Bad Country, Part Dos and Back to Nosara

Little point of clarification: Mal Pais means Bad Country. Many were confused, sorry, I meant to integrate the translation in the last post! (BTW the picture above is the view from our hotel on the beach, hollar).

So, Phil arrived in Mal Pais safe and sound and E.J. and I were happy to introduce him to the tranquillo attitude of CR and the beach. Most of the time we spent was watching the sun set or chillin with cutie dogs around town. The boys took to surfing a bit but I mostly just sat on the beach. I wish there was more to report but, really, we didn't do much! Our one activity was to find the Montezuma waterfalls. After a beautiful drive and a short hike we found the first of three waterfalls. I kind of freaked out about the hike (which, in my defense was a bit insane to do in wet flip flops) and talked the guys into throwing in the towel and we stumbled apon a deserted strip of beach and jumped in. Check out the pics that E.J. took of our trip!

Waterfall:

Our own private swimming spot, this was Phil's happy place:

This is my happy place:

The cousins are awesome and it was great to chill with them for a bit before heading back to Nosara. If you have the chance, check out E.J.'s pics on my picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/mahureau/MalPaisCostaRica#

My trip back to Nosara was simple and easy and I managed to stay in a hostel there for a few nights before crashing again with Sarah and a couple of her friends. They were so nice to host me (again) and all three have amazing energy and are doing great work at the Nosara Yoga Institute. I loved them so much that I took pictures of them being awesome on the beach:

It's time to move on from Costa Rica and go home for a couple weeks. My stop in CR was an amazing one and I definitely needed it after South America. I am so thankful for reuniting with family and friends and meeting new, great people. On my last full day in CR, Fred (pictured above) taught yoga on the beach at sunrise. It was my first offical yoga class and I was terrified but there were many perfect things about the experience. He first asked us to write a word in the sand and I of course chose "courage" because of the moment but also for the first half of my trip. He then asked those people to reflect on their training experience and I traced my steps to arriving there. Most of the work we did was partner based and Sarah and I did it together and then we jumped into the ocean. In so many ways it summed up my first leg of traveling. I couldn't be more ready to go back to NH with the family for a couple of weeks.



Bad Country with the Cousins Part 1

It was time for a little cousins retreat. E.J. was to rent a car and meet me in Tamarindo before heading off to the other end of the Nicoya peninsula. He was down to surf and I'm always down to beach so we made a good team. After a couple nights in Tamarindo we took to the road. The hours flew by because the views were spectacular. I had cruised around CR before but this was my first real exploration of the peninsula and it was amazing. Here are a few shots from the drive and our sweet ride:

E.J. and I had one night to kill in Mal Pais before we picked up Phil the next day and chose to stay at a sweet cabina in the middle of the jungle. At night all we could hear was the ocean and birds and in the morning, monkeys. E.J.'s insight was all the sounds we heard are what make up sound machines. Jungle, rainforest, ocean, etc. I didn't get a shot that would do the place justice but I tried my best:

Notice the computer in both shots - I made E.J. watch a movie because I hadn't been able to watch T.V. or movies in a loooong time. We had a very chill few days filled with beach and long beautiful rides and some quality cousin time.

Next up, another cousin comes to visit and a million pictures of sunsets.

Sarah and I find the beach

One of my oldest and closest friends, Sarah, and I were to meet in Costa Rica and travel a bit together for a few days before she was heading to the beach and second home, Nosara, to teach a yoga workshop. Since I had been to CR a bunch of times I was excited to show Sarah the non beachy parts of the country, the volcanos and rainforests and she in turn would show me Nosara a yogi and surfer haven that she had been visiting for 7 years. Needless to say our plan didn't work out exactly how we wanted it to . . . we arrived in Monteverde late in the afternoon and woke up the next morning to insane amounts of rain. Downpour. In fact, it was difficult for us to even venture outside to the supermarket. We decided that we would skip Arenal, La Fortuna and the volcano and head to the beach and nice weather.

It worked! Our 4 hour bus ride took the clouds away and we arrived in Nosara and the sun was shinning. Because were a day early we needed a place to crash for a night and Sarah´s friends were wrapping up their one month yoga teachers training. The two couples were incredibly nice and took care of Sarah and me like we were part of their family. I am overwhelmed with gratitude when I think of them and their kindness. They even sponsored me for a day and I splurged and bought a smoothie and stayed in a nice hotel in Mal Pais a few days later. They were all wonderful people who were at such an interesting place and I feel so lucky to have met them.

Sarah had a few days before she was scheduled to start her yoga training and took me to a graduation of the previous class. It was great to see this kind of subculture and I´m so happy to have experienced it with Sarah and got to know a different part of her life. Here is a picture of us post celebration:

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the ridiculously beautiful beaches here . . . we spent plenty of time relaxing and checking out the sunsets. Sarah´s two friends from college who were teaching English nearby came and visited on one of their last weekends in CR. We all chilled out for a day and they brought me back to their place for the night and took me in until I was to meet my cousin, E.J., in Tamarindo. Again I was fortunate enough to meet such incredible people who were so kind to take care of me! Kelsey and Mike are traveling for the next 6 months or so and have great karma coming their way.

As you can see from my previous posts, Argentina wasn´t the best time for me. It´s great to know that when you need something, it will come to you. I needed friends, people I was comfortable with, and kindness and I got all of it within a matter of a few days. 

Below are so pictures of the beach and Nosara. As always, feel free to check out all my picasa albums at   http://picasaweb.google.com/mahureau/NosaraCostaRica#

Beach cooler:

 View from a house Sarah and her friends rented for the weekend:

Next stop: cousins retreat with Phil and E.J.