Staying in Hermosa Beach near Jaco was an experience I will never forget. We swam under the moonlight that we saw through coconut trees, lived with geckos and sunk our toes into volcanic sand. We drank coffee that tasted as bad as we were warned it would and ate the best ceviche of our lives.
The highlights of the area included amazing weather and wildlife, friendly people and feeling very safe. People spoke enough English for us to feel comfortable but little enough that we still felt like we were in a foreign country.
When it came time to leave it was bittersweet. We were ready to check out our next destination but we had just settled into our bungalow. On our last morning in Hermosa we woke up extra early to enjoy a cup of coffee near the ocean our bus left at 11:00am so we had some time to relax. Following the bus trip we had a 5 hour journey to Manzahillo, so overall we were looking at a 8 hour travel day.
Here is a picture of the Jaco sign on our way out of town. The taxi cab driver (same company that returned my lost backpack) pulled over and took the photo for us :)
Here is the journey we were embarking on...
In order to make the trip we took the bus that I mentioned out of Jaco and then switched to a shuttle in San Jose. We had to walk from Terminal 7-10 to a hotel for the shuttle to pick us up but there weren't a lot of hotels in the area. Ideally we would have liked a ritzy hotel to relax in but we didn't have much time between getting into 7-10 and the pickup time for the shuttle. The closest hotel that I could find that looked the safest was called Hotel Sura.
Here's a snapshot of the google maps location so you can get a feel for what hotels look like downtown San Jose. We had to walk through a pretty rough looking neighbourhood to get there but it was just five mins. (I took the snapshot before we left Jaco which is why it says we were so far away).
Next up the jungle and Manzahillo!
Here are a few pics of the road to the east coast. I seem to have lost quite a few pics I took of this trip. The roads were lined with banana tree crops and there were Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte trucks everywhere. It was quite a sight to see.
