Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want

On Friday morning we were up early to meet Cesar at Adobe car rental in Alajuela. The plan was drop-off the Hyundai at Adobe, drop Cesar off near home in San Ramon, then head to Playas del Coco, where we had booked two nights at the beachfront Hotel Coco Palms.

Cesar texted us that he was running a little ahead of schedule which felt like a great omen. Sure enough Cesar rolled into Adobe 15 minutes ahead of schedule we hopped into the CR-V with him and we were off. We love chatting with Cesar because he’s constantly sharing things that help us understand Costa Rica (and Costa Ricans) better. One of the things we talked about on our drive to San Ramon was Cesar’s business. His main business is renting out 20 “cabinas” (think somewhat spartan weekend vacation rental). Cesar got into the car rental business because the people renting his cabinas needed reasonably priced rental cars. Now Cesar has a 7 car fleet. As an aside, he told us he also has job managing construction projects (more reinforcement for the observation that everyone in Costa Rica has a side hustle).

I asked Cesar if he was looking to expand his fleet since he seems to be fully subscribed. He said he might add a car in the next year or two. Cesar has done everything so far with no debt and he wants to keep it that way. He pays cash for his cars and then uses free cash flow to save up for another one. So he will evaluate when his car business has generated enough free cash flow to buy another well maintained used car. Then, Cesar told us that maybe 7 cars is enough. Cesar is a pretty full-service guy. He personally delivers every car. Sometimes driving hours to deliver to a customer and then riding a bus back. I mention this anecdote because one of the things we’ve noticed about Costa Ricans is that they have a concept of “enough.” We haven’t run into any Costa Ricans who are highly leveraged or who work 80 hour weeks. Some of that may be revolving credit card debt has not taken off in Costa Rica, but I don’t think that’s it. The people who we’ve met that fall into the category of successful business people have all mentioned the concept of “enough.” They get their business to a certain level and then work on maximizing their quality of life. Fascinating.

At that point we were pulling into the gas station in San Ramon. Cesar topped off the car with gas for us as a thank you for dropping him off. Cesar runs his business out of an orange backpack. The last thing he did before he hopped out of the car was pull a one page contract out of his backpack for me to formally rent the new car (he already has our drivers licenses and passports on file). It took about 15 seconds. We pulled into a bus stop in San Ramon and Cesar got out and headed for the bus stop to wait for the bus to his house.

Because we had a 2 1/2 hour drive in front of us, the last thing we asked Cesar was where we should stop for lunch. He told us about a place called the Caballo Blanco about 50km up the road. Jill set the Waze lady to take us to Caballo Blanco and we were off!

The drive to Caballo Blanco was full of adventure. We had to go up and over some mountains to get to the Northern Pacific coast. You see some odd stuff on Costa Rican roads.

We made it to Caballo Blanco without incident and parked as instructed by the yellow vest man. We were surprised to find that Caballo Blanco is an open air white-tablecloth restaurant with views of the Pacific ocean. The food was scrumptious. Jill had a teriyaki-glazed tuna steak over salad and I had the special fried rice. Rich Mosher will note that Caballo Blanco translates to Cheval Blanc.

A thing we are learning about Costa Rica is not to have expectations (that’s going to come in again later in this post). When Cesar told us about this restaurant in the middle of nowhere we were thinking we would just pop in for a burrito and get back on the road. Caballo Blanco has a 10 page menu full of delicious items. It’s somewhat incongruous because there’s no town near by and the structure is open air… and you can see and hear traffic whizzing by on Ruta 1. But the experience is absolutely great. We liked it so much that we stopped there again on the way home today. Total tab each time was under $25.

After lunch we hopped back on Ruta 1 for the rest of our journey to Playas del Coco. We’d been on a two lane road with no divider for about an hour and a half at that point. Not far past Caballo Blanco, again in the middle of nowhere, Ruta 1 becomes a divided four-lane highway.

The speed limit is 100 kilometers per hour (62 MPH) and it felt like we were flying. The road is elevated by a few feet, which we assume comes in handy during the rainy season. Every once in a while there were these really nice pedestrian bridges over the road. They were maybe 5 kilometers apart. So, clearly this road was a serious engineering project. HOWEVER, about every kilometer there was a crosswalk directly across the highway. The Costa Rica traffic engineers have embraced rumble-strips in a big way. As you approach one of these crosswalks at speed, the frequency of the the noise from the rumble strips starts to sound like a Mig has just acquired missile lock on you. We never had any pedestrians to dodge (because we were in the middle of nowhere), but we got to the point where we had the giggles every time the rumble strips started.

In Liberia, we exited the fancy road and found ourselves mired in a bit of a traffic snarl. We had Taco Bell and McDonalds on one corner and Papa Johns and Burger King on the opposite corner with an infinite number of teenagers in the crosswalks. I’m guessing the kids got out of school early this past Friday.

We managed to get through the intersection and onto the two lane road that runs to the Liberia airport. We learned from some of the people we met this weekend that Liberia is the favored airport for that part of Costa Rica. The Liberia airport was certainly hopping when we drove past it.

I’d been told by Ryan, the manager of Ohana’s in Jaco, that we’d feel right at home in Guanacaste during the dry season because it is a whole lot like south Texas… dry and hot with the occasional hill until you get to the ocean. That description proved to be exactly right. We were getting a little nervous the dryer the landscape got, wondering what we’d gotten ourselves into. Turns out the landscape wasn’t what we should have been worried about.

Ultimately we rounded the bend and found ourselves in our final destination of Playas del Coco. Playas del Coco is a classic slightly dingy little beach town. One main street takes you into town and all the way down to the water. The main street was full of vendors who had tables set up to sell souvenirs to anyone walking along. On the plus side the town had nice trees and a beautiful protected bay. We’d booked two nights at the Hotel Coco Palms based on TripAdvisor reviews which were overwhelmingly positive and gushed about how cute the hotel was. When we pulled up to the hotel we were a little concerned. There were no other cars parked in front of the hotel, but we HAD gotten an early start so maybe we just beat the rush?

When the manager, who was the only person on staff, showed us to our room, we thought things were looking up because he was pleasant and helpful. He also took us by the pool which looked inviting.

As soon as we entered our room I got a sense of dread. The room wasn’t awful, but it was hot. The manager turned on the AC for us and I thought we’d probably be ok once it cooled down. Once the manager left, Jill opened the door to the bathroom and turned on the light to find out it was GREEN! Not the bathroom, the light. My instinct was absolutely to get in the car and drive back to Atenas, but Jill kept me from going non-linear.

Back to the topic of expectations… This was not what I had in my head when I booked our weekend at Playas del Coco. Jill and I are professionals when it comes to romantic getaways. We did our homework on Playas del Coco. Everyone said it was a cute little town with great beaches and that we’d love it. We picked a hotel that had good reviews. But my initial experience was nothing like that. We’d driven three hours and paid in advance for two nights at the Coco Palms hotel and I just wasn’t seeing any salvation in our situation. I plan everything out in my head and when things deviate significantly from my plan, I can be less than positive in my attitude.

Jill, who has first hand experience with me when one of my plans goes sideways, started in on damage control. We walked along the beach and watched hundreds of pelicans feasting on a school of baitfish.

Then Jill found us a place to get adult beverages, Cafe de Playa. We also constructed a dinner out of several appetizers.

We stayed at Cafe de Playa through sunset. While we were there, we were beseiged by cute children selling souvenirs. I get the marketing tactic involved in sending cute kids in to sell your crap, but it bugs me. The black marks were adding up for Playas del Coco in my book.

Drinks, dinner, and sunset helped get me back on track. As we walked back to the Hotel Coco Palms we took inventory of the people around us and they were clearly having fun, but the crowd was a little gritty (that’s the only way I can describe it). The sense we got was that this was the place they picked in Costa Rica because:

• They wouldn’t have to learn Spanish
• They could live dirt cheap — leaving more money for cheap beer

From our brief experience it seems like Playas del Coco is a town where American and Canadian expats aged 50-80 go to experience an endless “Spring Break on the Beach” atmosphere. That opinion was reinforced as we walked by bars giving out free alcohol to the “girls”.

Our hotel had a little market attached to it so we stopped in for a couple of large cold bottles of water (tap water is fine to drink but we didn’t know where we could get any ice). While we were in the market, we spied the only box of Wheat Thins in Costa Rica.

We got back to our room and opened the door and the air conditioner had not really made a dent in the heat. We closed to the door to the bathroom to give the unit less area to cool, but we never really got the room cool.

We got up at 6:30AM. Jill asked if I wanted to stay in Playas del Coco another night and you can guess my answer. We’d also heard good things about the town of Tamarindo, about an hour distant, so we decided to give it a try. Having been once bitten, I hesitantly got on Trip Advisor and booked what the reviews purported to be the best hotel with an available room for Saturday night. That hotel was called the Ten North (as in Tamarindo is at 10 degrees north latitude).

We set out in search of coffee and breakfast, before we headed for Tamarindo. As we walked the streets of Playas del Coco at 7AM on Saturday morning, we came upon a chatty homeless (like didn’t have a place to sleep in Playas del Coco) guy from Canada who was trying to keep living the dream until he started getting retirement checks. He was walking our way and delivered us to a soda (family owned restaurant serving typical Costa Rican food) that was open for business.

The soda turned out to be the high point of Playas del Coco for me. We got coffee, a hearty breakfast, and the opportunity to use our Spanish for 45 minutes with the owner.

After breakfast, we walked back to the Hotel Coco Palms loaded up the car and we were off for Tamarindo!

Jill and I were both a little on edge, because we knew of no reason that Tamarindo wouldn’t be Playas del Coco 2.0. The key thing is that we didn’t go into Tamarindo with any expectations. We had about an hour’s drive from Playas del Coco to Tamarindo and we were both a little quiet.

Most of the beach towns in Guanacaste seem to be behind range of coastal hills so we couldn’t see Tamarindo until we were over the hills. When we came around the last hill and rolled into Tamarindo we were pleasantly surprised.

We got to the Ten North hotel (which was significantly less expensive than the Hotel Coco Palms) at around 10AM and were relieved to find it to be a lovely place.

The manager told us our room wouldn’t be ready until 2PM, but invited us to pull our car into the small parking lot reserved for guests.

Jill and I left all of our stuff in the car and set out with sunglasses, hats, and wallets to find the beach. We walked the length of the Tamarindo beach. Tamarindo is not at all protected from the waves and weather. I guess that’s one of the things that makes it a prime surfing beach.

At lunch time we found ourselves in front of Jonny Tamarindo’s where we got a table in the shade.

After lunch we went back to the Ten North to check in. We HIGHLY recommend the Ten North.

We spent a couple of hours floating in the pool, where we met our new friend Meredith. Meredith is getting married at the end of this week in Tamarindo so she came a week early to go to surf camp 🙂 Meredith is awesome. Her first job out of college was working for an American company in San Jose, Costa Rica and she fell in love with Costa Rica. She now lives in Houston and comes to week-long surf camps in Costa Rica a couple of times a year.

Later in the afternoon we went with Meredith to get a margarita before sunset.

In all of these beach towns, sunset is an event where it seems like everyone stops what they are doing and heads to the beach to take a few deep breaths. Meredith headed off to get her prime sunset spot and I asked the bartender what the most common drink with Cacique (the state-distilled liquor of Costa Rica) in it is. She didn’t miss a beat and said “Chili Guaro.” I said, “We’ll have two please!” Turns out the Chili Guaro is a shot of Cacique, tomato juice, tabasco, and worcestershire sauce, served in a shot glass. So it’s basically a Bloody Mary shot. Delicious. Now I know what to order when I want to show off my local knowledge 🙂

After sunset, Jill and I strolled to Antichi Saporo Sicilian Cuisine where we secured a table outside. We were seated next to a guy a few years older than us who was dining alone. His name is Bob. Bob has been spending 4-6 months a year in Tamarindo since 2006, spending summer and fall in New Hampshire. Bob’s wife passed away last year, unexpectedly, a short time after her 65th birthday. Bob seems to be making it his mission to get the most out of life. He has good memories and is moving forward. We got a ton of local knowledge out of him regarding Tamarindo and Costa Rica. Bob had asked for a glass of the Sicilian D’Avola wine that we ordered a bottle of, but it only came by the bottle — so he really appreciated us pouring him a glass. Felt like a better than even trade for us, given all the info he gave us.

Yesterday was a great day on the personnel front. Prior to yesterday, other than family who has come to visit us, Jill and I haven’t run across any gringos in Costa Rica we want to spend time with. Meredith and Bob proved that those people are out there. And since we met them both in Tamarindo, Tamarindo has rocketed to the top of our favorite places in Costa Rica list. We still love Atenas, but we both thought Tamarindo was a place we’d like to spend more time.

We came back to a nicely chilled room after dinner last night 🙂 We got a great night’s sleep and were up for an early breakfast at the Ten North. We chatted with Meredith over breakfast and wished her a happy wedding (Meredith and Jill are now connected on Facebook).

Jill and I went for our customary morning beach stroll this morning. Jill always appreciates getting her toes wet one last time before we head home.

When we got back to the Ten North, we loaded up the car and headed home.

We had about four hours to talk. A thing we agree on is that even though we decided Playas del Coco is not for us, we are glad we experienced it. And if I come across as snobby about Playas del Coco, that’s not my intention. There are a whole bunch of people who love Playas del Coco. Similarly, Tamarindo was an audible we called and it turned out to be our favorite place so far. For both of us, finding relatable people in Tamarindo was HUGE!

In summary, if you don’t let your expectations get in the way… Adventure REALLY IS out there!

We are now back home feeling like we are way behind in practicing our Spanish.

PS. Jill gets a gold star for putting up with me from 2PM Friday until 8AM on Saturday. I was not a happy camper.