We woke up at 6:45 this morning; I’m still adjusting to the 2 hour time change. The sun rises at 5:30 here. We packed our things up and made our way down to the market place before going to the bus stop – it’s a 6 hour drive to Nosara, the beach we are going to. While at the bus stop, I had to use the bathroom, so I walked over to the local shop. It was the first time I was isolated from the group, making the language barrier an issue. I didn’t have Ava there to translate for me.
My 3 years of Spanish are starting to come back more and more. An old man was at the door, and wanted me to pay a price to use the bathroom; a pee fee – I’m not used to that in the States I thought. I made out 200 colones for the service. He was speaking very fast, all I could make out was ‘dinero’ ‘vas’ and ‘baño.’ He kept saying comer, the verb to eat. I’m guessing pay so he can eat? It was a funny conversation nonetheless.
We bused about 6 hours to reach our destination. The ride was slow and tedious. The roads are very poor here, composed of little more than gravel and stones. The streets were lined with shacks, malnourished cattle, and unique mountainous land structures. The plants and wild life were amazing from an aesthetics perspective. I had heard many say that Costa Rica has more biodiversity in their ecology, particularly plants and birds, than all of North America.
We finally arrived at 2 o’clock, and got to the beach around 3. It was a more secluded place than cow-town Bagaces; a surfers haven. The waves were unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. There was little coast line because of how far the waves crashed in, 3 yards at the most.
After a while we made our way back to get some food and settle down for the night. We saw a beautiful sunset over the Pacific before heading back for a couple drinks round-side our hotel pool. We met this awesome Canadian named Josh. He was on a 7-week journey that took him all across Central America – Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc. Some of the experiences he explained and the marvels he witnessed sounded incredible.
This place is awesome. I am lost for words. The fact that I have 5 days left in this new found world has me fervid as to what new adventures await ahead.
*Update* I just noticed in the picture below the rock coast line this is emerging from the water. The Costa Rica – Day 3 pictures are taken from that very spot! Hopefully that’ll put in perspective how far the tide came in while I was down there.
