Surf City...Playa Santa Teresa

Today I was up early and eager to get to the beach. Since it is so hot here, it is best to be in the sun early in the morning and later in the afternoon. I spent about two hours down at the beach, enjoying the sun, trying to cool off in the ocean without drowning, and snapping pictures of everything I saw!!! I could take pictures here all day. Playa Santa Teresa is on the south western side of Peninsula Nicoya...Montezuma was on the eastern side. Some of the differences I have seen here is the sand...it is less coarse than Montezuma, there is more of a breeze here, especially in the afternoon...this makes being at the beach much more bearable, it is much easier to walk on the beach...in Montezuma you would sink into the sand as you walked, the waves are much bigger and of course there are very few rocks along the coast. The beach is very nice, but there is lots of debris along the top half of the beach...lots of dead palm leaves, coconut husks and various leaves. The tide goes very far out, but also comes very far in...almost to the point that there is no sand to sit on. There are also section of rocks and shells...they are very beautiful. By 11am I decided to head back to the hostel for a bit of lunch and then take the local bus to Playa Carmen to go to the bank. As I was waiting for the bus with an American guy from my hostel, one of the local men came up to us and pointed out some howler monkeys in the tree behind us. You can hear these monkeys all the time...they have a very loud noise and are very territorial. They were close enough to see, but too far for a picture. There were about three adults and the tiniest little baby....SO CUTE!!!! The bus finally arrived and I took it to the next town...about 3 km and I jumped off at the bank. The money in Costa Rica is the colones. It cost me 300 colones to take the bus to town...with 550 colones equivalent to $1 US, that was about 55 cents. Public transportation is one thing that is very inexpensive here, but it is also VERY slow. After getting some money I decided to walk back to my hostel and visit the many little shops along the way. At 1pm, it was very hot with no shade, so I definitely went into every store I could. There were lots of surf shops and a couple small stores along the way, but nothing to brag home about. I bought at few souvenirs and arrived back at my hostel around 3pm. I headed back to the beach at 4pm to catch the late afternoon sun and watch the beautiful sunsets I have heard so much about. It really was beautiful....the early evening is my favourite time of the day. The sun goes down very quickly. It was very red, half hidden behind some clouds...I may have to check this out again tomorrow it was so beautiful. I came back to my hostel around 6pm, had some dinner and spent the rest of the evening reading a book upstairs in the open air lounge....so relaxing. My roommates all went out to the local bar, but after a full day in the sun I was zonked...I know many of you are surprised!!! Tomorrow is my last day in Playa Santa Teresa and I am then heading to my luxury villa I rented for 5 days in Playa Hermosa. I am not sure yet how I am getting there, or if I will have internet access, but once I figure all that out, I will be back to update you all on my newest location. Until then....