Dominical Dreamin' - Part II

Main St., Dominical

In my last post we took a trip to Playa Dominical, down the Pacific Coast past Quepos, with our friends Marc and Eroca in celebration of Layne's birthday. The first two days were filled with sun and surf, laughter and good cheer, the evenings with leisurely dinners of fresh fish and wine. But the third morning Layne and I got up early, enjoyed the great breakfast buffet at Villas Rio Mar where we were staying, then headed down the highway to play a round of golf.

Affordable public golf courses  are few and far between in Costa Rica so we were delighted when we discovered a 9-hole course located just a 40-minute drive south from Dominical. As a travel writer, I had been fortunate to score a free round of golf so Layne and I managed to bring our bag of clubs along, even though it crowded our Toyota Yaris rental car.

Yours Truly tees up

And what a beautiful course it is! Nestled deep in the jungles of the Southern Pacific zone, San Buenas Golf Resort is part of a planned condominium and residential community still in the early stages of construction. Only the first 9 holes of the 18-hole course are completed so far but that was enough for Layne and me to get our "golf fix." With not another soul on the fairways, other than a few maintenance workers, we literally had the place to ourselves. Riding along the tidy gravel golf paths, we delighted in gorgeous views all around, from misty mountain vistas to the unexpected sight of a tall white bird - a heron, perhaps? - standing just off the green on the fifth hole.

 

It had been a while since Layne had had his hands on a club and it showed in his game: I came within one stroke of beating him! We usually play what he calls "match play" golf, where we only keep track of who wins hole by hole, not the overall score. On the match play scorecard, I won four holes, he won four holes and we tied one. Of course, neither of us would brag about our overall scores.

Layne takes his best shot

The course is as green and lush as one expects a golf course to be but we were pleased to learn that San Buenas is committed to the ecology of the local area and employs sustainable practices in the golf course as well as the residential area. For example, the course uses a particular kind of grass on the fairways which is saltwater tolerant. So when weeds appear, they simply water the course with saltwater, killing the weeds but not the grasses. The management of San Buenas is also providing "green" leadership in the local town of San Buenaventura, helping set up a plastic, glass and aluminum can recycling program using their trucks, employees and volunteers. To protect the town from flooding during the rainy season, San Buenas is working to lower the banks of the river near the course so that overflow will run onto low areas of the golf course and not into town.

The company is likewise committed to helping build the local pueblo by providing jobs to as many local people as they can employ, offering education and job training as needed. As we rode around the course, we could see the results of this policy: despite the empty fairways, there were employees watering the greens by hand, spraying foliage with fertilizer or blowing and raking leaves. For us it was a great morning of golf; for the town of San Buenaventura, it promises a brighter future.

Layne and I returned to Villas Rio Mar, tired but happy. After sharing a tasty plate of nachos with Marc and Eroca, it was back to the playa for more sun and hopefully a beautiful sunset over the ocean. 

With signs warning of "strong rip currents" and a prohibition on swimming on the main Dominical beach, we contented ourselves with hanging out watching surfers and chatting with other beachgoers. Eroca and I engaged a stunningly beautiful young brunette in conversation and learned that she was there from Brazil with her boyfriend, who was out surfing. As I tried to chat with her, we found that since I knew no Portuguese, her native tongue, and she knew little English, my native language, we ended up conversing in Spanish, which neither of us knew very well. We both found it rather amusing that we could carry on a friendly chitchat in our second languages.

Eroca strikes a meditative pose

Another woman we met was Canadian like Eroca and a true "snowbird," with homes in both British Columbia and Dominical, spending the good season in each one and utilizing house sitters as caretakers when absent from each house. Another potential retiree we met was in Costa Rica for a month, her and her husband's third such "due diligence" trip. They were quite taken with Dominical and were thinking of buying property. Only that morning her husband had expressed second thoughts after reading a book that advises renting before buying. We agreed that we think that is the best approach to moving here as well. Not everyone can make the adjustment.

Dominical wardrobe

As the afternoon ebbed we gazed out at the surfers silhouetted against the setting sun, the beauty and peacefulness of the place intoxicating. Eventually we strolled back to the main street area for dinner at a popular hangout, Tortilla Flats. After we shared a plate of excellent Fried Calamari, I opted for Fish Tacos, which were extravagant in size and flavor, and we all enjoyed some first-rate margaritas.

With only one more day before us, I played my "travel writer card" and urged our little group to make the short drive south to Marino Ballena National Park, which would give me one more cool thing to write about. They were easy to persuade and when we arrived at this picturesque beach, they were quite happy they came along. 

What a stretch of magnificent coastline, ultra-tropical scenery and the trademark "whale's tail"-shaped coral reef offshore. Simply beautiful.

Short hike to Playa Ballena

Eroca takes in the view

Marc takes in the view too

Beach as far as you can see...

... in each direction

We could have easily spent an entire day there instead of the two hours we had. But in that time, Eroca and I walked down the beach to an area we'd been told was home to Scarlet Macaws. And indeed, perched high in the trees were numbers of the bright red birds, flapping at each other indignantly and squawking their distinctive caw. It was quite a thrill to see so many in their native habitat.

But soon it was time for the drive home, a quieter group than on the trip down as we all enjoyed the memories of our outstanding holiday in Dominical. ¡Vamos a regresar! We will return!

          

A Beachside Visit from Scarlet Macaws

If, like me, you were curious about the bird shown in the photo in last week’s post, wonder no longer. Readers Pat and John were kind enough to post a comment identifying the creature as a Laughing Falcon. A beautiful white-breasted raptor with a black mask in my backyard! Fabulous! It certainly earned its name with a very loud “laugh” just outside my office window.

On a trip to Herradura Beach yesterday with friends Jan and Tom, we had the good fortune of seeing a couple of other amazing Costa Rican birds: Scarlet Macaws! Only minutes after we arrived at this secluded playa a few miles up the road from the busy tourist town of Jaco, we looked up as two long-tailed birds screeched their arrival in the branches of a nearby tree. As we all craned our necks to see them high above us, one stuck its head into a hole far up on the tree trunk, while the other one stood guard on an adjacent limb. The first one then crawled further inside the hollow until only its long red tail could be seen flashing from the thick trunk. They were obviously feeding their nest of baby birds! What a thrill! We watched for long minutes while the one we assumed was the mother bird (though who knows?) tended to her young and the second bird continued his vigil nearby. Eventually they flew away, leaving their young unattended for several hours as we hung out on the beach below. (Click on the photos to enlarge.)

 

The Macaw is a truly spectacular sight, with bright red and cobalt blue feathers and a length of close to three feet when fully grown. They can live for decades, up to 50 years in captivity and probably that long in the wild. They mate for life so you might guess the pair we saw were long-time lovers. Unfortunately, deforestation due to development, pesticide use and poaching for the pet trade has reduced the population significantly and narrowed the habitat from some 80% of Costa Rica’s territory to about 20% today. Their terrain now is restricted primarily to two areas of Costa Rica: the Carara Biological Reserve, only a few miles from Herradura Beach where my friends and I were relaxing, and the Osa Peninsula in the less developed southern region. Jan and I remarked with awestruck voices as to how truly lucky we were to have seen this pair in the wild.

Later in the day after the tide had come in, we watched with interest as several pelicans dive-bombed for dinner into the calm waters of Bahía Herradura. 

Although not as colorful as the Macaws, the pelicans were fascinating to observe as they blasted straight down into the waters, then settled peacefully on the surface while they gulped down the catch. Then the bird would cruise about for a few minutes, apparently digesting the latest morsel, before taking off for the next course. 

My view of Herradura Beach

Herradura is a long, tree-lined beach just down the coast from Los Suenos, a Marriott resort of hotel and condominiums that has dramatically changed the seaside communities nearby, prompting a swarm of new development in the area. Jan and Tom have been going to Herradura for several years and Jan recalled earlier days when the hillsides were pristine, the meadows full of white cattle and the local Tico neighborhood was serene. Now the upscale resort has brought in mega-bucks as evidenced by the hotel marina full of large white boats and the distant mountainside cluttered with condos. It is truly disconcerting to see the juxtaposition of modest Tico houses, populated with barefoot children and their working-class parents, across the road from the vast acreage of expensive homes, swimming pools and golf courses, fueled by affluent tourists.

Only my footprints

It was quite a treat for me to go on this outing with Jan and Tom, who are well known vendors at the Atenas and Grecia ferias for their outstanding organic breads and pastries. Although Jan tends the stall at the farmers markets, she is also quite an accomplished artist; their newly built home is chock-full of her gorgeous, unique artwork. Back in Pennsylvania Tom worked for years in the restaurant business, managing the bakery part of a “destination” restaurant and eventually expanding it to include a successful sandwich shop featuring his breads. Now he shares the delicious results of this expertise with Gringos and Ticos alike. His whole-wheat sourdough loaf is just to die for, especially toasted with lots of butter on it. Oh yum! And lucky me, he had prepared a picnic lunch for us of chicken breast, bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwiches with horseradish mayo on his 5-grain bread. What a feast! And to top it off, on the way home we enjoyed his special cookies made with bananas, walnuts, raisins and his freshly made organic peanut butter. Diet? What diet?!