On Sunday, we packed up and began the second part of our Costa Rica adventure. We left La Fortuna in the north and drove about 4 hours south to Esterillos Este, a beach on the Pacific Coast, about halfway between the beach towns of Jaco and Quepos. I think we were all pretty ready to leave, as we were all ready about 30 minutes before we had to walk out the door. Totally out of character for three of us! Adios La Fortuna!
For the first part of the trip, we retraced most of our route from San Jose to La Fortuna. We ended up on a back road through the valley and then joined the curvy road that Fransisco had taken us on. We were stuck behind a tour bus for most of the trip.
San Ramos was the first big town on the route. From there, Waze took us west over some crazy climbs, up and down and around tight twisty turns and steep inclines. Danny did a great job of keeping us on the road and thankfully, no one got carsick!
Eventually, we ended up on a big toll highway that took us over to the coast. We paused for second in Tarcoles at the “crocodile bridge” but it looked like it was about to start raining, so we decided to keep moving. I think we’ll try to make the trip back there during the next week.
We could see the Pacific Ocean through the mist just outside of Jaco (Haco). It’s a serious surf town and again reminded us again of Ocean City. You could tell this is definitely a place for tourists, especially Americans. We decided to eat lunch here and after some debating in the rain, ended up having a very traditional “Casado”. We also discovered a Walmart-like store outside of Jaco and stocked up for the week. We finally found frozen pizzas for dinner-at-home option. We had no luck for that item so far. Peanut butter has been hard to find as well, so when we did find it at the MegaSuper in La Fortuna, we got a couple of jars.
Back in the car, we drove the last 30 minutes to Esterillos Este. Este means “East” and there is also an Esterillos Ostre (West) and Esterillos Centre (Center). We were really excited to see our next house!
Off the main road and down a long beach road is Paradise Found. It’s so perfect! Right on the beach, with a small pool and open-air, rustic feel. We were met by the caretaker, Jennifer, and she showed us around, with special attention to the ceiling and standing fans, as this house doesn’t have air conditioning. All of our bedrooms open onto the second floor balcony, with stairs on either end. The girls both thought this was really cool.
Before dark, we checked out the beach, swam in the pool and had some relaxing time. After dark, we went out to see if we could see find some crabs. We had trouble figuring out the small TV in the living room so Darcy and I were watching a movie on my laptop in her room when a serious storm blew in. The winds were gusting and the rain was blowing sideways. We had to force the doors open against the wind and rain poured into through the screens. It freaked us all out a bit and then the power went out. The storm died down eventually, but with no electricity for the fans, it made for sticky sleeping and a late blog post. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a bit calmer.
Costa Rica Adventures 