Travel » A Broad Abroad

Cahuita: hippie-haunt of CR’s carib coast

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Cahuita has a “gringo to local” ratio a bit higher than I like. Not to mention I saw my first gringo beggar here, which really chaps my hide. Damn hippies ☺. As a matter of fact – a white hippie was the first beggar I encountered in costa rica!! Oh, the fall of western civilization!! Sorry, I am really tolerant of any lifestyle that doesn’t impose itself on others and supports itself but I must say that I don’t think dreadlocks belong on white people. This is not a news flash to anyone that knows me ☺. It’s a long-held belief of mine. Oh, and same goes for corn-row braids.

But the 2 street village is relaxing enough and my cabin at alby lodge is nice and in an area chock full o’ monkeys. As a matter of fact I better get to sleep and finish my cahuita entry manana, as the howlers wake me up at around 5:30 am ☺. i’ll try to post again tomorrow before i must leave alby lodge to take up for one night at the national park hotel.

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Tortuguero Village and National Park

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

Tortuguero village is small and rambling, with no cars. it is, in my experience, like many afro-carib communities where families blend and take care of each other and the entire family structure evolves very differently than in the US. one can walk the village in about 15 minutes.

One side of the village is on the river, it’s life-blood, the other side on a tumultuous, shark-infested part of the Caribbean coast. when looking at a map I was naturally drawn to accommodations on the beach, but the riparian world of tortuguero is far more interesting and I was glad to have the shady dock at casa marbella to hang out on. For hours I could watch the small boats come and go, the dense forest crowding the canals and the birds that skirt its edges.

the first morning I took a small, motorized boat along with some other casa guests with daryl as a guide. It was a great overview of the park and its the eco-system and we saw lots of wildlife – including the 3 local species of monkeys: howler, spider and white-faced capuchin.

Later, sarah, andrew and dave (of Vancouver), a lovely dutch couple and i took the hike thru a section of the park near the village. We had quite a monkey encounter with the spider and howler monkeys!! Rubber boots are mandatory (verified at park entrance) and are provided by casa marbella. Part of the hike is on the beach where discarded sea turtle eggs abound. Tortuguero, if you haven’t guessed, is named so because it is a turtle nesting ground (tortuga being turtle in Spanish). The previous evening we were able to see a lone baby turtle, just hatched and waddling to the ocean. Talk about an amazing solo-journey!! There are 8 species of sea turtles in the world, 6 of which nest in costa rica , 4 off those in tortuguero.

The next morning I chose to explore the river/canals in a “man-powered” canoe. Alexander, the man powering the canoe with his oars, was an amazing guide and earned my new name for him, Alexander the great! He grew up near the border with Nicaragua and knew all the birds by ear. This allows him to keep his eyes peeled for what he hears and allowed me to see a flock of great green macaws, a highly endangered species. I took this canoe trip with the Roth family from LA, led by Barbara. She and her children are down here for the second time delivering boxes and boxes of school supplies to needy schools in small villages like tortuguero. Kudos!

On my third afternoon I took a sola walk thru the park near the village and had yet another amazing monkey encounter. This one left me with the distinct impression that I was being tracked by a group of howler monkeys. They were getting so close and surrounding me!! I was able to put all the monkey-movie-plots out of my head and enjoy the walk anyway. This time I also wore long pants tucked into my rubber boots to protect my calves which ended up rubbed raw from the boots after my previous hike ☹.

Good restaurants: miss miriam’s for Caribbean fare, villa casona for the same (good food but only had ½ of the menu and took forever – but that’s the carib vibe ☺) – both of those are along-side the soccer field. and GREAT pizza and fruit shakes at budda café – a lovely spot on the river with nice (tho not tico) ambiance and music.

Since I was heading down the carib coast from tortuguero I took the boat to moin (outside of Limon on the coast), which uses a man-made canal, sort of like a mini inter-coastal. There’s an office in tortuguero to buy tickets near the main boat-spot in town (I call it that cuz there is no dock for water-taxis). Best get a ticket and catch the boat upstream (not past the main boat-spot) since it can get full despite the “reservation system”. I flagged it down from casa marbella and was the first one on. It’s 3.5 hours long and flies by due to the lovely scenery but costs a rather pricey $30. I grabbed a taxi with 3 other travelers from the dock in moin to the bus terminal in limon ($2 a piece) and grabbed a bus to cahuita from there (about $1.30).

i’m only providing some of this info, like prices, in case other central american travelers find it helpful :). onto cahuita!

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the cheap way to Tortuguero

Friday, December 14th, 2007

the city of guapiles sits roughly ½ way between san jose and tortuguero village. I made sure I was at the guapiles bus station by 9:30 am since there are several hops involved in getting to tortuguero the cheap ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Luggage Rescued – off to Rio Blanco

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

rather than risk a botched delivery of my pack, i arrived at the airport on monday hoping that my pack arrived on the same flight i did, only a day later. success! the relief of having all my ... [Continue reading this entry]

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the luggage gods are not turkish….

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

....or i suppose not, since they don't like raki and they failed to deliver my pack to me in costa rica. i am operating under the assumption that it will be here by tomorrow and i've been assured they ... [Continue reading this entry]

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heading out….

Saturday, December 8th, 2007

yep, shortly i'll be on a plane to san jose, costa rica. amy and brian (and maybe baby sam?!?) are giving me a ride to BART, then i'm on to SFO. i'll fly thru LAX. since i ... [Continue reading this entry]

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it’s hard to escape “the man” :)

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

the relaxing weeks i'd hoped for before my departure have been rather more consumed by paperwork than hiking our bay area's lovely trails. i had no idea how many mundane tasks there would be: health insurance, 401k moves, ... [Continue reading this entry]

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this is how i roll….PEACE

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

please click to play - I love this clip! thru a fellow traveler i found this amazing respresentation of what brought me HERE....to the brink of exploring the ... [Continue reading this entry]

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saying goodbye to employment

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

this coming week will be my last week of gainful employment (for now). but, wow! there's pressure here because i've declared that some of my ills are rooted in the fact that i work from home. now ... [Continue reading this entry]

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