I woke up and had a good breakfast at the hotel, got myself squared away and ready to leave by about 8am since my bus didn't leave until 9am and I wanted to get enough time to walk there and get lost a few times on the way.
Packing for the Beach
- towel (just "borrow" one from the hotel)
- swim trunks - make sure you can tie them because the waves will peel them off
- sandals - the sand is mucho hot!
- sun screen
- water - have I stressed that enough?
- lock
The Bus Stop
Across from where you purchased your ticket you will see myriad of busses leaving for various locations. Just look for Jaco on the large sign above the buses or the large sign for Jaco on the bus itself.
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| Kitten asleep at the bus stop |
Trip to Jaco
The trip itself is about 2 and a half hours. I thought it wasn't that far so I left at 9am and got to the beach at about 12pm.
Upon arriving you will be greeted with a number of boardwalk type shops. Very touristy and selling the same things you can get in San Jose just at a beach front price. If you want to take them in get off at the stop next to a huge Drug Store/Ice Cream stand. The actual last stop is right behind the Pizza Hut. This is where you will go to return to San Jose or pick up your bus ticket if you are not returning right away.
The Beach itself is gorgeous. Not a white, sandy beach, but very warm, lots of waves and so I decided to learn how to surf.
Surfing
I went to a hostel that had an outlet for a school called Surf Factory. The lesson was $45 and it was about 2 hours long. I was lucky and I got an instructor named Allan and since there was nobody else I had a private lesson and getting lots of time on the waves.
If you have stuff with you, throw it in one of their lockers located in the back of the hostel. If you don't have one then you can leave your bag with the woman that runs the place or just take it with you. The place you will be surfing is on the South side as the coastline juts out on that side making the waves a little tamer, but not that much tamer.
After an hour and a half though I was dead. I was there around high tide so the waves were getting bigger and I was fortunate enough to get a relatively calm 10ft wave that I rode all the way back to the beach and hopping off my board like a pro.
I would suggest spending at least a night there. The hostels are cheap and there are a lot of girls visiting internationally so there are lots of things to look at and fun conversations in multiple languages.
Ride Back
Because I had no idea it would take that long to get out there I made my return bus ride 3pm. After my surfing lesson I had 30 minutes to get a cab ride from the school to the bus station. And from anywhere in Jaco it is about $1 to the bus terminal by cab.
The ride back took quite a long time and when it started to rain you could see lightening strike the ground as you leave the beach area.
Dinner
I just threw something in my stomach, showered to get all the sand out of everything and then I went to sleep!
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