Playa Guiones
Playa Guiones is the most popular of the Nosara Beaches, and it is one of the best surfing beaches of Costa Rica. The foreign community of Nosara, made up of Americans and Europeans, is proud of the tranquility and feeling of belonging one feels in Guiones. It seems everyone knows every one else, as well as helping each other to keep it free from too much tourism, crime, clean and unpolluted. It is also proud to exhibit some of the best sunsets seen anywhere, for this very reason the whole area is known as the Gold Coast! The sand of Playa Guiones is soft and white, little ranchitos are scattered along the shore offering shade. It has everything! Shopping, a huge choice of restaurants and hotels, various supermarkets offering a large variety of foreign foods, yoga, massage, energy healing, and an excellent health service for both residents and visitors, an airport, a bank, wonderful beaches, surfing, swimming, deep sea fishing, sunshine, horse-riding, bicycles, kayaking, canoeing…But there is more! When the foreign community settled down some 30 years or more ago, they established a reforestation program, and the results are here today, the example by excellence of a well planned growth, an ecological triumph; the flora and fauna of this coast is outstanding and it is not unusual to find yourself in a property surrounded by nothing but nature, enveloped and lost in the jungle. This natural tropical dry forest, one of the planets most cherished ecosystem, is another well guarded secret of Nosara. Some black jaguars are still seen at night, but they are very shy animals. Although a lot of people live there now, it doesn’t feels crowded, the atmosphere is relaxed and laid back, except perhaps during Christmas New/Year for a couple of days and during Easter week, when hotels are all booked and a crowd has appeared out of nowhere! It is not surprising indeed that so many visitors come to Guiones and in the space of a week, turn their lives upside down and decide to move there and stay forever! Guiones is where it is possible to find a good rhythm of life, peace of mind and a deep feeling of being at the right place.
South of Guiones is playa Rosada, with its appealing pink stretch of sand, popular for snorkeling as the surf is calmer there, and to the North, visit Playa Pelada, a jewel of a little beach, good for shell collecting. The sea is very calm there as it is protected by a coral reef, so it is excellent for swimming and playing in the sea, or just floating! Bring your mask for snorkeling too, and make sure you do not miss the famous blowhole in the rocks, spraying water up in the air with great force! Playa pelada is so quiet that you will probably fall asleep there! Some small typical fishing boats are not just there for decoration as local fishing men can be seen coming and going, their prize in hand. Although Pelicans are always present on the whole coast, watch them dive for their fish in Pelada, and further down behind the rocks, where the river mouth is, more birds, especially gulls.
Guiones has many excellent hotels to choose from and I only picked those as I know them well and think that they are very good; Hotel Café de Paris, close to Playa Guiones, excellent atmosphere, and a bakery and patisserie you will die for and never want to leave. Hotel Harmony, on Guiones also, great pool, Casa Hotel Romantica, it lives up to its name, The Lagarta Lodge, great views, Villa Las Tecas with small apartment on Playa Pelada beach.
For eating, try the Café de Paris, excellent international food, La Dolce Vita for absolutely outstanding Italian food, on the road to Garza, Marlin’s bill, in Guiones, excellent for seafood. Most of the hotels have their own restaurant and there are a few bakeries where one can have a pastry at any time of the day. Blew Dog is also an alternative for a place to stay and to eat as well as being one of the most popular bars.
by Mireille Darras.
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