As the summer flat season descended upon the east coast of Central Florida, it was once again time to head for the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. This page contains a few of the best pictures taken during this trip. See our  Nosara Hotel and Travel Guide for travel information and links to other sources for trip research and planning.

 

Last year, 24 other people went with us for the same week. This year it was just my wife and I (so we thought). But as it turned out, half the people at our motel were CFLsurf.com readers, so we had lots of good company. Credit for ALL the surf pictures goes to Suzanne Cruden. I was in the water most of the time.

This is what it looks like out there in Nosara Bay (Playa Guiones) on a real fun day. Nice shoulders, 4 to 6 feet+, glass. This stuff is great for both longboards and shortboards. That's my son Mike of Solas Productions and CRmercado fame. He was on his way from the Popoyo Surf Lodge to Jaco and stopped by Nosara for a few days while we were there.

The above shot is what it looks like at 5:00 in the morning. We had morning and evening high tides the week we were there. I preferred the higher tides on my longboard, but many short boarders preferred the lower tides (no rocks on the surfing beaches). The winds were off-shore every morning. In this shot, the wind was really ripping, but a few minutes later the wind had died down to the usual light off-shore range. That wave is easily 8 or 9 feet, and is the first shot of a 5-shot sequence in the People and Places slide show. Click here to go there now. This is looking south towards the short boarder's break (near the Harbor Reef Motel) from the end of path near the Gilded Iguana. Some shortboarders down there beat me out every morning, but not by much.

This is Stuart Gracey from Delray Beach, Florida. He was definitely one of the higher skill level folks there that week. The first two days were 6 to 9 feet and very closed out. The swell was just rolling straight in and shoulders were hard to find. But on the morning of the third day, a nice tilt started showing with long rights and fast lefts. That afternoon it was dead calm and double breaking at high tide. The inside break was crunching right on the beach at about 5 feet. That's the day most of the really good shortboard shots came from. They were just killing it. See the pics from this session starting at page 7 in the Surf Action slide show. Click here to go there now.

The above two shots are high skill level locals having a blast in the high tide shore break. These were not end-of-ride airs. Those guys kept going after both of these shots! For more action surf shots, see the Surf Action collection link at the top of this page. Suzanne shot about 1000 surf shots. I filtered the collection down to about 400 for the slide show, but the entire collection is out there on PicasaWeb if you want to see them all.

We stayed at the Gilded Iguana, just 250 yards from the main longboard break (and also the spot where all the high tide shortboard pictures came from). A regular in the area is Eddie, who roams the area from sunrise until well after dark selling pottery and baskets. He has been there every time I have, so I am sure you will see him. I told him that soon I will have more of his pots than he has. His prices are about half the price of similar stuff at the airport gifts shops. If you want a pot, buy it from Eddie. Tell him Papa Ross (the camera guy) sent you. He asked me at least 6 times to take his picture, so I am sending down a bunch for him. He works very hard for a living. His pots are beautiful.

Yup, that's me. Since I write this stuff I get to stick my picture in every time. This is before 6:00 AM, since I made it out between 5:30 and 6:00 every morning. We had surf every day for 10 days in a row. Since Delta Airlines charges $200 and has an "if space available" clause, I didn't take my own board. Instead, I rented a board from the Nosara Surf Shop. Other shops that rent boards are Coconut Harry's Surf Shop , Pancho's Surf Shop, and Juan's Surfo Surf Shop. Juan doesn't have a surf shop website yet, but his shop is located about 200 feet north of the Gilded Iguana. Just send him email for information. Surfboard rentals start at around $15 a day ($75 for a week) for older boards and pop-outs like the one I got. Premium boards run about $120 a week. You have to fill out a charge slip for a deposit equal to the value of the board ($500 for that thing I had, $800 for a premium board). If you break the board, you bought it. Nosara has a relatively forgiving wave compared to places like Playa Hermosa, but I am sure it can break your board when wave size goes above 6 feet. We had 6 foot plus sets come in every day, even on the smaller days. If you book through one of the surfing travel agents and fly into San Jose, your board bag may go free. But on the major US carriers like Delta, American, Continental, and even Sprint, you have to pay extra. Always ask about the board bag policy. We flew into Liberia this time since it is only a 2.5 hour drive. But Liberia is a little hard to get to and tickets cost more than to San Jose. I recommend booking through one of the surfer friendly travel agents: Surf Express or Worldwide Adventures. Look at CheapTickets.com to get an idea what flights are available. Keep in mind the surf travel agents may have special deals that will beat the best you can find on your own.

This is the resident mascot at the Gilded Iguana. I think it lives in a tree trunk just a few feet from the NW corner of the restaurant. It let me get pretty close to take this shot. They can move very fast, climb a tree just about as easy as running on the ground, and I am told they will bite if you grab them. But don't worry, it isn't likely you can get this close. It took me 5 minutes of very slow creeping to get this shot.

On the path down to the beach from the Gilded Iguana, you'll see lots of these guys. If you don't, just stand still for a minute and watch the bushes. They see you long before you see them, but when you stand still they creep back out from their hiding places. They are very colorful and have big pinchers. Don't let your kids try to catch one.

On the day we drove over to check out the castle (the old Nosara Hotel), these two girls stopped us and asked how to get to the "main road". They went for a short walk and ended up well on their way to Nicaragua. A 1000 yard walk on the beach puts you about in the same spot as a 3 to 4 mile drive on the main roads due to the way the roads are laid out. We took them with us up to the lookout dome of the Nosara Hotel, and then back to the Cafe Paris. They would have been walking for a long, long time. Study the map, or always return the way you came on a hike. Nosara is a relatively safe place and is a common destination for families and young travelers. But don't leave valuables in your car, don't wear expensive jewelry or watches, and always be aware of your surroundings. Remember Costa Rica is very poor country, and your $300 camera is worth several months pay down there.

It rained quite a bit during this trip. When it rains, it REALLY rains, but it never lasted more than an hour or two. Nosara gets very busy in their dry season (our winter), but was pretty quiet during our stay. The roads were very bumpy from the pot holes, but the mud wasn't bad. Once again I never engaged the 4 wheel drive. I timed the last 20 miles to Nosara (the dirt road). It took 55 minutes from Nosara to the paved highway that runs from Nicoya to Samara. You could do it faster, but why hurry, it's a real scenic drive.

This is Stuart, Bryan, and Matt from Delray Beach, Florida (CFLsurf readers!!). You can see these guys tearing up the waves in the surf collection, and Stuart got the super air ride featured near the top of this page. You will meet a lot of really nice people in Nosara. Many come from Florida, but we met people from Canada, California, Hawaii, South Carolina, and Cape Cod (wherever that is) on this trip. Most of the people at the Gilded Iguana were return visitors. The guy with the big red longboard you'll see in the surf collection (also from Delray Beach) had been there 15 times. This was our 5th trip to Nosara, and third stay at the Gilded Iguana. It is sort of nice seeing the same people every year.

Just after I shot the cool picture of big lizard (several frames above), I looked down and found this little girl standing right beside me. This is my favorite picture in the whole 1500 shot collection. All five frames I shot of her came out super. I am sending 5 x 7 prints to her mom. I doubt that the local folks have very much in the way of high tech electronic gear (like digital cameras), so I think they really appreciate the pictures I send to them.

One of the highlights of the trip is to hit the beach every evening around 5:30 PM (unless you are already out there surfing). The lighting is just perfect for pictures and the sunsets over the pacific are awesome. Every night! This was an extra good sunset. The mist from ocean spray caused a special ring effect and orange colors that lasted several minutes. I had just come in from surfing, and Suzanne was holding the camera. So she gets credit for these shots. I just told her to point the camera and keep firing. I think these are the best two frames, but there are a bunch more from this evening in the full collection. That's it until next year. Check out the slide shows (links at the top of the page) as the frames posted on this page are just an introduction.