Río Lagarto

Playa Samara is located in the Guanacaste province at the north end of the Nicoya Peninsula

It was Thursday before the holy Easter holiday were all the Ticos (Costa Ricans) went to the beaches, so almost everything was booked out.

I got lucky to get a bed in La Aldea Hostel were they were super friendly and squeezed a bed for me into the dormitories for a night.

First thing for me was taking the football, provided by La Aldea and checking out the beach wich was 3min away.
I arrived at a beautiful 6km long coastline surrounded by palmtrees at land and reefs and giant rocks in the water.

After juggling around for myself some Ticos came and we played 2vs 2.
The sun went down when more and more people came playing and we ended up playing something like 8vs 8. It was super fun and intense because the guys extremely good and physical.

I had delicious dinner at a vegetarian restaurant and went to the hostels kitchen to have a Guanabana (engl. Soursop) as desert, wich is one of my favourite fruits on the journey. Soursop’s flavor can best be described a cross between mango green apple and pineapple. One whole soursop fruit contains 215% of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin C.
The inner consistency is weird, white and fleshy.
Some girls in the kitchen asked if it was fish, when I let them all try a bit. They were kind of surprised of the nice taste :)
They they asked me to join for a beach party a bit further, wich in the end was super nice with amazing electronic music. I danced for one or two hours before walking home the beach in almost full moon light.

The last week changed my rythm for good. I woke up at 6 in the morning and went directly to see the natural pools wich are exibited at low tide. On the way back I saw some people preparing for their yoga class. I joined them for a intense 90min Vinyasa class. It costed me 10.000 Colones (~14€). Costa Rica in general was very expensive, but affordable since I haven't spent a cent last week in the camp.

I had to change the accommodation after having my breakfast (fruits and granola :)) to hostel Samara, were I got the last place in a 10bed dormitory.

The rest of the day I walked the other side of the beach before meeting with my dutch friend Tom for some beach volley. Our opponents destroyed us and everybody else completely. 2vs 2 - Winner always stayed. When they needed a break after winning 10 games in a row we could even win two games before they came back 😅

After dinner with Tom at a vegan food court I went happy to bed.
The bed unfortunately wasn't that happy. The room was packed and didn't have an AC, so it was hot and smelly. I woke up around 2 soaked in sweat when I stood up and found a couch in the lobby.

I had the option to leave the next day but thought it might be smarter to travel all the way to Uvita on a Saturday when most people are with their families and not on the road.
So I spent another chill day at the beach full of volley and football and left Saturday morning 4:30 the ~8 hour journey further south the Pacific coast.Read more