This weekend we took a trip to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Some of us went to Puerto Viejo, while my group went to Cahuita, which is about 20 minutes away from Puerto Viejo. The commute from San Jose was about 4 hours long. When we arrived, our hostel was right by the bus station, which was super convenient. The town is a big Jamaican community and it was very laid back. It was also a lot quieter than I expected.
After we checked into our hostel, we took a walk down to the national park and went to the beach located inside. The national park were filled with tall trees and plantations. We were hoping to catching a glimpse of some sloths, but to our disappointment, we didn’t see any on our way there. We found a nice spot of the beach and laid our belongings there. We didn’t stay there for long because the rain was coming our way. We took a stroll along the beach before we headed back for lunch.
For lunch, we went to restaurant/bar that had two for one happy hour drinks. We order tostones, which are fried plantains, with guacamole and a bean paste to dip. We sat there for awhile, about 5 hours, and even ordered dinner, because it was raining! It was fun because we got to talk, eat, and listen to good music. Later, we surprised Vishakha with a small pastry from the supermarket and a makeshift candle for her birthday. After, we went to a live reggae music place and Vishakha got serenaded for her birthday. It was very cute!
The next day was a beautiful day. We got up bright and early and went to the beach. The waves were super big and fun to catch, but you have to be careful when you are out there. Julie and Mary were almost stuck out there ! They were swimming for quite awhile until they got back to shore. While we were laying on the beach, we were lucky enough to see monkeys on the trees, and on our walk back for lunch we saw a sloth hanging upside down! For lunch, we went to a restaurant overlooking the beach. It was beautiful. The gallo pinto here are cooked with coconut oil which adds a very interesting flavor to it. Mary enjoyed it a lot.
After lunch, we went back to the hostel to meet up with Vishakha and Marisa. Mary and I ended up going in the pool for a little bit. Later we went back to the beach and relaxed there until it started to rain. It was just in time for dinner and we went back to the live music restaurant. The live music was great and the place was filled with people. We stayed there for another 4-5 hours because it was raining cats and dogs, but it didn’t matter because we were having a good time.
Even though we bought our bus tickets for 11am, we wanted to catch the 9am bus because it was raining again. We were able to catch the 9am bus, but unfortunately we didn’t have any seats so we had to either stand or sit on the floor of the bus. The bus ride was super long so we ended up sitting on the floor. Advice for next time – remember to check the weather before you go.
