We were up at 04:45 hrs. packing up our stuff in the hall prior to the 45-minute walk to the Railway Station. The streets were already quite busy, and a vast number of taxicabs were cruising the streets, hooting at us walking along with our packs.
At the station we paid ₡ CRC 80 each for our tickets and boarded a train at 06:00 hrs. The carriages were packed with Costa Rican families going on holiday, chatting excitedly. After a bit of shunting back and forth we set off for Puntaranas.
Some of the locals chatted to us but it was difficult for us to understand what they were saying. We chomped peanuts and watched the mountainous green cultivated countryside go by. Unlike other countries even houses in the countryside were well built and desirable residences rather than rough wooden shacks.
After 4.5 hours we finally pulled into Puntarenas along the narrow strip of land which juts out towards the Nicoya Peninsula. The Costa Rican holiday makers happily dispersed, and we found our way to the pier where the ferry to Paquera left from.
We were heading for Montezuma on the southern Nicoya Peninsula which had long been one of Costa Rica’s most secluded gems. From the hilly interior, the mountains sweep down to the Pacific Ocean, creating some of the most pristine and remote beaches in Costa Rica.
This tropical paradise had long been off the beaten path. It was cut off from the Costa Rican mainland through the Gulf of Nicoya and roads on the peninsula were barely driveable in 1988. Since the most popular entryway to the southern Peninsula de Nicoya is by ferry from Puntarenas, the region belongs to the province of Puntarenas and not to Guanacaste.
Paquera is best known to travellers as the place where the ferry lands from Puntarenas. Paquera Beach Town and Area is the main entry point to the South Nicoya Peninsula. These days the vast majority of tourists no longer pass through Paquera to get to Cobano, Montezuma, Santa Teresa, Mal Pais or Tambor (which people prefer because the beaches are generally more beautiful in these cities and the waves are better), but at this time it was the only way.
The ferry didn’t leave until 15:00 hrs so we had a huge meal and gallons of cold fizzy drinks in a Chinese Restaurant before going down to wait on the dock. Some scummy grey pelicans and some ugly black carrion birds scavenged in the rubbish that was thrown in the sea.
The bars were doing a roaring trade and a few people were already sleeping off the effects on the sidewalk or on crude wooden carts. The sun was intense, and we passed the time by chatting to kids and a few interested local folk. One kid gave us a lion picture puzzle to solve but we gave up in frustration after a short while.
We bought our tickets for ₡ CRC 75 and boarded the comfortable wooden ferry. The crossing was enjoyable and took 1.5 hours, occasionally splashing us with spray. The Nicoya Peninsula is separated from the mainland of Costa Rica by the Gulf of Nicoya and the Tempisque estuary. From its northern base in the arid Guanacaste lowlands the peninsula extends 140 km to the south where the landscape progressively becomes more moist and hilly.
The most noted feature of the Peninsula de Nicoya are the beaches. Within the vast expanse of coastline are innumerable magnificent beaches with dramatic coastal scenery, and small villages, each with its own distinct charm.
We got off at the ferry terminal where there was only a shed and the bus. It was hot dry and dusty. We leapt ashore and bundled aboard the bus. The bus crawled and scrambled along an upgraded goat track and luckily dropped off the excess passengers at the town of Paquera.
We jolted and bumped for an hour and a half, leaving a tailing dust cloud and at one ford scraping the bottom of the bus along the road. There was a very spectacular sunset over very English-looking fields with hump-backed cattle grazing.
We paid ₡ CRC 80 and disembarked in Cobano which is the local hub of the whole southern Nicoya Peninsula. Roads to all beaches (Santa Teresa, Mal Pais and Montezuma) pass through the small town, and when going from one beach village to the other you mostly have to backtrack via the central crossroad of Cobano. A this time Cobano was little more than a scattering of houses and cattle farms in a remote Costa Rican area. This was the end of the line for the bus.
From here we took a 4-wheel-drive Japanese jeep down the track to Montezuma at a cost of ₡ CRC 50 each. We asked about accommodation at the café, which was full of gringos, and found out that most places were full up. We got a room in the Hotel Lucy with a double bed for ₡ CRC 200 each.
We then went to the café cum bar with Chris, an Alaskan who we met on the ferry, and we met some Canadians who were in fine party mood. Canadians and Northern Americans come to Costa Rica to escape the cold winters. We go from minus 30 degrees C to plus 30 degrees C they told us.
A few beers led on to some rum and cokes and we spent the night chatting and laughing. One of the Canadians, Rick, woke up on the beach, half in the sea, after a vast excess of rum. We were slightly less inebriated than him, but still very much the worse for wear.
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