playa samara

this weekend brought me to the pacific coast to a little beach town called samara. i went with two friends i have made here- kristy and katie. our journey began leaving san jose thursday night in order to maximize our beach time. the trip takes 4-5 hours so we figured arrive late thursday to have all day friday in the sun. we got a little turned around from a map we had looked at in the morning and walked about 30 minutes out of our way, only to later find that our hotel was literally right across from the beach.

friday we headed out early to make the most of the day. the beach was amazing. not very crowded and not a lot of tourists. the fact that it is a "locals" beach makes it that much more of a real costa rican experience. we had private beach access from our hotel, which was VERY nice and the hotel offered beach chairs and towels as well so that made life easy for us. friday night brought us to a little bar on the beach, recommended to me by my friend anne who has also been traveling down here in the past few months. friday night is reggae night at tabanuco and there was a live band that we really enjoyed listening to. it made me realize how much i miss all the live music from home---most places i've been to down here are with dj's and ridiculous spanish techno music that i don't enjoy so much so it was great to see some live music and reggae was just what i needed to hear! the whole "pura vida" mindset down here is exactly like a reggae song...life is good, sit back, relax and enjoy!

saturday was another day in the sun. kristy and i were hoping to take surf lessons, but when we asked around we found that many places weren't offering lessons because of a surf competition/fundraiser that was going on in the afternoon. unfortunately the waves never got that big for the competition and we still missed out on learning to surf at what is said to be one of the best beaches to learn. oh well....plenty more time and beaches to try!

sunday morning, before getting on the bus back to san jose, kristy and i went horseback riding along the beach and into the mountains. we had a great time, enjoying some beautiful scenery and catching glimpses of monkeys, iguanas, and lots of birds.

truly a geat weekend and a nice little taste of the costa rican way of life!