Thursday, November 10, 2016

Cahuita

The government of Canada has travel warnings regarding the Caribbean coast, including Cahuita.  From what I read, it stems from a series of robberies dating back to 2011ish.  As per tripadvisor, robberies still happen, but it seems moreso towards Puerto Viejo and south.  Anyhow, you might be asking, "Why Cahuita then?"  I picked Cahuita as a destination because it was supposed to be a laid back town with a beach and an incredible national park.

Cruising the river from Tortuguero to Moin
From Tortuguero, we took a 4 hr long boat ride to Moin.  The boat capacity must've been around 24, but there were only 5 passengers total aboard!  It gave us tons of room to lounge and stretch our legs.  We traveled with a bilingual Mexican tourist.  It was interesting sharing stories about travel and learning Spanish.

SLOTH!!!
I don't know how the boat captain did it, but he managed to point out monkeys, a crocodile, and 2 sloths!

Bananas ready to ship to a grocery store near you!
From Moin we took a shared car to Cahuita.  I was expecting to take a taxi from Moin to Limon, but it turned out that a shared car was similar in price and much more convenient.  Along the road from Moin, we past ginormous stacks of shipping containers full of bananas.  Every popular banana brand was represented ie. Dole, Chiquita, Del Monte, etc...

Creative outdoor gym at the beach!
Cahuita was an even smaller town than I expected.  Basically only one road with shops and restaurants on it.  There were 2 grocery stores, both run by Chinese families.  I talked to one shopkeeper, and he said he was from Guangdong!  Small world (or big province)!

At Playa Negra (no the sand isn't actually black)
We were told to be careful with bag snatchings, especially when leaving stuff at the beach.  So, we took turns watching the bags and swimming.  I had finished swimming, and came back up to the shade to watch the bags so K could swim.  As she headed down to the water, a guy on a bicycle stopped and looked suspicious, and was making a weird hissing sound (think like a snake).  Of course I panicked and yelled "THERE'S A WEIRD GUY HERE"  Turns out hissing noises are the equivalent of catcalling.  And many people in Cahuita are fluent in English due to their Jamaican background.  So at least this guy knows he is weird now.

Beach/Jungle walk
On one of the days we walked the length of the trail in Cahuita National Park.  Spotted tons of capuchin monkeys, and one sloth.  Along the trail there is a lovely beach.  Unfortunately when we were there there was a group of middle-aged German tourists skinny-dipping.  Actually the real reason we didn't swim there was the lack of shade.  The sun is HOT in Cahuita, and sunbathing in the sun isn't an option.  In order to not melt into a pile of goo, you need to hangout in the shade.  Near Puerto Vargas there was another lovely beach and we swam there.

What do you do when your clothes are super sweaty? Dry them on a tree, of course!
Our days in Cahuita started early and ended early.  Costa Rica has 12 hour days, with the sun rising around 5:30am and setting around 5:30pm.  So we followed the sun and woke up early.  Most nights I was tucked into bed, fast asleep by 7:30pm.

Beachtimes!
We ate most meals at Kawe, a local favourite where they cooked their rice and beans over a wood fired stove.  We tried many of their dishes and all were quite tasty!  I especially liked the pork rib casado.  mmmmmmm...

Capuchin monkey!


Tortuguero

As you probably know by now, I'm a budget traveler.  Not a shoestring budget traveler, but a budget traveler nonetheless.  Most of my research goes into finding the most economical way to do things, without sacrificing too much comfort.  For Costa Rica, I wanted to keep my total trip budget to less than $1000CAD, not including flights.  While this sounds like a healthy budget, in a country that uses the American dollar extensively, it doesn't go THAT far.  Nevertheless I'm pretty confident I managed to stay within that budget.

The town of Tortuguero from the river.  Tortuguero is a thin strip of land sandwiched by the river on one side and the Carribean sea on the other.
Tortuguero was our 2nd destination.  To get there, I booked a tour package from a highly recommended local guide.  I priced out transportation and tours independently, and found that the package ended up being a bit cheaper.  Looking back, it was 110% worth it to book the package, as he took care of all of our transfers.  It was also convenient to have a local contact.

Rivers are brown with sediment
To get to Tortuguero, we needed to cross half the country to get to the Carribean coast.  We took a shared shuttle, then a boat.

View from the hammock on the front steps!
In Tortuguero we stayed at an oceanfront hotel owned by a Korean lady who lived in Spain for 30 years.  While her English wasn't great we had a good time chatting with her.  I think she was intrigued by us Canadians.  She may have tried to set us up with her son ;)  [although he's only 24... but speaks 5 languages!]

The baby turtles got confused and ran away from the water
We helped round them up and release them back into the ocean!
We went on a night turtle tour and saw a green turtle laying eggs!  Since it was the end of turtle season, there were about 60 people rotating in and out to see this turtle lay eggs.  Apparently it was the only turtle on the beach that night.  I was impressed by the crowd control and restraint that the guides have.  It was fairly orderly and no one was allowed to harass the turtle.

Blurry nighttime pic.  I wish I took a video.  Sloths really do move in slo-mo!
Also went on a canoe and a jungle tour.  Our guide Victor was amazing at spotting animals!  Definitely worth hiring a guide.  We saw 3 types of monkeys (spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and capuchin monkeys), sloths, frogs, snakes (ew!), lizards, and a caiman.

Jungle!  I almost expected to see a dinosaur!
My favourite part of Tortuguero was the beaches.  Endless sandy beaches and warm ocean water.  As you know, I love being in the ocean.  There's something so awesome about floating in salt water (I sink horribly in fresh water).  The weather was HOT while we were there.  The internet said around 41 degrees including humidity!!!  While the ocean water was very warm, it was at least cooler than the air.

Sunrise at the beach

Tortuguero was my favourite Costa Rican destinaton.  You can probably see why!

Picture perfect paradise!

Costa Rica - La Fortuna

Costa Rica was never on my 'next country to visit' list.  However, a seat sale sold me on visiting, and I'm very glad that I did.

Seeing that I didn't know anything about the country, I spent many hours online hashing out an itinerary, even asking the online community for advice.  I knew I wanted a mixture of seeing things and beachtime.  I finally settled on La Fortuna, Tortuguero, and Cahuita.

The Arenal volcano - the main draw to La Fortuna
La Fortuna was supposed to be a 'BIG TOURIST TOWN' according to what I read.  However, when we arrived, I was surprised to see just how small it was.  Maybe it was being in the off season.  

We took the bus from SJO airport to San Jose, then another bus from San Jose to La Fortuna.  The bus into San Jose cost 535 colones (or $1.30CAD), compared to quotes of $30USD for a taxi.  Long distance bus cost 2380 colones (or ~$6CAD); much cheaper than the $50USD quoted for a shared shuttle.  If you visit Costa Rica, you can save HUGE amounts of money by taking public buses to get around.  I thought they were safe and reliable.  We only travelled with 1 carry on bag each, so didn't have to worry about putting our bags in the luggage compartments.  I highly recommend travelling with a carryon sized backpack.  It is SO much easier to maneuver around!!!  You can even use the toilet without worrying about someone watching your luggage!

In La Fortuna, we went river tubing.  It's been a goal of mine to float down a river in an innertube, so I finally did it!  While it was fun and all, it was definitely our most expensive excursion at $50USD.  I'd describe it as white-water river tubing.  It's something that I'd never attempt without a guide, so I guess it was worth it!

Cerro Chato is the one on the right
The other activity we did was hiking up Cerro Chato.  Cerro Chato is the extinct volcano located next to the active Arenal volcano.  You aren't allowed to hike up Arenal due to poisonous gases that apparently killed too many people.  The trail up Cerro Chato was steep and deeply rutted.  We were lucky enough to hike on a sunny day.  I can definitely see how it can turn into a muddy slip n slide in the rain.  I stupidly forgot my runners in the hotel, so hiked in crocs, which I don't recommend.  Crocs have zero traction and I did fall twice and have multiple near misses.

The green waters of the Cerro Chato crater.  I prefer turquoise glacial lakes ;)
I wasn't huge fan of the green water; it kinda grossed me out a bit.  Nevertheless, I still swam.  Now I can say I've swam in 2 volcano craters!!! (Crater Lake, Oregon and Cerro Chato!)  The major screw up we did was not bring enough water.  It was hot and humid and we only had 1L water each.  By the time we were making our way down the mountain, K was very dehydrated and dizzy.  It really slowed down our pace and we weren't able to visit the waterfall nearby due to time constraints.  

Steep and deeply rutted trail through the jungle
To get to Cerro Chato, we rented a car.  This is one of the MANY instances where knowing how to drive stick is helpful.  Renting a manual transmission car was much cheaper and cost about $70CAD for the day.  K was the driver, but I think I could've even handled driving, even with my nervous driver tendencies.

We stayed at a place called Allamanda Rooms.  It's family run and felt like we were at an air bnb.  They were super nice to us and offered to spin-dry our laundry, lent us kitchenstuffs, and let us into their kitchen whenever so we could get water.  The little granddaughter tried to converse with us, except our Spanish sucks, and her English was non-existent.