Paradise Found! Directly on the Beach. Extensively Remodeled

We were looking for an area in Costa Rica where you could get a feel for the "real" Costa Rica, not an Americanized resort. We found the perfect place. I had some doubts about driving through the creek to get to the house, but it was no problem at all. From Limon, we continued driving straight down the coast until we got to Maxi's restaurant and had the bartender call Chena. She met us on her bike and we followed her along the beach and through the creek to get to the house. Everything in Kathy's very informative letter was exactly as she described it. The front and back porches on the upper level were great. The hammocks on the large porch on the lower level were perfect too. We spent time there watching the ocean, wildlife, reading and talking. We didn't miss television or a computer at all. The beach and the ocean were right there and were beautiful. Some mornings, we were the only ones on the beach as far as we could see. It is a short walk on the beach to Manzanillo. Maxi's had very good food and cold cerveza. The grocery there had everything we needed. The mangoes and pineapple were delicious. The Costa Rican coffee was great. We drank the water from the tap and used water from the tap to make coffee all week and had no problems. There is a small French restaurant in Manzanillo that served really good crepes for breakfast. Other restaurants that we enjoyed that were between Manzanillo and Puerto Viejo were El Refugio grill that was owned by some folks from Argentina. The food was great. La Pecora Nera was fabulous, the folks were from Tuscany. Shawahanda Lodge (or something close to that) was beautiful and good but a little pricey. We had Chena and Mommie cook for us one night at the house and it was great. Chena arranged a jungle canopy tour for us and it ended up being really fun. There were 15 zip lines and at the beginning was more than I bargained for, but after a few tries I got better at it and it was fun. Puerto Viejo is a funky little surfer town that we enjoyed. At night, the ocean is so close it just lulls you to sleep. All the people we met in Costa Rica were very friendly and nice. We rented a car in San Jose from CR car save and Michael met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel that night. He provided great service. Can't wait to go back!