Pura Vida in Samara!!

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Today is the start of my third week in Samara, a little beach village in the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Coast. We got here during Semana Santa, the week that everyone from the city goes to the coast. Our daily routine consisted of going to the beach during the day and going to the bar in the evening. There is one clothes shop here, two mini markets, two bars and one nightclub, so there's not a whole lot more to do. After 2 days we knew most of the people in the town, so by now we're pretty much locals (well, sort of)

We've been snorkelling out by Isla Chora where there's a nice reef. One morning we went kayaking which was very relaxing, until my friend Rachel got caught by a wave and ended up getting stuck in a reef with her kayak drifting to the island. We spent about 45 minutes trying to climb over the sharp coral to get to her and get out of there again.....quite an adventure compared to our usual days over here...our cut up feet were less fun though.

Spanish classes are a whole lot more laidback over here as well, our school is right on the beach, so before or after class you can just lie in the hammocks on the patio or on the beach. Still, I get the feeling that I'm slowly able to have conversations about other topics than asking directions or explaining where I'm from. And going out at night helps too because a lot of locals don't speak English (or very badly) and they usually join in our games of foosball or ping pong, so whilst playing we pick up some slang 😊

Two days ago we finally managed to get out of the town, we had to go to the nearest big town, Nicoya, to the nearest ATM machine. (Apparently there was an ATM that drove around the little towns in a minivan, but it hasn't been spotted lately) That was my first public bus experience, on the way there not half as bad as I expected, the way back was during rush hour so it was packed with high school students, so we had to actually stand for the bumpy ride...less fun, but another experience nonetheless. In the evening a few of us took a "taxi" (read: back of a truck) to the next beach, BuenaVista, to watch the sunset (we actually saw it from the truck but it was still pretty). We had to cross a river to get to the beach (there's crocodiles here too, which made the walk back in the dark pretty scary) but it was absolutely beautiful. We made a little campfire and had pizzas and cuba libre to drink.

Well time for me to go now, I have class in 15 minutes!!
Hasta Luego, x Flora

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Photos

Samara Beach
View of Isla Chora, the big rock in the distance where we had our kayaking incident and where we went snorkelling.

the "30 guaros night"
Our friends' last night in Samara ended with them buying shots for the entire bar (about 30)..left to right- Hawaii Jason, Alex, Rachel, me, "Barber" Chad

The 3 Muskechicas
Our little inseparable group- Rachel (Alabama's representative..the one that got away!!), Alex (the tall German crazy one), and MOI

Comments

[anonymous]

wat een verhalen!!
Hey Truus!! Leuk om te horen dat je het zo naar je zin hebt en dat t met het Spaans al stukken beter gaat, hihi!! T klinkt echt als een heerlijke vakantie, kan niet wachten tot ik van de zomer ook mag!! Eerst nog maar eens even door tentamens heen ploegen de komende week...Ik stuur je gauw een mail met uitgebreide verhalen! Geniet ervan in ieder geval verder... xx Eef - Klazina