Nosara is an oasis of unspoiled charm in wildly popular Costa Rica

Arriving at our rented beach house in Costa Rica, my family was startled by a massive grasshopper latched onto the screen door.

"It wants us to leave because we are in its territory," said one of my Costa Rican relatives. The grasshopper's turf was a hill overlooking Playa Guiones beach in Nosara, a sleepy hamlet on the Pacific coast of this thriving Central American nation.

Costa Rica has become a tourism hot spot because of its natural beauty, friendly people and stable democracy. The Tico Times, the English-language newspaper where I used to work, reported that 1.9 million tourists visited the country in 2007, about a tenfold increase from the first time I came here in the late 1980s.

The growing popularity was a big reason I wasn't so keen to return to Nosara, where my wife and I once owned a beach house. Fortunately, my fears that the place might have lost its charm proved unfounded.

However, I'd been disappointed during a 2005 visit to Tamarindo, another Costa Rican beach town that's popular with surfers. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the coast was so undeveloped that we found the spot where Oliver North had a clandestine airstrip built to supply the Nicaraguan rebels. Nowadays, Tamarindo's beaches are dirtier and more crowded, and the skyline is marred by high-rise condominiums.

Costa Rica's northwestern coast, called Guanacaste, is now so popular that it's hard to find a beach house during New Year's week. Either the homes are booked months in advance or they cost $3,000 to $5,000 a week, which is very pricey for Central America.

Nosara has always been a little bit cheaper than other nearby coastal towns, so that's where we looked. We found a modern three-bedroom house with a swimming pool for $2,000 a week.

During our first morning, the howler monkeys in the trees woke us up. White-throated magpie jays and yellow social flycatchers flew from nearby trees while we relaxed in the swimming pool. And the view from our hilltop house showed the jungle was still largely intact. While there were more houses and businesses than 12 years ago, there were no high-rises protruding like an eyesore. The most obnoxious building was a hotel with a tower that looked like a spaceship from a bad 1950s sci-fi movie.

On my first morning, I rented a surfboard from Coconut Harry's and jumped into the water. The warm water was a pleasant reminder of why people travel thousands of miles to surf and swim. The surf is challenging but not as dangerous as some top surfing spots. Costa Rica has long prohibited development 55 yards from high tide. Enforcement of this law has been slipshod at other beaches, but Nosara's beach, Playa Guiones, is protected because its shoreline is part of a turtle refuge.

At low tide, the beach widens about 100 yards, and you can walk almost four miles on soft sand.

I was happy to see Olga's ramshackle restaurant still on the beach. As I sat drinking the national beer, Imperial, I rejoiced in knowing that this is one paradise that hasn't been paved over for a parking lot.