Costa Rica Day 11: Santa Teresa (Malpais)

After a relaxing poolside breakfast at our hotel, we were joined by our punctual rental car people. We were then off with our newly acquired 4 by 4 to the beach of Santa Teresa of Malpais. Because we are in green season, we were told not to drive along the coast, so we took a detour inland instead. The first part of the drive was quite straightforward but 2 hours in we were greeted by a big puddle. We figured there was no way to go around it, so we drove right into it. Little did we know that we will next encounter a river we needed to pass. Luckily, there was a fellow car across the river and it seemed like they wanted to cross as well. We came to consensus that the river was indeed a through road so we just went for it and drove across what was actually one of our several river crossings. That puddle we originally drove over soon became a small potato compared to our later feats. We had our fair share of animal sightings today with the most memorable being the howler monkey who responded to Sands’ call. We continued to drive uphill and were beginning to wonder whether we are really heading in the right direction. Suddenly, NSync starts playing on the radio and we were face to face with the beach! The view was spectacular, we all sat in awe. Soon, we arrived at our beachfront villa. Props to Aimes and Sands for their amazing navigation and strong driving! We then were all shocked by how perfectly beautiful our villa was and walked maybe 20 steps to grab some drinks and appetizers right in front of the beach. This is quickly starting to top my list of my favourite part of the trip. As we sit to relax, read and blog we admired the surreal environment with people doing yoga, silks and surfing around us. As we chatted with the bar owner, the relaxing and chill nature of this place was evident as he told us that we can hang out here as long as we wanted to and he did not have a set closing time. We start to question the reality of this place after meeting a flight attendant who is here for 3 weeks just to study Spanish and surf. We then walked back to our place to rinse off but decided to jump in the pool instead. We also had the chance to meet the other visitors in our neighbouring villas in the pool. After finally rinsing off, we head off to find one of the best seafood restaurants in the region (according to our guidebook and tripadvisor). Unfortunately we were less than ill-prepared without a GPS, guidebook or even the exact name of the restaurant. Despite all that we managed to drive “over two lakes” and up one steep hill to a beautiful, romantic, ocean view restaurant. To our surprise, we bumped into the cute Canadian couple we met in Monteverde at the same restaurant! We quickly shared our travel experiences since we parted ways then sat down for some delicious seafood. To end off the night, Romes and Sands reverted to their frog instincts by catching mosquitos to prevent further bites. One of the only disappointments of our trip is the fact that sun sets so early and bugs are so ubiquitous that we can never enjoy our outdoor porches for long periods of time. Such a shame!