Cahuita

Well the Caribbean side of Costa Rica was definitely beautiful...but the beaches were different than we were expecting. No margaritas on a big, sandy beach, but nonetheless we´re definitely glad we didn´t pass up the place. Our spanish teachers told us that going to the Caribbean would be like going to a different country; this we knew and was originally why we left it off our list. When we left Orosi, we took a bus to Cartago, from Cartago to San Jose, and then caught a bus to Limon. Only certain bus routes originate in a station, so finding your bus stop can be tricky. We immediately were glad we had spent 2 weeks brushing up on our spanish. Limon is a dirty, port town, but sufficed for our afternoon of World Cup watching. The US played really hard, but unfortunately the Italians were fouling harder. After 2 red cards, we were doomed. FIFA and the rest of the futbol community world wide probably don´t want the US to advance; so they made sure we couldn´t.

So we boarded a bus for Cahuita and enjoyed the sea breeze the whole way. We arrived in a 2-street by 1-street town where Bob Marley is God. Literally. We heard about the Jamaican atmosphere of the Caribbean...but wow. Everyone wore red, yellow and green and you couldn´t walk a foot without seeing a Bob Marley shirt or painting. We walked around and attempted to bargain for a good room. No one here is Tico as we know it, the population is mostly black. We immediately got the vibe that tourists weren´t as embraced here as other parts of Costa Rica. That night we quickly realized we didn´t feel as comfortable there. There were lots of street poeple, strung out on drugs and begging for money. However, that night, while sitting and enjoying our Pilsen´s, a nice Australian/New Zealand couple asked if they could join us. We love meeting other travelers and hearing about their experiences. They had both lived for a few years in London and had travelled quite a bit. We ate at Miss Edith´s, supposed to be the best Creole food in town...it wasn´t bad. Again our search for decent food in CR remains incomplete.

We decided to meet up with them for our day in Cahuita National Park the next morning. Lonely Planet had recommended a cafe for the best breakfast in town, and wow they weren´t kidding. The fruit stuffed crepes were enough to send a person to heaven...eating healthy in CR can be difficult to say the least. We rummaged through a Super to find anything that could be brought for lunch; some nuts and pringles would have to do...no pre-packaged food here. Our hike paid off immediately though; sitting in the trees were 5 howler monkeys! We pushed on, for we had an 8km hike ahead of us to get to the beach. The forest was beautiful! We were on a hunt for the hard to spot, because of their lack of movement, sloth! As we trucked along I was scanning the trees for any inconsistencies, and I won the prize! A sloth was curled up for a nap in the crux of a huge tree! We kept hiking further and our friends must have never seen lizards before because man were they fascinated with the little guys. Later we came across a whole pack of white faced monkeys and were able to get some great shots! One was not happy with us loitering around and through a coconut at Brian! Another wanted to see if we had any food (a clear sign that this park is heavily travelled by people, unlike Corcovado) and was stalking us. Later we were blessed with another sloth sighting!

We finally got around the point to the sandy, black beach side...but like I said it wasn´t quite like we expected. No one was there, which was fine, but there wasn´t much sand to make room for any towels. We picked a decent spot and had our lunch. Brian and Adam played out in the surf and convinced me it would be fun...I tried my best to hang with the waves but a huge one got the best of me. Brian picked me up and carried me to shore...I was done with the crazy surf for now. We hiked out of the park and caught a bus back into town.

So that night we met up with our friends again, grabbed a bite to eat, and went to the local bar for more story swapping. Again we realized ¨we weren´t in Kansas anymore¨... it was only 7pm but the sun had set an hour before and the night people were out again. There was a lady cooking fresh, steak shish kabobs on the corner and we wanted to see if they were any good. After being swarmed by people asking us to by them some, we finally got one, and it was pretty good. After talking with Adam and Stevie we decided that we wanted to go snorkeling in the morning...lets see what the Caribbean has to offer.

Well as luck would have it in the rainy season...we woke up to rain. We went anyway and were able to see some pretty good schools of fish. We even saw a shark as soon as we jumped in the water! The visibility wasn´t great however, and our guides decided to stop guiding. We called it a day after an hour and a half and headed back to pack up.

So Cahuita was an interesting experience (and as we heard, Puerto Viejo is just the same). I´m glad we went to the Caribbean even though it was like being in a different world. It would be like going to Texas and not visiting Austin because it was so different.