SANTA TERESA, COSTA RICA 20 YEARS LATER! (TRAVEL GUIDE)

Hola! Bienvendios! Welcome to beautiful Santa Teresa! Buenos dias! Good morning Country Collectors and welcome back to beautiful Costa Rica! If you were following along last week you know we explored the beaches of Tamarindo, Guanacaste. Well this week we have ventured South down the Nicoya Peninsula to Santa Teresa, Puntarenas. This is a place that's known for great Surf and some awesome laid-back Vibes. We cannot wait to show you around but before we do please hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. All right let's do this thing! So you're probably wondering well how do we get there. From Tamarindo we booked a shuttle with tropical tour shuttles for fifty dollars each. The ride de Santa Teresa took around four hours and was quite comfortable. If you don't mind taking a bus you know the journey might be longer but you're looking to save some cash that could be a great option as the local buses go all around the peninsula here but I believe it does make two stops one in Santa Cruz and one in Nicoya. If you're looking for apps for the bus times you know schedules we heard that Moovit and Rome to Rio are great ones. In Santa Teresa the shuttle dropped us off at La Posada which is the hostel that we've been staying at. It costs 35 dollars per night per bunk and instead of a 12-person door we were in a six-person dorm this time which is so nice. Less people equals less noise! It has a private bathroom, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, there's a shared kitchen a pool right here and a hangout area with a bunch of games. And included in the rate is breakfast which is really nice it comes with a large pancake and some fruit and coffee. And if you're gluten-free like me they even have a gluten-free option which I just adore. wWell all right let's head out and check out town! And I'm not gonna lie when we turn the corner into town my jaw hit the floor. When I was here 20 years ago there was none of this. There was nothing here. Maybe one or two restaurants, an occasional Hostel along the way. You used to be able to walk down this road here and you wouldn't see a car for an hour sometimes because there was just nothing around. Now check it out. There are buses going by, they have a real estate agents, bars, restaurants, shops to rent surfboards. It's just crazy how much has changed in the last 20 years. Adam has a really funny story when he was here last time about the ATMs don't you? I do. I was actually stuck here in Santa Teresa for six weeks because I ran out of money and the one ATM that they had in the area never had money in it. So I just had to like keep extending my journey keep extending my journey which turned out really well because this is an incredible place to be but I actually ended up having to go to the next town over the night before wait in line so that I could get money as soon as they put it in the ATM the next day go back pay my bill and then head on to a new place. It was, it was just like such a different kind of experience. Like when was the last time you just couldn't get money, they just wasn't available to you? And now that is obviously so different because there are like just standing where I am right now I can see three ATMs just in this one little part of town. Down here where we're staying is known as Carmen or Playa Carmen. The roads are still dirt here so we can get a little dusty. You'll even see people out watering in front of their businesses to help keep that dust down. If you continue North you'll get to Santa Teresa which has been paved since I was here and just beyond that is Hermosa. If you go south of town you'll go to Malpais. If when you come here and you're looking for a lively area to stay I would say Playa Carmen and Santa Teresa fit the bill. If you're looking for a little more laid back and quiet area Playa Hermosa and Malpais will be for you. Down here on Carmen we've really enjoyed The Roastery and The Bakery here behind me. They're great places to come down relax grab a meal and some nice cold Costa Rican coffee. Or hot. Or hot you can go hot too but it's a little hot out so ice me baby! Now if you're looking for some local grub, Soda Playa Carmen has been our main stay. Sodas are typical eateries here in Costa Rica that serve up traditional dishes like Casados. Here we have been going with the fish or pescado Casado which consists of white rice, black beans, fries, the fish and a little salad all over 4,000 Colones. And it is huge so it's been filling us up all day which has been great. Absolutely and it's fun to say Pescado Casado, pescado Casado. No, Casado Pescado. And if you're looking to cook your own meals there are plenty of supermarkets in town here. The one we've been using is Ronnie's Market they have a great selection of both local and imported goods so you can get pretty much anything you want. Just remember though because they're imported the prices can be a little bit higher so keep those peepers peeping and make sure you know what you're getting when you go to the register. And you know we have been really enjoying Playa Carmen here it's so nice to come out early mornings and just take a walk before it gets too hot. It gets scorching hot here so definitely make sure you're waking up early to enjoy you know just the environment without trying being drenched in sweat. But in the mornings you can see there are people doing surf lessons. There are surfers out here all day long I believe this is where the beginners go. And then our second favorite thing is to come out here for sunset because it is just gorgeous. Grab a couple drinks from the supermarket lay a towel down and just enjoy. You can see the dogs are enjoying it too! And on Saturdays right behind Restaurant Playa Carmen on the beach here there is a little market from one until sunset where they're selling all kinds of stuff like clothing, bathing suits and some jewelry. It's a nice place to just kind of come down break up your day and you also get this beautiful view. While you're walking around town you are going to notice there are bright red ATVs cruising around everywhere. As things are quite spread out here it is nice to have your own wheels to get around and explore. We've been walking mostly but today we are renting an ATV so we can go on a Grand Adventure with you! As you're walking around you're gonna see there are a lot of places to choose from but we chose Savannah Xtreme Tours because of their great reviews, their lovely staff and their ATVs. They are all brand new 2023s and they are powerful and they look good too! How You Like Me Now? Paula just walked us through all the ins and outs of the Quad. Shifting, breaks, rules of the road. Make sure you are wearing a helmet when you're driving around because it is the law and we care about you Safety First! It's $80 per 24 hours but they also offer great rates on weekly and monthly rentals. And if you're looking for a tour guide they can do that for you too. Take you to all the best spots in town. We'll include their Link in the description below of all the info you need to come down and get an awesome one of these quads right here. All right let's hit the road! Just like two minutes in and that was so much fun. I ended up actually grabbing this from our place and I'm wearing it because it is so dusty so you're going to want to have something to cover your face for the dust. But we have just made it down here to Santa Teresa Beach so we're gonna head out here and show you a little bit of it so come along! Welcome to Playa Santa Teresa. One of the main beaches here in the area. It's just gorgeous. They have a sign here that reminds us we need to protect the environment it's just so precious. Remember the Earth does not belong to us we belong to the Earth. No fires it might affect the turtles that are coming in to lay eggs. They also have a cool little sign here that reminds us to pick up any plastics we might see on the beach. They actually have these gallon containers here you can pick up bottle caps and smaller. Stick them inside bring them back leave them by the side and someone will actually come and pick them up and take them to the trash. The ocean is such an important part of our lives and the world you have to protect it people love the ocean it's going to make your life better. And just over to the left here is Banana Beach Restaurant. We've heard if you're looking for a great bite to eat or something to drink to pop in here. Adam went in what yesterday and he came out and was like that was quite fancy. And this weekend on Saturday and Sunday they also had a surf competition right out here. So we get to come down and enjoy that which was a lot of fun. The guys and girls were just out there ripping it up. Speaking of Surfing that is the main draw. I feel like that is what puts Santa a Teresa on the map. So if you're looking to come learn or you already know how this is a great place. They have you know there's a lot of different areas for beginners, intermediate and more advanced. If you're going to come and you want a surf lesson we've seen them starting at 60 US Dollars and going up from there. And then if you want to just rent a board you can also do that as well but we just recommend that you talk to a local you know someone that is knowledgeable about this environment because there are currents and as you can see there are rocks in the water. So we just want you to be safe! And I love it there's just a random horse wandering down the beach living that Pura Vida life. You know one of the things we have noticed is that there's not a lot of people swimming here. There's a lot of people surfing, there's people kind of standing in the surf but not swimming. You have to be careful of the rip currents here. It can be dangerous. We did find a place just on the beach that was sort of sheltered between rocks where you could go swimming. There were a bunch of dogs hanging out it was really cute and it seemed like the people were having a great time. Yeah so it seems like you just gotta kind of go out and find in those swimming beaches. Absolutely and we have seen a few lifeguards sort of like interspersed around the entire beach here so that might be a good option as well. Kind of find a life guard where you can swim in front of that just so you can have that little extra layer of safety. Just continuing North from the beach we have found ourselves in like the town of Santa Teresa. You can see it is now paved which is great I can put this down as it is less dusty. Here you're just gonna find more of everything. More cafes, restaurants, boutiques hotels stuff like that. Across the way here is Burger Rancho it says that they have live music at 7 pm so there is a bit of a nightlife scene here. And then down here is Eat Street. We haven't been there but we heard it is great as well as Nami for sushi which I know we're gonna try out maybe tomorrow. And something Adam's been looking forward to is checking out Zeneida's. It's the hostel he stayed at when he was here 20 years ago and it's just down the street so let's go there! Behind me here is the entrance to Zeneida's. When I Was here 20 years ago it was one of the only places to stay in Santa Teresa. The entire walk from the town to here was just dirt and jungle. Now there's little mini malls along the way, boutiques so much is different. I think I'm gonna have to go in here and just check it out quick come with me. So this is probably closer to what it was like when I came 20 years ago. A few hammocks in the trees, a building where there were maybe a couple of rooms that had dorm beds in it. It's very different now. There are a whole bunch of private rooms that go down to kind of create a hallway down to the ocean. And what's crazy is that this is the same tree these are the trees that we used to sit under we would wander down here. There weren't cell phones then. We didn't have TV. We didn't even have power all the time. But what we did have was this incredible view that we would come out and share with travelers and talk about the world. And I think honestly it was one of the most significant trips I ever took because I never experienced something like that before. And it all happened right here with that same stand between my tootsies. This is really cool and I'm so glad that you had to come down and share it with me but right now let's go head back and see what else we can find! Hey hey! How was it? Oh man what an experience. I mean it's like a whole different world down there. Oh I'm sure. Well I have just just been roasting out here so what do you say we hop on the quad we're gonna head to the Montezuma waterfalls. Been looking forward to it. But hopefully stop at some places along the way. I love that idea! Let's get on! So we just drove from Santa Teresa down those bumpy roads and we are now here in Malpais. We're gonna go to this beach called Playa Cuevas which means Cave beach right? And while we parked this lovely gentleman Jesus just approached us. He's like the security guard here. But he also does some tours and he rents snorkel equipment as well. So why don't we head down to the beach and see what it's like. He said he'll watch all you know he watches your cars and all your stuff so you can you can leave stuff here if you want and then when you come back you can just give him a tip for it. All right let's head down. And I can say I really like the feel of Malpais. It's a lot calmer. You don't hear all those you know cars screeching by those motorcycles. And you're just surrounded by nature here heading down to the beach. It's just in front of us. Adam just stepped on and it looks spectacular! Wow! This is stunning! Welcome to Playa Cuevas! It is such a pretty beach here. I'm so happy that we found this I definitely did not get here the last time I was in Malpais but man this is a good one! Yeah we're just sitting on some driftwood under the shade of the tree trees here. Like Jesus said it's better to come early in the morning because the waves are rolling in, I think the tide is coming in right now. But yeah bring your snorkel equipment if you have it if you don't rent some from him. Behind us here is Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve which is actually the first protected Reserve established in Costa Rica. It doesn't seem like you can that you can actually go into it right here. There's a big sign that says no tourism but there might be another entrance someplace else. There is. It's actually, we're gonna cross right now and head over to Cabuya and that's where you can enter. You can go and park there and I heard that you can walk like 10 kilometers in to a nice a really nice beach over there. And along the way you can see a lot more you know animals and maybe even a sloth. I don't know if they have those in this area. Or a coati. Like howler monkeys stuff like that. So yeah there's a lot of stuff as you can see just right here in this area. I know it's so great. I think that's one of the best things about Costa Rica is it's so heavy on the nature. Like wherever you turn there's just another beautiful natural thing that you can really take in. Yeah well we are gonna get back on that quad and head over to Cabuya. Ooo we'll Cabuya over there. We'll see you there! Welcome to Cabuya. We were just talking how it sounds like a karate chop! But yeah I took about 35 minutes from Malpais. I was driving so I was going a little slow you could definitely get here faster. Oh yeah it was nice being chauffeured around. We basically saw nobody else in the entire ride here maybe just one other vehicle. Dirt road below us, jungle around us and the blue skies above. It was like a dream. Yeah but when you get here you're gonna come to a T. And there's a sign over here. It says that Montezuma, if you turn left it's 7 km that way. And if you were to go straight down here that'll take you to La Playa, the beach. And then if you turn right it'll take you to Cabo Blanco, that nature reserve as well as the place we are gonna take you right now so come with us! Behind me here this is the reason that we brought you here. This is Cabuya Island. And I know you're probably thinking, "Heidi it's just an island what's the big deal?" Well on the island there is a cemetery, Cabuya cCemetery and it's been a burial ground since the 1700s. If you want to go check it out, we can't right now because the Tide is High, come at low tide and you can actually walk on the sea floor out to it. As always be very respectful when you're doing so. But I saw that there were some light posts up here so it looks like you can go out at night as well when it's low tide. So yeah this is a nice little stop along the way along your day if you would like to come out here but try to time it with a low tide. Even if it's not low tide it's still absolutely beautiful down here. We have the fishing boats behind me to frame this perfectly. We're the only people down here. I think that's something that I've been appreciating more since coming back this time to Costa Rica. Before it was just you out here. Now there's a lot more people sharing in these beautiful things so you have to kind of look for these moments like we're having right now. The wind is on my face, the waves are breaking. It's so nice and I'm so glad that we get to share it with you. But you know what I'm getting a little hot right now so we're gonna hop back on the ATV go over to Montezuma and chase some waterfalls! Come with us. We just had to stop because along the way we've been passing beautiful beaches like this. This might be the prettiest one though we had to pull over so you could check it out! Look at the color of that water. It's BLUEtiful! Definitely almost the Gatorade blue Brady we're talking to you! Yeah or like from Cancun. Oh man it's so gorgeous. tThe palm tree just kind of hanging over, the birds are chirping. This is such a beautiful country. Yes it really is. All right let's keep going! We have made it here to the Montezuma Waterfall and we just parked the ATV in the secure lot right next door it costs 1,000 Colones so bring some cash with you. Behind me here they have a little board with a picture of the waterfalls. I didn't know but there are three of them. The first one is 27 meters then 12 meters and then four meters. And over here there's some rules for your safety like stay on the trail and don't jump off from the falls. Well what do you say we head in. I think it's going to be about 20 minutes to the first waterfall. I can't wait to get in this! Let's go. And just as we stepped on the path we saw this guy right here he was selling coconuts. They're so cute they're these little ones so of course we had to stop and fuel up because we haven't done much of that today we've kind of been go go going. They're not cold but they are still fantastic nice sweet coconut water. Delicious! I'm not sure if you can eat the meat from these ones I'll have to ask him but all right let's finish these up and then get back on that trail! Yes! Nice right. Let's do this! Cheers! It's a little rocky be careful. I love this. We're just at the beginning and you can already see the water trickling down the rock here. And something we forgot to mention was the best part about this is it's free. So anybody can come here as many times as they want and take it all in. Let's keep going! A nd there's not really signs posted telling you where to go but I see there's people coming up down from up there so we're just gonna cross the river here and head up and see where it takes us. But I think, I mean you can't really go wrong if you're following where the water is coming from because it's going to lead you to your destination. So I definitely recommend wearing like closed-toed shoes or strappy supportive sandals like Tevas or like mine they're off brand but they are getting the job done! I never thought I would wear I always thought they were kind of dorky but oh my gosh who am I trying to impress. They are incredible. They're actually like my go-to shoe here. So if you're looking for some footwear to bring to Costa Rica I'd recommend getting something like this. And look right here they even have ropes that you need to hold on to for safety to get across. Look it's right there it looks so beautiful there's actually some guys up on this cliff right here. Looks like he's gonna swing out on this rope swing. Here he goes! Oh with the front flip. I love it! I might have to show him up though. No I'm just kidding. But wow I love it look at this view! All right let's get in! Wow it feels absolutely incredible. I love when you do something hard, well the hike wasn't that hard but the heat was hard today. And then you get this beautiful reward. The water is like this perfect chilly, you know not too cold but just so refreshing. Let's go swim out a little bit by the waterfall and feel the power! Yeah girl. You can feel the current it's so strong. We're gonna get there though. And the spray! Are you going under it? I don't know it seems dangerous. Well that was amazing I feel like it just brought us back up like reinvigorated our souls. Two to ten baby two to ten. Yeah and while we were in the pool we noticed behind us here there's actually a trail that we think leads to the other waterfalls but be warned it's pretty serious like very steep. Some people were coming down on ropes. If you don't have the right footwear or enough time I don't recommend doing it. Yeah um I would like to do it but we don't have a lot of gas in our tanks right now so we're just gonna let the others do it. And if you do it let us know how it is but while we're here enjoying this beauty we would love to give a shout out to our new Patrons: Sherri, James, Ben, Chelsea, Sofia, Michelle, Michael, Lara, Romero, Faith and Perla! We appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts. This adventure in Costa Rica right now is because of you. So thank you for being a part of it. Yeah we love sharing everything with you and we know you're always here with us in spirit so thanks again. And if you would like to join our Patreon community we will put the link in the description below. Alright it is time to go get some food. We are both getting a little testy, barking at each other a little bit. So we're gonna head into Montezuma and find a soda hopefully or just another place to eat. We will see you over there. We have found ourselves here at Las Palmeras. We asked that gentleman who gave us the coconuts where his favorite little you know Soda was and he pointed us this way. The first thing we started off with were drinks and I almost finished mine already. I got the blended pineapple juice. It's so delicious and Adam went with this typical beverage it's called Resbaladera. It kind of reminds me of horchata from Mexico. It's made with milk, rice and cinnamon and boy is it good! And he told me I could only have a sip of it because I only gave him a sip of mine but I had to have another one! Delicious! We're just waiting for our food so we'll see you when it arrives. Oh my gosh they just set the food down and I think our eyes were bulging out of our heads. I mean it looks and smells so delicious! Yes this plate right here we got Arroz con Mariscos. So it's a mix of seafoods. There's some looks like mussels, clams, calamari and I don't even know. A little half of a crab! There's some shrimp and probably some fish in here. And it came with some smashed plantain. I feel like do they call this a patacones I believe. And then a little salad and Adam... I got the beefsteak Casado. That's that traditional dish you were telling you about that comes with the beans the salad the rice and it came with this beautiful piece of steak. It has some onions on top! Man! And I love the the presentation with a little plantain leaf underneath it. Well what do you say we jump in. Let's jump in! Oh my gosh I just had some of the calamari. So fresh! Like I said there's some fish in here. I also just had a shrimp. Look at that bite! Man you better save some for me! I don't know about that. It smells so good. This is definitely a winner. That steak looks perfect! There's so much flavor in that. It's like a simple marinade but it's really very present on your tongue. Perfect texture to it. I am digging this! You've got to come down here and try it out. We're gonna be full after this! It's gonna be so nice. Wow. Great way to end our day! It is. As you can see it's getting quite dark. We kind of had to eat quickly because the sun went down and we don't want to be going back in the pitch black. That must be what they mean by Comida Rapido. Yeah eat it up you know we're good at that! But one thing I was mentioning to Adam I would love to come stay here in Montezuma. I feel like it has that vibe I was wanting from Santa Teresa. But you know over there it seems to just have been developed so much so you kind of like missed that laid back in nature atmosphere. I mean I love, I love the dirt roads. I know it's harder to drive on your car it's harder on your car but it just it makes it so much more like special. That little extra grit that they put into it. And as you're driving along and you look out and through the trees you just see the waves breaking. Yeah it's gorgeous I mean it's gorgeous everywhere around here. And we want to to take you to Manzanillo for Sunset but unfortunately obviously we ran out of time but we heard that as kind of like how Santa Teresa was maybe like 10 years ago. And you know as Adam has been talking about like he was here 20 years ago so he has seen like it changed so much. And I would have actually been interested to do that but you know what I still really enjoy it here. I still like the vibe. It's just different. They still have the Pura Vida, it's still here. But you know what great places get touristy because they're so great. Of course people want to come here. And we just wanted to touch quickly on you know with the good times with all this development these new jobs these new things there are some downsides too. Yeah so when you come here just be conscious of that. A lot of the times the locals have had to that we've talked to and actually had to move away from town because the rent's gone up so much. The prices of food the prices of fuel. Things have just gotten more expensive and that goes both ways. Yeah the even stuff like Workaway. You know it seems very harmless but you're taking a job from someone that would normally work at a hostel when you volunteer. And I would have never thought about that until a local told us about that you know. And when you go into a lot of the restaurants you're seeing a lot of foreign workers there which normally like you would in Mexico say you would see all Mexicans but here it seems like it's just kind of been like taken over by foreigners. There's a lot of foreign investment which yeah it's good and bad. If you're giving back to the community, great. But if you're just here to profit off of the land and the Costa Ricans... it's it's not so good. I know and you know we're not very political and we don't like getting into this stuff but we've noticed it a lot here so just when you come here be conscious. Really you know and when you see businesses that are owned by locals like the sodas go in there and support them. Yeah support them remember one of the most special things about Costa Rica is the Pura Vida. It's that simple life. It's those incredible vibes they have. It's choosing happy so let's not lose that let's make sure we keep that and we keep those locals happy. Yeah absolutely. Well thank you so so much for being here with us. It would have been nowhere near as much fun if you hadn't been here to share it with so thank you for that. Yeah if you enjoyed this video please give us a big thumbs up, comment subscribe and don't forget to.... DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the bell! We'll see you, next time! Pura Vida! Pura Vida!