Crocodiles, kayak paddles, and crazy drivers...

We’ve been busy this week looking for lodging for the next three months, so not a lot of exciting stories to share. We found a place to rent for the month of November, near where my dad will be staying when they come to visit, in the town of Playa del Coco. We’ve driven through the area before and it looks pretty cool. This week we are looking at 2 houses in Samara, to rent for December & January. The holiday season is the busiest time around here, and the most expensive to rent. There isn’t much available, and what is left is expensive. Hopefully we’ll have something locked in soon.

We saw a crocodile the other day, in the river that feeds into our favorite beach, Playa Carrillo. It was so exciting! We’d already seen a bunch of crocs at the Tarcoles river, which is notorious for crocodiles. But we hadn’t seen them anywhere else. Every time we drive by the Beware of Crocodile sign at Playa Carrillo we look for one, but had never seen one before in that area. All day I had been saying I just want to see a crocodile! And someone must have been listening.

We’ve done a few more road trips recently. It’s nice to spend the morning at the beach, and the afternoon in the air-conditioned car exploring new beaches. There is a river we have to drive through on one of our regular road trips. With all the recent rain, it is much deeper now (but that never stops Andy from driving through it). On our last trip through the river we had to stop on the other side, to make sure a girl in a very small car could make it across. It was a tense few moments as she drove across, but she made it. She said she had driven through 3 other rivers that day, but this one was the deepest. She said she was glad we were there to help, otherwise she may have turned around.

We’ve been anxious to take out our kayak that we shipped here. But we do not have paddles, or life jackets yet. Apparently these items do not exist in Costa Rica, at least for purchase. You can rent them, but not buy them. I finally found a company in Jaco that makes custom bamboo paddles, but at $120/each, and we’d need two, we would be spending almost as much as we spent on the kayak itself. We may have to look into ordering this stuff on amazon and having it shipped.

On one of our road trips we drove by a car that had flipped over. We stopped to ask if they needed help, but one person didn’t speak English and the other ducked inside the vehicle as we approached. As we drove away we couldn’t help but wonder if we had just come across a recent accident, or someone robbing the recent accident.

On that same road trip we checked out Playa San Juanillo, Playa Osteinal (the sea turtle nesting beach), Playa del Coco and Playa Hermosa. There are three Playa Hermosas in Costa Rica (translation = beautiful beach) and this was the only one we hadn’t seen yet. We stopped at a random plant store in between some beaches, and I found an aloe plant. I need aloe to make my products here, especially my sunburn lotion. Now the only thing missing amongst my product ingredients is mason jars, which are almost as hard to find here as kayak paddles & life jackets.

We also bought a boogie board and snorkel gear on this trip. We’ve spent a few days recently at the beach, trying them out. Once we get kayak paddles we should be able to kayak to some awesome snorkel spots. The guys on the beach do rent kayaks for only $10/hour so we may just do that for now.


Our 6th anniversary is in a little over a week. We are planning to spend the day touring one of Costa Rica’s biggest waterfalls, Catarata Llanos de Cortes. It’s about a 2-hour drive from Samara so we’ll get up early and spend the day there. You can swim in the pool of the waterfall, and go back behind the falls. I can’t wait to check this out, as we have yet to see a real Costa Rican waterfall.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the driving around here. I told Andy if we had a dash-cam and could splice together a clip of all my reactions, we’d be YouTube millionaires. Here are some things I’ve seen on our road trips:

1) A guy driving a truck on the freeway at night, with no headlights, sticking his head out his window & holding a flashlight in front of him to light his way.

2) A family of 5 piled onto one small motorcycle, with an almost flat tire, and no one wearing a helmet.

3) A small kid riding on top of the dashboard of a semi truck, back propped up against the windshield.

4) A guy on a motorcycle, one hand steering and the other hand holding an infant.

5) A near head-on collision when one car passed another car, while another car was coming, causing the on-coming car to swerve off the road to avoid a collision.

This country is very Pura Vida...until they get behind the wheel. Pura Vida, but hold on for your lives!!