Thank god for the caribbean coast!
What a life saver the caribbean coast is. What is it about this coast line? Belize, Livingston in Guatemala and now here, they all do something to me.
Cahuita is a tiny town 4 hours from San Jose. The locals are mainly black Creole and English speaking rastas and the atmosphere is seriously laid back, my hotel constantly stank of weed.
Cahuita cured the loneliness I´d been feeling in the rest of Costa Rica. On Saturday night I went for a post-dinner drink in Coco´s, one of the two bars in town. A bunch of friendly, crazy Canadian expats and their local mates adopted me and I had a great night drinking, chatting, dancing salsa. The Canadians even tried to convince me to run out on my hotel and go in stay in the property they´re doing up (if you´re reading this guys, so sorry I didn´t make it over, monster hangover, will email you soon though).
Anyway, the next morning I crawled out to the local cafe for some rehydrating orange juice and hangover curing gallo pinto (rice and beans) only to find some of the locals from the night before were there too, downing a few local beers at 8.30 in the morning, hardcore.
Once the hangover subsided I wandered around the national park, a beautiful stretch of jungle backing on to a beach. The howler monkeys were fantastic, I even saw one with a baby attached to her tummy. This really ticked off the list one of those things I´ve always wanted to do, lie on a white sand beach backed by a jungle full of wildlife.
At some point during my time here a mosquito ate my face. Unlike normal people, I can´t feel it when they bite me, I´d love to swat the little buggers if only I knew when they were there. Sometimes if I see one flying around I hold out a limb in the hope that he´ll take the bate and I can whack him, never works. So I now have bites on my forehead, eyelid, end of my nose (attractive) and about 5 along my jaw line, I feel like I´m made of Benadryl.
I was sad to leave Cahuita, if I were to ever pack it all in and head for some tropical paradise (which by the way I have no intention of doing) it would be to somewhere like that. I can´t wait to return one day.
Now I´m back in the capital and doing a few errands before flying to Ecuador. I just had great fun miming the need for motion sickness tablets in the pharmacy!
The next update may not be for a while but it should be a good one with some serious photos of the Galapagos.
Take care all and thanks for reading.
Tags: Costa Rica
December 6th, 2005 at 10:57 pm
Hey Sharleen,
Mozzies are evil little putos. Unfortunately nobody feels it when they bite, the devious little things inject a local anesthetic so they they can dine undisturbed. Generally they attack at dusk and dawn, and are attracted to warm sweaty bits (like many flying insects they associate salt with availability meat and blood). A few tricks to minimise getting bitten is to have a cool shower just before bedtime, to wear long sleeve PJs if you can and sleeping under fans makes it almost impossible for them to land. Deet based repellents work, but are utterly foul to skin and clothes — if you do use them, apply on all exposed skin and like perfume extra on heat points. Mozzie nets are very effective, personally I hate sleeping under them cos I always wake up with nightmares of pillow smothering…
Readjustment to London and English is proved to be a little difficult today. It took three attempts to buy my travelcard this morning until I realised it wasn’t a question of the shop keeper not understanding my accent, but simply not being a Spanish speaker! Oops.
Oh well, fly off to San Francisco in a couple of days for work so that should thoroughly screw my body clock and sense of reality
Hope this reaches you well,
’tish.
December 7th, 2005 at 10:11 am
Hey Dude!
I know, I know, I”m crap at writing to you, but I do read your updates - promise!
One request: may you please bring me back a howler monkey?
Love Michelle
p.s Madonna’s new album is a dance routine waiting to happen
x
December 7th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Oh my god your poor face, bloody things!!!
I remember when I was in Italy,Gails son was covered in mossie bites, god what a mess. bad luck they ate your face.NOT how you want to look.
glad you are moving around and yes the white sanded beaches do make you feel amazing. still having good experiences and managed to do a bit of salsa dancing.photos are great to look at.
Here trying to think of xmas but to much else to do so not getting very far.PANIC PANIC.
LOVE YOU LOTS SHAR
KEEP SAFE.
MUMxxxxxx
December 8th, 2005 at 1:55 am
Hi Gorgeous,
So glad to read that you’re happy and relaxed after your traumatic experience. Cahuita looks amazing, you lucky thing. I’m so loving checking out your blog, it’s been keeping me sane during a crazy week at work.
My sympathies on the mozzie bites, but at least now when you come to Oz to visit Bradley and I the mozzies here will seem tame by comparison!
I’ve sent you an email with lots of news about stuff that’s nowhere near as interesting as what you’re doing, and some photos, which again, son’t really stack up with yours. I’m getting all my hair cut off again tonight, will let ya know the result…
Can’t wait for the next installment, the Galapogas should be amazing!
Take care.
Bree