Posts From Costa Rica

Last night Norm paid a local man to sit guard over our vehicles throughout the night. I am not sure that this was necessary but he certainly carried out his part of the deal as he was still awake guarding us when we woke at 5:00 am this morning.

Apparently the monkeys made some noise over night - but I did not hear them.

The border crossing turned out to be quite straightforward though a little slow - details are given below in the camping section. Once into Costa Rica the road deteriorated into winding two lane black top with frequent large deep pot holes. The key task of drivers on this road is to avoid these holes - they would do serious damage.

We spent some time at a mall this morning getting another months supply of our various medications. All without prescription and for about the same price to us as in the USA - but with no insurance company contribution!!

Our goal today was to see some of the Pacific coast beaches of Costa Rica and see if we could understand what makes this country such a tourist attraction. Hence we headed south west from Liberia towards the Nicoya Peninsula. In turn we visited the beach towns of El Coco, Junquillal, and Samara. Along the way we had some navigational adventures and got to try the Tiger's 4x4 capabilities. One thing we discovered was that Costa Rican coastal minor roads become a quite interesting challenge during the wet season. The weather was grey and raining off and on all day so the beaches were not shown at their best. Even so we could see their attraction. The beach towns were humble, and a bit funky - or some would say with character - with generally low to mid budget accommodation. We did see some up market hotels and gated communities but these were away from the traditional towns on their own land.