Hayley in Wanderlust: The Nicoya Peninsula

The Nicoya Peninsula, I have decided, is where I want to be laid to rest… You know, without getting all morbid and stuff. The place is a slice of sun drenched heaven, and I want to spend the rest of my days there. Literally, who needs the city when you can wake up in paradise?

I took the taxi boat directly from Jaco, it was pricey, at $40 and worth it for the time it saved me, but I'd still rather not discussing parting with so much of my now dwindling budget.

Montezuma is glorious. I stayed at the 'Downtown Montezuma Hostel' which is run by a lovely lady called Elena. It's $10 a night for the dorm and there's pancakes in the morning. Perfect. It's another one of those fab hostels where you get to know all of the other guests and travelling on your own is made to feel like the easiet thing in the universe. It's also a mere two minute walk from the beach, which isn't hard, since almost everywhere in Montezuma is a mere two minutes from the beach. The place isn't very big.



I stayed a week. In South America, spending a week to 10 days somewhere wasn't an issue as I had plenty of time and it didn't tend to mean giving up seeing somewhere else. Out here, where I only have four weeks and spending a week somewhere does mean compromising going somewhere else… I had really wanted to go to Nicaragua. It's cheaper than Costa Rica and would have enabled me to say that I'd been to 10 countries overall.
I'm ending on 9, so can't exactly complain. I know, I know, I was being greedy.
I don't regret it though, Montezuma is incredible and besides sunning myself on the beach there are plenty of waterfalls to visit (took me a week to visit them, mind) as well as the 35 minute beach front walk to the gorgeous Playa Grande. A beach fresh out of a catalog. The walk there takes your through jungle and little beach coves, each one different from the last. One beach in particular is named 'Red Beach' after the red coloured rocks that reside there. It is here that, if you scramble over some rocks, you can find a little set of water falls with small pools you can paddle in. It's also where I saw an entire troop of Capuchin Monkeys swing on by.


Have I mentioned that I love it here?

From Montezuma (you know, once I finally left) I made my way to Santa Teresa on the other side of the peninsula. Santa Teresa is essentially one road with lots of hostels, hotels and restaurants coming off it. I stayed at 'Hostel 7' which was friendly enough, but Lord, I have never been so sweaty at night. The rooms are sweltering. A friend had recommended that whilst here I go up to the hotel 'Vista de Olas' to use their infinity pool and watch the sunset. Sadly, on the day I went the sky was overcast, so it wasn't so much of a sunset as it was a chance to watch the sky change colour. It was amazing. The view was utterly unreal, just shoreline and jungle as far as they eye could see. It was a pricier backpacker activity, probably costing me about $25 overall. That included that $16 you have to put behind the bar on a tab upon arrival, but with that $16 I got 3 beers and a cocktail - so it was (as always) money well spent.

Despite having not really done a lot, this part of Costa Rica totally has my heart and I'll be back. It opened me up to the idea of doing a work exchange and being able to spend some real time here without worrying too heavily on how expensive it all is. Almost everyone I met was on some sort of placement and I couldn't help but be super envious.

Looks like I know how I'll be escaping the UK again once I'm back!

- xo