Today was all about business, the business of making a run up to Playa Negra to pick up the goods that Jarrod had brought to Costa Rica for us from the U.S. The most important of which is PJ’s new drivers license. Her old one expires in a few weeks and she would be banned from driving for the rest of the trip. The original intent was to walk over to Guiones and rent quads rather than put the Hyundai through another beating and maybe add a bit adventure to the day. As we stepped out the gate, lo and behold, a tuk tuk was coming up the street at that exact moment. Ardiel loaded us up and spared us from working up a lather before we even got on the road.

We put down our colones and roared off (okay maybe putted off as they only had 250 cc quads). We had to navigate the paved road for a few kilometers until we reached Super Rinde then we were off on the washboard track that curves through a number of local playas: Ostional, San Juanillo, Marbella, Lagarto, Venado and more.

Playa Ostional

It wasn’t that long of a drive distance wise but it took us about two hours of cooking our legs to reach Paraiso and turn onto the final stretch to Negra. The guard at the gate couldn’t get ahold of Jarrod on the phone but we finally got him to let us in and we buzzed over to his house and picked up our little care package from los Estados Unidos. We got to say hello to his mom who I hadn’t seen in twenty five years and meet his daughter for the first time. Mucho gusto a todos.

Dirty Faces

Tying our shoes at Jarrod’s

We passed by Playa Blanca to see if little black dog was around but he must have been down at the beach playing with his canine pals. The beach lots were packed with cars and traffic on the dusty back roads is getting heavier each day leading up to Easter. We were pretty burned out from the ride down so we stopped in at Soda Lochito to refuel and gird our loins for the return trip.

The drive back to Nosara seemed to go quite a bit faster than the ride up. We pushed hard dodging lines of dust cloud producing cars, motos and quads. We stopped again in Marbella for a half way refreshment and short break. We took the quiet shortcut through the back side of Ostional again, pleasant and virtually car free before popping back out by the supermarket where we stocked up on water and bananas before racing home and drawing lots for the first shower. A cool escapade and fun way to spend a day.

Break time

PJ can find a dog in need of a pet anywhere

With her vast Maine off road experience, PJ was ripping up the trails