Loving the Surf at Playa Hermosa

So the plan as of Friday night was that Lauren Maureen and I would meet at the bus stop at 530am to head to the beach for the weekend. At 930pm Bryan, another Habitat volunteer from San Francisco, called to say he was up for the beach, and he would pick us up at 6am! YES! An extra 30 min of sleep! We met early the next morning unsure of which beach we were going, but knew it was on the Pacific side, so we just started driving west. We ended up picking Playa Hermosa which is a top surfing destination in Costa Rica. I was happy because it is a new beach for me.We didn’t have reservations but found Cabinas Arenas and were quite happy with the beachfront location for $15 each. The 3 girls stayed in one room and Bryan, who we teased was a bit “high maintenace” went to a place a couple doors down so he could have aire conditioning. The rooms were quite cute, nothing fancy, but come on its $15 people!! Maureen and Lauren flipped a coin for the full size bed, I didn't participate because I was satisfied with the twin bunk bed.

We were sunning on the beach by 1030am. The beach is so exciting, it always makes me happy! I would get the same feeling after taking a flight....in 2 hours your life is totally different!

Being a black sand beach, It was incredibly hot, we couldn’t even walk in the sand without our flip-flops. We loaded up on the sunscreen, and took several dips in the ocean. The waves are good size here and the current was strong, so we didn’t swim alone. We had a great time being pushed around and trying to keep our suits on.We took a break at Las Olas Restaurant right next door and I had a mango smoothie. De-lish!

By the time sunset came around, we had already had a couple beers at BackYard Bar which had a reggae band playing for Happy Hour. We were quite happy!
Bryan was totally happy too, being a surfer. The waves were biggest at 5am and 4pm.

After showering we made our way back to the bar and got a bit to eat. It was really happening place, very cool vibe with good people watching. It is afterall, the high season.
We were in bed pretty early, have you ever noticed how tired you get from laying around on a beach all day? I don’t ever mind going to bed early, because I love to sleep and more than that, I really love getting up early after I have slept a lot. Sunday morning was great, we were up having coffee and a fruit plate outside under a palapa by 8am and bee-lined for the beach right after.

Bryan called us true “sun goddesses” and was amazed at our ability to be in the hot sun so long.

Come on, who gets sick of this?

When we were lying there, a guy went running by on a horse and I had to wave him down. I told him I wanted to run down the beach on his horse. He said he was renting the horse. $25 for an hour. I told him I just wanted to run the horse for a minute. Please Please Please. Sometimes that is all it takes girls…”ask and you shall receive” as my mom always said. You would be surprised how many times this works for me.

Even though it was less than a 5 minute ride, it was just enough. I ran that poor horsey hard, and then felt guilty because he was breathing so hard afterwards.

Bryan is a guy and therefore wanted to watch the Super Bowl. Who was playing please? Well he probably saved us all from crossing the line of “to much sun” so it was good we left for San Jose around 2pm. This beach is going to be a repeater. #1 for ease of arrival from san jose, only a little over 2 hours…and #2 Roger (pronounced Ro-hair in Spanish)

He hooked us up with our room and many other beach goodies and information, always checking on us to make sure everything was cool…It was totally cool, laid back and cheap! Beach weekend total = less than $40! It was so convenient having a car, even though we didn't use it during the day, but we were able to leave at the drop of a hat instead of relying on the bus scedule. Thanks again Bryan for driving!

We made such good time that we were able to make a quick stop at a little Heladaria (ice cream shop) and I tried two flavors. Coco which had pieces of coconut in it, and the most popular flavor vanilla which had spices in it. Such a good topper to a road trip. We can thank Maureen for that, the girl can and will eat ice cream or gelato at any given time.

Another plus of driving home during the daylight is that we were able to see the gorgeous mountains and this orange flowering tree is blooming all over the place -I have to find out the name.

Although I do have some complaints about the city, the Costa Rica countryside is so beautiful. I like it. Like it a lot.