I sit next to a pool in the hot 7am sun of Costa Rica. There are sounds of birds and hotel staff getting breakfast ready but all the other hotel guests are still (foolishly) asleep. The sun rises at about 5am and goes down at 5pm, so early starts will be key. Luckily, early starts are super easy as the jet lag skews us that way by a solid 6 hours. So we’re up and swimming by 6.30 ready for breakfast at 7 today.
However, I must jump back in time to a grisly Boxing Day Sunday morning (yesterday) where our early start was greeted with pitch black skies pouring down an onslaught of rain as we legged it the 5 meters to the car to drive to Gatwick. The journey was, overall, uneventful, other than a bit of a commotion at the front of a plane, a call for “is anyone a doctor?” and the woman next to us jumping into action to help. The person was fine. Wearing a mask on a plane for 12 hours is not my idea of fun, but I got three and a half movies in as well as a bit of shut eye.
After collecting our bags and picking up sim cards for our phones, we were on our way via taxi to Esterillos Oeste, a small town 2 hours down the Pacific coast from San Jose (the capital and our flight destination). We encountered traffic on the jungley road, which I assumed must be a fallen tree or a mudslide or any number of your relatively reasonable jungle traffic hazards. Our driver Christian, however, told us it was likely due to crocodiles and, indeed, it was!
Our route to Esterillos crosses the aptly but perhaps unimaginatively named ‘Crococdile Bridge’ on account of the crocs who hang around under it. Christian said the reason for the traffic was cars stopping so tourists could get out and have a look and that we would of course join in the fun. And we did!
Our car was air-conditioned, and it was getting dark and there had been smatterings of rain, so when we stepped out to see the crocs, we didn’t expect to be hit by a wave of hot, humid air. We both explained excitedly before heading to the bridge. There were about 10 of them, and one was a real big boy. Day 1, hour 1 and we’ve seen crocs; I’m pretty happy with that! I expect we’ll have a chance to see them a bit closer up later on.
The highlight of day 1, however, was not the crocs. The highlight was dinner. We arrived at our lovely hotel where we’re just staying for one night. It was, slightly concerningly, absolutely pissing it down. However by the time we’d been shown to our rooms, it had stopped and we decided to risk walking down the road to a local restaurant we’d picked out on google maps and it was amazing. Local craft IPAs on tap that were just amazing. Craft beer is big in Costa Rica and Billie and I are big fans of the stuff. Billie had patacones (huge deep fried plantains with a mouthwatering black bean sauce to dip in) followed by a sort of peanut veggie curry with rice n beans (Caribbean cuisine is fairly staple here – more so on the Caribbean coast itself, but nevertheless all round). I had wonton puffs stuffed with crab and shrimp that were just too delicious followed by crunchy fish tacos, pictured below, that set my world on fire. We finally felt we had arrived.
After all that it was about 8pm, which in UK time is 2am. Considering we had woken up at 5am UK time to get here, with only plane sleep to sustain us between, we’d done well to get so far. We trudged sleepily back to our hotel and we’re asleep as our heads hit the pillow.
In the next edition, in a few days time, I’ll be blogging our few days stay in Esterillos. Chosen for its chilled out vibe and beachy goodness. Can’t wait!
