Samara was a really small town, not a lot of tourists, and not much to do, but the beach was two blocks away and so beautiful. Ethan and I woke up early to grab our breakfast then we headed on out to the beach and spent the entire morning there. Ethan was body surfing and I was partly guarding our bags and partly plucking rocks and shells from the shore.
After lunch, we lazed around waiting for what we thought would be another ride to our next adventure. Turns out, we were being picked up to walk back to the same beach to grab our kayaks. Ethan and I shared one and our guide had his own. See the photo on the left below? The island on the left is Isla Chora (Chora Island) and that's where were heading. Kayaking is fun, but it definitely takes a little practice, We were out of practice so it took us about forty-five minutes to get there. I bet our guide could have easily made it out there in half the time.
We walked around the island a little when we got there and relaxed a little before heading out to snorkel. There was a big group of teens there from all over who were apparently in Costa Rica teaching English. When we started to head out to snorkel, Ethan started to get too much water in his mask so he decided to head back while I ventured on with our guide. The water was really choppy and the tides were wild so there wasn't much fish to see, but the ones we did see were very impressive. Plus, it really was just fun to snorkel. There is a calm when you are in the ocean like that and you can't hold conversations and all you concentrate on is swimming and looking, swimming and looking.
When we finally returned to the island, Ethan had already worked his way to hanging out with the young English teachers and was helping the boys in that group with their hermit crab battles in the sand. The island was teeming with hermit crabs. There were also a lot of iguanas in the trees, some of whom were pretty brave and would head down to eat the scraps of fruit people would leave behind.
Day Seven: Trip to San Jose
After waking early to breakfast, we waited around for checkout and another long drive into the main city, San Jose. I think the best part of the trip was the fact that we got another driver who only spoke in Spanish. I felt a little bad for Ethan not understanding, but he really didn't mind since he spent most of these drives asleep on my lap anyway.
San Jose was the worst part of our trip. It was full of people, loud, dirty, and just well, yucky. It was odd/sad that you could tell you were in the city from all the recognizable American stores/fast food joints all over.
Our hotel was old, but was nice enough and it was the biggest of all the rooms we stayed in. It reminded me of really old houses in Manila. Ethan didn't want to stay in and eat dinner at the hotel restaurant so we decided to venture out towards the city. I should've been suspicious of our neighbourhood when we spied a "sexy bar" (a men's club) behind our building. We made a couple of wrong turns, but ended up right in the middle of everything. Interesting, to say the least. We did find a nice restaurant to eat at, where we splurged on our last vacation meal.
When we walked back to our hotel, we got a little turned around and missed our turn. On one street we walked on, there was an Amazonian woman headed our way dressed to the nines in heels and tight clothes. I was wondering to myself if she was not a man in drag, she was so tall. Then, as she passed us up, another woman in uber sexy clothing (if you consider wearing only nylons and underwear on your bottom half to be "clothing") was walking ahead of us. It was only at that point that I finally realized we had strayed into the city's red light district. Ahhh, what a way to end our trip, with me exposing my 13-year old to San Jose's "ladies of the night." At any rate, we had a good laugh then hightailed it on out of there.
If I ever come back here, I plan to skip a stay in San Jose if possible. If not possible, I may not leave my hotel room. Hahahaha!
Here's the best view of San Jose I can offer...
Day Eight: Flying Back Home
We had such a blast and cannot wait to come back. Maybe I can even convince Rodney to buy a house here - did I already mention this? I'm a little stuck on this thought if you couldn't already tell.
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