We are passing Limon, the hub of all containers transporting bananas, pineapples, papayas etc. to Europe. Further south is Puerto Viejo, the little village, that people love for their reggae and Rastafari vibes, party and surf, and much more as we find out within the next days. As always, I need a while to tune in. Tune into a place, its vibe and people.

We almost instinctively, follow a rough road along the beach for a few kilometres. At the end of the road, right at the beach, is our house.
This is where Josi lives, the Israelian guy who came here 5 years ago and built his dream house, where the jungle meets the ocean.

Our beach hut in front of the beach house:

This is truly off the grid. The house is built with open windows, just mosquito nets. From our big porch we can see the sloths in the trees and the waves running smoothly. Surfing in front of our Robinson Crusoe house on our private beach break seems like the biggest luxury on Earth:

Here, at the end of the track, it is like an arrival. An arrival to ourselves, to nature, to our love and truth. It feels like there are no limitations. There is this feeling of being madly in love. With what is. With life. love & gratitude.

What makes you feel alive?

There is a concept of things, that make us feel alive. I feel very alive, when I feel a deep connection to myself and what resonates within me. It is a bit like a drum, that found its unique sound and rhythm. It is like playing the drum and be happy from the music that comes up. Every drum sessions inspires to be more playful, to try new things and to open up to those around.
The surest way to feel good is to love and take care of your self and to honour the beautiful journey of life.

We wake up early and watch the sunrise over the ocean. We spend our days surfing, doing yoga, drinking out of coconuts, and taking long naps in a hammock. Everybody is on beach cruisers, we have our sundowner listening to reggae music, spontaneous jamming sessions, extensive talks to the people who come here or live here.

Puerto Viejo is full of free hippie spirit, surrounded by jungle and ocean. A very unique place at the end of the road:

Koki, our favourite chillout restaurant

One of the coolest jungle things we saw was the chocolate tour with the purest jungle cocoa. We were given a complete tour and taste of how artesan chocolate is created…

one of the many jungle creatures here in costa rica

cocoa beans ready for being turned into yummy chocolate

cocoa fruit, containing ca. 50 cocoa beans

a very funny looking thing

On the final days, we had our private family surf spot, a gentle but large right off this point, Punta Uva:

Happiness lives at the heart of each of us, and it’s within our power to awaken that happiness. We must choose happiness, especially when it feels hard. After all, happiness is not where you are, happiness is who you are.

We had heard rumours about high winds (wrong time of year). Instead we entered a world of jungle, a beautiful lake at the foot of a volcano, and a funny town filled with “things to do” ranging from lying in thermal hot water, to hiking and biking. We opted for zipline and horseback. It was horribly expensive but fully worth the price as we zipped on lines 100m above ground and up to 1km long across waterfalls and right through the jungle.

Lago Arenal

If you have money left over, you have plenty of options here. We instead opted to head away from the tourists, to the Caribbean side, down towards Panama. On the road again…

count the pineapples…

Gerry enlightened by the sunset

endless beaches

It is all about surf culture, nature, healthy living, local art and products…

In the jungle, there are some huts and restaurants, some surf hostels and shops. Not much. We stay in a beautiful place in the jungle. Every afternoon about 30 monkeys with their babies jump into the huge mango tree, grab a mango, take some bites and throw it on the street. A nice way to have an organic healthy fresh delicious snack.

The streets are rough with holes, so that we have to circle around the holes to make it through. When we were just leaving the house, Gerry pulled to the side to give us a smooth ride. Suddenly we hear a loud crash, the front screen has a big hole and glass pieces are all over Gerry. Luckily nobody got injured. It took us a second to figure out what happened. We crashed into a big brunch of tree that stuck out on the road. It hit into the front shield, went then sideways and scratched the whole side of the car.

These moments make you realise how life is a precious gift. We were lucky that the brunch did not go into the car.

Nosara beach is surely one of the best in the world, miles of sand with powerful sets rolling in and now buildings in sight.

We pick up our rental car and spend the first night in a hotel close to the airport. http://www.hotelbrillasol.com/
But still, it feels already a bit like in the jungle, for sure Costa Rican with the typical Costa Rican breakfast with rice, black beans etc.

We have done a bit of talks and research about Costa Rica. I trust my Swedish connection, recommending Santa Teresa.
We head towards the Nicoya peninsula through the lush tropical rain forest.
From Punto Arenas we take the 1.5 hours ferry to Paquera.

We heard, that 4×4 are a must, but as we did book a normal car, we go for the adventure of driving off road with our funny rental car. Sometimes we have to drive slalom around big holes in the unpaved road, sometimes we have to cross little rivers…
Santa Teresa unfolds its beauty at an unpaved road along the Pacific coast.
We do not have accommodation yet, we check out the area, the beaches, the surf breaks and several beautiful locations with ocean view. Finally, we are lucky at Peter Ottingers Iguana Lodge, right at the beach.  http://iguanalodge.com/  Peter is an Austrian longboard champion, who came here in 2004 and bought a great piece of land right at the sea. In the morning you can swim in the tidal pools or you can choose among several beach breaks. He came here before there was any road or infrastructure, enjoying the waves with very few others. Today, he has a prime spot with legendary full moon parties with bonfire, life music or him DJing. Still, in the morning, he checks the waves and goes for a surf session, does his yoga with ocean view and reserves time for his lovely wife and daughter.

The Pacific coast has great swell these days and we are looking for the smaller waves…

We do some rental hopping to the tommy relax place and the tropico latino.

Yoga with waves rolling in

Bondfire at the beach of Santa Teresa

just chilled

family time

girls in tune

more chilling

la vida with ocean view and the sounds of the waves

super foods from super man

At Santa Teresa, there is an amazing vibe. The little village has attracted expats, that decided to live the endless summer life.There is an immense number of very healthy and happy looking people from various countries. You see them on their bikes in tiny bikinis with their surfboards on the dusty non paved roads.
They seem to be happy and relaxed, doing yoga and going to surf, enjoying the community and the purity of nature, being kind and caring. But is this enough?
There is Tommy from Italy; he is a chef and ski instructor – just sick of the high taxes in Italy. There is Christophe from France – a yogi with long term experience in India, who wanted to find his peace of mind. There is Maryann from Cape Cod, who feels in peace and in best company in Santa Teresa. There is Aleja, who has had her job in the hip advertising agency in El Salvador and trying to go surfing every morning until she decided to dedicate her life to surfing and moved to Santa Teresa.  There are many more from Florida, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, etc. who love the remote place with gerat vibes and great people.

pura vida surf

the perfect place to enjoy & progress

Where jungle meets the ocean

sunset surf

family wave

Olam – the best choice to be happy

smoothie heaven

Olam, at the Nautilus hotel, a tranquil yoga-lovers retreat, is an amazing healthy food place with delicious food in a great environment. When you do your yoga upstairs, you get the tempting smell of croissants, scrambled eggs etc.

food for yogis and surfers

go green

happy vegetarian

A must is the bakery – amazing food and great people.

Sienna in heaven

yummiieee

ready to surf

Our surf mobile

yessss

tommys place – name speaks for itself

Best pasta West of Madonna di Campiglio – made by Tommi

and shared by lots of kids at Tommis

When it gets big in Santa Teresa, we head to our private familty spot Cabuya, with a beautiful long right…

cabuya parking

getting ready

girls after their session

after surf glow

Montezuma Bay

Montezuma Art

here and now

no better place