South Pacific Coasting

beware of cocodrilos

Playa Puerto Escondido










From the Mirador








Playa Espadilla Sur

We started cruising down the muddy paths of Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio before the Pacific Coast heat up for the day. The park was absolutely teeming with wildllife. We paused alongside guided groups everytime their hired professional spotted a deer, monkey, etc. then sped on forward to conquer every last trail. As we trooped along a coastal path bright red crabs froze & lizards scurried out of our way with paranoia. Some trails led us down steep rope-assisted routes to rainforest backed beaches, others to viewpoints above the bright green tree line. After getting sufficiently sweaty & exhausted we finished our hike at the quieter of the two most popular stretches of sand. It seemed every time we returned to our spot from a swim a new population of lizards had made themselves at home along the forest edge. It was here that we met three Californians with a rental car & intentions of getting to Dominical before sunset. In my scouring to nail down our itinerary I'd given up hope on anywhere South of Manuel Antonio, & had a particularly hard time letting Domincal go. The road between the two is a dusty stretch of gravel, truly massive potholes, & rickety bridges that prevents the town from losing itself to the tourism that has inhaled the rest of Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. The bus would take nearly 5 hours. The car- less than 1. So we jumped at the opportunity, hopped in another obviously Gringo rental car (this time a Hyundai Elantra), & bounced past charming tiny villages set around square fields & wide expanses of rolling green hills to Dominical.

Dominical is known as a laid back surfers town whose charm lies partly in how little they've got going on- outside of white sand beaches & killer surf that is. We happened to arrive on Sunday, the last day of a 10 day local carnival that transformed the muddy stretch of land between the businesses & the beach with impossible games, jewelry stands, a giant stage of a bar, makeshift restaurants, & food right down to the cotton candy. We frolicked through the fun, played in the chaos under disco balls at the "new people in the beach" bar (we found this typo endearing), made food runs, & stopped by the patio of our room at Tortilla Flats for much needed breaks.

The next day as the town transformed back into its usual self we got in a few solid hours of hot sun & surfers before packing it up & getting back on the road- this time en route to San Jose via San Isidro where we'd spend another night at the now oddly familiar Hostel Pangea to book an early morning transport to the mountain town of Monteverde.