March 21-29 we went to Nosara, Costa Rica to meet up with friends who were going there for their US Spring Break. Our journey started by traveling on Copa Airlines from Santiago to Panama City (all Copa flights go through Panama City). I got to see the Panama Canal from the plane! From Panama City, we continued on to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. We wanted to give ourselves a buffer in case something went wrong with the flights, so we stayed one night in San Jose, in a suburb called Alajuela. We had fun exploring the little town square, and the boys enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool!
The next day we took a puddle jumper from San Jose to Nosara. I was a bit nervous that I would get motion sick on such a small plane (there were only 14 people including the two pilots!), but it was actually fine. The boys loved being on such a small plane, as you can imagine. If you fly from Denver, there are direct flights into Liberia, and from there you can drive 2.5 hours on a VERY bumpy road to get to Nosara, which is the way we went when we visited Nosara 3 years ago with Mike, Leah, and the girls. However, this time it was much cheaper for us to fly from Santiago to San Jose. From there, we could drive 5.5 hours or take the puddle jumper. We decided on the puddle jumper, which was still cheaper than trying to fly into Liberia and drive from there.
In the puddle jumper, we fly right over the Nosara beach, which is much longer than most of the others in the area. It is also protected in a bay and has a nice sandy bottom and a very consistent break. All of these features make it a perfect place for beginner/intermediate surfers, which is the main reason to visit there. It also has a very healthy, hippy vibe, with lots of yoga and workout studios. At low tide, the water is super shallow for a couple hundred feet, so it's the perfect beach for families with young kids to jump and splash in the waves. Another huge plus is the ocean is WARM! Compared to Chile where it's so frigid you barely want to stick a toe in, here the water is so warm, everyone can play. The land right next to the beach is protected, so there is no development right on the beach itself, which is nice. Makes it feel more natural. There are also lots of healthy restaurants with banging smoothies; it is the tropics after all. Mangos, papayas, pineapple, and bananas abound. I made it a goal to have a fresh smoothie everyday, and happily I met my goal. There are a few downsides to Nosara. One, it is not cheap. Basically US prices for food and lodging. Two, it doesn't feel very authentic. No one speaks Spanish, and culturally it feels more like Socal than Central America. Third, it is hot AF. Daily temps reached 95 degrees, with about 80% or higher humidity. So we would try to spend our mornings at the beach, but by 11am, it was getting too hot (and let's face it, Emerson was reaching his daily sunshine limit), so we'd often have to come in and spend 11am - 3pm inside in the A/C, or at least in the shade in front of a fan, or at a pool with shade.
The highlight of the trip was getting to hang out with our friends from the States. Included in the crew were Jeff and Amy Schopp and their two boys Wesley and Julian, and also Mike and Leah with their two girls Iana and Kaia and their new guagua Tayo. A third family Sean and Jaime Tokarz with their daughter Cora were there as well, but they unfortunately left before we took this group pic.
We and the Tokarz family stayed at a place called Casa Romantica, and we loved it. It had its own walking path to the beach, so super convenient to go back and forth. It had a nice pool that was shaded in the afternoon and could fit the whole crew. They also served breakfast every morning, so Drew got a nice break from cooking. 10/10 for value and location. If and when we go back to Nosara, we would definitely stay there again. It was also nice to have the Tokarz there as well, as we got to hang out with them at breakfast and in down times.
On Wednesday night, the parents left the kids home with sitters and went out for an adult dinner at Coyol, a super lovely dinner spot atop a hillside with great sunset views. Thanks for planning, Leah!
Unfortunately Emerson got an ear infection early on in the trip. Despite a pretty constant fever, he was a trooper, and we were able to manage things with meds and ear drops. However, when things weren't clearing up by Thursday, we took him to the doctors and got him on some antibiotics before our flight home on Saturday. He was fine after that, but then Avery came down with a fever and sinus pressure as we were leaving. Not sure if it was the same sickness or different, but I'm ready for both boys to be healthy.
The Dads got lots of surf sessions and volleyball as well. So nice to catchup with friends.
