I know I'm probably going to say this a lot, but what a day and some amazing pictures! We started early with breakfast at our new hotel, La Isla Inn. We both slept like the dead after our long day yesterday. Breakfast was cooked to order and really good. I had desayuno tica tipica (beans, rice, toast with butter and jam, and eggs. Coraleigh had un panqueque. It was like a huge fluffy pancake. After some rushing then waiting and more waiting we finally made it to Cahuita National Park for our wildlife tour.
I usually don't like tours, but this was totally worth it. We would not have seen even half the stuff we did had we not had the guide. Luis, our guide, was really knowledgeable and spoke pretty good English. He pointed out two and three-toed sloths, howler monkeys, giant iguanas, lizards that run on water, herons, butterflies, bullethead and leaf-cutter ants, white-faced monkeys, an eye lash viper, blue crabs, hermit crabs, huge termite nests and weird tunnels, and a lot of cool trees and some more of those closing ferns. I took tons of pictures and some video too. So many cool things that are not shown here too; babies latched on to howler monkeys and sloths. A giant iguana perched on the skinniest little branch a good 100 feet up a tree flapping his neck fat around attempting to court the female the next tree over. A curious white-faced monkey about 2 feet away from Coraleigh's head just eating berries. Oh and this great howler monkey almost crapped on us and then he showed his sack. lol.
At the end of the trail we came to a point with the nicest clear blue Caribbean water that we've seen yet. It was close to a reef too so there were lots of coral pieces on the beach. One piece I picked up had about 5 little hermit crabs in it! There is life crawling in every crevice of everything here. So we spent about 45 minutes waiting there at the point for our boat to come (so we didn't have to hike the same trail back). We had some fresh pineapple and watermelon and went swimming on the beach there. I took some pictures straight out of a postcard or calendar. They were everywhere! Finally we took off in the boat and got red eyes because of the sea spray over the edge of the boat from the wind; our tour guide hunkered under some life jackets. The tour place dropped us back at our hotel and we got changed and went to explore the "downtown" of Puerto Viejo.
Our hotel is on Playa Cocles which is great; it seems a little more popular for surfers. We thought it was the nicest, cleanest and least buggy around (the sand fleas can be bad on other beaches like Punta Uva). After some walking there we headed into town which was about a 15 minute walk. There we wandered through little local art tents, Coraleigh bought a nice silver bracelet and we had lunch at Mojos. It seemed popular and was run by two guys, one American and one Australian, one hyperactive and one dreadlocked surfer. Food was ok, not the best we've had, but it was food. And of course, like we've been getting anywhere we had jugos naturales. Natural juices, they are so good here. Coraleigh had passion fruit (maracuya) and I had strawberry (fresa). They blend it fresh and it costs like $1.50. Mmmmm. Not much after that; we're getting ready for dinner now and are packing up. We have a really early morning for our whitewater rafting trip down the Rio Pacuare tomorrow.
We're going out of internet range for about 4 days starting tomorrow; the Arenal Observatory Lodge has no internet. They're out in the middle of nowhere, but only about 1 mile from the base of this Volcan Arenal. The room we reserved has huge picture windows with great views of the volcano and its lava flowing and ejected rocks the size of cars tumbling down the slopes (for all you moms out there, 100% safe and bandito free). The area is supposed to be some of the most picturesque and lush in the country. Hopefully its clear enough to see!
Update: While we were out waiting for all the pictures to upload we found the best place for dinner. It's just down the road from our hotel and its called Bar Sol del Caribe. Another strange combination just like dinner last night. Louis Armstrong playing on the radio, gourmet-style fish dinner, freshly blended pineapple juice, all served up by a guy in flip flops in an open air sand floor bar with a banana leaf roof. hahaha. The food was amazingly good. Great last night in Puerto Viejo, now we don't want to leave!
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Hey guys, looks like you're having a great time so far! So jealous we can't be there with you!:( I love reading your blogs everyday and am looking forward to the ones to come! Hope you're doing well and that you're having an amazing time! Miss you both so much! Love ya, Erica
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