When you fly into Costa Rica, you arrive either in San Jose (actually Alajuela) or Liberia. (If you arrive in Alajuela, you might want to change some dollars into local currency, "colons," inside the airport. The wait is shorter than in most Costa Rican banks.You can go to the money changing desk after you go through immigration.)

Getting to Nosara from either airport will be a memorable, and probably a little adventurous, part of your trip.  This page is designed to help avoid any anxiety you might otherwise have about that part of the journey.

From San Jose/Alajuela, you can either drive to Nosara in a rental car, or you can fly in a small plane to the Nosara air strip. Sansa, Nature Air, and charter flights all make the trip. From Liberia, you can drive by rental car. The drive from Alajuela is at least five hours. From Liberia, a little more than two, at least.  If you take a small plane to Nosara, you can arrange to have a rental car waiting for you. The easiest way to handle all arrangements with rental cars and small airplanes is through a Nosara travel agency called Nosara Travel, www.nosaratravel.com.

I strongly advise against driving at night in Costa Rica. Directional signs are sometimes poor, or simply not there when you really need them, like at a fork in the road. There are some huge potholes. And at night there can be pedestrians,  some very young and very old, walking casually, or cycling, on the road. You will encounter a variety of creatures: cows, horses, dogs, chickens, pigs. Interesting things in the light, daunting in the dark.

A couple of driving notes: Before reaching the town of Nicoya and between Nicoya and Nosara, there are a number of one-way bridges. On one side of each bridge, there is usually a sign saying, "Ceda el paso" which means to yield to any vehicle that might be approaching the bridge from the other direction. Whether you have the right of way on these bridges or not, be careful and slow. The word "ceda" means yield, an important word to be able to translate. "No hay paso" is a sign telling you that you are about to go the wrong way on a one-way street. A pile of trash, a branch, or some other object in the road can be a Costa Rican way of telling you to slow down and be cautious about some potential peril ahead.

Back to driving at night: If you fly into Alajuela (San Jose) and arrive mid-day or later, you will be hard pressed to get your luggage, do the paperwork for a rental car and drive all the way to Nosara before dark. It will be close at best. So, consider arranging ahead of time to spend your first night somewhere along the way. The airport in Alajuela is on the Nosara side of San Jose, so unless you have a need to experience the big city congestion of San Jose, I recommend avoiding it.

From the Liberia airport, the drive to Nosara is fairly straightforward, so if that's your plan you can skip the next two paragraphs and go to the part which details the dirt road part of the trip to Nosara.

From San Jose/Alajuela you will take Highway 1 towards Nicaragua, Puntarenas, San Ramon. Before setting out, set your trip meter to 0. Following are some distances to some specific points, from the rental car pickup spot behind the Airport Hampton Inn. (If you pick up your car in the airport parking garage, the actual distances will be a kilometer (k) or two less.). At about 20 k, you will cross the Rio Colorado. At 23 k, there is a gas station on the left. At 34 k, and again at 40 k, you cross the Rio Grande.

You will see signs to Puntarenas. At about 80 k from the airport, the road to Puntarenas forks left. Don't go there. Bear right on Highway 1. Reset your trip meter. From this point it is about another 50 k to a big gas station on the left, Shell as of this writing, where you turn left on to one of the best roads in the country, a concrete road that takes you to L'Amistad Puente (bridge) across the Gulf of Nicoya. No toll as of this writing but there may be one by the time you get there.  After the bridge follow signs to Samara and/or Nicoya. Go straight through Nicoya, following signs to Samara (but only up to a point) or Nosara.

About 30 minutes after Nicoya, there will be a large petrol station on your left, an important landmark. It's called "La Bomba" (the pump). It's a good place to fill up with gas and to get your windshield cleaned. About 100 meters past the station, take the dirt road to the right, to Nosara. The paved road, which you leave at this point, goes to Samara.  Reset your trip meter. If you find yourself thinking the road is too primitive to be the right road going to a resort area, that is a good sign that you are on the right road.

It's about 22.5 k of dirt road to Nosara. After about 9 k, the route to Nosara turns right. A left at this point would take you to Samara.  Approaching Nosara, you will pass through a fishing village at Playa Garza, then after a few k's you will pass the Nosara Yoga Institute, then after another k or 2, you will see on your right the Nosara Development Company, Coconut Harry's Surf Shop and Marlin Bill's Restaurant. On your left will be Cafe de Paris. Welcome to the "American Project" section of Nosara. 

One travel writer described the roads here as "an intestinal labyrinth." Don't worry. It's hard to get seriously lost, or to stay lost for very long.

To get to Slow M'ocean, continue on the main road from the landmarks I just mentioned for a kilometer or two. At the top of a small rise, there will be a very, very sharp turn back to the right, about 150 degree turn. There are a number of signs. Stay on the winding road up the mountain until you come to a T-intersection. Turn right, and then take the second right, and Slow M'ocean is at the end of the street on your left. (The first right which you don't take, goes to "La Ventana", a bed and breakfast, which has hosted, by the way, Danny Divito, his family, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins). 

If you get lost somewhere in the intestinal labyrinth, ask someone how to get to Slow M'ocean, Greg Smith's house, or to my next door neighbor's house, Case De Las Huacas ( pronounced WHA kaas). It's the home of a well known local couple, "Boli" Bolivar Bermudas and Kim Godson.  Slow M'ocean is just past Boli's driveway.  The phone number at Slow M'ocean is 682.0616.  Neighbors nearby, Jim and Linda Wall at Villa La Ventana, can be reached at 682.0316.