A Broad Abroad

I’m pretty glad I ended up on that second bus cuz I met some nice folks. A british couple, alka and rodri, are also in bocas now and we’ll meet up for drinks and a book swap ☺ and maybe christmas dinner. The rest of my crew (first shift) get in tomorrow: deb, dus and rita. I’m really looking forward to that!

The border crossing from sixaola, CR to guabito, panama is a trip. Very simple as far as paperwork is concerned but one must walk on a railroad bridge over a big river to get from one country to the other. It would be entirely possible to lose one’s footing and go over and I had to wonder if it has ever happened. video below!!

When we got to guabito we were told that our preferred boat launch out to bocas (archipelago off the coast of panama) from changuinola was inadvisable due to the rain (it uses canals that are prone to flood) and that instead we should take the 1.5 hr trip to almirante and catch a boat from there. The drive was lovely but almirante is pretty much a sh*t-hole. None-the-less we went in search of some beer (adios imperial brand, hello panama brand) and made the best of our time waiting for the ferry.

That was yesterday and it’s pretty much rained ever since. Druing a short breack in the rain this morn I walked all the way around isla caranero (observations to come) and made it back just in time for the rain to start again! I hope it stops again so I can catch a water taxi over to bocas town (on isla colon) and do some grocery shopping. I have a couple of craving I’d like to satisfy. So – hopefully the internet in the casita here starts to work then I can upload pics, video, etc. and also all these posts that have accumulated. Yay!

Mostly I just people watched while I was here. There was a futbol tournament going on in the late afternoon. An odd version of it tho, as it was played on a court as small as a tennis court (smaller actually, if you consider that tennis courts are bigger on account of the fact that they continue past the out-of-bounds line). They had 4 man teams and you can imagine that in an area that small the action is non-stop. I got to see the locals come out and it was really amazing to see what a melting pot it is: black, white and everything in between – with a healthy dose of the rasta spice.

Can’t say that I would have wanted to spend more time here. It’s got a big surfer-thing going on and they tend to be pretty cliquish. Did meet a couple of british guys visiting for the birding and we got to compare notes.

It starting pouring as I went to bed and continued all night. My plan was to catch the first bus for the border, which leaves PV at 6:30 am. When I awoke to hear it still pouring I had second thoughts but lept out of bed at the last minute to head for the bus. That was all for naught since I missed it. Imagine, in this land of phone outages and crappy roads the bus actually came and left 10 minutes early. D’oh! Since I’d already checked out of cabinas guarana (I recommend this place) I waited at the bus stop for 2 hours for the next bus.

I got curious about what “uva” was in spanish and it turns out to be “grape”. No wonder I like this place so much, it is named after that fabulous fruit that provides my elixir, vino tinto ☺.

My remaining days in punta uva were as lovely as the first. There were some nice folks staying in the other houses and roberto, of fort collins CO, gave me a lift on his scooter to manzanillo, the beach town at the end of the road (quite literally) along CRs carib coast. We had the mandatory beer at maxi’s restaurant, a manzanillo institution.

Manzanillo, tho with a nice beach and what I hear is some nice snorkling, is not much than that and I’m not sure I’d want to stay here long. Plus, the bike ride all along the stretch from puerto viejo (north) and manzanillo (south) is just lovely. Punta uva is about smack dab between those. If you do visit punta uva the short hike out to the point is really cool. Go past the punta uva beach bar and restaurant (which serves some yummy food) and find the trail. There are some earthen “stairs” that lead to a trail and it’s easy to find your way out to the rock point.

The next day I borrowed a bike from the casa and rode to playa cocles, a little closer to puerto viejo. This is a surfer beach but all along this stretch of coast there were these tucked-away little public accesses that lead to deserted beaches. Usually you’d just see a path into the jungle from the road and a sign reading “playa glardonada con la bandera azul ecologica”.

After 3 days in punta uva I left to spend a night in puerto viejo de talamanca before heading to panama. Puerto viejo is known as the party town along this coast so I was a bit curious to see more. I’d stopped there to grocery shop before heading to punta uva and it seemed pretty laid back.

Puerto viejo doesn’t look too bad, but my mission there was to get a few groceries to tide me over when grub wasn’t to be found in punta uva. This isn’t a problem when one has transportation (rental car, scooter, etc) in punta uva, but as a bus-passenger I needed to be prepared. Basically for me, that means coffee and peanut butter sandwiches. Oh, and rum.

I chose casa viva as my spot for 3 nights. A few posts on the lonely planet message board convinced me that despite the minimal web-page this was the place I wanted to be. Oh, I was so right. The beach in front is stunning but the property itself makes it perfect. I tend to the geeky side when it comes to birding (ok and with a few other subjects as well) but in ALL my travels thru panama and costa rica this is the first place where WITHOUT EVEN TRYING I saw all 3 toucan varieties in an afternoon and added so many birds to my checklist that before I finished walking the smallish property I had to go back to my room where my bird-book was for fear of forgetting some!

Then I donned my swimsuit and body-surfed off the amazing beach. Then I returned to the immaculate wooden cabana (with the FIRST bathroom that had a big counter along side the sink). Then I looked thru the in-room book selection cuz I think I may finish my book here. Then I toured the rest of the property and found even more birds (and when I’m able to upload photos you’ll see toucans). Then I sat on my verandah and had a rum with pear nectar. I’m just in heaven. I’m just not sure I can extoll all the virtues of this place sufficiently (nor am I sure I want to, as it may one day lose its charm with more visitors!).

FYI – What I am doing is keeping a journal in a document and then cutting and pasting it when I get internet access. It may not be till bocas that I have a chance to properly update my blog. The carib side of costa rica and panama is notorious for bad internet. I hope our casita in bocas is better! Anyhoo – this is why you may see bursts of activity thru-out my adventure.

Alby lodge had a community kitchen that I took advantage of some but I had yummy pizza my last night at corlione’s before i hit the sack. Overall, cahuita is ok. It’s a bit dusty despite it’s locale and I just didn’t get a warm fuzzy. I decided to spend time there because puerto viejo sounded like too much of a party town, which it may be, I will tell you later ☺. I will say that eating at miss edith’s is a must. Here i had a Sunday breakfast of coffee and fruit drizzled with a bit of fragrant honey. I believe miss edith and I were the only ones up at 7:00am ☺ She’s your only shot at anything at that hour on Sunday. But better than that was the lovely lookout to the sea and I saw plenty of new birds while I waited. She told me about the snapper special for the night (it would be marinating while she went to Sunday service, which must start after her breakfast hour) and I vowed to go back. Boy was I glad I went back! Whole snapper cooked carib-style in spices with ache. I asked what was scattered around the plate and was told “ache”, which I will look up when I have internet access. It was tasty but looked like little, tiny, whole, yellow brains. When I asked for clarification she used some words that I won’t trouble you with here but that didn’t make the origins completely clear. Anyhoo….

I caught the 9:00 bus to puerto viejo where I planned to do a little grocery shopping before I made my way to my destination in punta uva: supposedly the best swimming beach in costa rica with the added benefit of being very secluded. Go figure! The groceries were to compensate for the lack of restaurants within walking distance.

Punta Uva, Costa Rica

Originally uploaded by peggydaly

chestnut mandibled toucan at casa viva in punta uva.

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.

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!