A little further south... Dominical

 

We followed these guys for about five miles until the opportune time came for the RV to get up enough speed to make the pass. Would you ever see anything like this in the states??? I can only imagine cruising down I-25 doing about 65mph and rolling up on the trash dudes chillin like this on the truck…. I don’t think so. We decided to head a little further south before the big push north towards the border, quick stop in Esterillos and then onward to Dominical. A rather quick drive with lots to see, palm tree plantations lined the road,

 

and on one side you could see the ocean through the trees and on the other lush green mountains sprung up in the distance.

The road was surprisingly nice and made for an enjoyable drive. Once in Dominical we made a quick pass through town until we came across our sweet spot that we would call home for the next four days.

Sweet Spot VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We couldn’t have found a better spot and other than the killer views it was FREE. Dominical was a quite little town tucked in the shade cast by old growth trees. Lots of surf shops and once again great people. We camped relatively close to a beach side restaurant called the The Refuge, which clams to have the best burger in CR. We never had burgers there but we did meet the wonderful people who owned and operated it. Turns out it doubles as a hostel/hotel, restaurant and a church. These people were so welcoming to the town and had such a positive outlook on everything, it is always refreshing to meet such terrific people.

I have been asked the question a few times, “What do you do all day?”  Well in Dominical we kept our selves busy surfing and running in the mornings, coconut hunting in the afternoons, walks around town in hunt of internet, and more surfing, even some fishing.  We were even able to cook on the beach and have fires in the evening.  Our days are filled with great conversations and time to reflect on how wonderful life is and how grateful we are for being able to experience it like this.

Our Eventful Days VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Dominical was a great place but it was time to move on… northern bound we go…

Much Love

Lots of People and No Waves in JACO

Not really sure what to say about Jaco other than it is a very busy place with lots of tourist both gringos and ticos. We were actually surprised to see the town wasn't filled with abandoned buildings, prostitutes, drugs and just plain dirty. Basically everything we had heard up to this point involved one of the above things mainly for the bad.  Yes it was busy, very busy, but other than that we felt comfortable, safe and actually in some weird way liked the town.

We rolled into Jaco mid day on Friday made one pass through town in search of the camping area and had no luck. Ok we need to find the gas station to fill up the propane tank, easily found headed back into town. Second time rolling through town and the eagles eyes were scanning heavy for the camp site. We found it no sweat and pulled into a nice flat area with showers, electricity and toilets. To our surprise there was only a few tents spread out so we found the best spot possible. Here is a view of neighboring tents and the with the massive condo complex in the background.

Sweet we have this whole camping area basically to ourselves. Just as we were getting settled in we here a bus in the background which pulls right up the the entrance gates. Herds of people unload with everything you can imagine, tents, bags, stoves, giant rice cooker, balls, radios just about everything from the house made the trip with them on the bus. Two hours and three buses later this is what the camping area had turned into.

Needless to say we lost our quite camping spots and now were walking carefully not to trip on any tent strings. Thankfully a nice family set up camp right behind us and Marco the six year old son wanted to work so we traded cookies for cleaning.

It was a fun place to stay but when the time came we were definitely ready to leave. Funny how as quick as everyone showed up the left the same way. Around 2:30 Sunday afternoon it looked liked ant working hard and fast to make it to the bus head for San Jose. And just like that it was empty again. We both appreciate that fact that the whole family came to the beach and tent camped, by the whole family we mean everyone the family behind us had the grandma who had to be 80 with them and yes she slept in a tent. Very family oriented!

Here are a bunch of random pics from our days in Jaco.



Who found the cookies??



This chair has been slightly modified. Sit at your own risk.

AHHHH empty campsite

Chair works well!!!

The face says it all.. NO swell on the Pacific Coast. You say wave, what waves.

First Stop Playa Avellanas

 

 

After stocking up on groceries and all the essentials at the local Maxi Bodega…”Costa Rican Wal-Mart” no seriously it’s owned by Wal-Mart,

we headed north and found this gem of a FREE campsite just step from the beach. As we pulled into the village we were driving around in circles looking for a campsite until our new friend Jeffery waved us down and pointed to this spot. We fumbled through a brief conversation at which point he told be that Adelina would take care of us.

Turns out that she lets people camp in her front yard which is basically the beach and provides agua y banos y duche y comida. She is a great older lady that has lived in this casita  for her whole long life of 78 years. She gets up early gets the fire going inside the casita and starts cooking at the crack of dawn. Random people show up through out the day to either eat or just come hang our with Adelina. It seems like many people look to her as a grandmother. We have been more than fortunate to meet and get to know her!!

Along side of us in their tents was a family from San Jose and they have been such a blast to hang out with.  Everyone that we have met at Adelina’s house have been so wonderful to us.  We have definitely been practicing our Spanish since no one here speaks any English.  We have been doing pretty well with speaking and understanding what people are saying, we even got a few of their jokes.  We have loved it here so much that it has been hard to leave.  We were only going to stay 3  days and now we are already on our 7th day, man it’s been great.

When we asked Adelina if we could use her electricity while we were here she said no problem and then told Casey to hook up a new outlet.

 

The town itself is really only a restaurant and a few hotels sprinkled among the locals.  We were lucky that the only restaurant in town had internet so that’s been nice.  One day while Casey was surfing and I was on the computer the dogs awoke and started going crazy.  I turn around and this enormous pig was standing right behind me.  The dogs were going nuts and the pig kept getting closer, finally I had Shelby under the table scared as she can be and Anakin the protector barking his head off.  What a scene.  Then the pig went after Shelby and tried to bite her in the butt.  She growled back wanting to bite him but that’s all we need, another vet bill.  So finally two families got up from their tables and helped push the pig away from me and the dogs since I was sorta pinned in my seat.  Oh what a scene.

 

Enormous Pig at Lola's VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Our Next Adventure…FISHING

So some of the locals were talking to Casey about fishing off the rocks in front our our campsite.  Of course Casey jumped at the chance to go fishing. The men pulled out their line (fishing line tied around a piece of wood) and started down the beach.  No luck that day, just a big eel.  The next day, Casey and I went out and followed the birds.  Where there are birds there are fish.  Guess who the lucky one was… MEGAN!

		Fishing Time with the Guys VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This week couldn’t have been any better.  What a great way to start our journey, great place to stay with amazing people.  Here are some other pictures from the week.

Playa Avellanas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL