this weekend my friend katie and i ventured to santa teresa, which is 
this small surf town on the nicoya peninsula near mal pais. i don't know if "ventured" even describes it---not only was it a whirlwind trip to get there and back but we crossed path with a few too many "interesting" travelers that made for quite a few laughs along the way! getting to the beach itself, we had to go on a bus for 2 hours to puntarenas, where our bus boarded a 1 hour ferry to paquera and then continued on land for 2 more hours to mal pais/santa teresa. the area with these towns are just one long road that runs parallel to the beach and stretches for probably 3-4 miles. i don't know if it's just because it's the dry season but the roads are incredibly dusty so walking, you get blasted with dirt from the cars and atv's so you constantly feel dirty and just coated with dust. and of course there are no buses that run in the area!the more we saw of the town, we realized this was surf central of costa rica. everyone was there strictly to surf. once we reached our hostel, we were confirmed of this by the owner who said it was true---everyone goes to bed early, 
gets up early and heads to the waves. the hostel scene is definately different--you realize it's a lot of people traveling on their own, doing their own thing and are joined together in this shared space to live for a few days- or weeks in some people's cases. we met some interesting people from all over the world...and people traveling for months at a time--a few people up to a year of traveling! imagine the expenses of a YEAR traveling?!
after getting settled, we walked a few minutes down one of the paths off the road and through a very jungle-esqe area and found a little piece of heaven :) the beach was absolutel
y beautiful---it's so secluded from everything, it stretches for miles and it is completely surrounded by nature- no restaurants or hotels really right on the beach, no vendors, no nothing- just beach. and because so many people go there just to surf, there are barely any sunbathers either so you feel like you have the beach to yourself. i guess that is a good thing, as my bathing suit top completely broke and fell to the ground one afternoon, revealing my top half to the beach for about 15 seconds---so embarassng but luckily not too many people were around to witness any of it!
gets up early and heads to the waves. the hostel scene is definately different--you realize it's a lot of people traveling on their own, doing their own thing and are joined together in this shared space to live for a few days- or weeks in some people's cases. we met some interesting people from all over the world...and people traveling for months at a time--a few people up to a year of traveling! imagine the expenses of a YEAR traveling?!after getting settled, we walked a few minutes down one of the paths off the road and through a very jungle-esqe area and found a little piece of heaven :) the beach was absolutel
y beautiful---it's so secluded from everything, it stretches for miles and it is completely surrounded by nature- no restaurants or hotels really right on the beach, no vendors, no nothing- just beach. and because so many people go there just to surf, there are barely any sunbathers either so you feel like you have the beach to yourself. i guess that is a good thing, as my bathing suit top completely broke and fell to the ground one afternoon, revealing my top half to the beach for about 15 seconds---so embarassng but luckily not too many people were around to witness any of it! we spent our wee
kend laying on the beach or occupying the hammocks hanging in the shaded trees at the hostel and really just relaxed. all this time i've spent traveling and laying on beaches, i've already read 6 books while i've been here! the beach was great and was the perfect place to "people watch"---one morning i was down there by 9am and the water was already packed with at least 80-100 people hoping to catch a few waves. 
kend laying on the beach or occupying the hammocks hanging in the shaded trees at the hostel and really just relaxed. all this time i've spent traveling and laying on beaches, i've already read 6 books while i've been here! the beach was great and was the perfect place to "people watch"---one morning i was down there by 9am and the water was already packed with at least 80-100 people hoping to catch a few waves. after spending the morning in
the sun sunday, we walked down the beach in serach of a bar--and a tv for the super bowl. after 2 different bars and no luck, we were finally led to the bar "good vibrations"--which i think had every american in a 10 mile radius squeezed into the bar, watching 1 of the 3 flat screens for the game. it was kind of fun being in this kind of scene... sitting on a beer crate in the outdoor patio area, surrounded by shirtless surfers and everyone in bathing suits--definately different from any other super bowl experience in massachusetts! it was kind of funny because all of us were so consumed by the football game that everyone failed to pay attention to the fact that it was an important day in costa rica as well---election day. on a sunday too, which i still find to be odd, but its been a big to do this past month with all kinds of campaigning and whatnot. but the day made history for the country, as the people elected their first woman pr
esident.
the sun sunday, we walked down the beach in serach of a bar--and a tv for the super bowl. after 2 different bars and no luck, we were finally led to the bar "good vibrations"--which i think had every american in a 10 mile radius squeezed into the bar, watching 1 of the 3 flat screens for the game. it was kind of fun being in this kind of scene... sitting on a beer crate in the outdoor patio area, surrounded by shirtless surfers and everyone in bathing suits--definately different from any other super bowl experience in massachusetts! it was kind of funny because all of us were so consumed by the football game that everyone failed to pay attention to the fact that it was an important day in costa rica as well---election day. on a sunday too, which i still find to be odd, but its been a big to do this past month with all kinds of campaigning and whatnot. but the day made history for the country, as the people elected their first woman pr
esident. we decided to leave the beach early monday morning and i guess it was a good thing we chose the 6am bus, rather than waiting around for the 2pm bus because we woke up to rain! rain?! what is this?! this was the first rain i'd seen since i've been in costa rica, how weird is that?
overall, a good weekend---still no surf lessons but it was a fun getaway to the beach!
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