After a week of non-stop rain at the farm, we decided to head to the Caribbean with some fellow volunteers for some sun. We booked our stay in a cabana at La Costa de Papito in Puerto Viejo, located on the south eastern coast of Costa Rica. Puerto Viejo is a chill surfing beach town with a strong Caribbean, Rastafarian vibe. After making our reservations, we heard that the Caribbean was getting bombarded with rain. Yea – more rain!- can't you just taste the sarcasm in that last statement! Fortunately, our stay on the coast was not shaped exclusively by the rain.
After 8 hours of traveling by bus from La Flor to Cartago, from Cartago to San Jose, and from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, we arrived at Puerto Viejo at 9:15 pm. We took a ride with a taxi driver in an unmarked car, purely because he was the only person at the bus stop promoting his taxi services. All 5 of us and our bags piled into the 4 door small car and started our journey down the most pot-holed road we have seen in our life. Numerous times the car would appear to bottom out, but then would pull through and putt-putt along. Due to the long journey and rain, we decided to grab a bite to eat and enjoy a few drinks at the restaurant at La Costa de Papito. Oh, the indulgences in food, fun, and drinks began!!
During the next few days, we took in as much as we could absorb from Puerto Viejo. We relaxed on the beach at Playa Cocles and Punta Uva. The beaches were unlike any we have seen before. The flora y fauna remind us of the beaches in the TV show, Lost. There were palm trees everywhere with sand ranging from light brown to black, and we practically had the beach to ourselves. Due to the strong current, which was great for the surfers, we were not able to swim out too far, but we were still able to take a nice dip in the ocean.
On a daily basis, the small town of Puerto Viejo is lined with local artisan shops with hand-made jewelry, pipes, and other crafts. We leisurely strolled through the town checking out the interesting array of colorful creations, buildings, and food. One of the best places we ate at was Loco Natural on the east side of town, which featured Asian fusion with a “Carib” twist, and some really great drinks – and since it was Sunday they had local, live music too. We had some fun out at Tex Mex, playing pool and having a few drinks, as well as at Oisshi where there happened to be Ladies Night for free mojitos and chocolate dipped strawberries.
We took a tour of an indigenous tribe, the Bri Bri, to meet a local craftsman and his family, learn the uses of medicinal herbs and plants, hike to a sacred waterfall used for ritual cleansing by Shamans, and learn how to grow cacao and make chocolate in the traditional way. The last stop was at an iguana farm where they raise the lizards for a couple years and then release them back into the wild. The goal of the iguana farm is to help preserve these native animals. Our guide knocked a fruit, “caymite”, out of a nearby tree – it was such a unique fruit, purple on the inside with white creamy liquid and a gelatinous core.
A bit south of Punta Uva is a wildlife refuge, so we took a bike ride halfway and discovered a family of howling monkeys in a tall tree near the road. There were over 10 of the small monkeys climbing, hanging by their tails, eating and playing. And in the near distance we heard some howling, which sounds like a loud, upset lion (or a dinosaur) – very frightening if you didn't know what was making the sound.
Alas, our trip had to end. We headed back to the farm for another week on Tuesday morning. One of our fellow volunteers, Amy, was continuing on to visit other parts of Costa Rica, so we all took a break in San Jose to enjoy a nice lunch at Cafe Mundo. We arrived back at the farm in time to enjoy another delicious vegetarian dinner (from Marie Elena) and to visit with the volunteers that remained at the farm during our trip.
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