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We crossed the border from Nicaragua by foot as the sun was going down. We had a brief discussion with the sleepy border guards and then waited for the public bus.
Immediately it was evident we were no longer in Nicaragua. The buses were more modern and comfortable, the roads were smoothly paved, people had to wear masks in indoor spaces. When we got to the small village not far from our auberge, the Cabañas Castillo, we descended from the bus and started walking the the twenty-minute hike with our big bags.
We didn't have to walk for very much longer until someone stopped for us in an air-conditioned sedan and offered us a ride. We gladly accepted. As they dropped us off, they gave us their phone numbers and said if we needed anything, just to ask them.
Cabañas Castillo is a large property with small cabañas, camp sites and a restaurant on a large property with nature walking trails and a restaurant. It was began by a Swiss-German couple something like twenty years ago. We felt like we were in the laps of luxury when we arrived, although we had planned on hanging our hammocks between
the trees, and hoping for no rain. We were greeted by the Swiss-German male counterpart and his two big German Shepherds. After hanging up our hammocks, we decided to order dinner, a fabulously European-style affair with some sort of steaky meat. A very welcome familiarity after 6 weeks of gallo-pinto.
The next morning the breakfast was equally lavish, with real butter, homemade marmelades, homemade goat yogurt from the goats on site, cheese, eggs, rice and beans. We were in heaven. They also growed a medicinal plant, the Moringa tree, and offered a herbal tea for breakfast. Walking around the nature trails, we could see iguanas, spider monkeys and the like. We could even wash our clothes in a washing machine!
After a couple of nights there, we got back on our way towards the main road, planning on heading towards the beach. We decided from Liberia to head to the closest beach that we could get to by public transport, which was Playa Panama.
We initially wanted to stay at a campsite near the beach, but after inspection, we were not thrilled with the facilities since we had no shade, no trees and were right be the
road. We headed to the beach and found plenty of trees to hang up our hammocks, so we decided to try that out for a night.
Playa Panama is situated on the calm waters, almost like a bay. There are virtually no waves and therefore no surfers at all. Most people are tourists from abroad staying in nearby hotels or locals coming for a day trip. The sand and water are clean, there are people on horse-back. We had heard from other backpackers that putting up your hammock on the beach in Costa Rica was doable, and we felt OK trying it out at Playa Panama.
Once night fell, we put our big packs in our hammocks safely zipped up in mosquito nets. We then kept our valuables in our pouches and headed out to the local chic restaurant. We were happy to treat ourselves to shrimp cocktail and vegan tartar with splendid cocktails. It was a funny contrast to sleeping in a hammock.
We actually slept pretty well, although the ants feasted our on feet right below our hammocks, and we suffered a bit from those critters. We saw some early morning runners go by, and
one man from Canada stopped to talk to us. He asked if we were staying there on the beach, and didn't seem to phased. He said that when he got married many decades ago, he treated himself and his wife to a trip around the world for 2 years. He said that he was now retired and had been told Costa Rica was
the place to come.
We decided to walk along the coast to the next beaches, with the goal of getting to Playa Hermosa. We again brought all of our valuables with us and left our bags in the hammocks protected by the mosquito nets. We made it to Playa Hermosa, climbing the rocks and enjoying the small beaches along the way. We realized that low-tide was our friend, and that we would definitely return by the road.
Playa Hermosa was even more touristy than Playa Panama. You got the feeling that you were in a little USA haven, as many tourists were from there and were enjoying their sunny week relaxing on the beach. We had a fishy lunch then walked along the beach. We got approched by some Tico's asking if we wanted a
massage. Pascal replyed that he was a massage therapist in fact. And they said, OK, we want a massage then. So we proceeded to their massage "studio", a few tables set up along the beach. I relaxed at a nearby cafe as Pascal proceeded to give 5 massages to the therapists then to passersby. The sun was starting to set.
It turned out this massage crew was a family, a mother, her sister and her sons. They asked us where we were staying and we explained that we were staying on Playa Panama in our hammocks. They immediately asked us if we wanted to stay with them in Liberia, so we gratefully accepted. They brought us back to the beach in their van so that we could grab our hammocks and bags and head back with them to their house in Liberia. We stopped for gas on the way back before getting to their humble home in Liberia. The city is not so big and the residential neighborhoods are pretty close to the downtown area. You could even get a nice croissant if you wanted. Our hosts seemed not to have much time for house cleaning, the laundry and
dishes piling up for for weeks, the fridge a science experiment. But we felt like we were in the lap of luxury with a shower and a bed for the night.
The next day we were treated like guests of honor, being driven around to buy what we needed, shoes, bus tickets to Monteverde.
The massage family seemed to work their butts off, doing 12 hour days and only taking off on rare occasions. They didn't seem too tired, didn't even drink coffee. They said they felt lucky to live in Costa Rica, and thought of Nicaragua as a dangerous country.
We said our goodbyes as we got on the bus to Monteverde, a quaint touristic station in the mountains. We felt a luxurious hippie vibe when we arrived in the chilly atmosphere.
Over our few days there we had a chance to explore on foot while trying to avoid the tourist traps. Forests surrounded the steep inclines and tourist buses passed frequently. The first day I made plans to take a pottery workshop with a local artist, and Pascal ended up exchanging massage treatments with her.
On our last day we headed back on the bus, ready
to fly out of San Jose to Buenos Aires.
Downtown San Jose after nightfall frankly gave me the creeps. But we had some missions to complete before going to the airport. We then had a nice cozy night at the rather clean San Jose International Airport. We watched an American search her bags frantically for hour looking for her vaxport. All ended well and we got our our flight to Panama City in the morning, spent 12 getting to know the international terminal before getting on our flight to Buenos Aires with Copa Airlines.
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