Blogs from Mal Pais, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 3

I took a taxi back to Nicoya on Monday and from there took a van with 3 other travelers to Mal Pais. I met two of the guys in the van, Joe and Mike from Seattle. Joe and Mike were headed to Monetzuma, a town close to Mal Pais, so I decided to go with them after reading about Montezuma in Joe’s Lonely Planet guide to Costa Rica. We checked into a big room with three beds at Hotel Aurora. Then we headed to the Montezuma Waterfall. After hiking thru the forest for about 20 minutes we arrived at a waterfall probably 60 ft high. We learned from some other people who were swimming in the pool of water below the waterfall that there was another one, better for jumping off of, above the first waterfall. ... read more

On to "Costa Rica"Ross OlsenIt would be great if we could transport ourselves between locations like "Scottie" or "Dr Who". No, we´re all herded into great metal cylinders, stacked, packed and tortured on long haul flights, transit lounges, in and out of airports......someone has to invent a better way. If it wasn´t for destinations like Costa Rica, we´d all stay home. Travelling to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa you might consider you were never going to arrive. You might even consider turning back as the roads narrow and quickly turn into into an ugly mess of pot holes and ravines resembling something akin to the surface of the moon. Mal Pais and St Teresa is a sleepy little area (at least in the off season) that essentially share the same stretch of beach disturbed on occasion ... read more

Well i have to admit im lagging on my blog entries, unfortunately ive been having way to much fun and to much sun to remember to make regular entries. So after the 9 days straight of partying in tamarindo, we decided to head south down the pacific coast to a little place called mail pais. We took a shuttle bus with a few other fellow travellers that we had met in tamarindo. Two surfers, shawn and tom from canada and greg from the states. Me, laura and greg decided to stay at Tranquillo backpackers in Santa Theresa, which is a little town within walking distance of mail pais. These towns essentially only exist because of surfers who come into town to hit up the waves. Tranquillo backpackers was just that a surfer haven. I think me ... read more

I bolted wide-eyed out my sleep on my flight from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica. For a solid minute or two, I had forgotten what I was doing and where I was going. Not exactly the best feeling to have at 30,000 feet. “Are you traveling alone?” asked an American woman, who was traveling with her husband and two sons. I nodded as I rubbed the sleep from eyes. We weaved in and out of conversation with each other until we landed. Her main points were that I was going to get kidnapped or robbed, and that she had vacationed in Costa Rica many times previously, but she had never heard of Mal Pais... “But, you seem like a smart girl.” Good, great, grand, wonderful, I thought. And she’s never heard of Mal Pais, ... read more

Happy Holidays! Greetings from the sun, the sand and the surf! We are having a very different holiday experience than the one we are both used to back at home! So we finally met up with our good buddy Erik in a little surf town on the southern tip of the Nicoya Pennisula called Mal Pais/Santa Theresa (basically a gravel strip with shops all along it spread between two municipalities). We have been living it up as surf bums for almost the last three weeks. Life is pretty simple down here; eat, sleep and surf, which has caused the two of us absolutely no problems getting used to. We have met a bunch of excellent people while we have been here (Dave, Matt, Pedro, Laura, Shawna, CJ, Sophie, Gord, Andrew) and have enjoyed hanging out with ... read more