Costa Rica – Coast

Last week I shared photographs that I took of Volcán Poás early one morning at the beginning of a recent trip to Costa Rica. After taking my look at Poás I made my way from the mountainous region in the central part of the country to the northwest coast, in Guanacaste Province. I checked into a small lodge near a remote area of beaches and ended up staying there for the rest of the trip. I had started out with the thought of driving down the Pacific coast of the country, but the place felt good and it was far from any tourist-heavy spots. The inland lowland areas were almost entirely devoted to livestock ranches, and there seemed to be just a few tiny villages at the shore. One village had a little fish market across from a beach with small boats pulled up above the high tide mark.

In this post I’m sharing photographs from a walk one morning along local dirt roads and down to the secluded beach that was just north of where I stayed. I was taken with how much of this beautiful coastal area seemed to be enduringly rural. The dry season had produced fields of honey-colored straw that contrasted with the old craggy trees at the edges of the roads. The fence posts were typically cut-down crooked branches of trees that somehow ended up looking very orderly when placed in long rows. Little paths led from the rough roads down to the beach and along the bluffs above the headlands of the coast.

The beach itself was pristine, with a mix of black and white sands, and shelf-like areas of flat volcanic rock that were exposed at the morning’s low tide. Several clusters of small trees with nice open canopies provided areas of shade. Two local guys far away at the end of the beach were casting hand lines from high rocks that projected out into the sea. This is the kind of perfect natural place that approaches the sublime and triggers a sense of peacefulness – touched a little by man, but not much at all.