Vegan in Costa Rica #4: Samara

dezembro 15, 2018

Vegan in Costa Rica #4: Samara

After our intense experience in Puerto Viejo, Arenal Volcano and Monteverde, we decided to end the trip by visiting the Pacific Coast. Our last destination in Costa Rica was Samara, known for it's beaches.

Even though I was loving Costa Rica so far, I was a little disappointed that I hadn't seen wild monkeys yet. Although we had heard them a couple of times, the only monkeys we saw were at the Jaguar Rescue Center, in Puerto Viejo - it was great, but it's not the same as watching animals roam free in their natural habitat.

So when I got to Hotel Giada the first thing I asked was what kind of animals we could see there. The lady said that, because it was a beach town, there weren't that many wild animals roaming around. That got me really sad, especially because it was our last few days in Costa Rica and, after Samara, we would be going straight to the San José Airport.

However, as soon as I got to my room, there was a cute fellow looking at me through the window. It was huge! That got me really excited as to what I would see next, and the future would not disappoint.

We had lunch at the hotel's restaurant, "Di Mare Di Vino", and I asked for their Vegetarian Quinoa Lasagna, without cheese.

Then we went to explore the place. We headed to the beach, but the weather wasn't the best. The temperature was okay but the waves were too aggressive - I guess that's why surfers like it that much. We decided to swim in the pool instead.

We drove a while to check if they had calmer beaches, with smaller waves... What we found instead was much better.

Because of the lighting, we couldn't take very good pictures, but we saw monkeys! I was incredibly excited, even emotional. Afterwards, all we wanted to do was look for monkeys, and we found a lot of them, even babies.

There is a vegan restaurant called Luvburger which I was excited to try here, but it was closed for vacations when I was there! So instead, we went to another one called Ahora Si! (here is their facebook page!).

I asked the owner for their vegan options (which were marked in their menu) and she highly suggested the "Pasta & Ceci (Chickpeas)", which was good, but the portion was too big for me.

For dessert, we asked for their chocolate and pear cake and for their basil pudding. Not gonna lie, the pudding wasn't really my thing, but the cake was pretty tasty.

On the next day, we had breakfast at the hotel. Can you guess what I had?

That's right... Fruit and Gallo Pinto! Oh, how I miss this kind of breakfast...

We spent our morning at the beach, had lunch at the hotel (I not only forgot to take pictures or film it, as I forgot what I ate!) and then returned to our quest to find more monkeys. We did find some, and also something else...

These cuties were right next to the beach - like, really close. A dog that was playing at the beach nearly got eaten (he is fine though!). They have a sign warning people that there might be crocodiles but it's surreal to me how close they were. We were incredibly lucky to see them like this!

For dinner, we went back to Ahora Sí! and this time, I tried their Linguine Mediterranean, while my brother asked for their pesto.

Both of these were incredibly tasty!! I didn't take pictures, but my mom had their Italian minestrone (which did come with a side of parmesan, but my mom asked for it, otherwise it would be vegan).

All of this was documented on my last video on the "Vegan in Costa Rica" series. Be sure to check it out (as well as the 3 previous videos on this series!)

And on the next day we would start out journey back to Portugal.

I was so sad to leave Costa Rica. We saw so much and still I feel like there was so much we didn't get to see. I am incredibly grateful to be able to have traveled to such a wonderful, beautiful place, and hopefully one day I'll be back and do all the things I didn't get the chance to do, like visit Parque Cahuita and the Tortuguero, the Marino Ballena National park, do a canopy tour, and so much more.

Meanwhile, this trip taught me a lot and inspired me to keep protecting the animals and the environment as much as I can. It would be an incredible loss to lose treasures like this country, and we need to do everything we can to keep them safe.
Traveling is not exactly a sustainable choice (...at all!), but it can be an incredible learning experience and inspire us to keep on the right path, and I'm incredibly privileged to have the chance to do so.

I couldn't be more grateful, and I can't wait for my next adventure!