Our last full day in Costa Rica started well, with Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, overlooking the beach. We then walked to the estuary end of the beach as we hadn’t explored that end of town yet, it didn’t take long to get there, but as we were walking we were approached my street sellers trying to get us to buy everything from ceramics to cocaine, then when we got to the estuary someone tried to sell us a boat trip. So we decided to walk back along the beach, which was much nicer as that part of the beach was almost empty.

The afternoon was spent chilling on our terrace back at the hostel, before heading out again late afternoon to walk along the other end of the beach and catch the sunset. As there were clouds on the horizon the latter part of the sunset was gorgeous, but too dark to photograph without a tripod, so I enjoyed it with Jen, drinking an Imperial beer and reflecting on a great trip.

I’ve only done one post for our time in Santa Teresa, as they would get a bit repetitive. We’ve been getting up, grabbing breakfast, going surfing, relaxing during the warmest part of the day, watching the sunset on the beach, getting dinner and then going to sleep.

Our cabin has proved to be surprisingly cool at night and we haven’t managed to get any more bites. The biggest problem is the noise from the local animals, both wild and domestic, around sunrise but we’ve got used to it. We also have plenty of wildlife joining us on our terrace, including a woodpecker and a gecko in our outdoor bathroom.

The surfing is really good, the water is warm, but the sun is a bit on the bright side and we’ve both got burnt, although I consider sore arms and sunburn to be signs of a good surf session. We’re surfing on proper boards (8’6 NSP minimals), rather than the soft foam boards we’ve used before, I actually prefer them and will be hiring one next time I’m in Croyde. I was stoked that on the first day, when we had a lesson, I managed to catch some green (unbroken) waves, which are a lot more powerful and was my aim of the trip. Our lesson was good as we had one instructor for the two of us and we both made progress as he was able to spend time with me when Jen had caught a wave and vica versa. On our third day surfing we noticed quite a few seabirds circling around, then behind us a school of fish near the surface, the sort of thing that we would normally see on BBC’s Planet Earth was happening 25m behind us. Amazing.

Santa Teresa is one of the three villages that make up the Malpais area, Malpais is in the south, about 2km from our hotel, with Playa el Carmen in the middle and Santa Teresa in the north. The area feels less touristy than the other places we’ve visited, with only a handful of tour operators, on the other hand the restaurants are great, with both local and international cuisine covered. The restaurants don’t look like anything special, they’re usually just an open sided hut, but the food amazing, I’m not sure I’ll ever get fish burritos as good as the ones here.

There’s one main road which runs through the villages, parallel to the coast, but it is main road in the loosest sense of the term. The road isn’t paved, so the choice of transport for the locals are quads/ATVs, which seem to outnumber the 4x4s and cars. But the walk down to Malpais isn’t too bad in the evening and it is good to nip down to the beach to catch the sunset. Sunset seems to be the main part of the day, with seemingly the whole town on the beach either surfing or watching the sun dip below the horizon.