Dining in Samara

Our house here in Samara has a nice kitchen and it was our intention to cook a few nights but there are so many wonderful restaurants in town to try that idea went out the window.
 The town is a small beach community with lots of restaurants, shops, bars, and hotels all either on the beach or within a short walk from the beach.
Having dinner on the beach with some live music is just my speed and we found many places to do just that.
 Gusto beach restaurant  has everything from sushi to pizza. It is a great spot to enjoy a drink, listen to music, and watch what's happening on the beach.

El Ancla is another beach restaurant with some great prices and happy hour specials. I just love the fresh fish Casado - the typical meal and for $6000 colones ($12.00) how can you go wrong.

La Vela Latina is another good choice on the beach for  burgers, nacho's, and seafood. The happy hour has the best prices. They just move very slow, slower then the average tico time. Here is where we finally learned the secret to La Cuenta por favor.

El Lagarto is not right on the beach but a wonderful place to eat. They have a large selection of meat, seafood, and vegetable all grilled on cedar wood. The bake potatoes are cooked in the flame oven and are the best.

I even tried the fresh grilled squid and it was very tasty.

Olive Ridley Turtle nesting on the beach in Costa Rica

 

Costa Rica beaches is the nesting ground for 5 different types of turtles, Leatherback, hawksbill sea turtles, the pacific green sea turtle, Atlantic green sea turtle, and the Olive Ridley. We are not here during nesting season but were told that the Olive Ridley can nest though out the year. It was something I really did want to see and there are a few beaches close to Samara that we just might get lucky.  

Right in the center of Samara is Samara Information Center which gives free information on tours and other events going on in the area. That seemed to be the place to check to see what is going on with the turtles this time of year. We were told that nothing had been happening the last couple of days but with a full moon coming later in the week there could be some coming to nest. They took our email and told us they let us know.

Sure enough as the moon got close to full we got an email that a few have been coming on shore and tonight would be a good night to go.

Playa Carrillo

Just a little south of Samara we discovered another of Costa Rica's little treasures, Carrillo Beach.
It is long white sand beach, lined with coconut palm tree, which gives you lots of shading options to sit and enjoy the beauty that surrounds you. Shade is a must, the sun is very strong. The sand gets very hot as the day goes on, so hot people run from the shade of the palm tree to the water. I tried to wear flip flops down but it still gets in between, running seems to work best.

Cuisine by Miguel in Samara, Costa Rica

The owner of the house suggested that we have dinner at Miguel's  one night. He usually cooks on Sunday evenings but when we called he was full but would be happy to cook for us on Monday. 

  Dinner was set for 6:00pm . We walked down the beach to his house where we were greeted by his wife Sarah welcoming us in. Miguel is a taxi driver from Berlin, Germany who came to Costa Rica 16 years ago. Sarah visited 4 years ago from Florida and the 2 meet on her first day in Samara. They live in a 4 bedroom house on the beach with her son and rent the other 2 bedrooms through Air B & B. Miguel loves to cook and hosts dinners for $10.00  per person for a 3 or 4 course meal for up to 20 people.

 

Laundry day in Samara

In picking a house there are a few things that are important to us. First of course is location, beach preferably but if there view of water that is just as good. The house has to have wifi. This allows us to work while being way for a long periods time plus  I like to be connected. I have had some pretty amazing office space views over the years. 

 Next is a washing machine. I love being able to do my wash.

 Most everything else I can make due with but being able to do wash is a must.  

 Today is wash day. There isn't a dryer but something even better a clothes line.

 

Hanging clothes out to dry is not something you see much of anymore. 

 

The man loves a clothes line.
He pretty much makes one everywhere we go using anything he can hung clothes on.
TV's included.

Clothes pins have become part of our travel essentials. 

We got it all here beach, wifi, view, & washer, Happy Day!! 

Playa Samara

The front yard

We picked Samara after reading it was a quiet, mostly undeveloped little beach town with a great swimming beach. This sounded just what we were looking to spend a week and explore the other beach towns to the north & south of Samara. 

 We rented a house on the beach in a mostly Tico neighborhood, walking distance to town. 

 The house was originally designed as 2 units a upper & lower house but the owner decided it was best to rent as one. It was a little funky as both downstairs & upstairs were pretty much the same, 1 bedroom, bathroom, living area with full kitchen, & porch. Both have their own entrance.