Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hola from Puerto Viejo

Well- finally an internet!!!! It's been tricky trying to stay upto date this time. We are now in Puerto Vijeo on the south Caribbean Coast-very laid back and beautiful. Our hotel, Banana Azul, is a nice place right on the ocean! Black sand, warm seas, beautiful. Hot durng the day (not today though as it'sovercast) but cools off nicely at night- thank God as there is only a small fan in the room.

This morning Michael and I got up at 6:30 and went for a swim before 7. The tide was coming in so the waves were amazing!!! Breakfast, a little computer work(Michael fixed the computer at the hotel-free dinner tonight!!!) and off to town we went. A 25 minute walk along the beach and here we are.

Puerto Viejo is definately a "laid-back" town- very "reefer- ish" if you get my drift. If you don't have dreadlocks- you are truly a visitor!!!

We had a great lunch at Chile Rojo- Michael had Marlin and I had green curry!! Tomorrow we are off to a Sloth Sanctuary and then some sight seeing before headng back to San Jose on Saturday for our flight to the south Pacific side.

Now let's go back in time from when we arrived!!!

On Monday,we were picked up at 6:40am for a ride to the docks just outside of Siquerres, then a a 1.5hr boat ride to Mawamba Lodge in Tortuguero- a beautiful place nestled between the canal and the Caribbean Sea (no swimming in the ocean though because of the rip tides and sharks and barracudas!!!). We have learned one thing about the Caribbean Coast- unlike the rest of Costa Rica that has both a dry and wet season, Tortuguero has a rainy season and a rainer season!! We arrived during the rainy season- although when the sun came out- man was it hot and humid!!!!!

The resort was really nice and we had a great guide- Christian-he knew lots about everything in CR. While at Mawamba, we went on 2 boat tours in the canals and were lucky to have seen the rarely sighted Green Grand Macaw - less than 50 pair remain alive in CR- on the brink of extinction. Also spotted were 2 breeds of Toucans and many other birds. It was well worth the trip just for these sightings.

We met a great couple from Sweden ( Daniel and Kristina) who we spent all out time with. They were there in their honeymoon. We had a great time together and hope to stay in touch when we get home.

The trip fromTortuguero was interesting. A 1.5hr boat ride, followed by a bus trip to Siquerres where we a local bus for 1500 Colones ($4.00CAD) for 2 and then travelled to Limon. From here,we boarded another bus for a 1.5 hr ride to Puerto Viejo where we are now.

We are having a great time- and really do LOVE the Caribbean coast- rain and all!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark K here....

What's a vacation without a few f*ckups. Its all part of the adventure, and I guess it all worked out for you guys.

Just so you know, weather's not so bad up here, quite seasonal actually. You just missed a few snowstorms, thats all. Everything's nice and pretty and white.

We let Benny and Hadley roam around the neighbourhood, cuz they were so thrilled to see snow. 2 hours later we finally rounded them up, but now they both have colds... oops.

KIDDING ABOUT THE CATS... haha. Andrew and Wesley are probably happy to be going... Keep having fun.

Monica said...

It sounds absolutely amazing-you are making me miss Costa Rica even more now. But, good news--I confirmed today that I'll be going to St. Maarten, Anguilla and St. Bart's for 2 weeks in May--saving Costa Rica for next winter. If I forgot to ask you Steven (which I did)--if you run across another bottle of Cost Rican salsa.......

Anonymous said...

I thought the only sloth sanctuary was my sofa; nice.

Lisa said...

Know how you feel about trying to catch internet. We are having the same problem. Hope that rain does not put out your reefer! Like I would ever see that happen, honey. Thanks for the Valentine greeting. I did not get the roses though, sweetie. I had really expected a Fed Ex but it has not yet arrived.

We are hoping that you continue to have a wonderful trip.

Love Lisa and Karin xox

Anonymous said...

Hi!

Nice to hear that you got to Puerto Viejo without problems. We hope you're having a great continuation of your Costa Rica adventure.

We are now in Santa Elena in Monteverde, the cloud forest is very nice as you said. The road was a bit bumpy to say the least, but the car seems to have coped with it. We also spent a few days in Arenal and we actually got to see the top of the volcano! It was really amazing to see the big lava rocks being thrown out of the crater and bouncing down the slopes. And the sound really made you stay at a safe distance.

Tomorrow we're heading for some beach sun in Tamarindo, but we're probably too restless to stay by the ocean for four days, so we'll try to find some places to go with the car.

Anyway, we'd better post this message before the internet goes down, it doesn't seem very stable in the cloud forest. :) It was great meeting you and hopefully we'll see each other again, maybe in Canada or Sweden. Or both! :)

Take care!
Kristina and Daniel