Pure joy emits from people when the talk falls on Santa Teresa. Everyone apparently agrees that it is the highlight of Costa Rica if you are fond of beautiful beaches, raw nature, delicious food, sublime surfing, lots of yoga and – not to forget – pura vida.

Besides the rumors among the people we met on our way, Santa Teresa also figures on the Forbes list of the best beaches in the world. And on Trip Advisor it has won the price for Central America’s best beach for two consecutive years. And if you are the paparazzi type you are probably more interested in the fact that Gisele Bündchen, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey have houses along the beach and are often spotted in the area.

The hype made sure that our expectations for the golden coast were extremely high as we boarded a small vessel going from Jaco to Montezuma – a little bohemian and hippie-picturesque beach town on the southernmost part of the Nicoya peninsula. A minibus waited for us to drive the last seven miles. From the east coast to the west coast.

Seven kilometers sounds of nothing. Except when you are in Costa Rica. And if Martin and I had been characters in a Donald Duck story, I would have used the first three lines of obscure wording and rows of exclamation marks in the attempt to describe the poor vehicle’s struggle against the rough gravel roads in its climb of the steep and lush mountains that separate Montezuma and Santa Teresa. From thereon our travel report is short. I can summarize it pretty much like this:

We came, we saw and we stayed…