Cow Wrestling and Beach Hunting

Holidays in Costa Rica are nothing but an adventure in the true sense. As in all our holidays we try and go to places that we haven’t seen before and this time we went to what we thought was a very busy part of the country. The northern pacific coastal region called Guanacaste. It is about 5 hours from the capital but close to the charter airport of Liberia. We travelled over a brand new bridge built by the Taiwanese government, imaginatively called the Taiwanese bridge. We then travelled over to the coast and to a little town called samara and expected it to be busy and with plenty of hotels but we found a muddy street of about 3 bars and 2 hotels that were all but empty. There were the obligatory American students but it was basically a ghost town. We found a great little hotel with fantastic gardens and a pool all for $55 a night including a light breakfast. It was so nicely constructed that I took many pictures. We travelled south along the coast and were trying to make our way to the southern beaches that were shown on our tourist map, we found our roads blocked by flooded fords and washed away roads and we had to travel on mountain dirt roads that resembled farm tracks. Huge washed away sections of road and landslides got us very worried and with the compass we had we were driving in the wrong direction, after 3 hours we couldn’t see the coast and felt lost. We stopped a passing motorist and he told us we had missed our turn off 5 miles back and we should follow him to the town, it was horrible driving over these broken dirt roads but we felt like adventurers. We arrived at our town of destination and found 1 grocery store and 1 house, this was getting very remote , we pressed ahead to the beach areas and the roads felt a little better and we got to the beach area and found nothing what so ever other than a few poor houses, no shops or hotels or even cabins for rent, this was turning into a nightmare as we had 50 miles to drive back to our nearest town, but thought there must be a hotel for us, so we continued, we asked for directions and the locals looked at us like deranged aliens, “WHAT” was the reply, “No you cannot drive there at this time of year, all the rivers are full and the fords unpassable, so we took directions to the nearest hotel and after 10 miles of very broken roads we ended up at a river ford that was 30 meters across and looked 2 meters deep, this was insane and the day was getting on, we had to back up and go back to where we started and ask again. We tried a different route and finally got to the beach area and found a single hotel that had a name tag ‘the boutique hotel’, now that frightened me to start with as it spells expensive in my head. We went inside and it looked very nice in the lounge and dining room area, we asked to have a look in the rooms and the bedrooms were miniscule with only just enough room to get around the bed, I was shocked and when I asked the price, the receptionist replied ‘that is $100 plus taxes’, basically $125 for one night, I laughed out loud and didn’t even bother trying to bargain, we were the only people there in low season and they were asking a stupid price, screw them I thought and walked away as the day was drawing to a close. We had another 50 miles to drive mostly in the dark and over horrible broken roads and the car was starting to make a nasty clanking noise as it hit any bump, we drove through fords that splashed over the bonnet and I was getting a little worried as we didn’t have much gas left either and the roads were as bad as anything I have ever driven over. We travelled on and on and the road finally started getting wider and not as broken and we managed to get into 3rd gear, woohoo, even a few houses and 4 street lights as we got within 10 miles of the town we were heading for. It was hard nerve wracking driving and not for the faint hearted and we were utterly disappointed with the place being so undeveloped and remote. We got to town and found the only gas station within 50 miles and a place to eat. We asked for the local hotels and were told there were only 2 and 20 miles away. We arrived at the hotel at 10 pm and it was deserted amongst abandoned shops and businesses. We were welcomed by the receptionist and given a room, totally deserted. It felt like a ghost town. We walked around the next morning and found the whole area in a total economic downward spiral. We saw a condominium with a for sale sign and I went to have look around. There was 1 house only built and it looked old and run down and the house was occupied by a nice old Italian with a very young Costa Rican wife. The house was very nicely built but so exposed and he was complaining the local thieves were busy all the time and I got the impression that he had been the victim many times. The garage was occupied by some small bats that were as interested in me as I was in them. We caught the local ferry back from the peninsular to the main port town on the west coast. Punta Areans is a nasty port town with lots of abandoned buildings, again looking very run down. We travelled out of town to a tiny beach village and asked in the bar for any rooms and were pointed to a French guys house where he rented rooms and for $30 a night he gave us a huge room with on-suite bathroom and all very nicely constructed in tropical hard woods including the floors. The gardens were so very tropical with coconuts and palms and many tropical flowers and fruits. While we walked around we found bats hiding under the coconut palm leaves and many night herons in the trees behind the house that sounded like ducks quacking. The French guy was crazy about cooking food and convinced us to have all his food, we gave in and he cooked Paella the first night and the huge mountain of seafood he used was beyond belief, it was the finest food I have eaten in a long time and the next night he cooked Chicken Chasseur and again in a huge quantity leaving me stuffed to the brim. The last day we had decided to go for a walk over the hill to the side of the house across a small river and through some fields as I wanted to see what birds were in the fields. We tried to find a path and after climbing over barbed wire and wading through mud and cow shit several inches deep we found ourselves on the wrong side of a muddy creek and after going back over the wire and through more mud and shit we encountered a huge herd of mangy looking cattle. They didn’t move as we approached and just stood and looked, Jenny wasn’t happy at all and asked me to leave them as they looked mean, I wasn’t afraid as I am a lunatic, and as I got closer 1 very mean looking steer with a small calf started scraping the ground like a torro in a bullring, this had Jenny running the other way shouting warnings, I was laughing at her and again kept going forward, I glanced back and saw Jenny was vaulting the fence very fast and as I turned round the cow charged and I had no chance to run, so I stood my ground and as the cow lowered its head to drive some imaginary horns into my belly I punched it hard on the nose and held it as hard as I could at a distance. The punch did the trick it spun away back to its calf, this of course also had the desired effect on me, I was feeling scared as there was about 200 of them and I cannot run as fast as I used to, so I backed away and realised that it was futile to try and carry on with this walk, I walked back through the shite and mud and tried to walk on water by jumping through the water but my feet got wet anyway. My heart was still pounding 5 minutes later as we were walking along the river back to the hotel and I was laughing about my cow wrestling adventure but it was a crazy thing to have attempted. As we walked along the river I saw a flock of pink birds feeding in the field we had just left and I used my binoculars to see they were Roseate spoonbills and some White Ibises and one huge wood stork, so all was not lost, three new species for me and a lesson in bull wrestling. The hotel was a fantastic place and so perfectly quiet and so close to nature and even the display of Fireflies at night were enchanting to me. So one more crazy adventure in Costa Rica and one more close shave with disaster.