Nicoya Bay, Costa Rica

The day starts early with a short cab ride to the bus station. I’m not an early riser so you know this trip means a lot to me. Today we are heading about 3 hours to the west of San Jose to the resort Bahia Rica in the town of Pequena.

   Our first leg of the trip is a two hour bus ride to the coastal city of Puntarenas. We arrive at the station at 6:30am in time for the 7am bus ride. There are a lot of people already there waiting for the bus but there was still plenty of room for us. The cost was very reasonable and the worker was extremely helpful to two girls with limited Spanish.

  As you would imagine the bus ride took us through many small towns and villages. One thing I found very inspiring about Costa Rica is that each town or village has its own school. The Ticas ( Costa Rican people ) highly value literacy and place a huge importance on getting an education.

   After a long ride and a very impromptu performance of  the Celine Dion favorite My Heart will go on , by the rather large hispanic fellow in the seat behind us, we arrived at the port city of Puntarenas.

  Puntarenas is a port city  on the Nicoya Bay. It has about 100,000 inhabitants and about that many tourists. We arrived at the Playa Puntarenas, a long stretch of beach with a lot of little food and trinket stalls. The natives called to us as we meandered down the beach in search of the Ferry to take us to Bahia Rica. The ferry station turned out to be just a little window to get tickets. Tickets in hand we headed down the Pier to wait for the Ferry.

   The huge white vessel arrived and we all loaded aboard. The boat brings everything from people to cars to everyday supplies to the inhabitants and resorts on the Nicoya Peninsula. Its has 3 levels and is actually quite comfortable. Thats a good thing because the trip takes about 70 minutes. The ride was pleasant , the sea breeze and quiet ride was very restful. I’m sure at different times of the year you can see some interesting sea life but unlucky for us we didn’t see anything but the calming waves of the Nicoya Bay.

   Upon arriving we thought we would just hop in a taxi and go to the resort…..ohhhh how wrong we were. There are very few taxis in the area and none of them around today. With this realization we headed into the ferry station/ cafe to figure out our next move. We got hamburgers and cokes and this was the moment i found out that in central America they take the ham part seriously. Tasting something very different I pulled back the bread to find a thick piece of ham. I decided to chalk it up to being close enough to bacon to count and finished my burger.

  We walked back outside almost ready to take 2.5 mile walk up the dirt road to the resort when Brittnae decided to ask one of the guards. He quickly spouted off some questions in Spanish to a group of locals and a tiny dark skinned man appeared in front of us. The guard explained that he would drive us to the resort and we should pay him whatever we thought was fair. We followed the man to what can only be accurately described as a Franken truck. There was no really desirable make or model  or seat belts just a bunch of different trucks put together to make one. As we climbed into the truck I did have a moment of pause and reflection on my current situation. I was climbing into a stranger’s truck in the middle of the jungle….. What could possibly go wrong???? But then my lazy little angel on my shoulder piped in that if we didn’t ride with him we were going to have to walk up that steep dirt hill….. OK… stranger truck was the better option. Spoiler alert… we didn’t get massacred in the jungle.

The ride up through the jungle was interesting we even got to see some small monkeys in the trees. We arrived at the gate of Bahia Rica safe and sound. The owner Vigdis met us at the gate and showed us to our room. Its an amazing place. Not a regular hotel … a little more primitive but well worth it.  We unpacked our few things and marveled at the tree house we were in and even met our neighbors and husband and wife who had come to Costa rica to house sit for a friend but decided to stay a little longer because it was so beautiful here.

    As the sun began to set we headed down the long flight of stairs to the main area of the resort and the beach for the real reason we came. The bay at Bahia Rica has something very few places in the world have, Bioluminescenct microorganisms in the water. We had booked a night kayak tour and couldn’t wait to see the water glow. We arrived to find about 8 other people on the tour with us. Some staying there others from local resorts. We met our guide and got a quick lesson on kayaking. We pushed off into the water sailing through the inky black. We all followed the voice of our guide using what little sonar ability we had because it was so dark and there was no way to actually see her. The only light we had was the moon, for now.  As we cut through the water leaving the small bay in front of Bahia Rica moving along the coast I started to feel a little downhearted. They had told us that not every trip gets to see the glowing water due to rain and other factors and sometimes the water does not glow very bright. I was afraid that might be the case for our little group …… and then it happened… just a little at first so small that I thought it might be my eyes playing tricks on me…… but then I dipped my paddle in the water again and all around it glowed unmistakably blue. I listened to the oooohhhhhh and ahhhs of my group….we paddled around splashing and laughing at this wondrous miracle of nature but then our guide announced we had been out for an hour and it was time to head back. We landed at the beach and walked up to the meeting area with our group. Brittanae and I were so excited …this was surreal and we didn’t want it to end so we spoke with guide and asked if we could go swimming in the water. She said of course but to be careful and not swim out to far. Almost as an afterthought we asked about sharks …. I mean this was the ocean and I watched Jaws I know what happens…lol She assured us that no sharks had been seen in the area so off to the beach we went. The slightly chilly water lapped at our feet not really showing any signs of bioluminescence but as we walked out a little further it was all around us. We swam in a sea of tiny blue dots. It looked like a small galaxy appeared with every swish of our hand. We swam and laughed and marveled at this amazing miracle of science. We thanked God for allowing us to see this beauty. Then we laid on our backs and floated in the water talking and looking at the night sky. When you live in the city you rarely get to see the full effect of the stars. Lying there in the water staring up at the night sky was breathtaking. It was one of those moments in time I wish I could lock away and visit regularly.

    But the weight of the day was wearing on us and it was getting late so we headed up the approximately one million stairs ( I may have exaggerated a bit but there were A LOT ). The night was hot and the small corner fan did little to ease the heat but I slept that night with a smile on my face and a heart filled with love for this fantastic amazing awe inspiring world.