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Published: January 8th 2015
Monday night found us in a restaurant on the main street of Samara where we enjoyed quesadillas and wine. The lure of the World Junior Gold Medal game was too much for Curtis so we headed to the Sports Bar "Arriba" where numerous Canadian fans cheered on the boys. The game was projected onto a big screen that hung outside. It was a great night!
Tuesday dawned...well you know. Sorry to hear about the frigid temperatures and typical wintery weather up there! We hung around our place in the morning and Karin demonstrated how to do laundry in a typical "Tico" washing machine. It was great! Everything went in together, it sits for 20 minutes and washes for 6. You then have to drain it, fill it and set the rinse cycle for 3 minutes whereupon you drain it again. Next you stuff the clothes into a neighbouring basket and it then spins for 5 minutes. Presto - fresh smelling laundry in under 30 minutes. Realizing once again that we make things too complicated at home. Keep it simple. We said "Adios" to our American neighbours and headed for the beach. Very hot and windy today. Shortly after noon we
wandered our way to Soda La Perla, which is a very local Tico restaurant at the north end of the beach along a little dirt road. We enjoyed a most delicious lunch of 3 crisp, round tortillas slathered with mashed black beans, vegetables and grilled chicken. Along with this came salad - all for $5.00 each! We then made our way back to the playa so Curtis could practise his surfing skills and I worshipped the sun.
Later last evening Karin directed us to a local art gallery and gift shop called 'The Dragonfly'. We loved meeting the beautiful little "Californian" girl who makes the jewelry. Needless to say we dropped a bit of money there but were able to come away with some unique pieces. Dinner was another gastronomical explosion of flavour as we visited El Lagarto - an open air restaurant that boasts an outdoor barbeque. The cooking smells pleasantly wafted throughout and we watched the chef load wood into the top of the grill and then the hot embers fall down to a raised open pit area. These embers heat the grill. Curtis ordered bacon and cheese wrapped pork tenderloin and I had mushroom and cheese
stuffed chicken. Each meal came with a grilled sliced of spiced zucchini, half a grilled tomato and a baked potato that was slathered in what appeared to be peanut butter! This meal was amazing. We savoured each bite and laughed at how we were going to roll home from Costa Rica and will probably have to be cut from our clothes!!! We came home and had some Facetime with family so that we could catch up on all the news and to see the mounds of snow! We certainly do not miss that!
We arose early to our typical morning alarm - howler monkeys, had our coffee and breakfast and finished our last minute packing. Our shuttle showed up 10 minutes early and we were rushing to have pictures with Karin as well as say our last minute good-byes. It was a wonderful 5 days in Samara and in hindsight we wish it had been 2 weeks. Pura Vida - we will return!
We piled onto our shuttle where we met a really nice young lady from Markham who was in Costa Rica to find her Zen. She had quit her full time job as a CAS worker
and decided to go to a Yoga retreat to become a certified instructor. It was very interesting to talk to her as educators. She had become disillusioned with her path, becoming to emotionally involved in her cases. She discussed with us how she would like to introduce yoga to help children. She was very well-spoken and actually had some very insightful ideas. We parted ways in Nicoya as we boarded a different shuttle for Montezuma.
Well I don't know how to describe our journey today. I have travelled switchbacks on Greek Islands, in Spain, Portugal and Italy but was quite amazed at the roads we took to arrive here. In fact, our teeth have just stopped shaking in our heads and, God willing, all of our vital organs, which were relocated from their proper spots, have been returned.
Let's just say taking a shuttle that fits 15 people plus a driver down a goat path with ruts a foot deep, rocks the size of small boulders, washed out shoulders (that's being generous), falled palm trees all combined with treacherous switchbacks explains why the journey took us 5 hours but looked not so far on the map! We travelled
up the mountains and back down numerous times until we came to the beach town of Montezuma. Maybe more aptly named Monte"zoo"ma! It was crazy busy and is quite the hippy, surf town. Our driver drove us 3 km out of town, on a road that was exactly the same as the one we just travelled. We turned up a familiar dirt road (direct from the photos) and he dropped us off at the gate of Solyluna. Our hostess, Patrticia welcomed us and took us down the beautiful stone path to our bungalow. It is a beautiful cottage that sits right in the jungle. We have a gorgeous porch with a hammock! Patricia and Simon described the propery to us, showed us where to put our compost each night to feed the monkeys, coatis, raccoons, and agoutis. Apparently if the creatures come up on the porch we are to say, "No!" and they obediently back down. Don't know if the big howler that is behind our place got the memo!!! We are 3 km south of Montezuma and 3 km north of Cabuya. A local bus runs every 2 hours to both places. We decided to walk into Montezuma for groceries. It was a nice walk, yet hot and dusty! It took us 45 minutes. We explored the town and then went to the grocery store to load up. We decided to take a taxi back and asked a kind man where to find one. He was either American or Canadian and tried his best to help. He went in to enquire for us but informed us that apparently no one knew where the taxis were today! We then found the bus stop but think we missed it! Not willing to walk in the dark by having to wait for the "maybe" bus we began our trek back, laden with grocery bags. After 15 minutes of walking a taxi drove by so we quickly flagged him down. Mucho Gracias!!!! We arrived back to Solyluna and unpacked our food, and poured a drink. Two agoutis are wandering around (big, long-legged guinea pigs) and a howler monkey is very close (you really need to youtube the sound of one as I can't begin to describe it). These next two weeks will be much different than Samara but we welcome the adventure!
amazing sight.to be
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Lorene
non-member comment
Samara
So, so glad you liked Samara. You ate at more restaurants in 5 days than we have done in 5 months. Montezuma sounds very interesting. The roads in CR are interesting. The best road is the one from Liberia to Samara. I will choose to stay in Samara and use our one speed bikes! Enjoy the rest of your stay..... Pura Vida.. Love you guys! Karin emailed us to say how much she enjoyed having you.