After strongly considering the pros and cons of such a trip:
My friends and I decided to head to Costa Rica for a spring break surfing trip! 12 beautiful days in Costa Rica with this bunch:
Lauren, my ever-fabulous roomate and best buddy, led the way:
We flew into the capital, San Jose.
We didn't exactly fit in:
We all piled in our rental SUV:
And headed five hours west over unpaved roads:
to Playa Guiones, the beach near Nosara:
PS - you are perfectly welcome to have an open container in your car in Costa Rica. Drinking and driving is not against the law there. So at one point we were pulled over for speeding, and instinctively began hiding our 8 or so open cervesas - but all the cop wanted was a $20 bribe. Actually, he offered us a choice: bribe, which was $20, or a ticket, which was $26. After some deliberation we opted for the ticket, and he politely wrote us our ticket and let us on our way. Quite business-like.
Guiones is a well-known surf destination, but it's quite a trek to get out there so there aren't a lot of "tourists," mostly travelers and surfers who go back each year, like Lauren. It's known for it's consistent, gentle waves and is a perfect beach to learn to surf. (And there are plenty of businesses that will teach you, too.) We rented a bungalow by the beach, called Casa Frisbee:
You've got to really love nature, because these guys live in the roof: (And these are the tiny ones - the "dragons" were too fast for me to get a photo of.)
And this fellow was in my shower:
The hammocks on the huge beautiful porch was everybody's favorite part:
And second was our beautiful, three minute walk to the beach through this path:
And through this cemetery:
To the beautiful beach!!
We then went over to Casa Tucan, the beach bar/ restaurant/ hotel, for some surf-boards thanks to Lauren's "friends and family" discount. The restaurant has a pool!
And we quickly got to surfing!
And those of us who were first learning got some beginner's lessons from Lauren. (Which consists of standing still and having someone stand behind you and shove you. Which foot did you step forward with to catch yourself? That's the one that goes in front on the surfboard. Now lay down on the board like this:
And practice pushing up with your arms and placing your feet on the board all in one motion. That's the hard part - that, and swimming out against the waves - once you're up it's pretty easy to stay there. I also learned the correct way to slice a whole pineapple (this would not be it):
We took a quick dip in this guy's pool while he wasn't home:
And learned a lot of Yoga at the famous and fantastic Nosara Yoga Institute. I felt it would be un-zen to take photos during class, but you can see some here:
http://www.nosarayoga.com/
They have classes for all levels three times a day, and classes take place at their gorgeous open-air studio in the rain forest canopy. I've been going to yoga fairly regularly for the last year, and I've never felt better than after my hour and a half class with Joy, whom I highly recommend.
One day we headed up the road to San Juanillo, which is definitely not a touristy place, for some snorkeling:
We chased this guy over a bridge on the way:
And stopped at this black sand beach to climb the rocks:
We finally got to San Juanillo:
Where we chatted with some local fisherman:
And everyone though we were a bit weird and adorable for taking all these photos of them:
And for dressing like this:
The beach was made mostly of lava rock:
And lots of tiny sea creatures:
I found an eel skull, which I managed to smuggle back and which is now in my kitchen awaiting bleaching. We also found this board, which my wonderful friend Jeremy smuggled back in his guitar case.
It's the middle part of this sign (though I swear it was on the ground I did not take the sign apart) telling people to stay off the beach so the sea turtle's nests are not disturbed. If you're familiar with sea turtles and their nesting habits, this is interesting: they are in such abundance here that this is the only place in the world where you can harvest turtle eggs to eat. In most places they are considered endangered, but so many turtles nest here that they actually destroy each other's nests to make new ones because the beach is so filled with eggs.
Unfortunately we did not get to see the turtles, as they do this at about three in the morning in May, but we did find this guy:
And a cave:
This is the kind of stuff we were driving through:
Our rental car was not exactly equipped to handle the extremely bumpy unpaved roads out here, and we popped three tires on our trip. This incredibly, incredibly nice guy fixed our first popped tire for us:
But when the second tire popped, we opted to take the bus to the neighboring town of Garza for some fishing:
Captain Vibert and his son, Vibert, took us out fishing for the afternoon:
We tried way too hard to look cool:
Fish blood is purple, apparently:
My wonderful foodie friends cooked our fish into a feast fit for Royalty:
And though we didn't manage to catch our own fish everyday, we had big family dinners every night:
Even grocery shopping is more pleasant in Costa Rica:
In keeping with our day of skull-smuggling, Lauren found a cow skull and decided to clean it off and take it home: (And those are, by the way, my abs after a week of surfing):
And if you want to get your own cow skull through customs, just bring it to Paul - the tall, black, and handsome British musician at Kaya Sol - and he will paint a beautiful pattern on it for you!
We also went to the Nosara Biological Reserve where you can see some ridiculously cool trees:
Swing on jungle vines: (though you're not really supposed to do that)
And hang out with monkeys:
By our last night there, we had made some local friends:
Who invited us to Tamarindo to see a rodeo! We had to put some gas in the car first for the drive. There actually is a large gas station, but don't be fooled - it's not in business. Instead you have to find your way here, which is a little difficult:
And they will siphon some gas out of a big barrel, then pour it into you car through a half a 2-liter coca-cola bottle:
We stopped to watch our last sunset in Costa Rica:
After a 2-and-a-half-hour drive, we were starting to get a bit nervous that there was no rodeo and we were instead driving into a bad horror film, but voila!
El Rodeo! This is the edge of the bull ring:
Everyone huddled under the bleachers and on the fence - anywhere to get a view of the bull:
But the bull that night was a no show! Oy vey. But El Vortex made it worth the trip:
And it was Mona's BIRTHDAY and she didn't even tell us because she didn't want us to feel obligated to spend our last night doing something for her because she is so awesome, but I think she enjoyed spending her 20th at El Rodeo in Tamurindo!
The parking lot:
It was a perfect last evening. We had to wake up bright and early the next day to pack our things, strap our suitcases to the roof of the car, and head back to the airport in San Jose. On the way we had to stop and pay our ticket, and we had a nice morning cup of joe in ???:
And we did make one last stop at the dinosaur park to get this picture:
Before heading home to NYC.
*Photographs by Kate Perkins, Lauren Chu and Will Lopez.
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TRAVEL INFO:
Plane tickets + House + Car for 8 people for 12 days = $599 per person. Car rentals available at San Jose airport. Cost of gas from San Jose to Nosara = $60. Flight from San Jose to Nosara = $70. Taxi from Nosara airport to Playa Guiones (the beach) = $20.
Fishing price varies depending on how long you want to be out: $300 group price for roughly a half day, $500 for a whole day.
Surf Board rentals from $10/ day, Surf lessons = free if you make good friends quickly.
Yoga = $10 per 90 minute class.
Casa Frisbee (our bungalow):
http://www.123costaricatravel.com/casafrisbee.html
Fishing Nosara:
http://www.fishingnosara.com/
Safari Surf School:
http://www.safarisurfschool.com/
Nosara Yoga Institute:
http://www.nosarayoga.com/
Casa Tucan: (Closest hotel to the Beach)
http://www.cupotico.com/coupons/hotels/hotel193/hotel193.html
Nosara Biological Preserve: ($6 per person, half day walk)
http://www.lagarta.com/
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