Road Trip to Playa Hermosa, Jacó, Costa Rica - Day 2

We highly recommend the hotel we are staying in - Terraza del Pacifico Hotel Resort - right on Playa Hermosa, just south of Jacó. Our off season rate is excellent, the beach is almost deserted, restaurant not crowded and today I had the pool all to myself. Two pairs of scarlet macaws flew by. It seems, for today at least, we are the only ones here other then a group of surfers. It could be much busier on the weekend when people who work during the week take off for the weekend. Off season (also called green season) is a good time for hotels to catch up on repairs and this hotel is doing some sprucing up, painting of buildings, some dead tree removal, and so on. But none of it affects our stay. Expats know this is a good time to travel throughout Costa Rica.

Breakfast is included and it’s not some skimpy buffet. Brought to our table unasked was coffee, a selection of fresh fruit and orange juice. Then we were handed menus with a large number of items to choose from. The most expensive choice was $9.00 USD but we received no bill at the end of our meal.

My choice, a ham and cheese omelette. I stole some gallo pinto and a piece of queso fresco from Lance. 

Then we decided to go for a drive and headed south to Quepos and Manuel Antonio  This is a very nice drive on a good highway with tantalizing views of the Pacific Ocean popping up now and again. One thing that amazed me were the kilometres and kilometres and hectares and hectares of palm tree plantations. This so intrigued me that I did some research and found out from the Tico Times that these palm trees are used for making palm oil.

We turned around at the Manuel Antonio Park and headed back to our hotel. This is as far south as we have been in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is a place we think we would like to stay at for a few days. 

The surfers I mentioned earlier were out catching waves early this morning and I took quite a bit of video footage of them which I’ll post soon. They are amazing - like human seals. So comfortable in the water and strong swimmers.

Dinner last night was very good - large portions. Here’s what I ordered - shrimp and a white fish in a tomato sauce, stacked vegetables and two really good potatoes with cheese.

And, oh yes, drinks! A green tea martini for me and a concoction for Lance - the name of which escapes us now!

Howler Monkeys, Playa Espadilla and a Fairchild C-123 CIA/Iran Contra Cargo Plane

On September 15, we loaded Kermit and our suitcases into the car and headed off to Playa Espadilla, Quepos, on the Pacific Coast.

On the drive to the coast, we stopped for lunch at El Avíón restaurant. This is a fun place to have a meal and the view is spectacular. I ordered ceviche and Lance had pasta with clams and prawns, which he said was excellent, as was my ceviche.

You must go to the restaurant’s web page (see link above) to get views of the Pacific Ocean and to learn the history behind how and why this airplane ended up where it did in Costa Rica - it’s really interesting.

Some restaurant photos:

The bar area in the fuselage:

The restaurant was not too far away from our accomodations, Buena Vista Beach Villas, a small boutique hotel with eight units - steps away from the ocean. Many Costa Rican hotels/resorts offer excellent discounts during the green, or rainy, season. Our room was 30% off. It was a unit away from the restaurant so it was private and quiet. The rooms are comfortable with air conditioning and a large outdoor covered patio.

The staff are excellent, friendly and helpful. Loungers are available on the beach and drinks and food can be ordered and delivered right to you.

We stayed two nights. The ocean is so close that we could hear it at night - there’s nothing better then falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves.

We ate all our meals outdoors:

View from our covered patio:

View of hotel from the beach. Our room was on the lower right.

Kermit enjoying leisure time on our patio, he gets over excited.

 

Some of our delicious meals:

Beach video:

Sunset photos:

There were two doggies at the hotel - one was the resident dog (an old fellow):

And the other one was this sweet little girl. She would gang up with the old fellow to chase horses on the beach.

She lives not far from Buena Vista and when her owner goes to work, she spends her day at the hotel. Here she is keeping Lance company. She would visit us in our room and also sleep beside my beach lounger.

The local monkeys are early risers - both the howlers and the capuchins. They can be difficult to spot but I made a video of them from our patio climbing through the palms. The haunting sounds of the howlers are not something one forgets.

We are also putting together a car cam video of the trip.

Beach Day

Our friends, Gloria and Paul Yeatman, (Retire for Less in Costa Rica), organized a different kind of Beach Day on Saturday, February 22, 2015. They arranged with the Pelicano Hotel, Beach Bar and Restaurant to host a group of over 30 expats for a relaxing day at a different beach.

In the past, we have gone to Playa Doña Ana, in Puntarenas. The Pelicano is in Esterillos Este, between Jaco and Manuel Antonio/Quepos on the Pacific Ocean. There is 11 miles of secluded beach front. Beautiful white sand and strong breakers. We had a room to change in, use of the pool, hammocks, chairs and BBQ lunch. I had the pulled pork sandwich with sides of beans and potato salad, plus a fruit drink.

There was a man in the bar watching an Olympics hockey game. It was surreal to be in a tropical setting and see the frozen rink so far away. Everyone had a great time and it was fun to try out a different beach. More pictures of our day can be seen here, on the Pelicano Facebook page.

 

 

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At Last! The Video Series of Our Road Trip to Buena Vista Beach Villas Completed!

On September 15, 2021, we left our house in Puente de Piedra, Grecia, for a road trip to the Buena Vista Beach Villas in Quepos. We spent two nights there and returned home on September 17, 2021.

I did a blog post on our little trip and you can read it here.

We also recorded our drive there and back with our car cam. There was a lot of footage to organize - Lance did a great job with this. I did the editing and posting to YouTube.

So here they finally are - nine videos of about 15 minutes each starting with number 1 through to number 9. Some people may enjoy seeing what the roads and driving conditions are like.

Video 1 - off we go!

Video 2 - Entering Atenas and then Hwy. 27 west:

Video 3 - Hwy. 27 continued and through the coast mountains, bypass highway 34, and carry on to the Tarcoles/crocodile bridge:

Video 4 - Hwy. 34 continued:

Video 5 - Hwy. 34 continued, thru Parrita, palm tree plantations:

Video 6 - Arrive at El Avion restaurant in Manuel Antonio, end at Buena Vista Beach Villas, then heading home:

Video 7 - Heading home, Hwy. 34 north:

Video 8 - off Hwy. 34 north, onto Hwy. 757 east, then Hwy. 27 east, then radial to Atenas:

Video 9 - Through Atenas, then shortcut to Grecia via Hwy. 716  and onto home:

Road Trip to Playa Hermosa, Jacó, Costa Rica - Day 4

Holiday is over - time to head home. We had our last vacation breakfast, sitting in the open air restaurant right beside the beach - watching the waves and the surfers. This time I ordered granola with yogurt and this came with coffee, orange juice and a large plate of fresh fruit.

Final hotel and meal costs are as follows.

Room: $59.29 USD per night x 3 nights = $177.87 USD

             Taxes.                                          = $  29.13 

             Total:                                           =  $207.00 USD

Full breakfasts are included in these rates. We had a superior ocean view room on the ground floor. Two double beds, AC, small refrigerator, wifi, safe, small sitting area outside. The hotel is two stories high. We prefer the ground floor because there is no elevator to the second floor.

We ate dinner twice in the restaurant for a total of $86.65 USD, including drinks. Lots of different selections and the portions are large.

Staff at the front desk, on the grounds and in the restaurant were all really nice and obliging. We highly recommend Terrazo del Pacifico Resort.

Travelling in Costa Rica in the off season is the way to go. Hotels and restaurants are not crowded. I had the pool to myself. Room rates are drastically reduced. Everything is so green because this is the rainy season. That doesn’t mean it rains all day every day. Sunny mornings, cloud in the afternoons and then maybe some cooling rain - or, better yet, a spectacular lightning storm over the ocean. Also, we travel during the week (Tuesday to Friday) because the weekend traffic can be very heavy. This is when the office workers are headed to the beaches.

A few random photos and a video I made.

Hotel at dusk:

Silly stuff:

Olocuita Island, part of the Manuel Antonio National Park:

Marina Pez Vela, Quepos. Some really ritzy yachts moored here.

One of Costa Rica’s Guardacostas (Coast Guard) patrol boats in the front. They have much larger boats also.

Does anyone know what this was used for? It was across from the marina.

A video of the beach in front of our hotel. Surfers up and out early in the morning.

https://youtu.be/H8aB9GOGaHo