Jaco Tacos

So for our first solo trip we decided to just go to the closest beach town for a relaxing weekend since we were all worn out from all the excursions and wanted to save a little bit of money. We decided on the town of Jaco which was about an hour and half drive from San Jose. The bus tickets were really cheap, 2,000 colones each way (so about 8 bucks round trip) and it dropped us off about 2 blocks away from our hostel. This was also my first experience in a hostel. The easiest way to explain our room was one bunk bed and two double beds (enough space for 6 people but we fit 7 girls in there all weekend), it had a tiny cubicle of a bathroom with a shower and toilet, it was EXTREMELY hot and even with the 3 fans you were sweating all weekend (Jaco was really hot that weekend, in the mid to high 90's) so a tiny room with 7 girls and 3 fans wasn't exactly the most comfortable but we made it work and enjoyed ourselves. The place didnt have hot showers, but I wouldn't have wanted one even if they did because of the weather and outside there was a patio area with chairs, a table, bar, grill, 2 hammocks and a ping pong table, it was such a neat little place and the hammock area was perfect for hanging out at night. You couldn't beat the $10 bucks a night price no matter how hot and dirty the place was. On Friday night a group of guys from Georgia and New York showed up and were staying a couple doors down from us, we ended up having friends to hang out with all weekend which was a nice surprise. The beaches in Jaco are definitely not the nicest in Costa Rica, really rocky and crowded and the water wasn't the cleanest, but obviously still beautiful, and the sunset Friday evening was one of the prettiest I've seen in Costa Rica so far. Friday night for dinner we ate at the restaurant Jaco Tacos which was surprisingly one of the best restaurant meals I have eaten since I've been here, plus the plates were huge so me and my roommate were able to split a meal between the two of us.

Since we weren't too found of the beach in town, the guys we were hanging out with had a rental car and we all decided to make the short drive to Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach) which was about a 10 or 15 minute car ride out of town. It was definitely worth it, the beach had beautiful black sand and there were a ton of big waves to play in. It was really hot that day but fortunatlely it was really really overcast and actually sprinkled rain a few times throughout the day, it was a nice break from the blistering hot sun the day before. Even with all the clouds I managed to get pretty sunburned after falling asleep in the sand for a couple hours, but I can't complain about getting this much sun in the middle of winter when everyone at home was stuck in a snow storm. After spending the day relaxing we walked down the beach to this cute little smoothie shop for some hydration and then headed back to Jaco (fyi Costa Rica has the best smoothie places in the entire world! I have never had such fresh, juicy fruit in my life. Definitely one of the things I am going to miss most!). That night we hung out in the hammocks after eating dinner and me and Chelsea my roommate hit the sack pretty early because we were so tired, while a couple of the others went out on the town for a while. Sunday morning before taking the bus back to San Jose we browsed the souvenior shops and I bought a really awesome Costa Rican tank top for only 6 bucks. We enjoyed the beach and sun for a little bit longer and then headed to the bus stop around 12. All in all it was a fun weekend, I loved the little shops and of course I always love the beach and sun, but the town of Jaco is definitely a little more on the sketchy side, a lot of prostitutes and sketchy guys walking around, plus there was a Harley Davidson motorcycle convention going on the entire weekend so the town was PACKED full of people, some that didn't look so friendly lol. I would probably return just because it is close and cheap, but there are lots of new places I need to explore first!!