The 4th of July in Costa Rica, is not a very festive occasion, as I expected. Back in the states I would've been eating burgers and setting things on fire like a true American, but in Costa Rica, July fourth is a day like any other. Here, the the real holiday was July 5th - the day of the Costa Rican World Cup game against Germany. We (and by we I mean a gaggle of five youngsters) set out for the Caribbean Coast around mid day. As we drove from Ramsés house in Heredia toward San Jose, I saw countless Costa Rican flags hanging off of every car, house and shop. All of Costa Rica was pumped up for el partido de fútbol. With the streets, which are already crazy to drive on, filled with amped up Ticos, I was worried about getting to our bus without an incident. Fortunately, we boarded our bus easily by pushing to the front of a gringo filled line and got comfortable enough to endure the 5+ hour bus ride to the Caribbean Coast.
We arrived later that night to our little Cabinas (like a cabin or Hostel) in a town called Manzanillo. The closest moderately sized town was called Puerto Viejo. Las Cabinas Se Uá, as it was called, was basically set right into the edge of the jungle. We could hear chirping and humming of who knows what kinds of bugs coming out of what looked like a wall of green. Pretty neat, to say the least. We got settled in with yet another delicious plate of typical Tico food (seriously, how are rice and beans here so much better than the ones I make back home?).
Around 4 or 5am the next morning, the howler monkeys outside our room decided it was wake up time and proceeded to shout at us from the aforementioned jungle. If I hadn't been on the other side of our locked door, I might have been worried for my own safety. Those noises coming from the forest were not the sounds of friendly neighbors.
Manzanillo, though a tiny little town, had a lot to offer as far as beaches and nature. The whole Caribbean Coast has a completely different feel from San Jose. There is far more English spoken from person to person because, from what I saw, a lot of tourists frequent the Caribbean beaches. Overall, Puerto Viejo is very laid back and easy going. We were warned before by Ramsés' family, that the Caribbean can be dangerous for two american girls wandering around. In a town as small as Puerto Viejo, and with as much tourist traffic as there was, we didn't find much trouble.
The game was playing on every screen in every bar or restaurant we passed that day. Usually, I don't care about Soccer, like at all, but I couldn't help but get excited when I was surrounded by so many passionate fans. Though Costa Rica put up a good fight over two overtimes and penalty kicks, Holland took the win in the final minutes. Ticos, however sad they were, acted amiably towards the Holland fans in the audience. The Tico sprit wasn't broken, that's for sure. Apparently, this is the first time Costa Rica has ever gotten this far in the World Cup, and they succeeded in making a name for themselves.
But enough about soccer, we spent a great two days in Puerto Viejo. The nature reserve in Manzanillo has an awesome viewpoint of the Caribbean coast (pictures to follow).
After our short stint in the southern coast, Kelsea and I bid goodbye to our Tico travel buddies and set off on our own. We hopped on a bus headed north and got off in a town called Cahuita. We arrived just in time for the tail end of the Calypso Music Festival. There is a large Reggae influence in the Caribbean and a lot of that shows up in the music and also... the food! A typical Tico dish, arroz con frijoles, gets an extra twist in the Caribbean with a dish called "rice and beans". Which is really just the typical dish but instead made with coconut milk. It's muy rico!
We spent our first day getting settled in our cabinas, named Cabina Caribe Luna, which was set just outside of town and was complete with a warm shower and a hammock! The town of Cahuita is pretty itty bitty with a large attention on tourist needs and accommodations. I was surprised to see so many gringos walking around town, listening to the music, sitting at restaurants, etc.
The intention for coming to Cahuita was to check out the beaches and the national park. We poked around the mainstreet long enough to find ourselves in the hand of a tour company called Willie's tours, who provided a long list of activities that Cahuita has to offer. I embraced my inner tourist as I flipped through the brochure of nature walks, ancient indigenous civilization tours, and snorkeling to name a few. I finally decided on hiking through the Cahuita Natural park, and I have to say, I made a good choice.
Our guide showed us the monos (monkeys) far up in the trees that most hikers wouldn't think to look for. We saw an oso perezoso (a sloth - or literally translated - lazy bear) waaaay up in the trees. We saw pájaros (birds). We saw serpientes (snakes). We saw cangrejos (crabs), and we saw a ton of hormigas (ants) of every kind. In some areas of the hike, if I didn't keep my feet moving at all times, I would have tiny leaf cutter hormigas crawling over my feet to make sure they were keeping their highly efficient assembly line. On the side of the trail, out of the corner of my eye, something was always moving, whether it was a doofy looking crab with its body halfway out of a crab hole, or a tiny bird beeboppin' around looking for some ants to eat, which, did I mention, are everywhere? We hiked for 8 km through the forest, with a stop at the breathtaking Punta Cahuita halfway point. The original inhabitants of Cahuita actually started out at this point that juts out into the sea. The original tribe used plants in the forest for all sorts of remedies and stimulants. The town of Cahuita is named after one of these plants, the Cawa tree, which grew at the almost peninsula-like point, or in Spanish, punta. Over time the two words Cawa and punta blended together to form the word Cahuita. Not only was our hike an exposure to the surrounding nature, it was also a history lesson.
I have to apologize in advance for not taking nearly enough pictures of this forest, but there's really only so much a iPhone camera can do. Kelsea, however, brought her camera along and has a bunch of really awesome shots that she's put on her blog. Go ahead. Check it out. Don't be shy:
http://readaboutkelsea.blogspot.com/
We finished up our tour in Cahuita with a bit more adventure. But that post is yet to come. Stay tuned!
An abandoned oil well full of water and natural gas. The water was naturally warmer than air temperature, and a rock thrown into the well would float!
Lil' Kelsea
Some sneaky hermit crabs
This river isn't dirty, it's naturally red because the trees that grow along the banks give it this color.
The Caribbean Sea!
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