Sun, fun and funk in Samara

It's important when you're down here to remind yourself that this is Costa Rica. It's not Hawaii. And it's not Mexico. There is a substantial tourist infrastructure here, but it's not a completely developed country. And that's fine. As one tourism consultant told me, Costa Rica's competitive advantage is its amazing natural resources and eco-tourism opportunities. If it tries to turn into Cancun, it will lose.

Which is a long way of introducing this post on Samara, which is somewhat of a funky beach town on the Nicoya Peninsula, on the Pacific Ocean. In many ways, Samara reminds me of a smaller Manuel Antonio, except without the National Park. The upside of no national park, however, is no tourist hordes. I was only able to stay in town for 24 hours with the parents before coming back to San Jose, but the whole time I couldn't help thinking that we nearly had the place to ourselves.

What really brought the funk, however, was our hotel, Brisas del Pacifico. Clearly, with its faded paint and tacky architecture, its better days are behind it. And it was somewhat disconserting that the worker behind the counter first tried to take us to the worst room in the place before we corrected him. But once we were there for a little while, the funk soaked in and eventually felt even a little bit charming. The cabanas on the beach, with a bar just a few feet away, were definitely a nice touch. And we had the top section of the hotel, which compenstated for the steep, long stairway up the hill with amazing views of the Pacific, almost completely to ourselves.


All in all, Samara is just a little too far from San Jose to make it a cinch for a weekend beach trip, but was a nice way to check out Nicoya. There didn't seem to be any cheap hostels, but there looked to be some low-priced hotels. Unless you want to eat at a soda, the food isn't cheap either (We ate dinner at Las Brasas, a Spanish restaurant in town that served up a mean paella and refreshing gazpacho, although the service left a lot to be desired. We ate lunch the next day on the beach at a place whose name escapes me, but offered some delicious, although pricey, chicken and mushroom quesadillas). It's definitely worth returning to, although I hope that my bus doesn't have mechanical difficulties on the way back to San Jose next time. It wouldn't be Costa Rica, however, if there wasn't bus drama.