Hello again from San Jose. Luckily I got out of the city for the weekend and spent 2 1/2 lovely days on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica in a little beach town called Cahuita. (Alyssa, Thanks for the recommendation. We loved it there!!) As everything was closed we decided not to spend all weekend holed up in the hostel using free internet like the others and hired a shuttle for the 3 1/2 hour drive to the coast. Cahuita is HOT. Not as in slang term for cool or fun but I mean quite literally H-O-T. However we managed to enjoy ourselves just fine.
The three of us checked into our very sweet B&B and spent most of our time adjusting to the humidity by jumping in the hotel pool and swimming in the beach along the Cahuita National Park. We planned on an afternoon walk through the park but it turned into a full day´s event of spotting lizards, hermit crabs, capuchin monkeys and extremely colorful spiders. Our 7km trail was quite adventurous and only disappointing when we saw the locals feeding the monkeys junk food. When we first spotted a capuchin monkey it came running at us and we didn´t know why until we saw many of them along the beach begging the tourists for food. People blatantly disregarded the ¨Do Not Feed the Monkeys¨ sign. After the 7km trail we found ourselves taking a ¨shortcut¨ across the main highway to walk back 6km to town. The trucks were far scarier than the eager capuchin monkeys but we made it back safely.
We anticipated spending Sunday lounging on the beach, relaxing our aching legs from the full day´s walk but rain hit early Sunday morning and didn´t stop until midday. Since a muddy beach is never all that enjoyable to sit on we thought we´d check out the next town over, Puerto Viejo and stop at the bank. Cahuita is a touristy town with maybe 3 roads of many souvenir shops, hotels and restaurants but absolutely nowhere to pull out money at an ATM?! Our closest option was 30 minutes away. Luckily the rain ceased and we were able to spend a sunny afternoon browsing the shops in Puerto Viejo.
Since a few of you have asked me the same questions I feel it might be best to answer them here:
1. Yes, the seafood rocks. I´ve had shrimp, snapper, ceviche and calamari so far. I think I could eat this seafood everyday. I´ve definitely eaten better here than I have in the past few weeks.
2. And again...yes, the coffee IS good. However our hotel told us to buy Oro instead of Britt as this is what we were drinking with our delicious breakfasts (included with the room rate, every morning we enjoyed fresh fruit, eggs and homemade bread with banana cake as an end to the meal...a great way to start your day in Costa Rica).
3. The howler monkeys ARE loud and we could hear them as we walked through the park but only caught a glimpse of them at the end of our walk. They did wake us this morning at 5:00 with their loud roaring calls.
After much debate we decided to cut Tortuguero from our to-do list since it would be a lot of work to get up there for a total of one night and maybe a few hours to visit the park. Instead we returned to San Jose today to cut our journey in half on route to Santa Elena (we estimate it would have been at least 8 hours by bus in total). We´ll continue the last leg of the trip tomorrow morning so we can arrive midday and try to make the most of our short time in the Cloud Reserve Forest. One week is far too short in this country...we would need at least two weeks to see it somewhat properly.
Other side notes: Should you find yourself travelling in Costa Rica and in need to do your laundry be sure to dry your clothes in a dryer vs. hanging them on a clothesline. Trish and I attempted to wash our clothes the standard way (soak in sink, rinse and then hang on clothesline to dry). This worked for us everywhere else until now. Costa Rica is humid. I thought Guatemala was hot and humid but apparently it was nothing in comparison to Costa Rica. The humidity combined with wet clothes creates an awful, rancid stench that will linger in your clothes (so I´ve discovered). So needless to say I don´t smell very good right now. I had to wash most of my shirts so I only have one remaining clean one. I´m wearing my dirty, sweaty clothes as they even smell better than the shirts I attempted to clean. I´m hoping to find a laundry service in our next hotel so I can try to save my shirts. If not then I suppose I´ll do some shopping when we get to Ecuador.
Special note to Stacy Pete: The Story of B is the perfect book to read while stuck on a 4 hour bus ride winding your way through what feels like a never ending highway. I completely forgot where I was today while reading. I´m almost compelled to go back to the room and finish it off tonight.
Volcanoes, the cloud forest and hot springs await....¡adios amigos!
