town of Carillo, which was small and cute. We found an interesting natural marina.
Onward went our traveling. We were headed for a town called Nosara, which was supposed to be the life-line of the surrounding beaches. On the way were more dusty roads, small rivers, odd things that seemed out of place, and of course, many an iguana scampering by.
We finally reached Nosara! Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as that exclamation point implies. We saw a dumpy little town scattered with sodas, tico bars, and of course, a soccer field. We checked out one of the places to stay listed in the book, and it looked somewhat dirty so we decided to head out of there. On our way out, we stopped by the grocery store on the outskirts of town. It was a welcome sight, because we needed food, drink, and a phone card for the pay phone. You can't use money in the pay phones in Costa Rica, you must buy a card. Steve had given us a friend's number who lived in Nosara, and we wanted to check with him to see if he had any suggestions of places to stay. Maybe he would offer up a room to us! Unfortunately, I got the answering machine and could only leave a message.
We continued out of Nosara with our bread, PB, tuna, and pipa juice and headed to the surrounding beaches. Playa Palada and Playa Guiones are the two main beaches near Nosara. Playa Palada was nice, but somewhat expensive. On our way to Playa Guiones, we picked up a hitchhiker, although I don't know why because we were only going another mile down the road. He was definitely a hippie with his dreads and casual, grungy clothes. As soon as he got in the car I knew he didn't believe in wearing deodorant. His accent sounded eastern European. We asked him about accommodations and he suggested the Hostel Solo Bueno down the road. We thanked him and apologized for only taking him 1 mile. He smiled and said it was ok.
Playa Guiones was also cool and bigger than Playa Palada. There was a surf shop, grocery store, internet cafe, etc. We decided Playa Guiones was where we would stay. Now, for accommodations...
We searched in town and most places were at least $50 for 2 people per night. That was out of our budget. So, we took the hippie man's advice and stopped at Hostel Solo Bueno. We both understood why he stayed there. When we walked in, there was an array of sun-soaked, hair dreaded, scruffy dudes with a couple girls. They were all laying in hammocks or sitting at the wooden table and all sized us up when we came in. The guy that owned the place spoke up, but could not offer us a private room as there were only dorms. Then the others chimed in in their pothead voices saying that, "Solo bueno is the place to stay maaaan... " A thank you was all they got from us. We were feeling defeated, but then I remembered a sign we saw a few miles back on the main road. There was a place advertising $36 per night. We checked it out. It was nice. On top of a long hill which I figured out later was 1 Km. It had fantastic views of the ocean, a lap pool, breakfast included, and a cool breeze.
Unfortunately, the $36 was for 1 person and it would be $44 for both of us. We thought of our alternatives and got the room. It was Valentine's Day eve after all.
Unfortunately, the $36 was for 1 person and it would be $44 for both of us. We thought of our alternatives and got the room. It was Valentine's Day eve after all.
After heading to the beach for a bit and taking a dip in the pool, we made ourselves some dinner and took in the sunset views.
After dinner we didn't know what we should do. I had gotten a flyer earlier that advertised a samba show at a place called La Banana. After asking a few locals where to find it, we drove out there only to find out it wasn't open at 7:30pm. So, we drove back into town and ended up at a restaurant bar for a few drinks. While there, we asked the waitress if she knew when it opened and she determined by asking her friend that it would be open around 9pm but that things didn't get started until 10pm. We were so tired, we didn't think we'd make it that late. We paid for our drinks and headed back to our room. It was a hit-the-sheets-and-fall-asleep kind of night, and we were happy for our comfortable bed and stand-up fan.
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