Playa Samara
We didn’t get going too quickly this morning, starting with a trip to the bank. The bank had an interesting security system. First they had a guard outside, who told you to take off your hat. Then you had to press a button to open a sliding glass door. You walked in, one at a time, I assume through a metal detector, the door behind you closed, then the door in front opened. It didn’t help much, as the teller wasn’t able to use our Credit Union card either.
After that we bought some fruit at the grocery store, then changed and went to the beach which is about a 500 m walk from this hotel. We found a nice shady spot under some tall coconut palms, swam and read until lunch which we ate at one of the beach cafes. I can see why you don’t see many skinny Costa Ricans — the dishes are very large.
After lunch we moved a bit since our original spot had been taken over while we went to lunch. We stopped in the shade in front of the International Language School which has a hostel-like environment fronting the beach. There were quite a few German girls next to us (there are many, many young women here and very few men that we’ve seen — or maybe I’m not looking at the men!). I’m not sure if they were from the school, but later in the afternoon there was an instructor holding a cultural class (in English) at a table behind us with a dozen students. It was a pretty laid-back class — the instructor was drinking a can of beer while teaching.
Supper tonight was at the Casa Esmeralda, a kilometer or so walk through Samara’s business area. We stopped and looked at the wares at some of the stalls, but didn’t purchase anything. The restaurant tonight was the busiest we’ve had so far in Costa Rica and the food was very good.