As we plunged down the final stretch of unpaved dusty road I sincerely began to wonder if we would find actual civilization at the end of it. We emerged from a heavily wooded stretch of road to find Santa Theresa, an adorable little rustic beach town on the Nicoya Peninsula. The sidewalks were non-existent, the roads were rocky and covered in that familiar molasses covering they use to keep the dust down. The shops were small along with the few open air restaurants. I'm not sure there was a building there that would hold more than 30 people comfortably. It quickly became clear from the signs around town that this place was all about surfing, yoga and fresh food. PERFECTO! Finally, we pulled up to our Hotel. The gorgeous Hotel Horizon, set off the main road on the side of the hill that towers over Santa Theresa. We were shown to our cabin up some very steep cobblestone steps. We had made it just in time for sunset.
Maybe I was just elated to finally be on our honeymoon, or perhaps I was relieved to not be trekking through the rain forest to find help for our broken 4X4 but this was the most beautiful sunset to date. We had a phenomenal ocean view with a beautiful eco-friendly cabin complete with a deck and a hammock. I kind of warned Rob but I had booked us into a yoga retreat. It had really good reviews and was moderately priced for the region. It had an Eastern feel with the main reception being a tea house, complete with a rooftop open air yoga studio. I was in heaven!
To my somewhat surprise, Rob loved it as well. Our view was hard to beat. The waves were so big and loud it created the perfect white noise to lull us to sleep. The yoga space was absolutely amazing. This picture doesn't do it justice but imagine this view at sunset with the sound of the waves crashing in the background. This was a pinnacle yoga experience for me.
The only slight catastrophe of the whole trip happened the first night. We left to walk into to town for dinner. We had carried the top to our wedding cake the entire trek from Tamarindo. Rob was super excited to finally get a slice of our cake after dinner. Well, I forgot about some of the issues involved with tropical climate and left it sitting on the kitchen counter. When we returned from dinner there was a very evident line of sugar ants from the floor to the cake. It was covered in ants. Rob was so disappointed he tried to bite into it anyway. I had to do the dirty work and save him from himself. I quickly snatched it from him and dumped it in the trash. C'est la vie. Twin Otter Cake; you were kinda cool but not worth ingesting full of bugs.
I won't bore you with all the trip details but here are a few of the highlights of our 3 nights in Santa Theresa. We played in the ocean, lounged by the pool, got a couple yoga sessions in and did an excursion to Tortuga island.
Tortuga island was very relaxing. We did a little snorkeling then hung out the rest of the day on the white sand island island. On the 45 minute boat-ride home we saw a mom and baby Orca whales swimming side by side.
However, I think Rob and I were equally as excited about the little town of Montezuma where we launched. It was a colorful little backpacker town set on a rocky beach. We ate breakfast at a small cafe and enjoyed walking up and down the street. We heard there was a nice waterfall there but we never got to visit it. We vowed to return someday.
Finally, if you ever visit Santa Theresa, which if you like surfing and yoga then you totally should, go eat at this place called Pure. All of the food we had in Santa Theresa was fantastic, very fresh and super delicious, but Pure was our favorite. We stumbled on it one night when we met up with Steve for dinner. The ambiance was very contemporary with funky wooden tables and decorations. Our food was delicious and presented amazingly. The drinks were awesome despite a rough start with some sour sangria. They made up for it with free glasses of delicious sangria and passion fruit shots to cap off our meal. Our chef even came out to see how we liked the meal. The biggest surprise was that we never expected this amazing food to be available in such an out of the way tiny beach town.
The whole time in Santa Theresa was magical. I mean adult disneyland fairy princess magical. I loved it. Wish we could go back tomorrow. But alas dreaded money and time will prevent that in the near future. Pura Vida! That saying really began to make sense after a few days here
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