Bahia de Paquera is a small village located in a bay, on the Nicoya Gulf in Costa Rica.
It's a great fishing spot, not too far from Puntarenas. From Bahia de Paquera you can take a boat tour to Isla Tortuga or go night kayaking in the bioluminescence bay.
We ended up in there by accident, looking for a gas station. We were amused to hear that the Spanish word for gas station was "bomba", which for us sounded as bomb.
Bahia de Paquera's beach was mostly rocky and the colour of the sand was darker than in Tamarindo.
Since it was not a touristic beach, it was not as clean as we would have liked it.
Though that did not prevent us from going for a swim or having fun.
I found these shells very beautiful and loved how the water reflected the light.
While talking with the locals we learnt that this beach used to be more popular before and that the ferry used to come here.
Now there were only the fishermen living in the village, as the others have moved to the capital, San Jose, looking for better job opportunities.
Since this location was great for fishing, I was not surprised to find in here a colony of pelicans.
They were everywhere: on the shore, on the sea, on the boats.
Couple of them came really close to us.
This one was not shy at all. He flew and landed one meter away from me.
We must have got to Bahia around lunch time, when everything was closed.
The only people we found were these fishermen.
As we got closer, they greeted us with: Pura Vida!
They were the ones who told us where to go for lunch.
We decided to stretch a bit, thus we parked the car and walked towards the restaurant.
Two minutes later, we found it, but it was closed as well.
The only person around was another fisherman who told us the restaurant would open only in the evening.
He explained to us that it was more of a club than a restaurant.
I had a look at the hooks he was preparing and got a chill down my spine, seeing that most of them were rusted.
We took a few more minutes to stroll down the dusty roads of the village before heading back to the car.
We noted that most of the houses looked abandoned.
Then we remembered what the fishermen had said, that everyone had left the village, except for those who were making a living from fishing.
I was surprised to see a board advertising for 21st Century real estate in there.
Most of the gringos who retire in Costa Rica chose other locations like: Montezuma, Santa-Theresa, Tamarindo or Playa Hermosa.
While travelling across the country, I have not seen too many expats living in small places like this.
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