28/07/2022 From Montezuma to Santa Teresa
Bye bye, Montezuma!
After checking out of our jungle lodge and walking over the hanging bridge above the trees one last time, we caught our shuttle to Santa Teresa. We met a nice German girl on the 30-minute-shuttle ride (us Germans are everywhere 😉!), who gave us some great tips for Santa Teresa.
What to expect
Santa Teresa
Santa Teresa is a small town in Puntarenas Province, Costa Rica. […] Today, tourism is the main source of income of most families, and the town hosts surf camps, yoga retreats, and both luxury and budget accommodations.”
wikipedia
Dreamcatcher Hotel Atrapasuenos
Our Atrapasuenos Hotel in Santa Teresa is right by the ocean and has a nice pool surrounded by palm trees.
We enjoyed the afternoon relaxing in the hammock in front of our room. In the evening we went out for dinner to a local restaurant (they are called “soda”), where we had fresh fish in coconut sauce.
29/07/2022 Santa Teresa
Watching our budget
The beauty about travelling is that you can be as spontaneous as you like. So this morning we decided to stay a third night in Santa Teresa.
Costa Rica is quite pricy. This is why we do have to watch our spendings here a little bit if we want the money to last for a whole year.
Casa Zen Guesthouse and Yoga Center
Therefore, we booked a different, slightly cheaper hotel, called Casa Zen Guesthouse, for the third night. It does have free breakfast included (for the following morning), so our backpacker hearts were happy. They were even happier (especially mine) when we went out for smoothie bowls at Anis for breakfast this morning.
Explore the town
Santa Teresa mainly exists of one long street filled with surf and yoga shops, cafés and restaurants.
Walk along the beach
After breakfast we walked back along the beach, watched some surfers, imagined to some day be as good as they are and relaxed at our pool in the afternoon.
Watch sunset
In the early evening we walked to the beach right behind our hotel to watch sunset. Unfortunately, Blake wasn’t feeling too well which I noticed on two factors:
1. He didn’t want to drink his sunset-beer and
2. He only finished half of his dinner!
He must have felt really bad! It might have been from the heat or from the million mosquito bites that we are already covered in or maybe he’s just not used to having me around 24/7 (hence his headache).
Either way, we took it slowly today and I’m hoping Blake will feel better tomorrow for another day in paradise.
30/07/2022 Santa Teresa
Rainy season
Costa Rica’s rainy season, also known as the green season, lasts from May to November. However, this doesn’t mean it’s raining all the time. It only means that it rains once or twice per day. We’ve been pretty lucky so far as it’s been sunny in the mornings, overcast in the afternoons and only rainy at night. Last night it rained so much with such loud thunder and such bright lightning that we even woke up from it.
Luckily, Blake was feeling much better in the next morning. So we did the one thing today that Santa Teresa is famous for: surfing.
Go surfing
When I spent one semester in Surfers Paradise in Australia in 2011-2012 (where I also met Blake for the first time), it was almost expected to have your own surfboard. So the other internationals and I all bought surfboards and pretended for a whole semester to be surfer dudes.
Since then, Blake and I try surfing every now and then, like in Bali in 2019, but let’s be honest: we’ll never become real surfers.
However, we always like to give it a go, so we rented a surfboard for the day and even caught a few (white-water) waves standing up. (Unfortunately, there is no proof so you just have to believe us.😉)
Eat a Costa Rican meal at a local “soda”
After watching sunset at the beach again and seeing an entire monkey family including monkey kids and all of their relatives cross the electrical wires, that are hanging above the road everywhere, we went out for dinner. We like going to the local “sodas”, where we had “casado” with fresh mahi-mahi fish that was caught on the same day.
A casado (Spanish, “married man”) is a Costa Rican meal using rice, black beans, plantains, salad, a tortilla, and an optional protein source such as chicken, beef, pork or fish.
wikipedia
Rent a scooter or ATV
It seemed as we were the only ones that always walked the long dirt road of Santa Teresa. Most of the others rented an ATV (= quad), which my friend and I also did here in 2018. It’s definitely a lot of fun!
Go to a jungle party
Yes, Santa Teresa is known for its parties and shockingly, we did not go out. Since Blake wasn’t feeling well the one day and we had to catch our shuttle to Tamarindo at 6.30 am the next day, we acted like grown ups for once and chose not to go out. It was definitely the wisest decision. Whether it was also the best decision, we are not so sure about.
Continue reading:
Hi Jana & Blake; It’s 10 minutes before ‘midnight’ as I ‘pen this’: and I have really enjoyed reading the ‘blog’, the two of you
Wrote above.. The two of you seem to have fitted-right-in to the lifestyle in Costa Rica ❤️
I miss the two of you; but ‘will look forward’ to following your blog & your experiences.
All is well here in Calgary; and will eagerly look forward to further blogs regarding your ongoing travels.
LOVE you both 💜
Dad
Thanks, Garry! We really enjoyed Costa Rica so far and it’s awesome you enjoyed reading about it, too :-)!
All the best
xxx
Jana