Blogs from Samara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 8

Yes, I´ve found another paradise, this time on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica--on the Nicoya Peninsula, to be exact. It´s a beach and small town called Playa Carillo. It´s 8 kilometers south of Samara, which isn´t bad, either, but it´s more touristy and the beach at Carillo is much nicer (see photos). Unlike Samara, most of the beachcombers at Carillo are "Tico" families. Only problem is, this paradise may disappear in the coming years. I had lunch yesterday at a local hotel with a lovely view of the bay and beach. Seated at the bar was an American --the same American who's constructing the 8-floor monstrosity appearing on the sign splashed with red paint. Amateur investigative journalist that I am, I asked this American ("Bob") all sorts of questions, pretending to be interested. I´t's going ... read more

CULTUUR Costa Rica (CR) is veruit het meest ontwikkelde land van Centraal Amerika. Het heeft zich volledig aangepast aan de behoeften van de Amerikaanse en, in mindere mate, Europese touristen. Hieruit probeert het voldoende financiele middelen te generen voor haar eigen welzijn. Iets waar ze volgens de naburige landen in slagen. Zij zien CR als het leidende voorbeeld. De lijfspreuk van CR is ´Pura Vida¨. Een kreet die iedere Tico en Tica (de lokale inwoners) bezicht. Continu slingeren ze het om je oren. Tegenspraak wordt niet geduld. Tevens heeft CR geen leger. Na de burgeroorlog in 1948 is deze afgeschaft en sinds dien weten ze aardig de corruptie (die zo bekend is in de aanringende landen) buiten de deur te houden. Als ze nu alleen eens zouden aanleren niet al het afval in de bermen uit ... read more

After an early morning bus ride home from Monteverde we reorganized our things and headed up the Inter-Americana Highway on our way to meet the McLeod's in Samara. We were making terrific time, for Costa Rica, and had gone 50 kilometers in 45 minutes when traffic slowed to a crawl. The next 10 KM took 45 minutes and we finally made it to the turn off towards the Friendship Bridge and our final destination for the day, Hacienda San Fernando near Samara. When planning any excursion in Costa Rica it is very important to allow for at least one hour travel for every 50 kilometers as you never know when there will be an accident or a bus completely burned on the side of the road slowing things down. In Costa Rica the highway is one ... read more

You've all heard Costa Rica is a little slice of heaven. We're here to tell you that it's all true. When we first breezed across the border, we beach-hopped along the Nicoya Peninsula with stops at Playa Coco and Playa Sámara. In Sámara, we stayed just 10 steps from the beach with a yard full of palm trees and a cute and nosy little neighbor, a chihuaua named Sancho. We took our first surfing lesson and actually did catch a few sweet waves, dudes. We practiced for only two hours and it was us against the ocean... The ocean won - we were sore for three days. Luckily, we met a fun couple from Cincinnati who drove us in style with their pink rollerskate rental car to the edge of the peninsula so we could weasel ... read more

Following on from Nicaragua was the 10 hour bus journey to Playa Del Coco in Costa Rica, which included one of the craziest border crossings so far. There seemed to be 100s of people and about 2 members of staff processing everyone, not fun at all particularly given we had been up from 4.30am to make the first bus in Nicaragua. Playa Del Coco is a small town on the pacific coast almost entirely populated by American tourists and souvenir shops, so not exactly the ideal place to soak up Costa Rican culture however it is somewhere famed for huge fish when diving and was a great place to get our last dive of the trip in. I know Honduras was supposed to be the last dive but we couldn’t resist just one more and ... read more