Days 16 - 18 - Cahuite

I love going to the non-tourist beaches and Caribean...soo much better that resort styles and much more relaxing.

So from when I left San Ramon it took 5 hours on a bus to get to Cahuita...not bad actually...the slowness is mostly do to the rocky windy mountain roads.

Cahuita, although having some tourist qualities was mostly unspoiled when we got there and not packed and quiet and nice. I loved it right away. Plus I could hear the waves and the monkeys.

I am not sure I can describe the water, it was amazing, we enjoyed diving into the waves and playing a game where we dared them to try and move us. Lol...Miroke had the advantage given her height...but the best part was if we walked out of the door of our room, we could see the beach and the waves and they weren´t filled with people.

The first night we ate at the hostel, they have amazing food, I had fish that was fresh and cooked beautifully. But my favorite was the atmosphere the owners, an amazing older couple setup. There was classical flute music playing and the windows looked over the garden to the Ocean and the lighting was perfect. You know how I like lighting...and the room was cozy and filled witht he most amazing paintings the owner had done himself. I spent most of dinner staring at them one by one and deconstructing them. I can´t say enough about how much it makes a difference when you can see and artist really connect with his or her work. There was just so much life in the pictures he had done of people in the town. He was very nice and put up with my spanish to answer my questions...

The second day we took a bus to Manzinilla another smaller town with an amazing beach, and an apparently amazing restaurant that was too packed with locals for us to try. Mari, Hiro and Miroke tell me though that it is awesome, they have come twice before. Lol..we ate at the small soda nearby...lol....it was a long wait...

Then in the evenign ont he way back we stopped in Puerta Viejo, a total tourist town but with some really cool artists shops along the way and clothing stores...unfortunately a little more expensive as well. But nice to walk through.

The last day was spent ont he beach again...I got a lot of reading in and time to draw. It was absolutely a beach weekend and kind of typical I guess, but with good people and beautiful scenery I loved it.





So the background is the terminal in San Jose, it was pretty nice, much nicer than the one for buses leaving San Jose for San Ramon...the cemetary is in Limon the largest Carribean city in Costa Rica...seems liek a typical city, but not as well kept up as San Jose. The cemetaries here though are interesting with everything seemign to be above ground. Not sure why yet. The rest is just osme scenery form the 4 hours bus ride, oh and the tree witht he blue bad hanging from it is a banana tree...there were tons of them and all with blue bags over the bananas, I am told to help keep away the bugs.



Self explanitory...



The hostel we stayed at, a decent price and amazingly beautiful. Plus one of the oweners is a painter and for the first time on a vacation I actually wanted to buy a painting...they seemed real. But he doesn´t sell them. Which shows how much they mean to him...the one above the guitar is of his wife, and even without being told that I think you caould know that the artist was inlove with his subject..it shows. It was my favorite.



Beaches both in Cahuita and in Manzinilla. And the road we had to walk down to get to the very tranquil beach in Manzinilla. I still prefer Cahuita though, less people.



So I don´t know either of the dogs´names...but they were cute, the retreiver was totally in love with Hiro. The spider was near our spot at the beach...we names him Manual...he was about the size of my first and had a web to match. The cayen is called Roberto and comes for lunch at the hostel everyday. The oweners feed him scraps of raw meet. Lol...the turtle is Pavlo and was very brave in running in to sneak in a bite. He was watching froma distance for a while and waited until Roberto looked full. He made it out alive. Lots of iguanas, and birds around as usual.



Monkeys!!!! They needed their own picture. They loved the trees by the beach in Cahuita...the white faced one is a white faced Capuchin, they were a lot more camera shy than their Tamarin cousins. Lol, I got to witness two young males in an arguement as well while what appeared to be the alpha male watched non-chalantly. He eventually broke up the fight and yelled at them. Oh yeah these monkeys love to make noise, we could here them from our hotel both evenings. Thank god they are diurnal.

This is Verdie, the parrot who lives at the resort. Lol, Mari was in love with him and wanted him to climb on her shoulder, but he is picky about such things so she tried to bribe him with breakfast. He ate breakfast with us both days. He prefers strawberry jam over peach and ets abotu half while decorating the ground with the rest. He likes to sing, but not dance. He never did let any of us hold him, but did stay nearby and tried to eat the chair when breakfast was late the second day. He is a very smart bird, knows exactly how to get what he wants.

Random pics...the girl with Verdie is Miroke (I hope I spelt that right). Lol...pink thing is a very festive garbage can...they like pink here. The drink is my watermelon juice, I am in love with it. The restaurant is where we had dinner the second night...it had amazing Caribean curry and was the only place open with food at 10pm. Both very important qualities.

Impressions form the trip...

• I love Cahuita!
• I think I may need to learn more Japanese....
• Wow...and I though an hour for a coke was long (which only needed uncapping)...but and hour and a half for a burger comes close.
• Ooops...hold the ham on my HAMburger please.
• heeheee...mokeys. we meet at last.
• Wow, the Listerine drinking stories still shock people.