Hello! Yet another week has passed and what a week it has been. We are now completely set up and volunteering here at Pizza John’s and loving la pura vida. This morning I got up at 6 and went fishing with John, his girlfriend Ana, and her 6-year-old son Mao (I may have mentioned him in a previous post?). I’ve fished many times before, but still had a bit of trouble getting the hang of the pole and casting reel. No one caught anything but we still had a good time catching sticks and losing lures and using worms and rotting guava fruits to tempt the fish! What a beautiful way to start a morning… Isaac showed up while we were fishing and John has been wanting to build an archway at the entrance of the restaurant so the three of us traipsed through the jungle growth by the lake and on the shore to find some good long logs to use to build an archway. We lugged them up the hill and into the van as the sun showed through the clouds and the day got into gear. It’s amazing how productive one can be when rising so early! It’s hard living in the jungle and sleeping in anyway—so many sounds from howler monkeys to birds to barking dogs to insects to people rising with the dawn, it really is impossible to sleep once the sun starts to come up at 5am. I still attempt to go to bed decently early though, so it works out. We had coffee and cleaned the restaurant, did some laundry, cleaned out our cabina, and just relaxed and enjoyed one another’s company and the day—all before noon! It is entering the rainy season and low tourist season so business is slower these days, but there is still lots to do. These next 2 weeks won’t be without adventure if I can help it! It’s been truly great getting back to the root of what is truly important in life: people, taking one’s time, and truly stopping to smell the roses. I love this easy-going, pura vida way of life. :)
Last Sunday Andrea and I caught the ranch shuttle headed to Fortuna at 6am, thus commencing a 12 hour day of pure traveling from bus to bus. We arrived finally in Cahuita on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica around 5:30pm. Our first half hour in the growing darkness was traumatizing…being hawked at with our backpacker backpacks clearly proving we were tourists. I love traveling, but wearing a backpacker’s backpack is equivalent to wearing a large sign on one’s back that says “Hey! I’m not from here! Yell at me and try to convince me to stay at your hotel or eat at your restaurant and give me pieces of paper that I never wanted in the first place telling me things I didn’t want to know and instead of making me feel welcome, making me feel like turning around and running back to catch the bus I just arrived on!” We hated our lives in those first few moments in Cahuita, trying to figure out where was the best place to stay and who to trust. Aka no one. We hadn’t really planned on where to stay and the one place we wanted to go was 2 km down the beach which we did not want to walk in the dark and the phones weren’t working. We walked into one of the nicer looking hotels and found a friendly German pair that offered us their calling card, along with the hotel owner who let us borrow his cell phone to call the place. It was full, so in pure exhaustion we decided to stay at the place we know found ourselves, even though it was more than we wanted to pay. It had a kitchen so we bought some macaroni and cheese and called it a night.
Cahuita National ParkIn the morning on Monday we wandered around town trying to find a new place to stay, and finding Cahuita to be rather run down and semi-deserted, decided to move along to Puerto Viejo later that night. We wandered down Playa Negra, a black sand beach. For some reason, though I hate to run most of the time, I couldn’t resist the urge to run down the beach for a bit. Such a freeing feeling, running amongst the waves and enjoying the sun and surf and seashells. After packing sandwiches for lunch we headed into Cahuita National Park, one of the most frequently visited parks in Costa Rica. There’s a 7km trail along the beach, bordering the edge of the rainforest so we took that trail, stopping to admire the beautiful sand and sun, as well as hunt for animals. We saw 2 sloths sleeping (of course), tons of crabs in all shapes and sizes scuttling across the sand, some trumpet fish, a couple blue morpho butterflies, a couple howler monkeys, some spider monkeys, and lots of lizards running around. So neat!!
Crabby friendAndrea was definitely the winner at finding the animals as I was just wandering around looking everywhere and nowhere for long enough to spot anything, so I was glad she was along to point stuff out. Halfway down the trail we were told by a couple women to grab some sticks to fend off a group of white-faced capuchin monkeys that came down from the trees and tried to grab at their bags as they walked along. In a mixture of trepidation and excitement to see the monkeys, we grabbed sticks and walked the entire remainder of the trail, at the ready to beat off the monkeys and never saw any!! What a bummer!! This was the second time we’d heard of the white-faced capuchins attacking hikers for the alleged food inside their bags, but they were apparently not interested in us—or scared by the big sticks we were carrying. We caught a bus back at the end of the trail as it opened up to the main road and the national park ended, rested up a bit, and then headed into Puerto Viejo with all of our gear to go find a new hotel.
Puerto Viejo was a half-hour’s ride down the beach and is known for its beautiful beaches, chill atmosphere, and crime. Lots more hawking, lots of hotels offering little and expecting a lot, and nothing that satisfied us. So after walking around the town for about an hour and a half we hopped on the next bus back to Cahuita and decided that it was worth it to stay in a nice place with friendly owners, a nice kitchen, air conditioning, and cable television. We spent the next two nights there, eating mac and cheese for dinner and cereal and toast for breakfast.
On Tuesday we woke up and headed back to the national park, this time donning our swimsuits, to play in the ocean and lay on the beach for a couple hours, pure relaxation style. There were no waves and incredibly clear water—definitely what the Caribbean is known for. Picture perfect for sure! I’m not a huge ocean or water person in general, but it was still nice for a bit to enjoy the beauty in front of me. I realized on this trip that I am a doer, I like to be active and moving and it’s often difficult for me to just sit around and do essentially nothing. It’s nice from time to time, but definitely not something I typically enjoy. I would say it was a personal challenge of sorts to be lackadaisical after always being on the go and doing things all the time. I spent a lot of time thinking and daydreaming and also contemplating the definition of beauty. Why do we call certain things ugly and other things beautiful? From what does our definition of beauty derive? We all seem to have a different standard and yet at the root of it all, a similar standard too. For me I could appreciate the mesmerizing waves, blue sky and water, and white sand, along with the green swaying palm trees. However, while I would definitely say it was beautiful, I also find the mountains and the crisp clear air beautiful. Greens and blues are a soothing, aesthetic combination that brings me a sense of inner peace and contentment. Think about it. What do you find beautiful and why do you call whatever defines that beauty standard beautiful vs. ugly?
We decided to experience the Caribbean flavor for lunch and after traipsing around town and finding every place we wanted to eat at either blah, closed, or out of business, we went to the edge of town to some place that is supposedly famous for good food. We sat down, ordered, got silty water that we finished before our food came out and then was taken away but never replaced for our meal, and waited over 45 minutes for a $12 meal of rice, some steamed veggies, and marlin with a coconut sauce. It was decent, but not worth the wait, or the money, or the terrible service. We were completely dissatisfied and pleased to realize that we had saved time, money, and frustration by making the majority of our meals these past few days.
After lunch and a nap we wandered back to Puerto Viejo to just enjoy the town or something. We walked around somewhat, looking at the various shops and souvenir stuffs and then just sat on the beach watching the sun set until the bus came. Many of the people we’ve met along the way have been enthralled with PV, and while I enjoyed the vibe emanating from all the places and people we found there, I wouldn’t venture saying I was enthralled by it. I definitely am glad we stayed in little Cahuita instead, despite its depressed exterior it is a nice little place to relax and stay.
Wednesday morning we awoke early to catch the 8am bus to Limón, a port city an hour away. It stopped at a police checkpoint where apparently we were technically supposed to have our passports but neither of us had wanted to travel with them so luckily no one gave us any trouble and accepted our state driver’s licenses. From Limón we caught a town bus to Moín. We arrived to the dock of Moín a little before 10am and unfortunately all the boats to Tortuguero were full so we were told to wait until 1pm. Three hours to kill in Nowheresville. Good times! We caught a bus to Playa Bonita, which was indeed a beautiful beach but it was so unbearably hot that we sat under a tent and watched the sun and surf from there, having left our swimsuits in our backpacks on the boat we were going to take at 1pm. When we got back a little before noon to the dock, we saw our water taxi driver who told us our bags were still on the boat (good…) and told us we’d leave at 1pm. Right. So we sat down and waited under a tree until a random tourist approached us and asked how we were getting to Tortuguero. We told her about our water taxi man, and then tried to help her find him so she could get a ride in with us, but he had left…along with the boat, and our bags. Thus entered a semi-frantic hour in which we asked the other water taxi men where our driver (sea captain?) had gone, only to be told he had left on a tour and would be back in an hour. It seemed kind of sketchy, and as I sat on the dock waiting for Rubén to return, I thought about all the hundreds of dollars in gear I had inside of that backpack, along with the backpack itself! Not cheap. Around 1:15pm Rubén finally returned from the tour, in the boat, with our bags and everything was fine but ugh, such a terrible feeling to think that your stuff was long gone and there was nothing you could do. We hoped onto the water taxi boat along with our new friends from Israel (there are so many Israelis traveling! These were not the first we’ve met) The ride was supposed to be 2.5 hours, but it actually ended up being 3.5.
Amazon???At first it was awesome, zooming through the canals, watching the rainforest fly by, seeing signs to slow down because manatees were underneath (didn’t see any unfortunately), and spotting birds and feeling as though I was in the Amazon. The adventure turned into a true epic journey when it began to rain and the boat, while it had a roof, did not have covered sides so we began to get drenched, not to mention the fact that rain stings quite smartly at 30 mph, or however fast we were going. The wind picked up and it really was not an enjoyable ride for the next hour. Luckily at some point our guide gave us tarps to use to cover ourselves (why he did not give them to us when it first began to rain I still don’t know…) and eventually the rain and wind mostly subsided. We pulled into the tiny turtle town of Tortuguero around 4:30pm and were met by a friendly tour guide of the same company as the boat we came in on who gave us advice and led us to a nice little hotel right on the ocean for a good price and with a kitchen again! It began to rain once we arrived, for the first time the whole trip! We donned our rain gear and traipsed across town on sandy paths to the tiny grocery store to buy some spaghetti noodles, butter, and a can of veggies for dinner. Have you ever opened a can without a can opener? It’s not easy. I have a Swiss Army knife that cut into the can with the can opener (?) portion, but didn’t cut any further. Our Israeli friends lent me their pseudo can opener which I also failed to use correctly and eventually I got some vegetables out onto the spaghetti that by this time was fairly cooled off, especially after barely being able to boil the water to cook it in the first place since the wind kept blowing in and blowing out the fuse. Rustic.
Thursday morning we woke up a little before 5am to go on a 5:30am canoe tour of the canals of Tortuguero National Park.
Sunrise!
We paddled around, approaching the edge of the rainforest and heading into groves whenever we or our guide spotted something. He was an expert at spotting iguanas and emerald basilisks, which was cool the first 5 times but then after that trying to search amongst the green for a green lizard grew to be quite tiresome. “Hello! Guys! See that iguana over there?? Look! Hello! Right in that tree! You don’t see it! Stand up! Look!” Besides green things, we also saw lots of types of herons, along with anhingas that must sit on tree branches in the sun after diving into the water after fish as their wings don’t have oil on them. Therefore they must let the sun dry their wings—a difficult and lengthy task in a rainforest. We also saw two caimans popping their eyes out of the water at us.
Spider monkeys walked through the trees above us and then crouched on branches to eat some fruit. A group of noisy howlers yelled in the distance while some green parrots screeched in a nearby tree. There were toucans and white-faced capuchins vocalizing their presence as well, but we didn’t see them. I definitely felt like we were in a scene from the computer game Amazon Trail. For those of you that never played or even those that have, it was an incredible experience and while I am normally one to independently explore an area, having a guide for this situation was definitely worth the money. There’s no way we would have been able to see so many iguanas and basilisks without him! ;) The tour ended around 9am, leaving us until 6pm to find something to do. We filled the next few hours with a quick walking tour of the small town. The sandy paths are few, and most of the shops are souvenir related but still enjoyable to peruse. I definitely felt the remoteness of the area—even more so than where we have been living! You can only get to Tortuguero by air or by boat, how adventurous. The ocean along the shores of Tortuguero is much more rough compared to Cahuita and Puerto Viejo, but we still went in and enjoyed the massive waves that moved us all around. Don’t worry, we only went in up to our knees or so; I had no desire to mess with rip tides! A nap, lunch, and reading in the hammock at our hotel was also in order and we even went into town later to watch a parade that the schoolchildren did, dressed up and wearing masks—some cultural festival. For dinner we decided to eat out again, hoping the experience would be better than our last. The food came relatively quickly, and was decently tasty but not spectacular. This time I had rice with shrimp and some cabbage on the side. We got lucky though, our waiter only charged us $10 for both of our meals so that rocked! At first I thought he had added it up wrong but he was insistent that that was the amount we were to pay, even though the menu listed different prices. That was fine with me, for sure. :)
Around 9pm, after a quick power nap so that I could stay awake(!), we headed to the dock and hopped into a boat to the beach where the green sea turtles are nesting. There are 68 stations along the beach where you can access the beach with a guide. That night there were about 20 groups all along the beach, watching the nesting turtles. Our group of 4 was hustled to station 3 and allowed to get within 6 inches of a turtle laying her approximately 100 eggs into a hole in the sand. Turtles lay about 500 eggs a season, so she’ll be back. Baby turtles only have about a 1-2% chance of survival from the time the eggs are laid to their adventurous journey from the nest to the water. Everyone seems to be out to attack them! After watching her lay her eggs, we ran off to another area of the beach where another turtle had finished lay all her eggs for the night and was covering the nest. She quickly covered it then hauled herself up and out across the sand extremely quickly. The experience was awesome—how many people can say they have seen sea turtles on the beach, nesting! However, it definitely had an air of ethical or moral dilemma attached. The turtles were extremely stressed out and bothered by our presence, even though only red light was allowed. So many people, so close to the turtles—how would you like it if a whole huge group of crazy looking creatures appeared while you were giving birth?? It all seemed a little wrong. While there were many other turtles along the beach not being bothered, it still would be terrible for those few turtles that were sacrificed for our human experiential enjoyment. I’m still not sure if I feel okay supporting the whole thing, even though we were prohibited to bring our cameras and if we did so, a $1000 fine, along with a 3-month suspension of our guide’s license could have occurred. Eco-tourism. Not always executed in the best manner. Food for thought.
The next morning we very nearly missed our 6am boat to La Pavona and in fact did miss it. We arrived to the dock at 6:05am only to see the boat speeding off into the distance. Luckily there were a few others around the dock and all of us waved our arms to get their attention and they turned around and came back for us. :) whew. Funny, being on time is so very un-Pura Vida non-Tico style. But it all worked out in the end and we made all our bus connections and arrived 14 hours later back at Pizza John’s, safe and sound, happy and content, full of adventure.
I’d describe to you my principal impressions of working here at John’s, but this blog is already long enough. Check back within the next few days and I’ll try to post more.
Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day! See you all super soon!
Cheers,
Katie
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