We woke up to howler monkeys and another wonderful breakfast made by our hosts! They have been so accommodating and helpful…and they’re such a lovely couple. We’re almost sad to leave this beautiful place, but our adventures must continue!
Summers in Costa Rica is when many species of sea turtles begin their nesting on shore, and we found that Playa Ostional, which is on the way to Samara, is a very popular nesting beach for Olive Ridley turtles. The road to Playa Ostional was quite rough, so we definitely recommend a 4×4 if you venture there. We read that you can only go with a tour guide due to the protected nature of the beach. They usually do tours around 5am and 5pm, which wouldn’t work for us, but we were feeing lucky. We arrived around 9am, and our luck ran out…we spoke to a local tour guide and were told that those times are the only available opportunities to see turtles. Turns out the sun and heat encourage the turtles to go back to sea…so they only approach the beaches during dawn and dusk.
You might think we were disappointed, but driving through Ostional was an adventure in and of itself…especially when we were met with a pretty serious water crossing between Ostional and Samara. It was so serious, that we chose to stop and wait for another car to go by to see just how deep the water was and the route they took. There was a narrow suspended bridge that was only big enough for pedestrians or motorbikes, which were plentiful. After waiting a few minutes, we saw a local in his truck pass through…he rolled down his window and gave us some words of encouragement, “bien, bien, despacio!” Even the locals crossing the hanging bridge on their motorbikes smiled and waved us to go through saying “despacio” (slow). We put our car (we named her Suzy the Suzuki) into 4-wheel drive, crossed slowly, and made it through!
We explored the small town of Samara for a bit and found a great little lunch spot…Falafel Café. We ordered a falafel pita sandwich, and watched them make the falafel fresh right in front of us! Their homemade falafel and pita was absolutely delicious.
After lunch we stopped at Roots Bakery and Café for some sweet treats…a chocolate banana croissant and cinnamon roll…que rico! Also, don’t mind the bite taken out of the cinnamon roll…we couldn’t wait!
We still had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel, and it was simply too hot to go to the beach…plus we were still pretty determined to watch sea turtles nesting, so we drove to Camaronal Wildlife Refuge about 20 minutes from Samara. It’s free to enter and no tour guide needed to check out the nesting, but when we arrived on the beach we didn’t find any nesting turtles…we’re keeping our fingers crossed for some turtles at Tortuguero National Park later in our trip.
After a hike around the wildlife refuge, we made our way up the mountain to check into our hotel. Like our last stay at Baliyana, Hotel Peace & Lodge is a boutique hotel with several bungalows. The amenities were basic, but the views were incredible…especially being so high up in the mountains!
We had every intention of swimming in the pool…until it started down pouring! Now we expected lots of rain while in Costa Rica because we are visiting during “rainy season,” but this is the first day we couldn’t really do much except wait it out.
When we found the lull in the rain, we quickly hopped into our car and headed down to the town of Samara to grab some dinner at Sweeties by Celia. This food truck is pretty permanent, located right across from the local church…you really can’t miss the bright blue truck! When we arrived, Celia (the owner and chef) met us right in front welcoming everyone that walked by. She’s incredibly vibrant and friendly, but an even better cook! She is known for her Caribbean dishes and more notably her cakes.
We shared the ginger garlic glazed pork with veggies and rice, which was absolutely delicious! We almost wished we didn’t share it because we wanted more…and of course we had to take home a cake with us (we decided on her famous truffle chocolate cake)!
We headed back to our hotel before the sun went down, because the road is pretty steep and rough and didn’t want to drive this route in the dark. Once we arrived back in our hotel, we indulged in the scrumptious cake and hit the sack early.
Tomorrow we’re treating ourselves to a stay at beautiful Punta Islita Marriott Autograph Collection resort where we plan to really enjoy ALL the amenities…so stay posted!