adios and vaya con dios

I can't believe we haven't yet written about the bakery that is about 40 yards from our apartment. The Green Iguana is a small grocery store and bakery, and I swear I am not exaggerating when I say that we went there on average twice a day for the last month. We bought groceries and such as well as pastries for desert multiple times a day. The place seemed to be family owned, and although no one there spoke any English we felt we had an unspoken bond with the young pastry chef. He did give Matt a fist pound one Saturday evening. Although Matt believed their friendship had been cemented; I think the normally shy culinary artist had been drinking heavily on this occasion. 

One afternoon Matt went up to the store by himself, and when he returned he told me that there seemed to be some commotion at the Green Iguana. Several additional bakers were present and there seemed to be an increased energy level about the place. Matt expected big things and insisted that we return to check it out later that evening. After dinner, we strolled on up to the store, and indeed we saw something new - a huge cake looking creation still in the pan. "What is this?" I said (in Spanish). "Tres Leches," the guy replied. "Is it ready?" I said. He said that it was ready. "How much does it cost?" I asked. "No se; es una prueba" (I don't know it's a test). After consulting with the higher ups, the guy charged us 900 colones for a huge slice (less than 2 dollars). Although the tres leches was a bit pricier than any of the other treats, we deemed it a successful prueba for the Green Iguana.

I have to admit, however that the Green Iguana is not the best bakery in Samara (though Matt's loyalty to the his pastry chef buddy might prevent him from agreeing with me). There is another bakery downtown (about half a mile away) that has a better selection including huge chicken stuffed empanandas and by far the best doughnut I have ever eaten. Everything at Las Delicias is spot on, which I think might have something to do with the fact that the food is prepared by a middle aged women rather than teenaged boys (see picture above). Since the portions were notably bigger at this establishment, it's probably in everyone's best interest that it wasn't right around the corner from our place.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was our last full day in Samara. Monday and Tuesday we had our best surfing days yet. The waves were huge, but broke maybe fifty yards off shore, which meant that we could catch the whitewater and still have a really long ride. Surfing is really so much fun when it's going well, and I hope I can make some trips to Folley Beach this summer and catch some waves there. We hit up all our favorite locales for our last day. Pablitos is a bar next door to the Green Iguana. If you order a beer, you get a free cup of delicious stew, all for $2. I wanted to take a picture, but the place was pretty busy, and we didn't want to be the silly gringo tourists snapping cheesy photos. Next we had dinner at La Perla, another small family run place on our side of town that doesn't get frequented by tourists. Costa Rican food is pretty basic - black beans, rice and some sort of meat or fish and a surprise side which could be anything from friend plantains to macaroni salad. The price at La Perla is right, and there's a nice ambience as La Perla (yes I know that means pearl, but I don't know the name of the woman that runs the place) seems to feed any Tico that happens to wander in, making the place feel like a community gathering spot.

Made it to San Jose this evening and are staying in luxury at the Hampton Inn tonight before our flight tomorrow. It's been an awesome month, and I enjoyed the blogging too. Hope to see you all stateside very soon.

Road Trip Numero Dos

On Friday, Lauren and I took off in our newly-rented Toyota Rav4 for a weekend of hiking, waterfalling and sunsets.  Our first destination was the Tenorio Volcano National Park (see the attached video), which is just under a three hour drive from our apartment in Samara.  Now, most people might pack a light snack or small lunch for such a venture, but Lauren and I are not most people.  In the 3-hour drive, we each consumed a peanut-and-jelly sandwich, along with a cheesy chicken empenada and a wonderful cinnamon donut-like pastry (both of which were purchased at one of the Samara bakeries)...just stocking up for the hike though, right?

We hiked about a mile in once we got to Tenorio and were welcomed by an amazing aqua-blue waterfall (see the pictures).  Lauren learned from her tour book that the chemicals from the volcano are what give the water its surreal color.  

After Tenorio, the Rav4 rumbled on down the road and we hit up another waterfall (more pictures) before settling into Liberia for the night.  

Saturday morning, we got an early start on our way up to Rincon de la Vieja National Park, which is about 45 minutes north of Liberia.  The hike to the waterfall inside of Rincon was a little more strenuous than Friday's - about 6.2 miles round trip with a lot of ups and downs.  The waterfall at the end was pretty stunning, and we both got in and took a dip (pictures below of course).  We really lucked out with the weather on this hike, as it was nice and cool under the canopy of the lush forest.

From Rincon, we headed west and ended up in a quaint little beach town called Playa Brasilito.  Brasilito is located just 6 kilometers from the town of Playa Flamingo, which is where Lauren lived for a month following her Paladin days.  We stayed at the esteemed Hotel Brasilito, a cute establishment that is situated about 50 feet from the ocean.  Lauren and I went on a nice long walk, took a dip in the Pacific and then celebrated our first Costa Rican sunset in style with a pina colada that was accompanied by an umbrella, cherry and a piece of pineapple.

Sunday we explored three more beaches that were close to Brasilito before returning home to Samara for our last few days here.

It was a great weekend and luckily we have lots of pictures and videos to share.

El Rodeo

Last night we had the privilege of attending a local rodeo. I have never been to a rodeo before, so I don't really have any frame of reference against which to compare the Costan Rican version, but I can assure you that what we witnessed yesterday evening was a cultural event. The rodeo was held in nearby Playa Carillo. Since we are in a rural area, the event seemed to draw most of the local population, and we recognized several people from our neck of the woods in Samara. Matt and I estimated that there were probably about four hundred people in attendance. Along with two guys from Oregon that live in our complex, we caught a cab in downtown Samara (wrongly assuming that cabs would be waiting outside the rodeo at its completion to return us to Samara). We were delivered to the rodeo shortly before the 5pm scheduled start time. We immediately realized how foolish we were to assume that the event might start punctually, but we got to enjoy some very good and exceptionally cheap Costa Rican style stadium food while we waited for the action to start. 

The rodeo consisted of twelve participants each riding a bull. Most managed to stay on for longer than what I've seen in rodeos flipping through the channels on TV. It seems that the Costa Rican bulls aren't quite as virile as American bulls. The most unique thing about Costa Rican rodeo, however is that anyone from the audience who wants to jump down into the ring can do so at anytime. As the spectators got more and more liquored up over the course of the evening, more Ticos would get into the action by running around and taunting the bulls, and at times I thought that we were sure to see one of these guys get punctured by a bull horn. It took a bit of finagling for us to secure a ride back to Samara, but we made it home before midnight. I can't say that I've developed a new passion for rodeo, or that I plan to attend any more in the future, but last night was certainly one of the more entertaining evenings I've spent. 

I've attached a video of one bull rider and some participatory spectators below, as well as some pictures that we took around Samara. 

Under the colorful unbrella on the right is where our beloved street vendor creates his delectable meaty treats

Us vs. The Calf

As Lauren mentioned in one of our first posts, there is a large pasture between our condo and the beach that houses a plethora of horses and cows.  Up until yesterday, we were able to walk through the pasture on a footpath straight to the ocean (we learned this route by watching a large group of ticos meander through two Sundays ago).  However, the owner of the land has since A) grown tired of ticos and gringos walking through his big yard, or B) grown tired of his horses and cows walking aimlessly through the street.  Whatever the reason, yesterday he closed in the openings in his fence and now we can no longer use this short-cut.

Ah, but I am digressing…

Anywho, back in the days when we could walk through the pasture to the beach – last Thursday to be specific – we were met by the vicious moo’s from a baby cow.  The little guy had positioned himself on the footpath, and as we continued to approach him he continued to get louder.  Luckily, I was able to respond with a series of cow noises myself (to Lauren’s dismay), and the baby cow eventually sauntered off with his shoulders hunched over in defeat.  I was beaming with pride after backing down this young calf in such a dramatic fashion.  It was just a small victory for Lauren and me, but definitely a giant win for mankind.

I made a wonderful discovery last week on the “snack front” – just off the main street running into the ocean I spotted a rainbow umbrella with a cooler and small grill beneath it.  From my time in Thailand, I immediately knew that this could only mean one thing – Meat-On-A-Stick.  For merely two dollars, you can choose either grilled pork or chicken (both have been marinated to perfection in my opinion), which the “grill master” heats up and hands over with a tortilla to go (on a stick of course).  Lauren and I have gotten ourselves into a glorious routine of eating one these meaty snacks on the beach around 2pm nearly every day…finally, our afternoons have meaning.

Our condo here is really great – swimming pool, nice kitchen, hot shower, etc.  There is a running joke between us and some of the other travelers staying here that we aren’t exactly “roughing it”.  However, I would like to mention that in Costa Rica (as in Thailand), you cannot flush paper down the toilet.  No matter how spoiled I might be feeling with our digs here in Samara, I am reminded every morning (about 9am to be exact) that we are “roughing it” just a little bit.

Our favorite Costa Rican cheese that comes in an efficiently packaged ball

Me napping on the beach that used to be owned by Mel Gibson.  This is SO "Lethal Weapon" of me...

I saw this colorful crab and took its picture...little did I know, I would see millions more around our place.

Big waterfall in Montezuma that I jumped into (there is a video)

We are at the top of another waterfall in Montezuma - it was a five-mile hike along the beach to get here, and it felt like we were at the end of the world overlooking the ocean from this high cliff (it's a lot higher than it looks in this pic)

Same cliff & waterfall as above

road trip

This weekend, Matt and I traveled to the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula to the tiny beach town of Montezuma. We rented a small four wheel drive vehicle for this journey, which was about a four and a half hour drive from our home in Samara. Although most of the drive was smooth sailing, there was a 25 kilometer stretch of deeply rutted, extremely mountainous, dirt road strewn with loose gravel and sand that took us an hour to travel each way. Since guard rails aren't common in Costa Rica, I felt pretty sure that we were going to plummet over the edge at any moment. Other than these hazards, the drive was really pretty, as we traversed green pastures and scenic farmland and enjoyed frequent views of the Gulf of Nicoya, and I have to give props to Matt for skilled and cautious driving.

Montezuma is an interesting little town. It's a lot smaller than Samara, not even a stop sign, and it's literally the end of the road on the southeastern side of the peninsuala. The town seems to be populated by an equal mix of Ticos, hippies and Europeans, a combination which makes for some good people-watching. We spent most of Saturday on two hikes. The first was a short walk through the woods to a waterfall above the town. It was everything that you'd imagine a tropical waterfall to be with a deep swimming hole beneath and cliffs for jumping off.

Second we went on a much longer hike along the beach. I read that there was another waterfall about five miles north of Montezuma, only accesible by walking along the coast. No roads access the beach north of town, and we walked for miles along totally deserted coastline. I must concede that the "waterfall" -  a mere trickle - was a bit anticlimatic. However, we climbed up on the cliff above the falls and had some pretty spectacular views.

I feel like I have to acknolwedge that there was a really disturbing amount of trash along this undeveloped coast. Although there seems to be a generally casual attitude about littering in Costa Rica, this trash clearly washed in from the ocean. I guess it must be something about the currents in that area because in addition to trash, there were huge amounts of wood that also had washed up on the shore. Anyway, the garbage was gross and it definitely saddens me to think about how poorly we as a society treat our oceans. 

All in all though, an awesome weekend trip. At the same time, Samara feels like home now, and I'm excited to resume our routine tomorrow of surfing, reading and walking on the beach.

Swimming with Mel Gibson

I'm sipping on a lukewarm "Bamboo" as I post this, so please excuse any typos (Bamboo is a canned local beverage of rum & coke - meant more for the Lauren's of the world than the Matt's).

Yesterday we made a 12-mile round-trip trek to Playa Barrigona, which rumor has it, used to be owned by Mel Gibson.  We didn't see any signs of Mel (or Danny Glover for that matter), but it was a nice spot for some peanut-butter and honey sandwiches (and a 30-minute siesta for yours truly).

The walk to Playa Barrigona was SUPER rural, and Lauren and I saw a plethora of Howler Monkeys (one of which had an extremely low-hanging pair of cojones).  It should also be noted that we are the only non-ticos embarking on these long day walks.   We are not consuming many snacks in between meals, and I mentioned to Lauren yesterday that I felt like I was at some sort of Fat Camp. 

The greatest discoveries (thus far) in the "eating department" are Lizano Salsa and La Lechera Flakes.  The Salsa is sort of like a tangy salsa verde, and it goes on just about everything we eat (hard-boiled eggs, tortillas, toast, etc).  La Lechera Flakes are quite possibly the greatest cereal ever created, and as an avid cereal-lover, I'm going to have to find a supplier in the USA.  They are basically cereal flakes coated in sweetened condensed milk, and Tony el Tigre would definitely exclaim "Suuuu Gran!".

In closing, I was awoken this morning around 5:00AM by a chorus of Howler Monkeys.  If this is a regular occurence, than I can see why these loud primates are now listed as endangered (just kidding).

Sweaty, With a Chance of Meatballs

Just a quick note to let you all know that we haven't abandoned the blogging. Not too much to report from the last two days...been doing some surfing, some reading and some walking on the beach. We are getting better with the surfing. We're standing up consistently on a 9 foot board now. I guess the next step is move to a shorter board, but I'm not exactly sure. 

Last night we got invited to dinner by our Canadian neighbor. He's getting ready to leave Samara to return to Canada for the summer and wanted to get rid of all the meat in his fridge. He made pasta (which he pronounces with a short "a" sound like "can" - causing much confusion for us southerners) with bratwurst, steak, bacon, black forest ham and chicken - in other words, a heart attack in a sauce.  Matt's efforts over the past 15 months to reduce meat in his diet were all but negated in one 20-minute gorging. It was surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) quite tasty. The pasta might have been seasoned with a bit of sweat as well, as I have rarely seen someone sweating as profusely as this guy was as he cooked and ate shirtless. Not only can our new Canadian friend cook (and cool himself efficiently), he also tells some pretty entertaining stories. The only downside is that he never stops talking for barely a breath, so things will be a bit more peaceful after his departure on Wednesday.

New Beach

Today, Lauren and I decided to check out a neighboring beach (Playa Carillo) that was roughly five miles south from our home base (Playa Samara).  In true Swiss Miss fashion, we turned our noses up at the available bike and car rentals and decided to hoof it.  It wasn't the 10-mile round trip distance of the walk that was challenging, but more the 90+ degree weather and 100% humidity that wore on us. 

In hindsight, a bike rental might have the cooler option - but we did earn some major toughness points from our condominium neighbors when they learned that we visited Carillo by foot.  A Canadian expat was particularly astonished that we chose to walk it, until I replied that my girlfriend had walked from Mexico to his country just last summer.

Playa Carillo was really beautiful (see pictures below) - much more secluded and less developed than around our beach - which is really saying something considering we are located in a fairly remote area of the country.

Later in the afternoon we gave surfing another try, and we both stood up several times.  It should be noted that we are easily the tallest surfers on the beach, and surfing seems to be a sport where height is somewhat of a disadvantage (with the long legs and all).

We just polished off a wonderful home-cooked dinner of hot dogs and frijoles negros - kind of an "American meets Costa Rican" explosion.

Other than that, another great day down here with the best travel buddy ever.

After a cheese puff and lemon-sugar-bread binge, Matt passes out

first entry

So, Matt and I made it to Samara. The first day was a bit eventful. We arrived in San Jose around midnight and our bus left at 8:30am the next day so we decided to stay overnight in the airport. It wasn't a horrible night, but not the best sleep either. We took the interbus to Samara which is about a five hour drive from San Jose. Our apartment, the town, and the beach that is less than 300 yards across a horse pasture from our place are all awesome. However, soon after arrival, we thought we were on the verge of a crisis because the internet seemed not to work at our complex. As most of you know, Matt has to access the internet to be able to tutor the Koreans in the morning. Luckily an Italian IT guy came to the rescue; the crisis was aborted, and Matt was able to communicate with the far east this morning. The only other hiccup here is that apparently in Costa Rica, pin numbers that begin with a zero are invalid. As you may have guessed, mine begins with a zero. I was unsuccessful in my attempts to change my pin - apparently you can't change your pin number from abroad for security reasons. Luckily I can still use my credit card and borrow cash from Matt as needed.


Those issues aside, things are lovely here. I'm really glad we chose to spend our time in Samara b/c it's the perfect mix of a rural, small-town atmosphere along with having all the services we could want. We took a surfing lesson this afternoon. While I would say it was less than successful, we get free use of surfboards for the next seven days with our $25 lesson. This is an amazing deal compared to most places down here, and hopefully with seven days of practice we'll be a bit more competent in a week.


One thing I remember about Costa Rica from my 2004 trip is that it gets dark really early here - perfect for my love of early bed times. I'll be hitting the hay here shortly. Matt is insisting that he add some details, so I'll turn the computer over to him now...

Apparently we are genderizing our text fonts in CR, thus why Lauren designated me to this manly blue font.

The only complaint that I have thus far is that I have not seen one single monkey.  The person that we rented this condo from went on and on in her descriptive emails to us prior to the trip about how much she enjoyed watching the monkeys gallivant and play in the trees while sitting by the pool.  For one reason or another, I have yet to spot a primate - hopefully I can rectify this by tomorrow evening (small goals).