Maybe a week of surfing behind in Costa Rica

Joe with his surf board

I think I left Nicaragua behind about a week ago. A river boat took us to the border. From there I got a bus to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Stayed there for one night in a hostel that was expensive and shit. The next morning I took a bus to Jacó which was suppose to be nice place to surf. It turned out that the city was ugly and from what I understood quite restless. The surf sucked as well since the hight tide and the only ridable wave was at noon. After burning my face there for two days I left the place behind.

In Jacó I did meat this interesting american hostel owner who had pretty tragic past. He used to be rich and had moved to Costa Rica to spend his retirement days in a warm place. Let’s just say that things didn’t really work out with his business, health, family or anything else for that matter. His hostel made no money what so ever and now he was about to loose his only reliable worker. The next step he said was to close down the hostel. Turn the living room next to the road into a punch of showers and rent them to people who come to the beach on weekends. He was also planning on renting the rooms for prostitutes during the night. Prostitution apparently is legal in Costa Rica and it would be easy money to rent the rooms for the women and their customers. Both of the new ideas were suppose to make more money than money saving backpackers, and I believed him.

Other story I bumped into was Costa Rica’s only school for prostitutes. It’s located in Jacó. Apparently the aim of the school is to teach women how to please men properly. All the sexual positions etc. and how to make it all work fast since the prostitutes usually have up to 5 customers per night.

Boy on the ferry

Those stories didn’t make me want to stay in Jacó so I took a bus heading to Puntas Arenas. From there I hopped on a ferry across the gulf of Nicoya. After 8 hours of traveling I arrived to Santa Teresa which is a pretty nice location to throw your brains out of the window and just enjoy the surf and relax in a hammock.

4 hours of surfing every day is a nice way to spend time and figure out what to do next. Probably in 2-30 days I’ll head south and towards the border of Panama. I’m sure Costa Rica is a nice country but from what I’ve heard it’s got all the same things that the rest of Central America has except everything is more expensive. I just can’t be bothered. Apparently if you want to see volcanoes here, you can just take a buss and it’ll drop you of at the crater. That is tourism right there, or something else, I don’t know.

I think I’m too restless to be able to enjoy a great surf and relaxing atmosphere. It’s a bit boring to just eat, surf and sleep. Most of the people come here to escape their everyday life. For me this is my everyday life, for now. I think I like diving more.

I have to mention one more thing. This hostel where I’m staying is probably the best hostel of this trip. It’s got big kitchen, electricity plugs everywhere, hammock, fully booked all the time, good solid beds, store right next to it, beach right next to it and all the guests are really laid back. These people don’t even steal my food from the fridge, not all the time at least. I love this place. The only thing I don’t like is the pillow and the little expensive price. If you someday decide to find a hostel I suggest you hire me as your consultant. By now I pretty well know what is a good hostel made of, just like the travelers that build up this place.

Needles to say, I haven’t really taken photos while surfing. These things don’t go hand in hand (surf board & camera) and still I carry both of them with me. One in my left and one in my right hand.