In the morning, we had our final breakfast at Hotel Tangara. By this time I was going to weep if I had to eat another banana, but fortunately they switched up the fruit so we got to have pineapple and papaya instead.
We drove in the rain most of the way back to Ruta 1. This meant we didn’t get to see the spectacular views of Lake Arenal that I had hoped we would. It took us about 3 hours to get from La Fortuna to Playas del Coco. We found Hotel Chantel without too much difficulty. It is situated on the side of a very steep hill, which we were impressed our rental car was able to climb.
We originally planned to stay at a different hotel, but after a week of eating every meal at restaurants, we decided we had to find a place with a kitchen, so that we could eat in once in a while, and so I could actually take leftovers home. Hotel Chantel did not disappoint – the kitchen was spacious and stocked with all the service wear and cookware we needed!
For lunch, we drove down into Playas del Coco and found a soda (that’s what Costa Ricans call little Mom and Pop restaurants) where we could get some casados. Of course there was a little dog hanging around looking for scraps. There was a woman outside the restaurant who was selling pinchos, so Dave bought one to give to the dog. He was such a sweet pup, he would eat one piece and wag his tail and then look up shyly, and then Dave would give him another piece. He was so grateful that he followed us to the beach afterwards.
We weren’t impressed with the beach itself. It was small and dirty and noisy. So we ended up going to other beaches for all our beach days, which of course I will tell you about in upcoming posts!
That evening, we watched the sun set at Playa Hermosa, which was just north of Playas del Coco, and where we would spend most of the next day.
Check back tomorrow for a review of Playa Hermosa! (Aren’t you impressed that I’ve been posting every day for the last several days!?)
Uncommon Heather 