The picture below was taken a few miles south of Nosara near Playa Garza. This part of Costa Rica is serious cattle country. Cattle have the right away, so take care in passing. If you are considering a trip to Nosara, you will want to examine our Nosara Hotel and Travel Guide.

The surf was 8 foot plus for the first two days. Below is Playa Palada at a place called Olga's. The boat moored out there is probably about 25' long. That outside break looks rideable, but it breaks kind of slow. I have never seen anyone try to ride it. The inside at high tide is real short-board fun. The main break to the north at Playa Guiones has to be pretty big for Olga's to get much size (as it was on this day). This is where the locals surf. Some of them, including this guy, are very good.

Mike Cruden, of Solas Productions and CRmercado fame, drove out from Jaco to join us for the big surf days. You can see lots of white water in the crunching background just below. The swell was coming straight in this time, so there were lots of close outs. Later in the week, size dropped off to the 5 foot plus range, which was more fun for me on a long board.

It gets light enough to surf shortly after 5:00 AM, and I was usually out there by 5:30 along with a couple of other early risers. It was glassy with off shore winds every morning. Around 7:30 or 8:00 it was time to head for breakfast. I often hit the Blew Dogs since I like their apple pancakes and it is just across the street from the Guilded Iguana where we stayed once again. We had lunch and dinner mostly at the Guilded Iguana since they serve fish, shrimp, and hamburgers that can't be beat. Below is Ariane (from Canada), who was working at the Blew Dogs for a month. Ariane is the kind of girl that lights up a room when she walks in. I think she'll be back. I told her she probably wouldn't like Canada anymore after staying in Nosara for a month.

What a treat! The moon setting beneath the palms at 5:00 AM and the sun setting over the ocean at 6:00 PM. That was a another advantage of surfing in the early morning, you are not looking into the sun all morning watching for inbound waves.

Towards the end of my stay, someone who lives in Nosara came up and told me they had seen my photo collections on the Internet. They mentioned I should try to get more pictures of the local folks. I don't know how to ask "can I take your pic?" in Spanish, but I usually got a good response when I pointed at my camera at someone with a questioned expression. You can see I feature more of the local folks this time in my slideshow. I'll try to do better on the next trip. Here are a some of my favorite people pictures below.

Another big difference between Costa Rica and here are the dogs. Lots of them run around and have a blast on the beach. The one below followed me around back in May when I was there. Then there are other creatures, the crabs, the lizards, the monkeys... I even saw an armadillo down near the beach. It looked just like the ones we have in Florida.

See my Nosara Hotel and Travel Guide for maps, info on accomodations, and other information about traveling to Nosara.