Montezuma, Costa Rica

When it was first discussed going to Montezuma, I really didn't fancy going to a shitty Mexican restaurant; I suppose I just didn't want to get mud guts. When I finally worked out that it was a small seaside town near a national park, my interest started increasing.

We left Monteverde and the cloud forests early in the morning for a six hour bus ride to the town of Puntarenas. From here we had a short one hour ferry across the bay to Paquera - to where we were greeted by an intense tropical thunderstorm - and then a short bus ride to the town of Montezuma.

The town - on the southern side of the Nicoya Peninsula, which is on the Pacific Ocean side of the country - is extremely small, with a small number of hotels, bars, and restaurants, and a very small number of Costa Ricans. There are, however, a lot of Americans living either in the town or in the area, so prices of things like food and drink are a bit higher than in other parts of the country.

The backdrop to the town is extremely thick tropical jungle that leads downhill to the town itself, and then on to some really impressive beaches. If wildlife floats your boat, it's here in abundance - a phenomenal amount of birds, butterflies, squirrels, and monkeys (amongst other things) can be found everywhere here.


As far as things to do, Montezuma doesn't offer a huge amount. If you like surfing you'll be in your element, as there are good surf beaches from Montezuma right up the coast to the border with Nicaragua. In fact, the Endless Summer series of surf videos (which even I know about and I don't have any interest in surfing) where filmed along this coast.


Other than surfing, you can:

• Join all the hippies that hang about here, and find yourself;
• Smoke marijuana;
• Read lots of books and relax; or
• Hire a quad bike and cut sick on the muddy trails.

We chose the last two options.

Cuttin Sick on the Quad!

All in all we spent a week here doing pretty much nothing else.