Today we left the dry north of Guanacaste close to the Nicaraguan border and moved south onto the Nicoya Peninsula where Nikolaus lives and works.
Guanacaste province and also Nicoya which is part of the former is dominated by cattle farming and you see a lot of cows on farmland.
There is a whole culture around this with rodeos (the non-violent kind) where the cowboys show their skills riding bulls (but also the unruliest bull gets decorated), cowboys catching bulls with lassos, everyone wears their best boots and shows off their biggest cowboy hat. At least that is what Nikolaus told us, unfortunately there were no festivals in the time we were there.
Another thing is the machete. A machete is good for everything, you can clear some brush, mow the lawn, slice a watermelon, prepare a coconut for drinking, try to fend off a Jaguar. I am pretty sure that you can even split a hair with it. There is a saying in Guanacaste that without a machete you are only half a man. I steer clear from commenting on this obviously misogynistic statement, I have seen women using a machete with great dexterity, but you get the drift.
We then reached Nicoya town where Nikolaus’ school is located. It is already greener and lusher than in the far north, there are some trees again that kept their leaves.
The whole Nicoya peninsula is considered to be one of the “blue zones“ where more people than average reach the age of 100 and above. Other examples are Okinawa, a part of Sardinia, and Icaria, an island in the Aegean Sea. Also not completely scientifically validated, these regions have in common that people follow a healthy diet, are active into their late 80ies, live in stable social (family) structures and are generally not exposed to a lot of outside stress.
We left Nicoya town to drive to our final destination, Santa Teresa beach. We were a bit curious how according to Google maps we could spend 2h45min for the 101km distance, but reality soon kicked in. The road definitely was not in prime condition and we had to ford 3 rivers, good that we had a 4WD. On the way back we will take some pictures.
Finally we arrived and Nikolaus and Chris shared a Ceviche, pieces of fish marinated in lemon juice, onions and herbs. I watched and drank my strawberry smoothie.
Prices are extra steep here, as this seems to be an area where a lot of US Americans hang out and wait for the big wave. For 3 smoothies and the above Ceviche we paid 35€.
We did a bit of wave action as well, but swimming is really out of the question, as there are strong rip currents and pretty high waves.
A few family photos.
And the amazing sunset.
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