Our goal today was to see some of the Pacific coast beaches of Costa Rica and see if we could understand what makes this country such a tourist attraction. Hence we headed south west from Liberia towards the Nicoya Peninsula. In turn we visited the beach towns of El Coco, Junquillal, and Samara. Along the way we had some navigational adventures and got to try the Tiger's 4x4 capabilities. One thing we discovered was that Costa Rican coastal minor roads become a quite interesting challenge during the wet season. The weather was grey and raining off and on all day so the beaches were not shown at their best. Even so we could see their attraction. The beach towns were humble, and a bit funky - or some would say with character - with generally low to mid budget accommodation. We did see some up market hotels and gated communities but these were away from the traditional towns on their own land.
Interestingly we saw a number of derelict very large houses or hotels. Like the camping ground in Liberia at some point in the past a lot of capital has been invested in facilities but then they are now abandoned and rotting. We saw this also in places in South America.
Camping
We found Camping Los Coco in Samara a place that was mentioned in the camping log of some other travelers. BUT ... no lights, no water, difficult access and generally very run down.
So we found something else - Camping Aloha. As you enter the town of Samara take the right turn towards Ostional. The long entrance road is about 200 yards along on the left. The place has water, electricity and cold showers. Because it's the wet season we were able to park right on the beach front. It's a great location but the place is a bit run down. Like the town generally.
