Greetings from Cahuita Costa Rica,
At this point in time, Sarah and I resting up after a inevitable dose of food poisoning. It's a shame but we are on the up for our big voyage to the rainforest retreat of Monteverde through the perilous passage of San Jose.
Since the village of Isla Bastimentos, we have spent 3 nights in Puerto Viejo. It has been an interesting experience crossing the border to Costa Rica. Puerto Viejo is a relaxed seaside village with a little nightlife and good local beaches. Sarah and I did a little snorkelling at one of the local rock pools within 500m of our accommodation. Our bag with little to no value was nearly donated to the local thieves as he was going to take it but we were watching him from our rock pool and he backed out. Although a "Good Samaritan" local came around and inquired about our names/travel plans/location and tried to take our photo, I gave him wrong information, but nonetheless very very weird. We also crossed the scorching hot sand of playa negro (black sand beach), which strangely had a tropical barge garden on the beach.
With the Cahuita national park in taxi range, we thought that it would be a good idea to spend a couple of nights there and do day trips to the park. Unfortunately, we are a little under the weather and have to hang around the cabinas. This is not without trouble.. This morning I was harassed by a man who had followed me from the ATM, asking for money. After about 30 secs of harassment I gave him a handful of change, sounds and feels impressive as Costa Rican coins are like massive gold sovereigns. He seemed pleased until he realised that I gave him about 80c and couldn't retract previous thanks. Shortly after that I was followed by a car until there was nobody around and a man jumped out and persistently demanded that I "speak" to him. Luckily I was only 50 m from our room and was able lock myself in until he went away. We just got back from a supermarket and witness a drunk man harassing someone and in the last 3 days we have been offered drugs 16 times! I'm hoping that we will find our own little paradise at our next stop of Monteverde.
