Then imagine our surprise when we looked over and saw this
The “penthouse” really was just a small room that wasn’t even that nice. We were disappointed to say the least and felt like we were getting robbed. So we called the front desk and said it wasn’t going to be acceptable. All we heard even with the door closed was the construction noise. We grabbed our stuff and hightailed it out of there. We went to our initial first choice hotel but if we stayed the whole time we would have to change rooms half way through. After the last hotel disaster we decided we only wanted to stay one night and then we would decide. So the hotel was nothing like the brochure and it was so far removed from everything. If we needed to take a taxi off site it was 20 dollars each way. We weren’t in “Nayara” anymore. It was a very small world...... we ended up running into a bunch of people that stayed at our hotel 5 hours away.
After a sub par dinner we went back to our room and noticed that the sliding glass door was open. Andrew swore he shut and locked it. I thought to myself yeah right and then I saw a raccoon climb off of our second story balcony. When we checked in we were told that they no longer keep any food in the mini bar on the balcony due to the raccoons. We chuckled but thought nothing of it. I kept thinking to myself I can’t believe Andrew would blame the innocent raccoons for opening the door when he just probably forgot to shut it. We woke up the next morning to see that the raccoons did come into our looked room, climbed onto our bed where I had left our protein bars, granola bars and various candy and feasted upon it on the balcony. All 30 wrappers were proof! I can’t believe how much of a nuisance they are and to think the day before I called them cute. This was the view from our hotel room.
While we were there we went to the Manuel Antonio national park. We decided to make the 30 minute trek across the beach and made our way into the park.
Our mission was to see monkeys and that is exactly what we saw. We were told not to hire a guide and just make the walk ourselves. We ran into a New Yorker and we followed him through the park where he told us a little bit about what we were seeing. We split ways when we got to the lagoon and he told us that there was a nice path that would take us to the other side of the beach and it was only a half hour or so. So we made the hike in our hiking gear aka flip flops.
And climbed through the forest and looked at amazing views.
Of course we didn’t bring any water and kept counting the minutes till we would get back to our beach and head back to our hotel. We finally completed the hike just to realize that the view looked awfully familiar. Yup we were at the exact same spot we started......we just went in a big circle.
We weren’t really digging our hotel and decided to move on after one night and head to the town of Jaco. According to our guide book Jaco was known for its surfing and prostitution. That sounded right up our alley! Not really but by this point we were really looking for more things to do. We love nature all right but only for a day or so. We were searching hotels via the internet but decided just to go for a Marriot. We were so disappointed by the previous 2 that we figured just go with something you know. We found a really nice package and decided to make our way to Jaco. At this point it was getting expensive to taxi our indecisive minds around so we decided to rent a car. Yes......A car in Costa Rica! Of course when we picked up the car it was in a monsoon. Andrew has driven a stick in the past but it was really long time ago. He told me it was just like "riding a bike".....you never forget once you learn. I never realized "bikes" stalled. Ha ha ha ha. The roads by the Pacific ocean were much better than they were in la Fortuna. It was nice being able to explore town at our own pace. When people asked us why we didn’t rent a car originally we said, “we just got married and want to stay married.”
The Marriot was very nice. It was a huge resort and after having lots of more intimate hotels this is what we were looking for. The grounds were heavenly.
We stumbled upon a really cool surf shop and signed up for lessons. We were told to leave all of our stuff because it is very common for things to be stolen off the beach. Jaco is known more of the experienced surfers so we drove down to Playa Hermosa. After a little surf 101 we headed out to the water. We both were able to get up on our second try. It was amazing and such an adrenaline rush. All I could think about was how I wanted to do it every single day. Our two hour lesson flew by. The water was really rough and our teacher said we did quite well considering the condition. After surfing we were STARVING and we asked where a good local place was. They recommended a little bar right on the water. We sat down and ordered the fish taco. I have never in my life had such a delicious fish taco. So good that I ate the WHOLE thing and we went back for round two the next day.
The next day we were going to go deep sea fishing but it fell through. We decided to fill our free afternoon with another surf lesson. We wanted to take some pictures so we decided to press our luck and bring the camera with us. My body definitely realized how rough the water was from the day before. My ribs were sore from when the board smashed into me every time a wave went by. Plus I had "surfers rash" on my arms and legs from the wax on the board. I was really rethinking my career change at this point. The day before I was thinking of opening my very own surf school and 1 day later I could barely move. I pushed on and we surfed again. The water was even more rough but we were still able to catch some good waves.
I uploaded a video of me surfing. It wasn't my best or longest ride.
After surfing we had a 90 minute couple massage which was exactly what the doctor ordered. It was the perfect ending to our trip. We headed back to the states the following morning.
Costa Rican (especially surfers) say "Pura Vida" which translates to pure life. Life was grand.... what I really should say is life is grand. Costa Rica was beautiful and was such a wonderful trip. We had so much fun and created so many memories. It was a great way to start our new life together and we are counting the days till we can go back.
If you want to look at all of our pictures click the link below~
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