DECEMBER, 2004 & JANUARY, 2005
January 9 - 22, 2005
After one night in Montezuma, we got on the 10am bus to Mal Pais and Santa Teresa (about an hour away, just on the other side of the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula). There is not much in Mal Pais and Santa Teresa, except for some resorts, a small grocery store, a few restaurants and bars, Tabu Bar, and miles and miles of gorgeous white sand beaches stretching as far as one can see. Notwithstanding, although we had planned on spending only 2 or 3 days there, and then heading up North to Tamarindo, we got sucked into these two little beach communities for two weeks - they were just that relaxing, beautiful and fun. Had Pat and Stacy not showed up to travel with us for a few weeks about 8 days into to our stay, we may never have left.
We stayed at Frank's Place, which is located right at the junction of the two towns (Mal Pais stretches for a few miles to the South, or to the left, and Santa Teresa to the North, or to the right). Frank's has internet, a variety of lodging ranging from the semi-fancy to low budget, a restaurant, the only liquor store in town, an ice cream shop, the only ATM machine in the area (the next closest one is in Cobano, a tiny town about 30 minutes East of Mal Pais and Santa Teresa, on the way to the ferry in Paquera), a pool, Tito the bar-tender who makes great margaritas, Carlos the waiter, Adolfo and Grettel who work the front desk and who are awesome, and of course, Frank.
The first week we were in town, we stayed in this great little bungalow at Frank's, with our own bathroom, a fan, and a hammock on a great little porch for $28 a night. Given that most other places were charging $20 a night for a shared bathroom and not very nice accomodations, we were psyched. And, because the bungalow was connected with three others, all with their own hammocks and porches, we met our neighbors the same day we arrived. On our right, in Bungalow Three we had Eric and Marc from Seattle and on our left, we had Josh from Calgary.
Eric and Marc had been staying at the Surf Camp in Mal Pais for the past week and were tapped in to a great network of people and activities. Josh had spent the past two winters (January through May) in Mal Pais, renting surf bords, giving surf lessions, and selling t-shirts out of his bungalow at Frank's with his girlfriend Tara, and so he was completely dialed into where to eat and what to do, when and how much it should cost. And, he also hooked us up with some cool t-shirts, a great John Deere hat, and some surf boards.
Also staying at Frank's, in what we fondly referred to as the "Turkish Prison" - the budget option, costing $12 a person, whether you had a single or shared a room with 3 other people, and of course, a shared bathroom - were Jordan, from a small town outside of Calgary, Stephanie from Vancouver, JD, an Ocean Beach lifeguard, and the Swedes, Frederick and Simon.
We actually moved to the Turkish Prison for our second week at Frank's, since the bungalows were in high demand and were already reserved. Although sad to leave this great location, we had a decent table and hammock just in front of our new accommodations, which made for some supernumberonegoodtimes (as Josh was fond of saying!). Plus, we had two extra beds in our room, and since there were no other rooms available until that Thursday, this worked out just fine for when Pat and Stacy arrived Monday night. And, after sharing our room with us for three nights, these two got to move to the bungalows for a few nights, so they had that going for them.
Essentially, our days in Mal Pais/Santa Teresa were spent with this most excellent crew of people (and with Grettel and Adolfo from Frank's). Each day consisted pretty much of the following: we woke up anywhere from 8:30 am to 10:30 am, surfed for a few hours (well, Mike surfed, and Ruthie tried - most of the time she road on the board on her stomach and occasionally got up; Mike however caught the surfing bug), ate a yummy and cheap lunch, hung out by the pool for a few hours, or went on a long walk on the beach, or took a nap, studied Spanish or read a book, got back in the ocean again, or went on a run, ate a yummy dinner with the crew, and then either played poker (turns out Ruthie is ringer in Texas Hold 'em), went out dancing (Monday and Friday night were big nights at the beach bar at Tabu, and Wednesday night was open-mike night at Surf Camp), or built a big bonfire on the beach. It was awesome, and we were more relaxed than we had been in a really long time.
One day, we hitch-hiked with Josh and Stephanie in the back of a pick up truck, which turned out to be a garbage truck - needless to say we did not smell very good when we got out - to Montezuma, where we went on an easy, 45 minute jungle hike from a black sand beach to a pink sand beach to a white sand beach. It was really beautiful.
During our two weeks, we also had several excellent fish dinners on the beach. At our first such dinner, we were simply guests (there were about 30 of us), dining on fish that other folks had caught that afternoon and prepared that evening. We ate sushi, sushimi, and grilled fish, grilled on the open flames of the bonfire. Mike ate everything he could get his hands on, and somehow wrangled himself into being the official taster: for the two German cooks who would holler for the taster (aka Mike) every time a batch of grilled fish came off the fire; for Carlos who would holler for him every time he had rolled another roll of sushi (complete with ginger and wasabi); and, for James who would holler for him once had finished cutting up the sushimi. It was very funny, and of course, delicious!
Our two other beach bonfire fish dinners were the fruits of our own labor. We went deep sea fishing at sunset twice. The first time was with Eric and Mark. Although we had a blast, we did not catch very many fish. However, we did catch enough to have a yummy dinner of fish grilled on open flames over a beach bonfire, with the four of us, James and a few others. The second time we went with Pat and Stacy (who went with a broken foot - more on that below), Fernando, Frederick, JD, Jordan, Josh, and Tara. We had two boats, and between us, we caught 24 fish. We gave some to the fishermen, some to Walter, the night watchman at Franks, some to the folks staying at Frank's Turkish Prison, and took the rest to cook for dinner. We had a big bonfire with about 20 people, lots of delicious grilled fish with mango, pineapple, onions, tomatos, peppers and some other yummy spices, lots of beer, some Flor de Cana and Cuba Libras (rum and coke), which incidentally make for good seasoning.
Ruthie, the former vegetarian, who did not want to go fishing, ended up catching two fish on the first trip, and three on the second! On both trips, she made everyone throw back a fish or two, one of which was a beautiful blue/silver needle fish (with which Mike took a picture). However, the fishermen would not let her throw back the yellowfin or blackfin tuna or the amberjack - apparently they is good eatin'.
The other highlights of the trip included several visits to this great roasted chicken joint called Las Piedras in Santa Teresa. They grilled chicken on essentially a chain link fence - it was pretty crazy and really good. Mary's (in Mal Pais) fish tacos also are worth mentioning - they were grubbin! And, then there is Buenos Aires in Santa Teresa, behind the chicken joint, perched up on the hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Not only did it make for great sunsets, but it also had delicious food and great margaritas. Unfortunately, on our second trip to Buenos Aires (we went again so Stacy and Pat could see the sunset from this most excellent vantage point), Stacy fell down the steep and ragged staircase on the shortcut side of the entrance to the restaurant on our way home, and yes, broke her foot. Well, we did not know it was broken the first night, we just suspected it, but the next day and night, after a trip to the clinic in Cobano and the hospital in Puntarenas, the xray confirmed it was broken and Stacy returned with a cast. However, since neither the hospital nor the clinic had crutches, she hopped around like a trooper for about a week, until we were able to track some down for her (more on that saga later!).
