Playa Santa Teresa, Cabo Blanco & Montezuma

After our small off-road trip to Santa Teresa, we found a nice hotel, Beach Break Hotel that was clean, cozy, quiet and close to the beach. There is basically only one road in Playa Santa Teresa. There are hotels, grocery stores, restaurants and surf shops on both sides of the road. The beach is several kilometers long and mainly sand. The surf is better here than in Tamarindo because a bit bigger waves and plenty of space. We went surfing one day and the second day we went to Cabo Blanco National Reserve and Park. The road to there was a small adventure again, with river crossings and steep and muddy up and downhills to drive. 

When we arrived the reserve area we saw two dears next to the road. There are two trails, one is around 2 km and the other around 10 km. The latter ends to a beach so it's around 5 km there and 5 km back. We were around 9 am at the reserve and had planned to do the longer hike through the jungle. When we got off the car we could hear some thunder further away and we were hoping it would pass us.

Off-road on road and some coffee - Tamarindo to Santa Teresa

Our day started with breakfast, packing and checking out from Coral Reef Surf Hostel. Our road trip trough CR would start today when we have picked up our 4wd Hyundai. We started driving to Playa Santa Teresa where we would stay few days surfing, checking out the town and nearby area. After about an hour of driving, Markus saw a sign about some coffee farm and turned to a smaller road. We were lucky because the coffee farm had a guided tour 1.30 pm and we arrived 1.29 pm so it was a perfect timing. The Coffee farm is Cafe Diria and it's run by a family for decades. Dennis, our tour guide, is in the owner family and he was really great and held a very informative and fun tour on the farm about how coffee is made. He told also fun facts about cashew "nuts" that the cashew fruit is really delicious and the nut is actually a seed ;) and the cashew seed is actually poisonous before it is roasted. We learned about the process and quality of coffee beans etc. In the end we had a tasting test about the coffee quality. It was not an easy test but we made it :D After the tour we got some coffee drink that tasted a bit like Irish cream and some local snacks that were delicious.

 Coffee beans and plants at different stages