Category: Quepos

Up early to do a tour of the local preserve on the Gaia campus. We saw a commando (poison dart frog) and a whole bunch of red tip macaws who Gaia is working to help restore to the area. This was also our second run in with the ‘lazy plant.’

Afterwards we headed back down to the public beach where we decided to take a couple hours of surf lessons. It was tough weathering the strong mid day Costa Rican sun but the first taste of surfing was quite fun. We spent the rest of the day lounging around on the beach eating fish tacos from Sancho’s.

Picture with our Surf Instructor I don’t remember standing on his foot.

Our last night we had dinner at Mar Luna, a pretty place about five minutes from the hotel. The two for one drink special was a surprise and overall the experience was solid. The chef’s special tuna entrée lightly seared exhibited the freshness of some of the fish in this area and was a nice last meal.

At night, we decided to go to Bahia Azul – a local outdoor bar in the center of Quepos Town. We may have been the only tourists there but the scene was great. Saprissa – the local favorite soccer team was playing in the second final game of the Costa Rican Premiere League. They led by two goals from the first game so the crowd was comfortable but anxious to get another on the board. 

When the first goal was scored, the crowd went wild. It was akin to being at the stadium. The game wore on and we thought about leaving just as the end was approaching but saw Jorge, the guy at the hotel who had recommended us coming down here to see the game and get a feel for the local style.

His drunken aunt was dancing on a chair; the place was starting to go crazy as the last seconds wound down. We stayed for a couple more drinks – some people let some fireworks off in the bar, beer was being sprayed everywhere – we were jumping up and down in a big crowd singing ‘Viva Saprissa!” Jorge eventually showed us around outside the bar where a parade was starting to celebrate the win. 

He gave us a quick walking tour of the town, the local casino, the two or three main clubs. The parade continued in the street. It was late but we decided to call it a night but not after making a good friend down in Quepos Town. 

We had a lazy morning and then squeezed in 45 minutes at the beach. After that, we boarded a catamaran around 1pm. We cruised along the shoreline, and some of the open water. We got a good view of a school of dolphins and just as (if not more) impressive brown boobies. Watching them dive into the water was incredible. We finished the tour with a mediocre snorkel, followed by an awesome sunset out on the water and a surprisingly delicious meal of tuna kebabs and pasta salad with homemade pesto.

We did a bit of hiking through the park to the different beaches, the different viewpoints etc. etc. The highlight of this trip was probably the proximity to which we were able to hang out with the white-faced monkeys who were in a large group hanging out near one of the main beaches. Additionally we saw some howler monkeys, a sloth, and a surprising amount of raccoons.

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