Aug 9 &10 - Samara, Costa Rica

We left the beautiful National Park of Ballenas in search of more beaches, specifically, Jaco beach. Unfortunately, Mateo will never forget this well-known surfer beach for slamming him into the rocks and splitting his head open.

The drive to Jaco only took us one hour and half, and it was just past 9 am when we found a place to rent surfboards.  However, we quickly learned that this particular place on the beach is full of small smooth rocks, like a very rocky/ sandy beach, not great but we decided the kids could take out boogie boards for one hour.

We all jumped into the water and almost immediately I was stung in my inner thighs and man parts by some jelly fish.  I ran out of the water holding onto myself wanting to rip off my short but I was distracted by Gabriel screaming that Mateo was bleeding! Still burning from the sting, I assumed Mateo had a bleeding nose, but that thought evaporated when I saw his face covered in blood and realized he had been slammed by a wave into the bottom /rock.

We washed him off and walked over to our truck where we started seeing the extent of the damage. He had a nice cut on his forehead that needed a stitch, several scrapes and bruises along the side of his face and skull.  We took him to the local clinic where they saw him right away and after cleaning him up, decided he did not need any stitches and gave him a clean bill of health.  The cut wasn’t deep enough to stitch and all else was superficial, except of course his ego was badly bruised.

It was close enough to lunch, so we stopped at a highly recommended local restaurant called TacoBar. Bagels with Salmon and Cream Cheese, curry rice burritos and fresh juices!

Given the accident, Jaco beach wasn’t all that we expected to be, but Mateo will have to return later in life and conquer the surf. 

We headed north along the Pacific coast until we reached Puntarenas, waited for the ferry and crossed over to the Nicoya Peninsula.  We changed our minds a few times but eventually decided on Samara Beach as a pit stop.  The crescent-shaped beach is known as safe, tranquil and one of the most beloved beaches of Costa Rica  Samara Beach. We pulled into the cute surfer town with the sun going down and after checking out a few places, opted for a campsite on the beach, beside a cool restaurant owned by a very hospitable Italian with happy hour and WiFi.  This would be night number three sleeping in the truck and there was a strong argument made to sleep in a real bed, with a real shower and no bugs.  But, the lure of a cute empty campsite on the beach for US$15 was enough to seal the deal. 

We had just crawled into the tent and the kids into the truck when the heavy rain started.  However, the roof tent kept us dry and we woke up to find a great town with perfect beach for the kids to surf.  Good size fun waves, no undertow, no rip current, no rocks, just nice soft sand.

The kids spent the majority of the second day between boogey boarding and surfing until their belly’s were raw from rubbing on the boards, while we chilled and caught up on some reading, writing and planning the next few day’s.  The only slight annoyance was the fact that many local business owners had dogs.  These were great looking, well kept housedogs but they did their business on the beach.  Of course we also had to deal with a minor ant infestation that had a nasty bite.  Upon further investigation they had taken a great interest in our beloved shoebox, which had been placed under the truck.  They had made a nest inside Mateo’s runners as well as making their way into the truck.  After a trip to the local store I was now armed with an aerosol spray and was now going around spraying and cleaning out the stupid show box…grrrrrrrrrrrr .  However, the tracking and killing of the ants wasn’t complete until unbeknownst to me, I managed to step in dog poo which was squished between my toes.  Once noticed, Marnie was dry heaving, the kids were making fun and I was running to the showers.

Regardless of the ants or dog poo, we all liked Samara and would recommend it to anyone wanting a great beach on the Pacific side of Costa Rica to chill out, relax and try some surfing.