SANTA TERESA

We finally arrived in Santa Teresa.  We had to drive to San Jose, which once again was a grueling five and a half hour drive and then took a small 12 seater plan to Tambor, the closest airport to Santa Teresa.  We picked up a car, which of course was a manual, even though we reserved an automatic, and drove for an hour to get here.  The hotel that we chose was a great disappointment. From what was written on the internet by Traveladvisor one would think that it was a relatively nice hotel. Not a five star hotel, but one we would be comfortable in.  Actually, it was worse then a disappointment.  The people who ran it were very nice, but there was no hot water, there was five beds in our room, the lights did not work, it was clean, but the towels were thread bear.  It was a hike to get to our room and it took a car to get to the beach.  All in all, we were not happy.  Be very cautious about relying solely on the writings of travel guides. Read many and read the comments first before making a decision. 

TRAVELER NOTE: Tripadvisor I just found out advertises only the hotels, car rentals, activities who pay them to be listed.  They are not guides and they really give no advice.  And after this experience they can make just about anything seem great with pictures and write up.  The hotel turned out to be a backpacker hotel that was not described in that manner.  We decided to look for another hotel, but no hotel rooms were available when we did searches on the internet.  The next day we got in our car and started to stop at various hotels to ask if they had any rooms available.  It seemed that there were no rooms were to be had.  The town is booked.  On our fourth stop we found a villa in a hotel that is over the top nice and on the beach, The Florblanca.  Expensive, but worth the price.  When we went back to the original hotel to get our things we found a workman in our room working on the electric switches, because like I said their was no working lights in our room. He moved our things about.  And when we arrived he did not have the good sense to get out of the room. This was the icing on the cake.

Santa Teresa is a bustling town. It has many restaurants, bars, and stores and if it was not so crowded, it would be a great place to be. But, and I mean But, the streets are hair raising to walk on and drive on. There are cars, motorcycles, ATV’s and people walking all over the place, usually in the middle of the road, because there are no side walks so the pedestrians are forced into the streets and the town is crowded, real crowded. There is one major beach road and the side of the road ends in ditches on both sides and there are many many pot holes.  Then there are the motorcycles that are weaving in and out of traffic and the ATV’s that come at you without a care in the world.  And there you are trying to go out to see the town, to go to a restaurant, a bar, a store, to find a parking space that will not cause you to fall into a ditch and I just want to pull my hair out of  my head, because it is freaking me out. AND now add the additional fun of a stick shift in a large car driven by my husband who has not driven a stick shift in a long time.  I kept seeing all the traffic, the people, the car stalling and the lovely smell of a burning clutch and I was enraptured. I have been to places like this before, maybe I am just getting old, but the numbers of people and without the facilities to handle the numbers is daunting, frustrating and dangerous.  I have been told and I do believe them that this area was a paradise before the crowds arrived. The beach is spectacular, it goes on for miles, the water is clean and the waves are just right for surfing.  Infrastructure is a necessity for this town and a long way off.  But if you are young and have some money, (nothing is cheap here), this place is the place for you.