Costa Rica Sunset

The Best of CR

Manuel Antonio

This was my favorite place in Costa Rica to go for a beach trip. It has a beautiful beach and nearby Quepos has the nightlife. It`s about 2 1/2 hours from San Jose by car. The beach is perfect, and the sunset is amazing . The sand is white and the water clear. The public beach is half-moon shaped and usually the busiest. The National Park has an entrance fee and therefore is less crowded.

The beach is about 2km from Quepos, a small port town. Quepos is more local style. The tourists usually stay at some nicer hotels on the mtn/jungle path that runs between M.A. and Quepos. These places are nice and offer resort amenities, however, we were locals and did it the lcoal way. Besides, once it got dark, Quepos is the place to be....except on friday or saturday nights. Then, there is a club/diso on the beach that stays open all night. The parties are great, Que Rica!!!

Monteverde

Translated as `the green mountain`, this is one of the best places for environmentalists. There are many animals that are unique to this rain forest. Most people go for the bird-watching, jungle hikes and canopy tours. The canopy tour is one of the coolest things I`ve ever done. You swing from one mountain to the next (about 1km) while holding onto a zip line. It`s pretty exciting, and one of the best views ever. Imagine being hundreds of feet above a rain forest flying around 30mph only holding on to handlebars. Pretty amazing stuff.

Santa Elena is the nearest town. It is very small and very environmentally friendly. It has a few small hotels and a high school that is dedicated to nature conservation.

Tamarindo

This is the idyllic surf town that many people imagine when they think of CR. It has recently been developed by the big name hotel chains, but still is a small local village. The beaches are nice and the atmosphere relaxed. On the local beaches there are plenty of good waves but the best surfers boat out to other points like Witches Rock or Ollie`s Point (named after Oliver North- he set up a spy camp near here because of its proximity to Nicaragua). If surfing is the reason you are in Costa Rica, then this is the place for you.

Nosara

Nosara is a hideaway. It is located in the same vicinity as Tamarindo, but much less touristy. It holds an expatriate community that live here year-round or at least for a large part of the year. Also, there is a yoga school that populates this small town for several months throughout the year. There are a couple of small tourist hotels but they mostly serve return visitors or long-stays. I stayed here for a few weeks, and it was rare to see anyone other than the handful of local expats.

Quiet and secluded, the town is spread out over a 7km long beach. On an average day, you`ll probably see 5 people on the beach. Every building is surrounded by about a city block of jungle, at least. A regular walk will take you past monkeys, iguanas, and many other animals. I even had a family of monkeys that lived outside my bungalow. Add to that the yoga school and the great waves and this is the best retreat I can imagine.

My day was something like this: wake up at 7am, go to yoga class, get a pastry at the french bakery, go surfing, take a nap, go surfing, take a nap, read a book, go to the beach bar (the only bar) have dinner and a few beers, and do it again the next day. What a life!

Totruguero

This is the most unique place that I`ve been. It is a town that is completely unconnected by land. There are only waterways. However, the waterways are very narrow and in some places shallow, so you can`t take a regular boat into town. You must use a small canoe-like boat. After loading onto the canoe, you trust your guide to navigate through the marsh. The tree branches hang low, the muddy banks are narrow and who knows what lives in the water.

After your journey through the waterways, you come out into a lake. It is beautiful. Inside the lake there are regular boats that can take you around the town. It looks like a great place for swimming or waterskiing etc, but the water is inhabited by many different species of animals, including sharks, crocodiles, pirahnas etc.

The actual town is a small island-like area. There is a walking path through the middle of it. Some people use bicycles, but there are no motorized vehicle of any kind. The only other mode of transportation is a boat. Every house, hotel, business etc. has a small dock out back.

There is virtually no entertainment in the town, the town itself is the reason to visit. We spent a couple of days there and it was a great place to relax and enjoy the isolation.


Puerto Viejo

This is the Carribean. Costa Rica has two coasts, both Pacific and Atlantic. While most of CR has the pacific lifestyle, the east coast is no different from any other Carribean port area. Reggae music and ganja smoke fill the air. Once in the town, you forget that you are in Costa Rica. A combination of english, spanish and some other unknown dialect is spoken, making it very difficult to communicate with any of the locals. This is a great place to see, but the shady characters that roam the streets give it the edge that one becomes unnacustomed to in the safe CR.

The beach is nice, and surf is dangerous. There is coral reef that lines the beach and only the best (or craziest) dare to surf there; a helmet is a must. This is a locals only place, you must be a regular to be allowed out. I once saw a group of locals physically stop a guy from surfing. If you are a surfer, I suggest you find some other beach in the area or stay and watch the regulars, you`re sure to see a good show (and maybe some blood).

El Pueblo

If you go to San Jose, you must go to El Pueblo. It is home to around 10 bars. The bars are open every night, all night. each night one bar has some special event, and around 2am, it is always hopping. It may not be the 1st place you go, but it`ll almost always be the last. There are many small food stalls and open areas to take a break from the dancing. Pero, el razon para ir Al Pueblo es la musica y las mujeres. I spent many nights here y te amo el pueblo.

The Beginning

Our original plan was to get to Costa Rica and then make any decisions like where to live, what to do, how long to stay etc.

First, we wanted to chill and see the city and take a few trips around the country to see what there was. The first weekend we headed off to Tamarindo. There was a surf tournament and concert. It was a crazy welcoming to the country.

The next few weeks we hung out in San Jose at Eric`s. We were waiting for a job to open up at the sports book where Eric worked. In the meantime, we studied our spanish. Although we all took years of classes, none of us could put a sentence together or hold any form of conversation. Luckily, next door to Eric lived 2 Colombianas that also didn`t have a job and couldn`t speak a word of english. After a few weeks of working on our communication skills and getting accustomed to the tranquilo way of life, we got a job as bookies at Eric`s company.

Around this time, Joel realized he wasn`t cut out for this kind of life, so he headed home. Craig and I got settled in with our jobs. Our spanish was picking up and we were feeling comfortable in this new country.

Bookies

The biggest customers still have an agent and work on credit. The agent establishes a line of credit (around $500,000 a week for the big players and $10,000 for regular players). The players can play about $5,000 a game and bet as they wish as long as they don`t go over their credit limit. Then at the end of the week the player settles with his agent and starts clear. The agent business is still illegal in the US but the company is legit in CR.

The lines basically follow the Vegas lines because if there is a big difference in lines then the companies can get 'middled' and it bacomes a risk free bet for the customers. The book can move the lines slightly based on where the weight is (smart players money). Some of the big players are very good and can win about 65% of the time (you must win 55% of the time to break even because of the 'juice' or extra money you pay when you lose). I`m guessing that most big players are working regular jobs, its amazing to think about the consequences of just one bad week.

The small players usually wire some money via western union and then play on that deposit. This is considered free money by the company because most players will play until the money runs out.

It was a pretty fun experience, I learned a lot about the sports gambling world. One thing is that the experts are really good at predicting the score and margin, and another is that there are many very strange occurances that keep the scores within the experts predictions (missed field goals or free throws at the end of a game, extra fouls called with the game virtually over, etc).

and...When I realized how much money is being played I couldn`t believe it. We were a relatively small company and millions of dollars came through on any given day. Can you imagine playing one bet for 5,000$, how about 10 a day, everyday? There are thousands of players doing just that, and probably not earning enough in a year from their regular job to pay for the losses of 2-3 days.

La Casa de Tibas

After a couple of weeks, Yahaira (our amigueta primero) hooked us up with a house to live in (She also hooked us up with a cell phone, a near impossible thing to get in CR). Her father had a rental in the same neighborhood that she lived in. It was called Tibas. I`m sure we were the only gringos within miles, most stayed in the neighborhood of the embassies where Eric lived.

The 3 bedroom house was completely bare and without any appliances except a small stove. We each bought a mattress for the floor of our room and we bought a hard wood couch for the living room, and that was it (it made for great late night soccer matches). We didn`t have a fridge, so every morning we`d walk down to the market (3 houses down) and pick up milk for cereal. At night we`d have the infamous arroz, maiz y atun.

We did our washing by hand until we found a lady who`d do it for us. She charged about 1$ for as much as we could pile into 1 laundry bag. This was a bargain even in CR, but she thought we were the funniest things ever (I`m sure she never had any interaction with gringos before).

Our shower was just a hole sticking out of the wall in the bathroom, which only put out cold water. At first this was a shock, but after a while I found it quite refreshing.

When we moved into the house the yard was bare. However, after a few months the grass grew to be taller than us, then doubled over and grew again to be overhead. If it was straight it`d have been about 12 ft tall. We were the only ones in the neighborhood that didn`t keep our yard up, so one day we decided to buy machetes and cut the grass like the locals. We tucked our pants into our jeans (scared of what might be in the grass) and went outside hacking away. After about an hour and almost nothing accomplished, the construction workers down the street came over and offered their service. Thinking it`d be expensive, we declined. The man asked for about 5$, so we jumped at that, laughing because he hadn`t seen the backyard yet. About 15 minutes later he had finished the front and backyard and piled it all in a corner. I think we need some practice with those machetes.

All houses in Costa Rica are like jails. There are about 4 gates you must get through in order to get into a house. Ours was no exception. We first had the carport gate to get into, then a cage outer gate and the wood door and finally the inner cage gate. It was a hassle but necessary. Costa Rica is a very safe country, but the poor will break into a house or car if they see something worth taking. However, if there is any deterrent then they`ll leave it alone.

One other safety feature was the neighborhood watchman. Every block had a small shack where a watchman would sit. He had a baton and would walk around occasionally and basically keep watch over the street. They were paid by tips and usually there were only 2 guys that rotated shifts. They worked 7 days a week and 12 hours a day. We paid them about 25$ a month, if you add up all the houses on our street and divide it by the 2 workers, they probably made around 250$ a month each.

There were also watchmen for the cars at bars, restaurants, supermarkets etc. They each had their space that they somehow claimed and received about .50c tip from each car. If we were the last ones out of the bar the watchman would be sleeping on the hood and graciously take the small tip we gave him. Since there is no violence in CR, a skinny man with a baton is all the protection you need.

Guatemala Border

Isla Mujeres

Mayan Pyramids, Yucatan

The Trip Down

I went to Costa Rica in February 2002 with Craig and Joel. We basically decided to take a trip and see what happened. We knew a guy (Eric) that lived down there. He invited us down for as long as we wanted. We planned to fly down. Then, Eric said that a car would be a good thing to have, also some friends that we had met in Thailand were going to be in Cancun about the same time we'd be leaving. So.... we were driving.

It took 7 days to get down to Cancun. We happened to arrive during
Canada's Spring Break. Upon arriving we got an email from a friend in LA saying that he had just won the lottery. The girls we were meeting were on Isla Mujeres, a small island about 20 minutes away. We waited for Mike for 3 days, and took advantage of spring break. We never saw the sun. Mike came, we went out one more time in Cancun then headed to the island for a few days of relaxation with our friends. It was great, I didn't want to leave that place.
by the way... Mike met a girl on the island whom he is engaged to and living with in Minnesota
It took us 7 more days to get down to Costa Rica after driving through Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. The drive was quite an experience.

All in all the trip was 3 weeks. We saw the barren desert of northern Mexico, bribed the 16 year old federalies with Playboys, circled around Mexico City 3x before finding our way out, saw some Mayan ruins on the Yucatan, partied in Cancun, chilled in Isla Mujeres, got stuck and slept at the borders of El Salvador and Honduras, got stopped by the police in Nicaragua city, had our car breakdown numerous times but we finally made it to Costa Rica in one piece.
What a trip!!!!

Map of Costa Rica