Day 12 - Cahuita

We went to Cahuita again amd ate a yummy lunch at Restaurante LeFey. The beach was great with gentle waves and good swimming. After taking the 5pm bus back to Puerto Viejo we walked home and then hit El Dorado for 2x1 drinks and then a dinner of Good pasta and carribean chicken at Amimodo.

Day 10 - Bike Ride to Manzanillo

We rented bikes again and rode all the way to Manzanillo. Past Punta Uva there are two small hills to climb. You have to be careful when coming back down the hills as the bikes dont have the greatest beakes and at the base of one of the hllls there is a bridge and the pavement changes. When we finally got to Manzanillo it was super windy with sand blowing all over. We went into Maxi's but the music was blaring so L-O-U-D with a lot of distortion we decided to turn around and rode back, stopping at Punta Uva for a beer. On the way back we saw a large tour group of out of shape europeans hufffing and puffing along on the bike ride. Following them was a truck containing the bakiek and people who were too out of shape to make the ride (I havent riden a bike in years and thought it was pretty easy). We stopped at Punta Uva for a beer and then rode back to return the bikes and eat some lunch at Rockin' J's. We had some delicious chicken skewers with a really good thai peanut dipping sauce. The tacos al pastor were also good but needed some salsa or something as they were a bit dry.


Tacos al Pastor at Rockin' J's

We then headed to Playa Cocles where we almost had the entire beach to ourselves. The water was warm and more gentle than of previous days making for good swimming. We then headed cack to the house to clean up and rest for a bit before going out for dinner.



We went to our usual pre-dinner hang out at El Dorado and got to watch a parade of school children playing drums and in costume slowly march down the main street. Halloween isn't really observed here but the Costa Rican children seemed to be catching on as far as wearing costumes. One guy was even dressed up as Santa Claus! We then had a good dinner at Amimodo - yummy pizza!

Day 6 - Playa Cocles

As usual I woke up early and took a walk into town to get something to eat. On the way I heard the crazy guy from the previous night shouting "I am Joe Montana's son!"

I went back to Cafe Rico and had a yummy fruit salad with yogurt. I then went to the Old Harbor Market to get some snacks for the house along with some laundry detergent so we could wash our dirty clothes in the washing machine. By this time my wife was awake and wanting breakfast so we walked back into town to eat at Chili Rojo. We had thought about taking a bus to Cahuita but it was pretty overcast and looking like it might rain and should wait for another day. We decided that Playa Cocles would be a good spot for some beach time so we walked there and found a lot of people on the beach. We found a shady spot and relaxed with our books for a few hours.

On the way back home we stopped at El Toriso for a snack of chicken wings. We also stopped at Echo Books which is an odd place set back a 1/4 mile into the forest. It was air conditioned and had a decent selection but I don’t see how they get much business in their location. We then took a short nap and walked back inot town for some margaritas at El Dorado.



The town wasn’t as busy as the previous night. Some performers were juggling fire on the street just outside the bar. We then walked around a bit, looking for a place for dinner. We really wanted to eat at Chili Rojo and seeing an empty table (the place has been packed every other night) we rushed in. I had vegetable curry which was really good but could have been more spicy.

Day 3 - Playa Cocles

As usual, I woke up early and after making coffee and checking email. I took a walk into town and got some yummy pastries at Pan Pay. After returning we decided to take a walk to Playa Cocles. There is a trail that we accessed by walking through Rockin' J's and then it's a 10 minute walk to the beach. We spent about 3 hours laying in the shade and swimming. We saw 3 people swim way off to an island off shore. One of the lifeguards paddled up on his surfboard to make sure they were OK.


Playa Cocles

Coconut Man


We then walked back along the costal trail and had some really good tacos and margaritas at De Paso (next to Cut Bak). After we got back home it started to rain so we took a nap and then watched the Red Sox decimate the Rockies at El Dorado and then we had a good dinner at Salsa Brava along with a night cap at the Dubliner Irish Bar which doesn’t really live up to it's name. I was foolishly looking forward to a black and tan but they were out of Guinness and never heard of Harp or Bass ale :(


Tacos at De Paso

Day 2 - San Jose to Puerto Viejo

After some coffee and a fresh fruit salad for breakfast Interbus picked us up right on time at 8:30am and we made the drive to Puerto Viejo. We traveled with a Swiss couple and an American and a German. We made a 20 minute stop about half way at a roadside restaurant so people could use the toilet or get something to eat. It was a pretty smooth ride until we got to Cahuita where the driver was getting pretty flustered while trying to find one of the hotels that some people wanted to be dropped off. At one point we took a wrong turn and ended at the end of a narrow road where the driver had to back up all the way to the main road about 300 meters.

After arriving in Puerto Viejo we were dropped off right in front of the gate to the house we are renting. We found the house through Collin from Banana Azul who put us in contact with the owner. It's located across from Rockin' J's about a 7 minute walk form the east side of town. The house is about 75 meters back from the road with a locked gate and covered place to park a car. There are two bedrooms, one with a queen bed and another with a single bed. The house has a fully equipped kitchen with coffee maker, stove, microwave, along with dishes and cooking utensils. The back of the house has a nice covered porch wth a sofa and table. On one side is the home of the property owner and on the other side is a group of small cabanas that are home to tico families. There is also a small grocery store and a guy who rent bicycles just to the right of our gate. The house also has a telephone and cable tv with most channels in Spanish but a few in English and one in German ands Chinese. We are able to get wireless internet from the owners house but the signal is weak, sometimes I could only access it on the back porch and sometimes not at all. There is a washing machine but no drier. At $300/week we thought it was a good bargain.


Back porch of our house


Kitchen

After getting unpacked we walked into town for some lunch and beers at El Dorado and then picked us some groceries at the Old Harbor market to have on hand at the house. We then decided that a dip in the ocean was needed so we walked through Rockin’ J's to the beach only to find that the beach was really rocky and not really suitable for swimming. First we walked east along the beach for a bit and then decided to turn around and walk back west looking for a place to swim and ended up at the crappy beach in town where my wife did a bit of swimming and I watched our stuff and trying to keep some all too playful dogs from shaking wet sand all over me.


Beach dogs


We then went back to the house to shower and relax for a while. We then walked into town, checked out the Sunset Bar which seemed like a less friendly locals only place so we ended up going back to El Dorado where we met a woman who used to live jst a few blocks form us in San Francisco and had moved to PV last week. We also met Coconut Man, a guy who sells coconuts along the beaches. After many beers and a pizza we walked back home and went to bed