Potrero

After our canopy tour, we headed to the volcano hotel, packed up and drove for 4 hours to Potrero beach. We pulled up to hotel Isolina to see if they had a room for the night. They did, so we checked it out before paying and negotiated a cash discount for our two day stay. We were literally the only guests at the hotel and practically had the beach to ourselves since it's low season. The beach was pretty nice and had good swimming. This was the first time I've ever been in the Pacific and I was shocked at the undertow. Way more than the Atlantic or Gulf that I've been accustomed to. It wasn't so bad that Candler couldn't swim or anything, just stronger than I expected. Potrero was a quite town with not much there.
We had an awesome lunch at this local hole in the wall (the best meals we've had here are at the hole in the walls). We had asked the woman in the hotel office for a good place to eat, and she suggested many "Americanized" resturants, we said that sounded great and all, but we wanted to go where the locals eat. She told us about this good soda (sodas here are places where you grab small, cheap eats) not too far from the hotel, but warned us getting there seemed kinda dubious since it was down a dirt road, that looked more like a walking path, through a mini trailer park. That's definately where we wanted to go. I had fresh fish with rice and beans and a salad right on the beach. It was amazing, and cost like $4.
One day we went to the next town south of Potrero, Flamingo, because Alberto needed to go to a bank - there wasn't one in Potrero. Flamingo was really nice. Expensive houses, beautiful beach, windy roads up cliffs with awesome ocean views. If we had $3000 a month to spend on a mansion, it would have worked out great! This picture was taken from one of the cliffs we drove up to in Flamingo.
We originally went to Potrero because there was a house I had found on craigslist that we were thinking about renting for a month. The house was nice and had a pool (that we would have to keep up - I know nothing about pool maintenance), but as far as everyday convenience, being in Potrero for a month didn't seem like the best idea. We'd need a car and little was within walking distance as far as shopping. Rentals in Costa Rica in a beach town proved more expensive than we expected. I found another affordable ($750/month for a 2 bedroom) place on craigslist that was in a town 45 minutes north of Potrero. We packed up the car and off we went down a road called monkey trail. Monkey trail was not advised during raininy season in the Costa Rica travel book I was using for directions and hotel recommendations. Well, we were in the beginning of rainy season so I thought, no biggie, we have a 4x4 and the roads we've been down haven't been that bad. Monkey Trail was definately the worst road we've been down now in Costa Rica. Though, it was passable. It reminded me of when we went off roading with our dad when we were kids. Very bumpy, muddy, and I think we crossed 3 large creeks, and I'd advise on not traveling on it with a full stomach. Picture to the right is monkey trail.