Playa Jacó

Buenas mi amigos! Hope you’re all doing well! The day after the volcano trip, most of the kids in my program and I went to Playa Jacó to soak up the sun and swim and have fun. Let me tell you, it was so much fun. The beach was beautiful, like I have never been on a beach with palm trees, but there were palm trees everywhere and on the borders of the beaches there were cliffs. Absolutely beautiful. It kind of reminded me of Moana because I have never been to a beach with palms trees before and my first thought was “How Far I’ll Go.” The best part? I told my mama tica how much I loved it and she said that Jacó isn’t even the prettiest beach, she said it’s a good starter beach; like WHAT. I’m sorry to say this but the Jersey shore has nothing on Costa Rican beaches. I didn’t take many pictures but here are the ones I did take!

It was a great day! We got to Jacó from the bus (from San Jose directly to Jacó) and went straight to the beach. It was so hot and the UV index was 11, like it was crazy to think I was getting sunburnt in January. The water was warm so swimming was enjoyable and the waves were bigger than New Jersey’s so it was awesome. Then, after a long beach day, we went to our hostel and got ready for dinner where again, I had a casado (basic dish with rice, beans, protein, and some other fillers). But after dinner we just hung out as a large group in the beach town. It was a great night, everyone had fun!

Let me tell you about the trip home though. Seven of us booked a later bus ride because the earlier one was full. Ours was called “2:00PM EXTRA” so we just thought it was a little more than the $5 ticket all our friends got, so we waited at the bus stop at 2:00PM, and never saw the bus. I guess we missed it? So we hung around until about 4:00PM when we finally realized that EXTRA meant it didn’t stop at every bus stop, and the stop we were waiting at didn’t have a stop for EXTRA buses. And the rest of the buses back to San Jose were full. Ha. We ended up calling an Uber back to San Jose (2 hour trip) and there was an accident on the one lane highway, so it took us 4 hours to get home. The reason I am telling you this story is, DON’T BUY THE “EXTRA” TICKET, it’s not worth it! Wake up for an earlier bus or plan ahead better to get your tickets earlier because that day was so LONG. I finally made it home and just went right to bed because I had another 8:00AM on Monday. What a crazy day, but at least we made memories!

Jacó is much different than any other beach I’ve been to. The people are very nice and the food isn’t like the boardwalk food you find in Wildwood, like the food is delicious. The beach is clean, the water is warm and not murky, and the people are the definition of chill. There are no lifeguards, so it’s a swim at your risk thing, which is like, a metaphor for this trip. I came into this trip without knowing anyone, I had no safety net. However, just like my day in Jacó, I jumped into the water head first and I had the best time in; I’m still having the best time. I can’t believe I was ever considering dropping out of the program. Well, that got a little deep, but I hope you enjoyed! See you next post!