Coco Beach Costa Rica

We went to Coco Beach for the day with a few of our friends. We took two taxis from the Sol Papagayo Hotel and paid $20 for each way.

Coco Beach was pretty nice. There are lots of shops to buy souvenirs, lots of restaurants, bars and night clubs. There's a large grocery store there where you can buy everything and it's pretty cheap. We stocked up on cigarettes, cheap wines, some fruit drinks and snacks.

The beach is quite nice with a lot of yachts and boats out on the water. It's a white sand beach with clean blue water. Most of the people we saw on the beach were locals. We had lunch at this greasy spoon type chicken place, I can't for the life of me remember it's name, but the lunch was a bargain price.

We walked around the shops and bought a few things. Dave bought his wife and my husband blowup crocodiles so they can use then around the pool because neither of them can swim. They were really cute floatation devices for kids. Lots of pool fun was to be had later at the pool with the Crocs.

My husband and I bought a few t-shirts, flip flops, earrings (very nice beaded ones), a long sun dress and a couple of shirts which are either called Bermuda or Hawaiian shirts. Don't know the lingo these days. I also bought a beautiful Panama hat for $10 (remember, we were supposed to go to Panama) and I'd always wanted a Panama hat. The sad thing about the Panama hat was that I put it in the luggage compartment overhead and this fat lady threw her back hat on it, totally crushing the thing. I was so upset because I'd always wanted a Panama hat and it was completely destroyed.

Oh, well, I have to get to Panama one day is the meaning of this lesson learned. But we did get to Nicaragua and see some nice things and some lovely little Colonial Granada hotels.  The whole place was really charming and we went and saw not only Granada, but a volcano and many other cities - all in one day, leaving early in the morning and getting back late at night.  It was so exhausting.

The stores at Coco beach had lots of great souvenirs to buy and going to Coco Beach is worth the day trip.

Weather in Costa Rica is hot, hot, hot.

Volcanic Sand Beaches

The beach near our hotel was a black volcanic sand beach. It is called, as I said, Panama Beach. It was an okay beach, but nothing spectacularly beautiful, unless you walked quite a while down the beach. It gave me the impression that it was kinda uncared for.

Thought I'd post this picture of my feet after a walk on the black sand beach. The sand is really black, no kidding! Although it's not the greatest beach in Costa Rica, it was okay for strolls along the beach during the early morning and the day time. It offered a change of scenery from the pool at our hotel. However, we were warned not to go out on the beach at night because it could be dangerous. So we never did.

We went to some other beaches including Coco Beach which was a $20 taxi ride away. Coco Beach is a little beach town, lots of restaurants, bars, clubs, tourist shops selling stuff. But more about that later.

Bonus: walking on sand is good for your feet – it's almost a free pedicure, once you get your feet cleaned off from the volcanic sand.

I included a pic of my feet with the volcanic sand on them and a picture of Panama Beach by our hotel.

Playa Panama

In reference to my older posting titled "Not this time for Panama," I thought I'd put up this photo of the Playa Panama rode sign. Just because it's kind of ironic that we were planning to have a holiday in Panama and we ended up going to Costa Rica and our resort, the Sol Papagayo resort was on Playa Panama. Funny how things work out in the end.

We found this sign on one of our many walks in the hot day sun.

Not this time for Panama

We ended up in Costa Rica. It was reading week and also the family day holiday when we decided to take a vacation in the sunny south. It was next to impossible to find a cheap vacation package anywhere. We had originally tried to go to Panama for a week's vacation, but all the hotels in Panama were sold out. That could have been a drag, but it wasn't. We discovered Costa Rica because the only all inclusive vacation package available was a week in Costa Rica at the Sol Papagayou Resort.

We flew with Sunwing. Leaving the cold dreary winter behind, we landed at night at the airport in Liberia. It was hot and humid. Lined up to go through customs and then a 25 minute bus ride to the resort.

Our hotel room was a bungalow, complete with sunken living room area, large bathroom with a giant shower and a bedroom with two double beds. Nice. Clean.

We woke up and had breakfast the next day. All inclusive. Free food. Good. Then we watched as a pack of howling monkeys screeched and darted and jumped through the trees to get their breakfast of unripe mangoes in the trees. The howling monkeys make the most awful noise of the jungle - if you are ever lost in a jungle and wonder what that awful noise is that you're hearing.

The ironic thing was, even though we didn't make it to Panama, the hotel resort was actually on what was called "Panama Beach - Playa Panama." The beach was okay, not that attractive and only a few palm trees on it. The beach is black volcanic sand. I prefer white sand, but what can you do when all the places you want to go are sold out.  However, even though we didn't get to Panama - we did take a one day tour to Nicaragua.

Anyways, we took a short walk on Panama beach and then rushed back for the 9:00 orientation meeting where we were given an introduction and they tried to sell us the tour packages. More about that later.

We met some great people, Patricia from Peru, Don't Travel with Dave Dot Com, a star from the show "Jersey Boys", Wayne The Cop, a complaining mother and her nymphetta daughter, and lots of retirees who couldn't seem to make up their minds about living in the north or living in Costa Rica. (after my vacation is over, the decision should be obvious).

Anyways, that's it for my 2nd posting on Costa Rica.

Hola Costa Rica

Hola Costa Rica!

On February 15th I flew to Costa Rica with my boyfriend for the first time. What A fabulous vacation!

We are staying at Sol Papagayo. It's a 2 and a half star resort, quiet, but very nice.

Playa Panama in Costa Rica

The beach at the Sol Papagayou Resort in Costa Rica - called Playa Panama, Panama Beach, is a black volcanic sand beach. There are a few palm trees and the beach gets better looking when you walk further down the beach.