Esparza: Clean and Inexpensive

[Esparzano]

A friend has just opened his new "cabinas" on the outskirts of Esparza, about 50 miles west of the San Jose airport.

“Cabinas Mol” are very comfortable, very clean, and with super A/C with secure parking in a very safe neighborhood. Also included are Cable TV, fridges, King or Queen beds, and outdoor grill.

He charges around $20 a night but will negotiate if you'll be staying multiple nights. He also has a king suite available at a higher cost.

The cabinas are located one km north on the road immediately west of the Szuster Pharmacy near the main entrance to Esparza. The pharmacy is on the right coming from San Jose. On the left will be a Pali and a MegaSuper grocery store. Just follow the road north. After a while there will be a hard bend to the left and soon thereafter a hard bend to the right. Then the cabinas are about 100 feet on the right and are located behind the owners’ beautiful two-story Spanish Colonial house. You won’t see the cabinas from the street.

Phone from the US is: 506 2 636 60 87. E-mail is tallermol@ice.co.cr

Esparza is a convenient place to overnight if you've just arrived in Costa Rica and are headed for Guanacaste, the Nicoya Penisula via the ferry at Puntarenas, Jaco, or Monteverde. (If you're going to Monteverde, you can leave Esparza in the a.m. and arrive at the Santa Elena cut-off from the Interamerican Highway in about 35 minutes. From there it's 90 minutes to two hours of bone-jarring gravel roads to Monteverde, but then if you're planning to go to the Cloud Forest, you've already learned this through your research. You can arrive back in Esparza before dark after spending six or seven hours in Monteverde.)

The owners of Cabinas Mol will help you plan daytrips, if you'd like.

A ten-minute walk from the cabinas brings you to the Riverview Restaurant, a new dining place high on the cliff overlooking the River Barranca. The food is very good and prices are reasonable. There are “pulperias” (pul-pear-EE-as) (little neighborhood convenience stores) nearby. Esparza itself has all the facilities a traveler might need, although there are no hotels as we know them. (You might see a place called the Hotel Castenuelas where you turn off the highway. I stayed there once and was horrified by the terrible conditions of the place.)
(A quick Costa Rican Spanish lesson: For those who haven't learned the code in Costa Rica yet, what we in the US and Canada (etc) call a "motel" is called a "cabina" (ca-BEEN-a) in Costa Rica. In CR, "motel" refers to the hot-sheet facilities that cater to illicit affairs. They sometimes charge by the hour and provide carports with large curtains that can be pulled shut to hide cars and license plates from snoops and payment is made through a lazy susan arrangement in the wall so that the employee never sees who the "guests" are. So be careful about asking for a motel. It's better to simply add "cabina" to your Spanish vocabulary.)

So consider spending a night or even a couple days at Cabinas Mol in Esparza. It’s a good place to catch your breath after your flight and refine your plans for visiting beautiful and friendly Costa Rica.