Out of the bubble......... One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.-- Henry Miller

There really isn't an easy way out of San Jose. We looked at the option to ride back to the PanAmerican Highway and riding down the Pacific Coast...true to our phrase: "Keep the water on the right". Those mountains don't look too inviting either...and the Highway is very busy.

The decision was made at some point to ride down the Caribbean Coast and so we did..

Two hard days through the mountains going east....but we were rewarded!!!! We found true paradise, no question about it. After resting a day in a hotel in Limon we headed south on 36, a much smaller road and reached the little town of Cahuita. We planned to camp at the National Park, but were told that camping has not been permitted for more than six years due to a man getting bitten by a Yellow Eyelash Viper and dropping dead five minutes after the incident. Next camping option was also recommended by our Lonely Planet guide and didn't work out either....but then, we found Maria's Campground and found it to be "the dogs bark" or "the cat's meow" "the yoke of the egg" and so on and so forth..... Maria, of small statue, but a powerhouse of a woman! She is a worldly Costa Rican having traveled the world, but settled back near her childhood home in her late 40th. With her dog and her cat and plenty of family to visit her beautiful sanctuary every week. She is generous to share her wisdom about Costa Rican food, plants and herbs. Her place right by the ocean is a dream come true. In a peaceful spot like this the thoughts and gratefulness in my mind take on the shape of my heart and I start reflecting: Did I really pedal my sore ass all this way down here? And look at me now! I am proud to have used my own muscles , my determination, my lust for life and what it has to offer, my love for this earth and all it's inhabitants and here I am. Look at this beauty that is always here even when I couldn't see it through my own tears ( -or somebody else's for that matter-), through the rain, or wanting to sell my bike in the next village and take the bus home....it is always here even when I wasn't looking. 

We spend a day walking through the jungle of the National Park and made acquaintances with the very reason we weren't supposed to camp there: The Yellow Eyelash Viper Snake -  relaxed and sleeping. A local told us: this is not a DANGEROUS snake, it's a POISONOUS snake....certain difference!  Point taken!

Next we saw a Howler Monkey and her baby...the picture of peace and love. A mother and child a primary power in nature. 

The Capuchin Monkeys came next - James and I spend probably 15 minutes watching one of them wrestling with a coconut on the ground and then another one approached. The first one hoped on the other's back while looking at ME and hissing at ME......god (or who ever) knows why? I was so stunned, I was paralyzed and didn't take a picture (and that would have been a good one, since I was pretty close...). When they parted, the second monkey jumped behind me on my fanny pack and I got up in a hurry wondering if it is going to climb up my back, but it slid off and started dangling off my fanny pack off my butt, which must have been a pretty funny sight (James got to see it, the lucky guy...). I had taken my shoes off earlier and my water bottle were about three feet away from me and the monkey was heading that way....before I could get there it straddled my water bottle (one of those bike bottles...), sat on it and chomped down on it. I was worried about it taking one of my shoes, but I wasn't too keen about losing my full water bottle either, so I yelled at it and she (or he) took off into the trees, leaving me with a vampire bite on my leaking bike bottle. Oh, well......

Beside being highly entertained by nature and it's actors we were in awe about the soft warm air, the world around us, thankful!