Wild Women's Weekend February 2009

Two new CouchSurfing friends and I decided to take off for a long weekend to the beach. I had been to Montezuma but Santa Teresa was new for me. Both are located near the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula on the Pacific coast.

Ellen was in charge of planning transportation, and I called around to find rooms. Getting there was part of the adventure. We took the bus from Santa Ana to San Jose, then 2.5-hour bus to Puntarenas where we were supposed to take the 2:30 ferry so we could meet yet another bus on the other shore. But in Puntarenas we found out the 2:30 bus had been delayed to 3:45, and we didn't think we'd be able to make the bus connection to arrive at our hotel that night. Uh oh, what to do?

We saw a couple of 20-something guys driving an SUV (surfboards on top), waiting for a ferry to a different port on the other side. Age emboldens, as this story shows. Ellen and I (59 and 58) went up to the guys (Ben and Jesse) and asked if the three of us could catch a ride with them from the port on the other side to a central town where we would be able to catch a bus to Montezuma, and arrive at our hotel that night. They agreed. Then we had to buy tickets for that ferry that was already starting to load. The ticket line was very long, and we didn't want to miss boarding with the guys, so I went to the front of the line and asked a cute young guy (in Spanish) if he would buy me three tickets. He did, and we all boarded the ferry.

Getting off the ferry, we set off in the SUV over one of the bumpiest dirt roads I have seen in Costa Rica, and I have seen many. Ben, the driver, thought it was an amusement ride, and we three women in the back were airborne for much of the ride. But we made it to Cobano a good 45 minutes before the bus would leave for Montezuma. Instead of waiting around, though, we splurged on a taxi and drove into Montezuma while it was still light.

Montezuma is a throwback to the old hippie days. You can get high just walking along the street, and street vendors sell jewelry, pipes and other paraphernalia. Our room at El Tajalin had three single beds and air conditioning, and we stayed for two nights.

On Friday, we hiked up the waterfall to a big watering hole where we spent the day swimming and lying in the sun. The water was fresh, clean and refreshing. The place was a melting pot, and I met people from all over. The couple from Kanab, Utah, was my favorite. Bobbi and Sky seemed to be really enjoying their retirement. There was a woman in her 40s from Germany who has been traveling for 1.5 years, making and selling jewelry along the way. Her mother was currently visiting her from Germany for two months. Martin, from British Columbia, dared to dive from the rocks (I found out later that people have been killed doing just that) and put on a show for the audience below. I thought I was watching a suicide until he surfaced. There was a young Canadian family with two little girls who made it up the waterfall. That was no easy feat. I was wearing my Tevas and developed three blisters from the hike, one on the bottom of my foot that burst and caused me to lay off walking for the next couple of days.

Saturday morning we took a van then a bus into Santa Teresa. This is becoming a world-famous surfing community, and rooms were hard to come by. We shared a room at Casa Zen for $10/person per night. Casa Zen had a Thai restaurant, but we ate most of our meals around the corner at a small soda called All Natural. They made delicious chicken curry, bacon and eggs, ceviche to order, and a fantastic banana mango smoothie. The food was cheap (about $4 per meal) and very satisfying.

The beach was at the end of the block. It was a surfing beach, but we could go in up to our waists and bodysurf. The waves crashed on us, but there wasn't a serious riptide to pull us out. The sand was fine and soft, and there were plenty of palm trees to provide shade from the hot sun. Life, indeed, was very good there.

Nancy, my CouchSurfing houseguest, hooked up with Charlie, a guy we met at the beach. Charlie is from the US and speaks Spanish. He was working at a call center in El Salvador when a family with two small children passed through town in an old converted school bus and invited him to be their nanny. He left the job, boarded the bus with only the clothes on his back, his passport and a book, and away they went to Costa Rica. It was love at first sight for Nancy and Charlie, so Ellen and I took off for home on Monday morning without her. Some women are a little wilder than others.