Location

Some History and Facts

• Mal Pais is translated as “BadLands” and while that once may have been apt, it no longer applies to this great little surf town.
• They are home to some of Costa Rica’s largest waves and miles of nearly empty beaches.
• Is located close to the Cabo Blanco Nature Preserve, which is worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Getting There

By Air: The nearest airport is Tambor, which is really nothing more than a short strip of tarmac next to the ocean. Most larger hotels will pick you up or there are usually taxis waiting for the regular flights. Expect to pay about $40 USD for the taxi to Mal Pais/Santa Teresa. If there are no taxis waiting you can call Gilberto (8642-0241).

By Car: The easiest route to take is the Interamericana Highway from San Jose to Puntarenas, where you will take the ferry across to Paquera before heading south to Mal Pais via Cobano. The total trip takes about 6 hours. There are two ferry options in Puntarenas, the Paquera option will get you closer to Mal Pais and save you from taking the bumpy dirt road from Naranjo. Ferries leave approximately every two hours from 5am to 8pm, but I suggest getting there early as the lines can be long. The cost for the ferry is about $10 USD.

By Bus: Trans Cobano leaves San Jose for Mal Pais/Santa Teresa daily from the Terminal del Coca Cola at 6am and 3pm. Although there may be less buses in the rainy season. The ride takes about 6 hours with a cost of around $10 USD (including the ferry). The bus is unusually nice, even providing A/C. The bus will drop you off and pick you up for the return trip at Frank’s Place. (M-Sa 4:30am, 2:30pm; Su 8:30am. 2pm)

The Trip

I tried to pick up my ticket the day before I left, but unlike most beach going buses, I had to purchase the ticket on the bus directly. So make sure you show up early or the bus may fill up and you won’t get on. Also, be sure to triple check the departure time of the bus. We were told 7am, but when we arrived at 6:30am, the direct bus had already left.

Undetoured, we decided to make the trip piecemeal and took a local bus to Putarenas, crossed on the Ferry, then picked up a bus bound for Montezuma. We got off before Montezuma in Cobano and caught the bus for Mal Pais from there. The total time and cost was still about the same as if we would have taken the dedicated tour bus, however if you are not a seasoned traveler or don’t speak Spanish, I don’t recommend this route.

One of the main reasons I prefer to travel by bus in Costa Rica is so I can enjoy the beautiful countryside along the way without having to deal with the worries of traffic or navigation. Leaving San Jose on the Interamericana Highway for Putarenas you’ll bear witness to plenty of interesting vistas. Putarenas itself however is not much to look at. Although there has been a recent attempt to renovate the city, it is mostly a run down, forgotten port with a once long beautiful beach, now foamy with pollution from the industrial barges and cruise ships.

The 90 min ferry crossing is quite lovely as long as the weather is nice, and you’ll pass a few lovely islands before docking in Paquera.

TRAVELERS TIP: If you are not taking the direct tour bus, I recommend moving toward the exit of the ferry well before the ship docks. There will be a crush of people and many will be heading for the buses that you will want to take to Cobano. It’s first come first served and if you get there late in the group, you’re likely to be standing for the hour ride to Cobano or be stuck without a bus altogether.

There really are not many open vistas the remainder of the way to Mal Pais, most of the roads are closed in with forest. That doesn’t mean you won’t spot interesting things however, so keep your eyes open!

We arrived and got off the bus at Frank’s Place. However, we should have stayed on a bit longer as the bus would have taken us almost right up to the door of our hotel. As it was, we had to walk the 1.5 km through town, but it did give us the opportunity to make some important observations.

TRAVELERS TIP: Most of the guide books (Frommers, Fodors, Let’s Go) seem to contain outdated entries for this area. There ARE in fact two ATMs in town, both near Frank’s Place and the night life is pretty hopping on the weekends, with several new clubs open. Just remember that travel guides are just that, GUIDES, and may not always be accurate.

The guides are correct in that there really is no town center for Mal Pais and Santa Teresa. Everything is fairly spread out along the 6km road that runs parallel to the beach. While a car isn’t necessary, there are many places to rent bikes and 4-wheelers if you don’t feel like hoofing it.

We made our way past the numerous sodas and surf shops and finally reached our hotel, Casa Zen. This is a great place tucked away off the main road and just a few minutes walk from the beach. The feel is a mixture of new age, hippie and surf hostel with its excellent Thai restaurant, yoga classes and eclectic collection of guests. The staff is very friendly and helpful, most are even native English speakers. I highly recommend Casa Zen if you happen to be in the area. My only complaint is that they never returned my reservation email, but we were still lucky enough to grab the last (and largest) room available.

As you can see in the pictures below, our room was spacious and had screened windows, a full kitchen and private, hot water bathroom. Most rooms use one of several common cooking and bathing areas, and repeated inspection found them spotless and well stocked. Our apartment-like room was connected to all the other habitations on the upper level via doors that were locked from our side. This feature was obviously designed to allow the entire upper floor to be used by one large group. Excellent design, however the doors to the other rooms are rather thinly constructed, so if you have noisy neighbors, as we did, you’ll hear their every word (and guitar playing in our case).

The rates are also extremely reasonable, starting at around $12 USD per person for their dorm rooms up to $60 USD for the large apartment. Rates may vary depending on the season however, our visit was during the rainy (low) season and thus we undoubtedly paid reduced rates.

Casa Zen

We didn’t waste any time after checking into the hotel to make our way to the beach. I can affirm that you should believe all the hype you hear about this incredible stretch of shoreline. The white sand is mostly made of a rough, ground coral and the long winding, mostly empty beach made the 6 hours of travel well worth it. However the large waves and rock littered bottom definitely make this a surfing beach as opposed to a swimming beach. The brave of heart and tough of feet can have a great deal of fun playing in the waves. Be warned though that the very strong rip tide and rocks ranging from pebble to sharp boulder in size lurk beneath the warm waters and you can easily get hurt. I recommend some type of reef shoe if you intend on venturing into the waters.

TRAVELERS TIP: As with any beach, you need to watch you things here. Don’t bring anything to the beach that you can’t afford to get stolen! We dropped our sandals and shirts on the sand before going into the water and when we returned 15 min later there were clear foot prints coming up to and leading away from our stuff, which was also moved around…. and we were even keeping an eye on it! I was fortunate enough to hide our valuables in the sand under from drift wood several meters away, but that doesn’t always work. You never know who’s watching!

There are a plethora of activities to keep you busy in the area: Cabo Nature Reserve, Canopy del Pacifico or even brush up on your spanish at the Santa Teresa Beach Spanish School. but more than likely if you’re coming to this area, you’re coming for the excellent surfing.

There are several surfing options nearby:

Playa Mal Pais: Not the best choice for surfing as it doesn’t break everyday, but you can still catch some good waves here when it does. Otherwise, it’s a good spot for exploring the tide pools and lounging.

Playa El Carmen: This is a decent spot with a long right wall and a short left breaking on a sandy bottom.

Playa Stata Teresa: Three kilometers north of the main crossroad has an A-frame break and has a better wave at low tide than the other beaches.

Playa Manzanillo: It’s the farthest away, some 8 km down the road toward Santa Teresa. It has an offshore reef and while it is only accessible by 4-wheeler but it’s worth the trip if you can spend the day.

There are no shortage of places to rent surf boards or take lessons, but we happened to grab our gear from The Shit Hole, which had good equipment and comparable prices. USD $10/day for a rental.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay as long as we wanted to, but this area tends to drain you of your desire to leave, so I doubt we could have stayed a sufficient amount of time to satisfy us. We packed up our gear and walked back toward Frank’s Place to catch the 2pm bus. We stopped off for lunch at a cool little sports bar called The Howlin Monkey .

If you’re looking for a little slice of home or need to catch up on the happenings of your favorite sports team, this is the place for you. The food was tasty and we had two of their recommended dishes, the Fish Tacos (baja style) and the Veggie Burrito, both were delicious and reasonably priced. Dishes ranged from $4 -$10 USD.

The Budget

I arrived Saturday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon. Bus tickets to and from San Jose ($22), one night hotel ($55), three meals ($30) and board rental ($10) for a total of approximately $117.00 USD