We LOVE Costa Rica. We've been traveling there since 2001. We particularly like a small little hard to reach surf town, where the waves are gentle, the town has character, there is a good community of Tico and ex pats. The surf described as old guy long board waves by my husband is always fun to launch into, and there is yoga...mmmm paradise right?
We have thought of buying a winter home there often and have spent a couple of days tooling around with a real estate agent looking at property and houses. In the end we love it there but want to see more of the world and always decide against making a permanent move. However, we always go back. It's the one place where I step off the plane, exhale deeply fully and actually can relax. We have stayed for as little as 7 days and as long as 7 weeks at a time in our little beach town so we know it pretty well. I'm not telling you the name of it on purpose!
This time we brought our friends with us who have a 5 year old and a 7 month old. We have brought friends here many times and everyone has loved it s much as we do. It was our first time traveling like this with our baby too. We spent six months planning and preparing our friends for this trip making sure we had just what we needed and nothing more. We are seasoned travelers. We are not flashy, we don't bring anything of any real value with us, we stay low key. We blend in. We try to impres this upon our friends when they come too. And they did a great job of it.
The town as grown so much it makes my heart a little sad. I liked the old school surf town, the one with no bank, no one selling stuff on the beach, no malls no grocery stores within easy distance. I like that we lined up on Monday and Thursday for the produce truck as it rolled through town.
Even though it's grown it has it's charm and it is still a very small beach town free of resorts and chains. There are lots of family's, surfers, yogi's, beach dogs and this time....robbers.
Fin on the beach.
Day Two Our house was broken into. The safe stolen off the wall. Our friends lost their passports, wedding bands and some money. The jokers attempted to get into our house too which was on the same lot but were interrupted...so we were spared any loss of physical property but our holiday was STOLEN. Take anything just not the passports- what a pain in the tail to replace! We moved houses as no one felt safe. The Costa Rica version of the FBI arrived to investigate. While petty theft is common break and enters are not. This really rocked the little town and the news of our incident spread like wild fire. Some thoughtless a-hole broke into our home looking for cash or perhaps small electronics to hawk. They weren't looking for passports. Lesson learned NEVER remove your passport from your person and NEVER use safe unless it is buried in cement. We know the house was targeted it was not us. It would have been the next group into the home. That makes me feel a little better. It was such a cowardly thing to do. It would not have happened if we were home. We didn't leave anything of value out in plain sight. There was never a danger to our person.
We tried to move forward and make the best of the vacation but that invasion was more than any of us could shake. Karma is going to be that robber's bitch I hope he cut himself with his crowbar and gets gangrene and leprosy and scabies and mouth ulcers and a spider lays eggs in his ears and a scorpion makes a nest in the front of his shorts and a monkey pees on his head.
The Pare' Family
The Priest Family
Fin at Sunset
One of the fun rituals of this town is gathering to watch the sunset. Everyone. I mean everyone in town, heads to the beach for sunset. The last surfers ride a few waves, we sip a beer , the beach dogs
frolic while everyone watches the ocean
swallow up the bright orange ball of sun.
More to come about our beach vacation ... now I must unpack!
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