The Long Road to Samara

My new friend, Danielle, planned a nice weekend away.  She rented a car for the weekend, and after a 3 hour ordeal trying to pick up the rental car, we were headed to Samara Beach mid-Saturday.  Google maps made the coastal, scenic route look easy and fast, so off we went.   Five words: in Coasta Rica, Google lies!  Our '2 hour' drive was dirt/gravel the entire way, the GPS didn't even recognize some of the roads we were on, and it took us roughly 5 hours to arrive at our destination.  PLUS the coastal, scenic route wasn't that scenic, and it was barely coastal.  But as they say 'always an adventure in Costa Rica.'

The road wasn't too busy (for obvious reasons), when it comes to vehicles, but there were plenty of other things on the road along the way: people on bicycles, roosters, chickens, cowboys hearding cattle, dogs, monkeys, big lizards, and A RIVER.  Yes.  At one point, the road went right into a river.  We got out to investigate and thought 'no way.' So off we went to find another crossing with a bridge.  Ps that does not exist.  We found a more shallow crossing, and took the car for a swim.

Just some cows heading down the road....

Scary narrow bridge

The only, very fleeting, coastal view of our 'coastal, scenic' drive

The part of the river we were NOT going to cross.  Yikes!

The part of the river we thought we could handle.... and we did! 

A semi-scenic view from the road

All was worth it though.  We stopped for yummy grapefruit sodas along the way, ended up at a nice little hotel right on the beach, ate some super spicy fish tacos at a local Mexican joint (holy hot mango salsa), and spent most of Sunday lounging on the hotel hammocks and in the hotel pool.

The hotel had a bunch of little haciendas, so this was our cute little casa for the evening. 

View from the hammock (ps there is a lizard on the tree)

Sunset on Samara Beach

 

More from the beach

View from the hotel restaurant 

Needless to say, we took the inland highway back to Tamarindo.  That ride was only 2 hours.  Plus, we saw 2 18-wheelers and a Burger King on the highway too.  Felt just like home....not really.  Haha.