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Published: July 15th 2005
Last weekend we took a 6-7 hour leisurely drive to Puerto Viejo on the Carribean side. Me Encanta!!!!! I love that place. Everything is slow and tranquil. The colors are brilliant and the tourism does not seem so overwhelming as in Manuel Antonio. The ocean is blue and the water is completely clear. I reintroduced myself to Scuba diving after having a fear of it after I first became certified. Pura Vida. Entonces, I swallowed that fear and took a quick refresher and made a beach dive there.
We rented a small 4x4 Daihatsu Terio and drove there with 5 people. It was a little intimate. We thought we would be able to somehow get A/C when we arrived but soon realized that 5 person room wouldn't accomodate our us. That is life. we laid out on the beach and partied that night to booming reggae, reggaeton, & some good old school English R&B music. We were drenched. The beat of the music and the movement of the crowd was intoxicating to say the least. Afterwards, we waded in the ocean to check out some bioilluminescent planktons (spelling is way off). Only saw a bit of it because of the waves.
The next day we made a decision to haul ourselves from our pristine (somewhat) sleepy Puerto Viejo north to Tortuguero National Park. I drove like a mad scorned woman (increible?). In fact, my fellow passengers told me that I am now a "Tico-fied" driver. I was passing cars on the curves, overtaking 2-3 cars at the time. Hell, we had a mission to take a 2PM bus to get us onto a 3 hour boat ride to Tortuguero ( no roads here). I don't think I'll ever want to drive like that again. We arrived at the bus station 15 minutes late. damn! WEll, the attendant called the driver on the cell plus a taxi driver to take us to the bus. Can you believe that? no way would that be possible in the US.
Well, it was a long drawn out boat ride through a small river that at times seemed only 1 -2 feet deep. After almost 2 hours, we were suddenly in the middle of this jungle. It was about around dusk so the brilliant hues of orange against the dark green and reflection off the water was mesmorizing. We arrived at our "luxury" hotel, Tortuga lodge and were just completely famished. Well, I wasn{t kidding about luxury. My friend, Amelia, did note that after we had given our credit card to pay that we were delivered our rules. 1. don{t drink the water 2. watch carefully where you walk because there are snakes- poisonous and non 3. don{t swim in the river because of the Caimans (midget crocodiles) 4. Don{t swim at the beach because there are sharks. hmm... anything else? It was really beautiful because the rooms were of this rich dark mahogany. There were no windows anywhere, only screens. So much for security. Well, at their prices, and nowhere to hide or run, that seemed to really deter theft.
We woke up the next morning for our early morning tour of the national park and a lazy canoe ride with a guide through the canals. WE saw a ton of birds and a 2 Caimans. The little village of Toruguero was extremely rugged. I{ll have to upload those photos. Our return trip back to the car was an enduring 3 hour ride upstream and luckly no deluge to mention. When we arrived back at Cariari, it turns out the battery was DEAD from the lights being on overnight. oops! The people here are so helpful. We asked some stranger who was pulling up to fill up on gas and he stayed for at least 10 minutes to charge us up or whatever. He waited patiently. Can you believe that? Well, Spanish came in handy, plus having a native tongue helped immensely. Well, we were surely on our way back to Manuel Antonio after that.
Driving back to San Jose was a bit scary because at this point I{m driving in the dark on the curvy roads and there are no lights, no reflectors, no guard rails, no nada por nada. Obviously, we all made it back in our own pieces.
School is coming to a close tomorrow and I{m already sad that I will not have my morning Spanish class and nightly homework assignments. My medical spanish class has been very helpful. Vamos a ver cuando yo regrese a Los Angeles. I met some really wonderful people here at school and our amoeba-like movements have reminded me how similar yet dissimilar we really are. I will miss Costa Rica very much. Me encanta mucho la vida.
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moises
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I am glad you made it to the carribean side. I wish I could have done the same. thank you so much for sharing the many great experiences you've endured. Once again...I am thankful you're doing well. I see your spanish has much improved. be safe..luv mo.