Eventful or Extradinary?

A blackout. No lights throughout the entire town blackout. On my second day in the town and I'm stuck in a restaurant with only a burning candle attached to a beer bottle to see. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning.

Santa Teresa is a beach town on the western side of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. It has beautiful beaches, surfing, and a paradise for those who love nature (but honestly most of Costa Rica is for nature lovers). It is a little bit harder to get to than most because you have to cross the Gulf of Nicoya.

In Costa Rica we are also at the end of the dry season right now, which means starting in May it'll be mostly rain throughout the week, which ends around November. Now don't fret if you want to visit during that time, the rain here is nothing like it is elsewhere. The weather still feels like 95 degrees every day, especially because of the humidity. So you'll find most travelers and locals walking in a rainstorm and not minding at all.

Now I'll be honest with you, I did not do a ton of research on the weather in Costa Rica before I came. Was that probably not the best idea? Yes. Should I have done some research? Of course. But I didn't, and as it turned out I got to experience quite the camotion.

After a solid breakfast with some fellow travelers, and a good workout at the local 'lifeguard gym', I left in a mood craving a burrito. About 45 minutes into what could be described as one of the greatest burritos I ever had. it started pouring down rain. Now I mean POURING. A type of storm I am not often used to as a Californian.

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To Costa Ricans though this storm was normal. Nobody had any reaction to the rain, people were still walking and going about their day. Yes, people were walking in shorts & flips flops in this storm.

After about an hour of the rainstorm, the electricity went out; and no I don't just mean in the restaurant. The entire part of Santa Teresa & extended. I was sitting there, mid burrito in hand, quite in a shock, as I could not see anything. The only thing reminding me I was holding said burrito, was the sauce dripping down my hand. I could not see a thing.

Now back in the states, this would've been quite a drama. But in Costa Rica, this is quite normal. The workers brought out little beer bottles with some wax, lit the candles and just went on about there shift like nothing was wrong.

Something to know about Santa Teresa is that it's quite a new town. It was only built about 15-20 years ago. Before that, it was just a beach & jungle. Now a power outage in Marin County (my home), would only affect certain neighborhoods. But in Santa Teresa, the reason the entire town, and extended, lost power was because there is only one power line that connects everything. So if one pole or the powerline goes out, it goes out for everything. So I ended up walking back to the restaurant in the pitch black pouring down rain (a 15-minute walk), and honestly, I loved it. We had a lack of power for about 2-3 hours or so. Everyone in the hostel figured out their own way to entertain themselves, ping pong, pool, cards, nobody seemed to mind that much. Quite an eventful day.

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The very next day (Friday, April 16th), I spent most of my day at the beach, after a long day in the sun. And by long I mean I slept on the beach for most of the day. Walking back during sunset, I stopped at a restaurant for dinner, where I accidentally ordered a $65 meal AND realized I had lost my keys, but not just my room key, also the key to the lock storing all my clothes and belongings.

Now you may be wondering, "caroline how did you not realize you were buying a $65 meal? how did you lose your keys?" the answer to you're question, 1. because I'm me, this is very typical 2. I honestly did not look at the price, as I usually only eat out at local restaurants. 3. The keys well, that is still a mystery.

So I was out $65 and had no keys back into my room or my belongings. I ended up having to break into my room (yes I used a pick to break open the window) and was without my laptop and all my belongings for 24 hours. AKA why this post is coming so late. Also, someone stole my toothpaste!

So quite a past two days, but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. Every mistake or small incident is a lesson learned for me, also it can be fun every once in a while to have some chaos.

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