I found an amazing deal on Taca.com, one so good that I bought the tickets less than 10 minutes after seeing the price. We will be staying for 9 nights, and are really looking forward to doing some of the stuff we missed the first time!

So while we still have a while (we’re not going until December), it gives us a chance to save money. I think we’ll be doing most of our Christmas shopping in Costa Rica!

Standing on the beach, directly in front of Banana Azul:

Standing on the beach, facing Banana Azul:

Our room and bathroom (the room is actually much nicer than this picture!). The bathroom is HUGE and it’s amazing to shower and have birds and the jungle right outside!

Colin and Roberto were up to say goodbye, and had a light breakfast of toast, fruit, granola, and yogurt ready for us. Roberto offered to drive us to the bus stop, but we said we already had a taxi coming, but it was really nice of him to offer. The taxi showed up and we were off to the bus stop. I was sad to leave and we were sure to say goodbye to all of our 4-legged friends.

The bus ride back to San Jose was pretty uneventful. We did have to stop just out of Puerto Viejo so the local police could check our passports. It only took about 10 minutes and we were again on our way. There was a 20 minute bathroom/snack stop, and we arrived to San Jose with plenty of time to catch a cab to the airport.

We were able to check in and grab something to eat. The airport seemed cramped and hot, and I was frustrated by the rush of people. I would have never guessed that some of these travelers had just spent time in Costa Rica. They seemed stressed out and impatient…I expected the opposite. It made me realize that I really didn’t want to go back…this was exactly what I wanted to avoid and why we were on vacation!

The flight back was fairly calm and uneventful…but we got back to Virginia and saw this….

Roberto recommended Chili Rojo for dinner. It’s a really small restaurant that seemed to serve mostly Thai and Indian inspired dishes. We decided to get a little bit of everything and share, so we ended up with vegetable samosas, chicken satay, and green curry chicken with rice. The food was absolutely delicious, and the prices were very reasonable. We also had the best mint iced tea EVER:

Chili Rojo had t-shirts hanging up (for sale) and I took a picture of one that made us laugh:

After dinner, we walked around town looking for souveneirs for our family and friends. We were able to find things that would fit in our bags, and had a great time talking to shop workers. We stopped by the Super in order to get snacks for our bus trip the next morning. We saw this:

We knew – from reading Banana Azul’s website – that we wanted ice cream from Las Palmas Lecheria. The owner – Susan – is an American from Lancaster, PA, and from an Amish community (though she is not Amish). I tried the chocolate as well as the chocolate covered macadamia nut, and James had coconut and mango ice cream. All of the flavors were delicious, and Susan was so friendly and sweet. We talked to her for a little while; about life in PA compared to Costa Rica, running a business in Puerto Viejo, and how their products are made. They have a farm outside of Puerto Viejo, and they create the product from start to finish. They know what the cows are fed (because they feed them), they use the cows’ milk for the ice cream, milk, cheese, etc. They also sell organic honey, granola, and jams, and Colina and Roberto regularly purchase items there. I highly recommend checking it out!!

It was dark by this time, so James and I decided to take a taxi back to Banana Azul. We still had to reorganize and repack our stuff, and I know we both wanted to relax and have a quiet night. I know we were both feeling the pressure of having to go back to the rat race the next morning, and it wasn’t a good feeling. Where did the time go? It felt as though we were JUST in Samara and still had five nights left in Costa Rica. It’s really sad that time flies when one is on vacation. That really sucks!

Our taxi driver was great and when we told him we were taking the bus the next morning, he said he would be back to pick us up. We asked him to pick us up at 6:45 (we had a 7:30 bus) and he agreed.

We packed our stuff, threw out things we didn’t need or had destroyed, and cleaned up our room a bit. We sat out in the common area reading and writing, when one of Colin and Roberto’s friends stopped by. Rick had just returned from Panama, and used to live in Puerto Viejo with Barbara (the owner of the dogs who passed away). He’s German, and told us fascinating stories about German citizenship, how he came to Costa Rica, why he went to Panama…it was really nice to spend time with him. He now does tours (mostly for Germans) in Panama and really loves it there.

After our long and wonderful last full day in Costa Rica, James and I crawled into bed and watched TV for a bit. We thought it may prepare us for the culture shock we were sure to experience. We saw that Britney was in and out of rehab, Anna Nicole Smith passed away and no one knew what happened, and various other crap that people care too much about.

Colin let me borrow the boogie board, but unfortunately, the waves were non-existent. I was really hoping for some huge waves like our first day in Puerto Viejo, but the ocean did not cooperate. I was determined to boogie board, so I rode a few baby waves and then gave up. I took a walk down the beach to look for shells and ended up finding a ton of little sand dollars that were bleached white from the sun. James relaxed in the hammock and read for a while, and then we decided to rinse off and get ready for our planned activities.

I called a cab for the four of us and we were picked up around 11:45. The driver dropped us off outside of Roberto’s school (he’s an English teacher) and we waited for him to finish. He picked us all up in his 4Runner, and we were off to the jungle! First stop: a Bribri home where we would see how they make chocolate!

The Bribri home

Cacao Pod – we were able to taste the fruit surrounding the bean inside. It was sweet and very good!

She went through the various steps of how they make chocolate. The beans are dried, fermented, toasted, and ground. We also tasted a bean after it had been toasted, and it was chocolate in its most pure form. It was quite bitter of course, but James declared it “the best chocolate I’ve ever had”. He loves dark chocolate, so it was great for him.

At the end of the tour, there is opportunity to purchase crafts made by the Bribri, as well as small pieces of chocolate. We were able to sample different flavors (clove, nutmeg, mint, vanilla, coffee, coconut, etc) and bought quite a few to take with us. I also bought a small jar of homemade cocoa butter (it smells HEAVENLY), a small basket for my mother, and a small jar of a marinade that smelled amazing with lots of paprika.

Here is the basket I bought for my mother, held by the artist who made it!

The chocolate tour took about 30 minutes, and then we were off to go further into the jungle to see the waterfall. On the way, Roberto pointed out that we were looking at Panama:

We drove for about 20 minutes into the jungle and began the hike to the waterfalls. We passed the big one, but hiked further up in order to visit a smaller falls with pools and a natural waterslide.

The hike:

The big falls:

On the way to the natural pool:

The natural pool with a little slide. The water was deep enough to jump into without hitting bottom. It was pretty cold, but after a hike in the hungle, it felt great! You can see part of the little slide in the 2nd picture.

James’ turn on the slide!

On the way back down to the big waterfall…looking straight down!

Another shot from the top of the waterfall…the jungle was so beautiful!

Roberto, me, and James

Andrea and Jay:

The hike back down was a little tricky…there were lots of roots and things to hold onto, but the roots were also a disaster waiting to happen. Roberto said that another guest tripped over a root and would have toppled down the cliff, but he grabbed onto the nearest tree and held on for dear life. After that story, we were even more careful!

The big waterfall was beautiful! I am so disappointed that my water camera pictures didn’t turn out. James and I stood right under the falls (we had to hold our ears because of the pressure and noise) and swam around for a little while. It was very shallow water and that surprised me…it was also very windy which I found very interesting. Here is a shot that Jay and Andrea took of the falls:

After a little while at the falls, we had to hike back out and go back to Banana Azul. Jay and Andrea were leaving for San Jose on the 4:30 bus, and Roberto offered to take them into the bus stop once we picked up their bags. James and I changed our clothes and grabbed some money and rode into town with everyone. We had to buy our bus tickets for our trip to San Jose the next morning, and also wanted to have a nice dinner and buy some souveniers.

I was sad to say goodbye to our new Canadian friends, but we knew we’d see each other at the airport since our flight to Charlotte was the same. Roberto was so kind to take us all into town…just one of the many things Roberto and Colin did for us to make our stay wonderful!

More about our last night in Puerto Viejo in the next entry….

El Loco Natural offers traditional Caribbean food as well as some Thai/Indian dishes…curries, coconut milk, etc. James had the Jerk Chicken and I had a green curry chicken. Both were great, but the green curry chicken was perfect; sweet and hot…my favorite! Prices are reasonable, and the meal comes with a salad and rice. Be prepared for a longer-than-usual wait for the food. They are very very busy, and do not have a commercial kitchen going on in the back with 5 cooks. The food is definitely worth the wait, and the great live music definitely helps.

Andrea and me at El Loco Natural:

As we left the restaurant, we heard more live music nearby, so we stopped to check it out. It was another awesome reggae band. We sat and watched them until they were finished (unfortunately, not long enough!) and had a couple of Imperials. It was so fun to people-watch…the tourists and the locals all chilling out, some eating together, some drinking together. We finally realized that the place we were at was the same place we had the rude NYC magician at our table; we were just in a different section and they had opened the windows all the way around. It totally transformed the place! After about an hour, we then decided to call it a night. It was Andrea and Jay’s last night in Puerto Viejo, and they had to pack since Roberto was taking all of us to the waterfall on Friday.

We needed to find a taxi, so we went to Cafe Viejo to see if they would call one for us. The waitress we had before was there, and she tried for a while, but could not get a taxi driver on the phone. She told us to try Stanford’s, so we walked there. There weren’t any taxis, so we walked back to Hot Rocks, where we asked the German waitress if she could call her friend for us again. She tried, but he did not answer…and she pointed us BACK to Standford’s. At this point, we think that the local joke is to point tourists to Stanford’s because there never seemed to be ANY TAXIS THERE. However, this time – our third try – , there was actually one waiting there. I was SO NERVOUS that we were going to have to walk back and I did not want to do that!!!

We went back to Banana Azul and went right to bed. It was a pretty long day and we did quite a bit. I still had the sounds of reggae in my head as I tried to sleep.

We got back to Banana Azul and asked about the buses to Manzanillo. They only run about 4 times per day (unlike Cahuita, which is every hour) and we were already hot so we didn’t want to ride the bikes (about 15 km each way). James was ready to give up and said we probably couldn’t go (it was around 12:30pm – not late!!!) and that’s when it happened. I had a little breakdown. I just put my face in my hands, and the tears started pouring out. I don’t know if it had to do with spending the morning with people who had SO LITTLE and I was getting worked up about not going snorkeling and then I felt guilty? I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I forced myself to just calm the eff down, and we called a cab to take us to Manzanillo. We borrowed snorkeling gear from Banana Azul and were on our way!

Manzanillo does not consist of many things. A restaurant, a soda or two, a souvenir shop, and a few teeny convenience stores. Someone told me that they are a daytime town. There is nothing to do there at night really, but many people come during the day for snorkeling. It was not crowded by East Coast beach standards, but there were definitely more people than we had seen on other beaches.

Jay and Andrea had already left for Manzanillo (on the bikes) by the time we returned from El Puente…so guess who we saw when we stopped in a store to get some water. JAY! We sat with them for a bit and decided that we’d take turns with the snorkeling gear. Andrea and I went first…

After we came back, Jay and James went in for a bit. When they came back, I went back out alone because I wanted to explore some more. I had so much fun just floating around and occasionally diving down to look at something closely.

We ate at Maxi’s – the only real restaurant (that we knew of anyway). I ordered shrimp and James ordered lobster. They both came covered in onions and sauce…I was not a fan. At all. I ate it because I was really hungry, but I did not enjoy my food there. James really liked the lobster though. I took a picture of the lobster w/the water camera (I didn’t bring my digital) but it didn’t turn out.

Here is the view we had from our table:

James and I asked our taxi driver to pick us up at 6:30, but it was only 5pm and we really wanted to go home. (Andrea and Jay headed out around 4:45 to bike home.) We tried calling his cell phone (he gave me his business card) but it kept going to voicemail. One of the guys at Maxis said he would keep trying for me. We saw the bus, so I ran up to Maxis and asked the guy to leave the taxi driver a message that we were just going to take the bus home.

The bus ride was great. And cheap. We even passed by Andrea and Jay just out of Puerto Viejo which I thought was funny. We got home, relaxed a bit, showered, and when Andrea and Jay got back, we decided to later check out El Loco Natural for live music and dinner that night.

The parrot:

The monkey:

Jay and Andrea had decided to go to Cahuita National Park and asked if we wanted to join them. Cahuita was on my must-see list, so we were eager to go. There is a public bus that runs to Cahuita every hour from Puerto Viejo (about $1.50 USD/pp) so we got some snacks and waited at the bus stop up the road from Banana Azul. James’ feet were SUPER BURNT from our day at Playa Carrillo, so he had on his hiking boots and we sat and waited while Jay and Andrea explored around the bus stop. Here’s a picture of the sunburn – and he even put SPF 50 on his feet…it must have rubbed off. Note: These pictures were taken on the 16th, and we went to Carrillo days before. That’s how bad the sunburn was!

The bus ride to Cahuita was pretty short (maybe 20 minutes), and we arrived in the early afternoon. Cahuita National Park is just a few blocks from the bus stop and that’s where we headed. The park requests a donation for entrance, and we signed a guest book. The path through the park parallels the beach in many parts, so we had beautiful views of the Caribbean sea while walking in the lush jungle. In order to spot more wildlife, many people hire guides, but we didn’t even ask about it. We heard stories of friendly monkeys and were pretty confident we’d see some things on our own.

Note: If there is someone selling fresh fruit at the entrance to the park, I highly recommend that you buy some. We had the fresh pineapple and it was amazing!!!

The walk was so gorgeous…so many things to see and hear. We saw huge ant hills, crazy tree limbs bent every which way, stunning views of the ocean…

The jungle path:

Beautiful beach:

Crazy bent trees:

We had gotten ahead of Jay and Andrea, and when they caught up, they said there was a white-face monkey not far from where were were. James and I went back, and we saw him run across the path. There were some kids chasing him, so the monkey ran under some thick brush and I saw him peeking out. I don’t think he was afraid really…he just didn’t like the kids. This is the closest I’ve EVER been to a monkey in the wild. It was really cool.

We kept walking, and saw a sloth (it was really hard to get pictures of the sloths since they are always far up when we saw them) which was moving much faster than the one we saw in Puerto Viejo. We could hear howler monkeys and really hoped we’d be able to see some of them. At one point, we had monkeys all around us in the jungle. Only one or two came close to us, but we could see them swinging in the trees and see the trees bending and moving all around us. There was one monkey who was very curious and is obviously used to humans (and probably wanted fruit):

We finally made it to the point and sat down for a while. There are coral reefs right off of the beach, but in the park, it is mandatory to have a guide. We had already decided to try snorkeling in Manzanillo the next day, so we were content to sit for a bit before heading back.

The boat you see was used to take people out to snorkel; that’s how close the reef is to the shore.

On the way back, we ran into another friendly monkey. We’re not sure if it was the same as before…I’ll have to do a comparison!

There were a couple of paths built and they were unusual because they were made entirely of recycled plastic! I think it is brilliant idea.

We decided to walk on the beach once the path split, and Andrea, Jay, and I went swimming for a few minutes to cool off. The water was beautiful and very refreshing. As we walked back to the park entrance, we saw a bunch of howler monkeys in the trees, but they wouldn’t come close to us. They were really interesting and were making all kinds of noise and jumping around the trees on the beach. If I were a monkey, I’d totally mess with tourists on the beach…I’d throw stuff at them for sure.

We got back into the town of Cahuita, and after a frustrating walk around town (we wanted seafood…one place didn’t tell us until we were there for 20 minutes that they didn’t have any shrimp and we walked around for a while), we finally settled on a restaurant that was right outside the park. It was perfect. We noticed a parrot at the entrance of the park and people laughing, so Jay, Andrea, and I went over to check him out:

I’m also working on a video where you can hear him say Hola, Hello, reply to questions, and make fun of my laugh. He was hilarious. We were cracking up for a long time.

The restaurant was built around a tree, and someone had carved a part that stuck out:

We had the best garlic shrimp and it was so nice to relax and eat some good food with a beautiful view of the water. We took the bus back to Banana Azul (there is a bus stop at the end of the dirt road by Banana Azul – about a 10 minute walk). Andrea and Jay needed water and some other things, so they walked into town, while James and I walked back to Banana Azul. I was a little nervous because parts of the road are 100% pitch black and someone had been mugged on that road before (the robber only got $20 and a cheap camera and did not hurt the person). I had a big rock with a pointed tip in my hand the whole walk; we didn’t know what we would encounter! James said he’s never seen me walk that fast but I was on a mission. I was also unsure of what was really in the jungle…we had the jungle on both sides of us so it was a little freaky, especially in the dark!

Once we got back, we relaxed and read, played with the kittens, and decided to go to bed.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

Rosa – she’s like a female version of our dog Fritz. She’s still a young dog (around 1 or 2, they aren’t sure) and loves to play and run and absolutely loves attention. I fell in love with her immediately!

Sheba – she’s older, but still puts up with Rosa’s puppy ways. I loved watching them play…Rosa would bite at and tease Sheba until she played with her. Sheba is also a total sweetheart and loves affection.

Colonie (not sure on the spelling) – he is such a great dog. He is a Rottie, so he is temporarily fenced-in. People are fearful of Rotties and Colin is afraid that someone would kill Colonie if he was out like the other dogs. James and I took Colonie for 2 walks on the beach. He was HILARIOUS. He ran straight into the water and would lay down like he was at home. When he felt a wave coming, he stood up before it got to him. I threw sticks for him for a bit, but he got too excited. An overly-excited Rottie is a big dog to handle, so we then stuck with just walking and playing in the water. Colonie and Rosa also chased each other up and down the beach on our second walk. That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. Roberto and Colin will soon have a wooden fence around the property, so Colonie will be able to run with the other dogs without fear. I love that big meat head.

Benji – He reminded us a bit of Cain (I think it’s the eyes). Benji spent a lot of time exactly like this – staring at the cats. We observed Benji staring at the cats, who were staring at the fish in the turtle pond. It was pretty funny. We heard a bit of a scuffle, a dog yelp, and a cat run through the patio…we’re not really sure what happened, but we think Benji got to one of the cats who whooped his ass.

The cats. They are still kittens and were always into something. If you know my husband, you know he is a total dog person and doesn’t really like cats. I think these two knew that, because they were always climbing on his book, curling up on his lap, or playing around him.

Manchas (‘spots’)

Macha (‘blond’)

There were more dogs…Bonnie was an old dog who belonged to a dear friend of Roberto and Colin. She passed away from cancer and Colin promised to keep the dogs together and find them good homes. He said he had to split them up, but they wouldn’t have it…they kept going back to their house and would cry and cry…so they adopted Colin and Roberto. Pinky is yet another dog who lives with Benji but was a little skittish, so I didn’t see her much or get too close to her.

The animals at Banana Azul are wonderful…they may be some of the happiest dogs I’ve ever seen.

James and I decided to hit the beach after breakfast, so we gathered our stuff and walked the short path to the sand. The water was clear and clean though it had a bit more force than the Pacific beaches we visited. We only went in up to our knees to cool off, and then got some sun and read our books. Colin had mentioned a hammock, so I went back to pick it up and hang it on the trees by the beach. That was 100% pure heaven. The breeze made it sway just a little bit, and I know I fell asleep for a few minutes. Jay and Andrea soon joined us, and the four of us went into the water. The waves were much, much bigger than the Pacific side, and I felt like a kid again. I dove and swam and body-surfed…my hair was a tangled mess and was full of sand, but it was so. much. fun.

We all decided to go to town again to check it out in daylight hours. We changed and made the walk into town (about 20 minutes).

This is one of the roads from Banana Azul to PV:

On the way to town:

We did a bit of window shopping to see what the town had to offer, and ended up at a little bar that was blasting reggae music. They had happy hour specials (2-for-1 deals on mango daquiris and two other things)…we were SOLD.

Mango daquiris:

The downside to this place? Tax and service tax were not included, so our bill was 23% higher than we expected. We learned to double check both items (tax is 13% and 10% is always added to bills for service) so we took it as a lesson learned.

We walked more and found a local art shop that Colin told us about:

I bought a little carved wooden turtle, but most things in there were very expensive. It’s definitely worth checking out though! After more walking and a bit of shopping, we decided to get a beer at a beachside bar…

After only a few minutes, an old, stringy-haired, skinny white guy approached our table. He was wearing a tattered Rasta hat and had a look of either doing many drugs or a hard life (or both). He asked if we wanted to see magic tricks, but it was more of a “if you look at me or acknowledge me in any way, I’m going to show you magic tricks even if you don’t want me to”. Andrea and I were a little miffed about this imposition, and we were careful to watch our stuff (petty theft is pretty common). I don’t think I would have cared so much, but he was extrememly rude (he was from NYC) and sarcastic. When he was finished, he flopped his old hat on the table and asked for tips. I reached for some colones – I had about 750 in coins – and he told me that he didn’t like coins and wanted paper (which start at 1000 colones). That was just too much for me. I told him that if he wanted a tip from me, he would take the coins, and that he should stop being so picky if he wanted it at all. He really pissed me off. I sort of turned my back at that point and talked to Andrea and he eventually went away (after asking if we needed any ‘really good herb’). No thanks dude. He walked over to another table, but they completely ignored him and he went away after only a few seconds. If we only knew.

Some pictures from the bar (excuse my super shiny face in the first one)

Andrea and Jay. Jay has a kick-ass mohawk.

James and me again:

The beach in front of the bar:

We then decided to take some beer back to Banana Azul and went to the liquor store. I also picked up a small bottle of Costa Rican rum and some Coke, and we took a taxi back to the house. We had a great time just drinking and talking around the table…about music mostly, which was really fun. Around 10pm, we were all hungry again, so we thought we’d walk to La Perla Negra, which is the closest hotel to Banana Azul. We went up to the bar and it went like this:

Bartender: Are you Dutch?
Us: Noooooo….
Bartender: Are you stay here?
Us: Noooooo….
Bartender: Where you stay?
Us: Banana Azul
Bartender: Okay! You can stay!

We were a bit confused, but I think it had to do with the Dutch tourists staying there and the hotel not having a public license or something. Carl (the bartender) is a very fun German man who can probably tell great stories. Unfortunately, they stopped serving food, so we had to take a taxi into town again. The few minutes we spent with Carl were great though…he seems like a cool guy. The hotel was really pretty, but when I later checked my guidebook, it was also expensive (about $120/night).

We took the taxi to El Loco Natural, but they were closed, so we walked to Hot Rocks. They have a big screen on one part of the restaurant and “Collateral” was playing with Spanish subtitles. Our waitress was another German and she was a bit spastic, but really sweet and great at recommending things for us to try. James and I ordered a pizza and it was really, really good. Colin later told us that Hot Rocks had gone downhill but had recently changed some things, and we were happy with our service and the food.

We wanted to find a taxi for our trip home and were pointed to Standford’s disco, where the taxis are supposed to hang out. We walked down a dark road and had a dog following us, so I kept giving him pizza to stay with us. The disco was dark and closed…so no taxi. We walked back to Hot Rocks, and our waitress called her friend (he’s a taxi driver) to take us to Banana Azul. I went right to sleep as soon as we got back. It had been a long, hot day.