pardon my spelling, I'm in a bit of a rush So we went, it was great. As stated in my prior information gathering email, we settled on a place just south of dominical in the south pacific region of CR. Also, for those that participated on that thread, I misspoke at the outset -- puntanereas the town was never on the list, rather the southern pacific region was where we were headed and the question was dominical or some other town in the puntanereas region (south pacific). overall, certain a developing country with some roads in decent shape, others terrible. the people were fantastic, we became semi-friends with the young guy who watched over the house we stayed at and even let him come along on one of our offshore fishing days, he'd never been (he's the guy below with the nice wahoo). The natural beauty was unbeatable. The falls were great, horseback riding there and back with a nice breakfast and lunch provided at a hidden little family restaurant in the mountain. The fruit was the best ever -- best banana and pineapple I've ever eaten. The fishing was great -- a few of the better pictures below. My friend caught a wahoo much bigger than the one shown below, but I didn't want to post his pic without his permission, so it's not here. All in all, 20 or so catches, mostly yellow fin tuna and wahoo, but some mackerel, jack crevelle and black fin tuna. We spent a half day fishing for rooster fish along the coast but had crappy luck. Right now I vacation where I want to and if fishing is an option, we do it. If I was vacationing to fish, we'd go to CR in Dec-Feb when (apparently) the sailfish practically jump into the boat. Another time, most certainly. I don't like the beaches, but they were certainly exotic. The jungle was badass. The house we stayed at was really nice except it was a little over-represented by the Californian that owns it. A/C means ceiling fans, which I would expect from a non-US owner, but was a bit upset about it being a Californian. The three bedrooms were one bedroom and two lofts. Not great for two couples in one house. Other than that, it was freaking amazing. Lots of amazing landscaping, with the frangerance of many tropical blooms. The jungle with poisonous dart frogs mating noises at night and the monkeys playing in the morning. You can see some of the pics below. The ocean view (see the sunset below) was awesome from our porch and the pool was quite refreshing. The drive there was long and tough, but worth it to get off the beaten track. Dominical is a ********, but not necessarily in a bad way. Not much to do, the beach is for surfers. Other than that, there's a liquor store, a grocery store and a few decent but rememberable restaurants. I wouldn't say Costa Rica is known for food, art or architecture, so if you aren't into natural beauty and an active vacation, the southern pacific probably isn't for you. The best day for me was the first day fishing. We came back with a nice haul after giving away most of it to the locals so the fish wouldn't go to waste. My wife cooked up some authentic rice and beans (pinto gallo) and a fresh fruit salsa to go with wahoo steaks (olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic) broiled in the oven and we had white wine, oh, and yellow fin tuna sushi for appetizers, all on the porch at the table overlooking the pacific ocean. what a badass way to spend an evening! We loved it, will go back, at least to fish if for nothing else. Place we stayed: TorisGala085.jpg"> misc. views from around our place: fishing: our fishing guides (ticos): falls: beaches: fresh fruit stand: Pura Vida!
Outstanding pics. Thanks for the report. This is definitely a destination that I will be taking the family to when the boys are about 13-14.
Great stuff! Thanks for the pics. I love looking at other people's vacation pics and hearing their reports. Gives me ideas for my own trips.
Nauyaca falls near Dominical -- it's privately owned and you get there by horseback. A great tour actually. Also, the weather was fine, it rained 7 of the 8 days but only after 4pm (sun sets around 6pm) and never between 6am and 4pm.
Good stuff! My wife and I went to CR last year and spent 2 weeks. Roughly one week in the Arenal/Monteverde area and one week in Manuel Antonio. We absolutely loved our experience there. At the moment, we're in the process of booking our next trip. My wife has a Continental plane voucher that she needs to book by the end of August. We're considering a return to CR as one of our options, in addition to Nicaragua (Granada/San Juan del Sur) or Peru (Cusco/Macchu Pichu). After reading your review and seeing the pics, it's hard not to want to return to CR. Pura Vida, indeed. I'll try to post some pics from our trip when I have the chance.
Great pics! I took my 3rd trip to CR in June, and loved it, as always. Already scheduled to return next June. As I said on your fact-finding thread, Cahuita (on the Caribbean side) has a beautiful unspoiled beach, but it has little commercial development. Some people are OK with that, but it is not like an American resort destination.
Thanks for the report, tropheus! Those are some really fantastic pics. What kind of camera are you using? Is it a point and shoot? The first and only time we've been to Costa Rica was for our honeymoon almost 11 years ago. It was both terrible (flew into a tropical storm, first 5 days were rainy and miserable) and wonderful (ended up at a great resort for the last 4 days, abandoned all plans of volcanoes and rain forests and just camped out there--but like I said, we were on our honeymoon. )
funny you should ask -- I took my nikon SLR and lost it (left it at a restaurant in San Jose) on the first day of our trip. So we made do with a snapshot canon. Did pretty well, but the subject matter of the photos goes a long way to making a nice shot! At least now I have a reason to buy a new camera as my nikon was older technology.
