Costa Rica: Days Four & Five
After leaving Arenal, we drove about 3 hours to Playa Hermosa in the Guanacaste region. While Arenal had been a mountainous/volcanic/jungular region, Guanacaste is characterized more often by deciduous dry forest. Costa Rica is an isthmus and we were on the Pacific Ocean side. During our drive, we were glad (again) that we had opted for the 4WD SUV when we were rerouted off-road up a dirt path around part of a mountain. The detour, however, offered me some great views of a windmill farm.
Now, to be honest, Arenal had been my favorite part of the trip. I saw tons of nature and hiked a good amount and it did not feel at all commercialized. I like to be active, adventurous, and outdoorsy on vacation. Playa Hermosa was a beautiful beach on the second leg that I was happy to spend time at, but it did not seem set up for beach-goers to lounge about there. J and I would walk the beach in the early mornings and watch the sunrise, and again at sunset each night. During the day, though, there were few people on the beach other than hawkers trying to sell us scuba dives or cruises, so we mostly went to the pool where the free drinks were located.
