Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If there is anything more fun than eating pizza in a tree house, we're not sure what it is.
Take a seat at the top of this ramshackle, Seuss-like structure and feast on thin-crust pizzas
and focaccia from the wood-fired brick oven. The owner is Italian but the concept is
purely Tico.
Getting There & Away
Empresa Arsa
( 2650-0179)
has two daily buses from San José that take about four
hours (optimistically). Buses depart San José at 6am and 3:30pm. Return buses leave Be-
juco at 4:45am and 2:30pm, passing through the beach towns a half-hour or an hour later.
This service is sketchy in the rainy season and the trip may take longer if road conditions
are bad.
SOUTHERN PENINSULA
Word has spread about the hippie-chic outposts of Montezuma and dusty yet glamorous
Mal País. During the dry season, packs of international surfers and wanderers arrive
hungry for the wild beauty and soul-stirring waters on either side of the peninsula. In
between, and at the very southern tip of the Península de Nicoya, lies the first natural re-
serve in Costa Rica. It used to require hours of sweaty bus rides and sluggish ferries from
the mainland to access this tropical land's end, but these days there are more roads and
regular boat shuttles, making the southern peninsula altogether more accessible. But if you
have the time and money (and a thirst for adventure), embrace the gritty, arduous drive
down the rugged western coast, which requires river crossings and low-tide beach tra-
verses, muddy jungle slogs and steep narrow passes. It's hard work, but your arrival in
paradise is all the sweeter.
Playa Naranjo
This tiny village next to the ferry terminal is nothing more than a few
sodas
and small ho-
tels that cater to travelers either waiting for the ferry or arriving from Puntarenas. There
isn't any reason to hang around, but if you do get stuck at the port for a night, you can bed
down at
Playa Naranjo Inn
(
2641-8290; d incl breakfast US$40;
)
, a motel-style
