On to the Pacific....

As I slowly awaken, I hear the loud shushing of a tropical cloudburst on the roof - “Walls of Water” as David calls it, or WoW – Waiting on Weather, the jargon of the oil industry. And then I realize that it’s not rain at all, but the beating of the Pacific breakers on the beach just a hundred metres from our bed. I pad across the hardwood floor and swing open the veranda door: another warm and cloudless day, a light breeze rustling the coconut palms and the passion flower creeper on the terrace roof below. The girls, Laetitia and Wendy are already preparing fresh fruit, rice and beans, scrambled eggs and fried bananas for breakfast and our fellow guests – Costa Rican/Swedish Hans, Emma, and Gustav (6) and Wilgot (1 ½) are exploring the strandline.

Totobe (the local name for armadillo) is in the middle of an untouched, eight kilometre long beach on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, towards thre southern end of The Nocoya Peninsula. It comprises two main buildings set on clipped lawns amongst the palm groves. The ocean is on one side, and dense mixed woodland with palms and flowering trees on the other across a seldom-used narrow dirt road. Emerald humming birds sip nectar from tiny red flowers and household iguanas sun themselves on the lawn. The construction is solid, but open – wooden tree trunks of heavy red-orange mulberry support steep sloping red-tiled roofs. The living area, kitchen and dining area are open on three sides, the eaves of the bedroom are open to the outside, so no air conditioning but plenty of fans to keep you cool. And there’s the pool, too. You have to be careful in the ocean rip currents and so it’s good to be able to relax in the pool when the heat gets to be too much.

It is not easy getting here though! We drive along good tarmac roads down the peninsula from Liberia to Carmona, briefly stopping at a strange Chinese restaurant/bar with swinging red lanterns for an iced tea in 34 degrees heat and then head southwest. I am somewhat apprehensive since the route chosen by the GPS lady lies along the crest of a series of high mountain ridges on the map – while a little further to the east there’s a longer but easier road going through the valley. The road from Carmona deteriorates rapidly into a single gravel track with loose silt and sand. Even David hasn’t experienced such steep and abrupt loose hairpin bends before. The road goes up and up and I quake at each steep bend, praying for this heavy 4X4 to make it. Eventually the road flattens across the first ridge and I manage to stop trembling enough to get out and take a photo of the view – and what a view! Across the Golfo de Nicoya towards San Jose, the islands glittering in the afternoon sun.

 

The ridge road continues for what seems an eternity, ever climbing and swinging, but eventually we make it across and down onto the coastal plain. Plantations of spindly teak trees, with oval  leaves the size of dinner plates, line the roads; we find out later that this is a very fast growing hardwood which can be cut and replanted, helping to prevent deforestation of Costa Rica’s rich native rainforests. The gravel road parallels the coast now through rolling pastureland with Brahman cattle – a short traverse and we’re on the beach! Totobe at last, to a welcoming cold drink and relax.....