Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula

Exploration started with the Nicoya Peninsula. We covered most of the Pacific coast, staying in various formal and informal campsites, until we reached Montezuma where we spent six days perched on a beach under the trees. The grumpy lady renting the cabin in front of the beach was not happy about this. There we were, hammocks spread out, chairs, stove (it did not take long for us to make ourselves at home). And all of it for free, with the best beach spot in town I would argue. Locals said the beach was fair game for all, so neither us nor our neighbours (two hammock dwellers and Max who biked from Peru) planned on moving elsewhere.  We enjoyed the evening stars that would fill the sky and the turtle sanctuary, along with the other beauties and challenges of wild camping.  Volunteers patrolled the beach in search of turtles, once found the eggs were relocated where they could be safeguarded from poachers and other wildlife.

At about nine o’clock it was already too hot to move about. So we would settle in for individually prescribed siestas.

As we moved around the peninsula the road conditions were far from what we expected in Costa Rica.  But before Brett would get frustrated with the wash board rattle that loosened most of the screws in the car, the river crossings made for some fun time.

Onto a more serious discussion, as we try to solve our ant problem which was slowly getting out of control. First step was ignoring it, with hopes it would go away, apparently the ants were also hoping we were going away and tried to take over.   Furthermore while driving Brett noticed a monster of a spider looming above his head in the car.   We quickly exchanged looks, pulled half way off the road and jumped out of the car.  Neither of us are squeamish about spiders or other creatures, but this fellow meant business.  Unsuccessfully, we tried to get the spider out, instead he got deeper into the car.  It was time to get some bug killing spray for our van.  So in a vary inorganic manner we solved our ant problem.  The whereabouts of the spider however remained a mystery, so we emptied the entire contents of the car in search.  Next step was googling in hopes of identifying a big, but harmless spider.  Like googling diseases, it proved to be a horrible idea.  First contestant was the worlds most poisonous Brazilian Wondering Spider, considering we were not getting in bed with that, we googled more until the next match proved to be less murderous. We survived the night and moved on from the beaches into the hills of Costa Rica among the more friendlier cows and chickens.