Montezuma, you deserved longer!

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Love the Sea...

In my previous blog entry, I left us in Santa Teresa, on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. This entry takes us further South down that same coast to the 'Amor del Mar' hotel in Montezuma. We took a taxi from Santa Teresa to Montezuma which was not a very long drive, and only cost about $30 USD. It provided me with yet another opportunity to make friends with the driver and practice my Spanish. These are the best ways to practice because there is no time pressure - you have all that road ahead of you, and more often than not, these drivers are proud of their country and happy to have a foreigner willing to converse in their native language! I like to think it's win-win for both of us!



The Hotel "Amor del Mar" was just stunning. The literal translation of "Amor del Mar" is "Love the Sea" and I can see why they would call it that. The hotel is located just on the edge of Montezuma town with perfect views out to sea from the verdant lawn. Palm trees, sunshine, flowers, rock pools, hammocks, and benches I could have sat on for hours gazing out to sea. As you can probably gather, I would recommend this hotel. We spent a little time appreciating it, but sadly only had time for one night in Montezuma, so we began to explore quickly.



We threw on our hiking shoes and took (another) taxi to the National Park - 'Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco'. We hiked for two hours through the trees, along a marked path until we arrived at the secluded beach. En route we saw monkeys, birds and an agoutis. It was nice to be in a really 'wild' place knowing that everything here had been left to its own devices with minimal human intervention. There had been plans to redevelop the land at one stage and a Swedish couple had halted this idea. The two marked paths are now named after these two individuals. The beach at the end was a welcome reward and we went for a dip in the high tide before hiking all the way back. The rain came just towards the end of our hike....and did not stop! We spent our evening in a local soda for dinner, a coffee shop for dessert, and then a bar for a Costa Rican cocktail and card games sheltered from the rain!

Make the most of it...

When you don't have long in a certain place, it usually means early starts to make the most of it. Sometimes I remind myself that the world is so big, and I want to see as much of it as I can, so this could mean that I never return to the same place. In such an example, we had a 9.30am boat to catch from Montezuma to Jacó. In order to experience the Montezuma waterfall, it was a dawn-raid and a hike before breakfast. We all struggled a little to get up and out, but of course none of us regret it now! A clamber along the rocks including a mini abseil led us to the bottom of the waterfall and the added bonus of having the place to ourselves. We left our belongings on the rocks and went for a swim! I went right up underneath the fresh, cool water. An invigorating start to the day! Post-swim, breakfast was where we really did manage to appreciate our view of the sea over coffee, avocado and eggs! Winner for best breakfast view goes to Amor Del Mar.



One of my favourite things about travel is not always having a plan - sometimes it can lead to the most unexpected discoveries or give you fantastic flexibility. On the other hand, sometimes it means you're only left with one day to experience the joy of somewhere like Montezuma. Being a small town, I wouldn't have wanted to stay there for too long, but a couple of nights would have been lovely. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. None the less, I'm grateful to have been and enjoyed this pretty little place.



Moving on from Montezuma, rather than drive all the way inland and out again, there was a speedboat to Jacó which takes about an hour. From Jacó we had a bus to meet us and drive us all the way to Manuel Antonio National Park. I'll divulge the delights of that in the next blog!



JHG



Links/Info:

http://amordemar.com/ - Hotel Amor Del Mar.

Zuma Tours - Boat company for transfers Montezuma-Jaco.

Cocolores - Friendly bar in Montezuma

Organico - Good cafe for a rainy day!

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