The beach at Nosara was amazing, lots of waves and surfers. This was the first time we seen multiple waves breaking perpendicular to the shore, this gave more surfers the chance to catch waves as they were stacked, in a way.
We putted around Nosara for a little longer than intended only because we could not find the road out towards Nicoya, as it turned out we were on it the whole time there was just no sign, which then had us arrive in Samara at about mid-afternoon. We were a bit hungry so we bought a quick taco from Waza who has a rather good business going along the side of the road. This was a Tico version of a hot dog vendor. Waza sold sausages of different varieties that he would “butterfly cut” then BBQ and serve in a tortilla with pineapple, onions, peppers and of course hot sauce. Very tasty and moreso resembled a Donair than a taco. Also enjoying the fare was a young dude from St. Albert, AB. His family had moved down here a few years ago when they retired and he is along for the ride. He gave us a good recommendation for a place to stay which was clean and affordable, and is actually another bed&breakfast.
During the check-in process some other guests arrived; Gigi, and Thomas&Michaela.
A conversation started with Gigi that lasted for about 2hrs, then we went our separate ways but ended up meeting again on the beach, so we went out for supper together and carried on our conversation. Gigi is a former professional ballerina that has lived an extraordinary life thus far and is currently writing a book about human interaction and the exchanges of energy that happen during these interactions. She has been travelling for over two years straight so when asked where she is from, she either says “Here” or “New York”. She has some amazing life experiences that she will hopefully publish one day, I am sure it would be a fascinating read.
Thomas and Michaela are a couple from Stutgart, Germany and are on vacation here for a month. He works for Nokia as a design engineer, so his job is to get all the technology of our new phones into the small sleek cases, the hardest part is to get the bigger screens and the power to run them. Michaela is a tax advisor. We also learned that Germany has a very similar taxation system to Canada. They pay up to 42% in the highest tax bracket, they also have to pay into social programs such as UI, health care, and government pension. These add up to an additional 10%.
The conversation picked up after supper and carried on into the evening. We shared travel stories and had just a really spectacular visit.
In the morning we had planned to head out after breakfast and move to Manuel Antonio National Park. We had reports that this was a great place to see wildlife, monkeys, bats, and butterflies. We did manage to leave after breakfast, about 3 hours after. Once again a conversation with the other guests at the B&B was just to good to end, so we let it run its’ course and then said our good-byes.
The weather is once again clear and sunny, 30°C with a few puffy scattered clouds. This has been the weather report for the last month, some days hitting as high as 36°C but mostly around the 30°C mark. So yes, very nice riding weather.
The area leading into Quepos (kay poas) and Manuel Antonio is very nice with an obvious increase in prosperity. Tourism must pay well, in addition to the palm oil income that is derived from the acres and acres of African Palm trees. These trees produce a cluster of small nuts about the size of ping-pong balls, that are used for their oil in the cosmetic industry. There are also up-scale resorts and condo littering the coastline.
We snooped out the town of Quepos, got settled and then found a place to eat. This proved to be the most creative place to eat that we have found yet. The Catholic Church hosts a large dinner every evening, right in front of the Church, so as we are eating the local fare their is choir music echoing from the church. This doesn’t happen at home. We enjoyed the food that appeared to be prepared by the ladies from the church, like a small town Fall Supper that I used to enjoy back in Saskatchewan. $9 total and we left totally stuffed with Chicken, Beef, rice, picadillo (rice and cabbage mixture but not like a lazy cabbage roll), and of course a tortilla. Very good “home cooking” and friendly people that helped us with the selection. Tomalles are also very popular, maybe we will try those tomorrow night.
Our hotel turned out to have a bar on the property so the noise was a bit much, Brenda slept through it all but I had to put in ear plugs, then all was good for sleeping.
We got going early, not that we had to go anywhere, but we wanted to check out the National Park early in the day when the wildlife is best viewed, and before it got to hot. We found the park gate, not like our National Parks where there are toll booths and grand entrances, here there is a small roadside sign, and a metal gate 300 meters off the road down a walking path. The gate was locked, today is Monday and the National Park is CLOSED. ???
So, nest best thing. We talked with our hotel manager and arranged a Zip line tour. The tour was really cool, we did 7 cables, the longest was 647meters with a height of about 100ft at the highest point. The tour included a meal and transportation, and because we booked through our hotel, the hotel will give us free breakfast in the morning. So a pretty good deal we thought. We made it back to our hotel in time for another outstanding sunset.
Tomorrow, maybe we will get into the park.
Oh ya, I got stopped by the cops again. Apparently it is mandatory to wear a helmet in Costa Rica if you are operating a motorcycle, but not if you are a passenger. The officer was very friendly and once I put my helmet on, he let me go without trying to extract any money from me. Very nice fella, fair sized gun.
No comments:
Post a Comment