Days 640-646! How is it October already?! My time at Free Spirit Hostel comes to a close… as bittersweet as it was, I headed off on a new adventure and a new country! It’s time to head to Costa Rica and see what Santa Teresa is all about!

I woke up on Thursday, October 2nd to small waves, but that had me excited because it meant I could take out a long board surfboard! I grabbed an 8’1” board and paddled out into a very fun surf morning.

These pics aren’t from that morning, probably a couple days earlier… but some more pics from my buddy Wilson! I think they’re so freaking cool!!

After a solid surf session, I had breakfast and spent the rest of the morning reading. I played some Uno with my friend Katelyn before having to get ready for today’s lunch.

For lunch today, the hostel was putting on a barbecue for a friend of the hostel, Kevin. Kevin is a friend of the owners and him and his partner, along with their adorable baby, come by the hostel pretty much every evening! I’ve also gotten to know him a bit through chatting in the surf lineup, he’s a really friendly guy!

It was a really great afternoon of playing games, eating good food, and hanging out with good company! The festivities went all the way until dinner. Afterwards I played guitar, and then stayed up late chatting with the other volunteers.

On Friday, October 3rd, I went to check the surf after waking up… and decided to go back to bed for a bit. The tide was starting to push later and later throughout the week, so less super early morning surf sessions were going to be possible. However, the winds were quieter in the morning, so it was worth a look!

I went out to surf around 9am and asked my friend Emilie to put my name down for breakfast while I was out surfing. I ended up having a super great 2.5 hour surf session on a 7’8” surfboard. I thought the waves were going to be smaller than they were, but I was still able to catch a bunch of good waves while I was out paddling around. But with good waves, come bad ones too and I had a number of big falls. One of which was when I backed out of a wave but still got carried over the lip with it, getting thrown over my board and when I surfaced my board was coming straight at my face! It ended up hitting my chin and thankfully not at a speed where it cut me or broke anything… not pleasant.

I kept surfing after that and eventually made my way back in for a very late breakfast.

After breakfast, I went on a walk with snoop and then got back into my book I’m reading. I missed out on yoga with being in the surf for so long, but I’d much rather be surfing than pretty much anything else right now!

El Ancla was closed today, so I ate lunch at Comidore instead and then dove into some intense games of UNO and Skip-Bo with my friends Emilie and Katelyn.

I read some more, took snoop out on another walk, and then it was already time for the sunset.

After dinner, we planned on having a beer pong tournament… but a HUGE thunderstorm came through. We ended up still having it but with only 4 teams. Our friends from Sunslice were going to come, but the rain deterred them. Fair enough!

Katelyn and I were a team and we ended up winning the mini tournament. I think that’s my first beer pong tournament win of my travels and hostel volunteering career. Before the end of the night, the group of 3 German guests came back to the hostel. They had left a handful of days ago and decided to stop back in for a couple nights before heading back on to Popoyo, Nicaragua to drop their car off.

I took snoop on a morning walk on Saturday, October 4th. The days are flying by and my time in El Tránsito is quickly coming to an end. I was going to make the most of it though! After the walk, I dropped off my laundry at the launderia, and then I started my surf session around 9am, today I took out the 6’10” fish surfboard which I think might be my favorite in the hostel.

I ended up catching some really nice and long wave rides. A lot of the Free Spirit and the Sunslice Hostel crews were out in the water, it was shaping up to be a blast of a morning! I was starting to do more angled takeoffs, which helps with speed and beating the white wash of the wave to have longer, clean rides. But then… about 2.5 hours in, I again had a nasty spill over a steep wave. This time unfortunately, my board went first which is never what you want.

And instead of hitting the water…

I body slammed my board.

I felt like I had just done a WWE move. I got flung over the wave and then slammed my left side, shoulder and a bit of my head into the board.

I called it quits after that. That was definitely the ocean saying it’s time for you to be done for the day.

Outside of a solid bruise/scratch/friction burn, I was okay! And the board didn’t break either… I was sure I was going to see two piece floating in the water when I surfaced, but thankfully I didn’t!

I ended up relaxing and reading for a while after that up until lunch time around 2pm. I headed over to El Ancla, which was open, and introduced the new volunteer, Katelyn, to the amazing food they have to offer. When I showed up the whole family gave me warm hellos and one of the older family members made a point to slap my back and shack my hand. It was very cute.

I read some more, played guitar while watching the waves, and then Snoop demanded another walk… I swear he forgets he can just go out on the beach whenever he wants.

There was another incredible sunset leading up to dinner. I’m going to miss these, but I’m sure Costa Rica will be full of beautiful sunsets as well.

I forgot that I had dropped off my laundry today. So after dinner I ran over to see if they were open and if my clothes were dry (it had rained a bit during the day so I wasn’t optimistic). They were open but my clothes weren’t fully finished drying. I was able to get a dry pair of underwear, which was good because I was all out of clean pairs.

Our activity tonight was surf theory. But since most of the hostel had already participated in it, we changed it to a surf movie instead. After getting it all setup, the movie wouldn’t work… so we started downloading it on another computer and moved the activity to the following day.

Sunday, October 5th, my final day in El Tránsito. High tide wasn’t until 1:15pm today. So I was able to wake up late, eat breakfast and start my day slowly. I went back to the launderia and got my clothes, which were now dry. I then started packing my bags to get ready for the following day when I’d be leaving this little slice of paradise.

I was chatting with one of the German guests, Björn, and when he heard I was heading to Costa Rica the following day, he offered a spot in the car him and his friends were driving. This changed all my plans! I was expecting to have to leave around 5am to make sure I gave myself enough time to catch all the local busses and have a longgggg day of travel.

But now… I was going to hitch a ride with them to a town called Popoyo and figure it out from there! They even offered to let me crash in their Airbnb for the night… so I had some decisions to make!

The day ended up being very cloudy and drizzly. So unfortunately, no surfing on my final day in El Transito. But, that meant plenty of time to read! I got El Ancla, for what I thought was my last time (a little foreshadowing). The family was sad to hear I was leaving and told me to come back very soon! Lots of handshakes and hugs were shared before I left the restaurant with my food.

After lunch, I read some more and then worked on a puzzle with my friend Emile. A perfect rainy day activity! The puzzle was actually a hand drawing of Free Spirit, which was kind of fun.

I got fed up with the puzzle and played guitar while others kept working on the puzzle. I played for an hour or two as the rain kept coming… and for my final day, there was no sunset. It seemed El Tránsito was sad to see me go.

At Free Spirit, every time someone is leaving the hostel, the dinner prior, they have to give a little pre-dinner speech. I pretty much said I had an amazing time, it flew by, but today made it seem like El Transito didn’t want me to leave, so I’ll be back soon. And I hope I will be!

By the time dinner ended, four more French Canadian guests showed up. The hostel was starting to be overrun by them. All of the French Canadians (now 6 of them) wanted to party, but I wanted a chill last night. So I hung out with my volunteer friends for a bit chatting and then called it a night.

It was going to be a long travel day the next day…

My decision for my travel day ended up being made when I found out that my German friends would have to drive through Rivas, Nicaragua to get to Popoyo, Nicaragua. This made my life much simpler because I now wouldn’t have to stress about getting out of a small town (Popoyo) by local busses.

The problem on Monday, October 6th was that I physically had $20 in USD and 20 cordobas left in my wallet…

After a walk with snoop and spending some of the morning reading, I went on a mission to find change. I’d need $1 USD to enter the Nicaraguan boarder office, and $3 to exit the country. The rest I needed Cordobas. Unfortunately, El Ancla didn’t have change when I went for lunch and neither did the stores when I tried to buy something…

So, I went back to the hostel and asked. I had asked in the past and they had said no… but thankfully today, they were willing to do so. So I had one problem solved.

I just alluded to it… but I had El Ancla again! I was hoping to head out of the hostel bright and early. But when the Germans offered the free ride, I was at their mercy. They originally told me 11 or 12 departure, but because of lunch, we actually didn’t leave until after 1pm.

After lunch, it was time to head out on my travel day!

I said my see you laters to all the volunteers and the couple of guests that had been around for the past week. I had such a blast this past month plus. Being able to surf every day, do yoga, relax, and hang out with fun people did wonders for my mind and soul. I’m looking forward to meeting up with the volunteers in my future travels and I can’t wait to revisit El Transito! It’s definitely added to my list of spots I’ve fallen in love with.

And just like that… we were off!

Björn and Thomas, two very friendly German travelers were kind enough to lend a hand in my travel day. Instead of waking up at 5am and taking the bus out of el Transito, then going to Managua, then going to the boarder town or Rivas, I was able to bypass the beginning, spend more time at the hostel, and have more comfort (for free) as we headed towards Rivas, Nicaragua.

We spent the entire car ride chatting and listening music. The ride was bumpy at times, slow at others, and lots of construction and detours. But we kept chugging along even if traffic was at standstills at times. We stopped at an overlook too which had a beautiful view of the valley below.

The ride itself had some beautiful views as well!

I also shared my music with them and they both enjoyed listening to it. We eventually made it to the Rivas bus terminal around 5pm. Immediately taxi drivers swarmed us before we could even get out of the car to see our see you laters. But the taxi drivers were persistent and convincing.

One, named Carlos, told me that we arrived too late and the last bus to the border was already done. I knew better to believe him and pressed harder about why and if he was telling the truth. By all three of our judgements, it seemed like he was being genuine and telling the truth…

I should’ve asked someone they looked like they worked around the terminal to confirm. But with the sun going down and not many options… I decided to trust Carlos. He told me that the shared taxi (colectivo) would be $15 per person if we had at least 3 people in the car… a lot different than 50 cordobas that I was hoping to pay.

But of course, we didn’t find anyone to pick up. If it was a bit, Carlos didn’t let up and was very convincing. Pointing out that usually there’s a ton of people waiting at the bus station and on the streets for the bus. And even going as far to saying that the last bus to Liberia, Costa Rica from the border was at 6:30pm…

By this point, I was committed, he had taken me to an ATM so I could get more cash (which of course benefited him since I would for sure have enough to pay him then. He was friendly and we chatted in Spanish and English the whole way to the border. When we arrived at the border, I paid him the $45 he was hoping to make… and that was that!

Did I get scammed? I’m not sure. He pointed out a bus coming towards us as we drove to the border that was definitely a bus coming from the border. But he said it wouldn’t be going again since there wasn’t enough people. I was just glad to have made it to the border today, especially after how late in the day we had left (Carlos told me that showing up later in the day to Nicaraguan busses is a bad idea). I learned my lesson!

I exchanged money to Cost Rican, Colones. I then paid a $1 USD entrance fee to the Nicaraguan immigration building, paid my $3 exit fee and got stamped of the country. I then had a little bit of a walk to the Costa Rican immigration office. But it was all a breeze, probably because it was so late in the day and no one was around.

I flew through the Costa Rican boarder office as well and then walked a little further to the bus terminal. Thankfully there were still busses going to Liberia. Maybe Carlos was scamming me or maybe his information is just out of date. But there were a couple of busses still heading to Liberia. But at least I was going to make it there tonight.

Liberia is not my end destination, Santa Teresa is. But I saw online that Liberia, Costa Rica’s second largest city, had a bus from there to Santa Teresa…. Turns out that wasn’t the case and after chatting with the owner of the hostel I’m heading to, he suggested I book a shuttle to save me from another aggravatingly long travel day. So once the bus picked me up to head to Liberia I booked a hostel for the night and a shuttle ticket for the following day.

The bus was much nicer than the chicken busses of the C4 countries. The ride was smooth and fairly quick! I just listened to music and stared out the dark windows. I arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica a bit after 8pm and walked the short distance to the hostel I was staying at, Hospedaje Dodero.

The room was okay, absolutely 0 privacy in a 6 person dorm. But for one night, I could manage.

The hostel had free oatmeal… probably for breakfast. But I ate some for dinner, read, and then went to bed! I had another long day ahead of me.

I didn’t need to wake up early on Tuesday, October 7th, but I guess my roommates did. With the zero privacy, I was woken up and went back to sleep multiple times before I finally decided to call it quits at 7am. I packed my things and spent the morning reading. A couple hours later stores were opening up. I walked a couple blocks to a nearby grocery store that had a pharmacy.

Over the past couple of days my ear had been starting to clog up. I assumed it was still remnants of the ear infection (at least it wasn’t hurting), I wanted to try and buy the correct ear drops this time since I was in a city. I was successful and bought a few bananas on my way home to enjoy with the free hostel oatmeal.

I still had time to kill, so I continued on reading. I was getting really close to finishing a Court of Mist and Fury, the second in the ACOTAR series.

Around 11:45am, I headed to the bus station. I’m glad I left when I did because when I showed up a torrential downpour started! The day before, at the suggestion of the hostel manager, I booked a shuttle that was allegedly picking me up from the bus station. A random Costa Rican lady asked me where I was headed, I believe she was wanting to make sure I knew what I was doing.

I told her I was taking a shuttle and she wasn’t sure if I was at the correct bus terminal or not… it was nice of her to check in and ask just in case!

A side note, the hostel I was at in Liberia, Costa Rica said that it’d only take 3 local busses to get to Santa Teresa… not sure if that’s true or not!

I decided to do some research into the company I booked the shuttle through and found their WhatsApp number. They were quick to respond when I asked if I was at the correct terminal. And 10 minutes after the shuttle was supposed to arrive, I got a text saying it was across the street (not sure what would’ve happened if I hadn’t found the companies number).

The shuttle ended up being a a lot bigger than I expected and colder! I had to wear a sweatshirt the entire time. There were two other travelers on the shuttle, one from the US and the other from Australia. I chatted with both at one of our rest stops, but for the majority of the ride I just read.

I finished the book I was reading and then started a book called Onyx Storm, which I tried listening to the audio book for but didn’t make it through… we’ll see if I can this time around.

The Australian got dropped off in Tamarindo. And the other American and I continued on. He was a chatty guy and he wanted to hear all about my travels. So I put my kindle down and chatted with him for the remainder of our time on the shuttle together. I learned all about his life in the short time we had together. He’s a holistic healer through breathing techniques and sound healing, life coach, business coach… it kind of sounded like he would do whatever when it came to work. Apparently he wasn’t religious, but god had sent him on his journey to Costa Rica and he told me all about the signs he was given to be on this trip.

Outside of those interesting parts of the conversation, we dove into what I had learned so far from traveling, we talked about the people we’ve both met, and how special traveling is. There were definitely some weird parts of our conversation, but for the most part it was really wholesome and a nice way to spend part of the shuttle ride.

He was dropped off in Montezuma and then after around 7 hours, I was finally dropped off near my new hostel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.

Turns out my SIM card was up, so part way through the ride I lost service. Unfortunately that meant I missed a couple texts and calls from the owner of the hostel. Also unfortunately, I arrived later than expected and he was already gone for the week. So the other volunteer, Anthony, showed me where everything was.

I got settled and went to dinner down the road from the hostel. I had a bit of a pricey ($11) meal of chicken, rice, beans, French fries, and veggies. It was tasty though!

The hostel has a pool table, the nicest I’ve seen at a hostel, and I played pool with Anthony, Ariel (a friend of Anthony’s), and Milo, the owner’s brother.

I eventually showered and called it a night… I was exhausted after two travel days, but I could tell I was in another good place based on my interactions while playing pool.

Wednesday, October 8th! I already know October is going to fly by. I woke up at 7am and headed to the grocery store. There was one a quick walk from the hostel. I got myself the supplies to make my own gallo pinto, eggs, fruits, vegetables, etc. it was time to cook for myself again! I stopped by a fruit shop on the way home too for some cheap bananas.

The groceries weren’t necessarily the cheapest, but it will definitely be cheaper than eating out every meal!

I made myself avocado toast and fried eggs for breakfast, played on the hostel’s guitar for a little, and when 9am rolled around it was time to start my volunteering gig! I met Flin and Ambrose this morning, two of the owners. Along with Anthony, we all got to work moving stuff in the lobby to be covered and protected from the dust our work the next weeks were going to kick up.

Once that was done, Anthony and I spent the remainder of the morning deep cleaning the 6 person dorms. Definitely a big shift from my last volunteering gig… but I can handle a little manual labor for 3 weeks. Heck, I did 3 months of intense manual labor in Australia! The work took until 12pm, but Anthony and I chatted the entire time, which was nice.

We then rewarded ourselves with a trip to the beach.

Anthony, from Venezuela, has a motorbike and he’s lived in Santa Teresa for 5 years. The power had been out all morning, so we stopped by his friend’s surf shop to bum their WiFi. We then stopped by his friend’s coffee shop, and then made our way to Playa Carmen. The ocean was too gross and choppy for a swim, so we moved on to another part of Playa Santa Teresa.

We sat and chatted for a while watching surfers. The swell looked super fun and I was itching to get my hands on a surfboard! Hopefully I’d find one soon. We hung out until we saw a big storm approaching and then we high tailed it to the hostel. I had a late lunch of homemade gallo pinto with chick peas. I also had another banana.

It was time for the pool playing to commence! I played a very good local in 9 ball pool, played Milo again, and then put a pause on the playing to FaceTime my grandparents! And then it was right back to more pool.

I had a late dinner, similar to lunch but this time I included cucumber, bell pepper, and an egg.

I played a little more pool with a couple locals and Anthony and then called it an early night.

Everyone at the hostel speaks fluent Spanish, which is definitely going to be beneficial to my Spanish learning. And so far I’m getting good vibes from this place! I’m not sure how long I’ll hang around, but I’ll definitely try to stick it out to November, or close to, and then decide my next move. I’m definitely bummed to not be in El Tránsito any more, but I’m excited for the new adventure!

See you next week with more tales from Costa Rica!

– Elie