Laid-back Playa Guiones

After Manuel Antonio, we headed to Playa Guiones (near Nosara) on the north Pacific coast.

On our way there, we realized why Google made us a sign a disclaimer to use their beta Costa Rica navigation.  They sent us on a shortcut around the city of Nicoya.  It was around 8 at night and raining heavily.  The road was a little rough but didn’t seem that bad.  Until we got to the bottom of a fairly steep hill that junctioned another road that we were supposed to turn onto.  It took a minute to realize that this new road was currently a fast-moving river, carrying large logs and other debris.  If we’d been going any faster or not paying attention, we might have driven right into it.  We didn’t stop to take a picture because we were pretty sure the water was moving up the hill towards us – but it looked something like this.

Once we got to Playa Guiones, we discovered it is pretty much a ghost town in the off season.  Most shops and rental places are closed until November.  But this meant we had the beautiful beach to ourselves most of the time.
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We didn’t get to explore the nearby towns as much as we wanted because we got a flat tire and all the bike rental places were closed.
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But we had lots of fun surfing
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Going to the farmer’s market (held at an awesome local skate park)
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Drinking Imperial, Costa Rica’s national beer (on ice, no less?!).
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And puddle jumping
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Up next:  volcano!