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Published: September 8th 2009
Finally Sunshine
A Caribbean beach as you would expect it to be.Puerto Viejo
Crossing back into Costa Rica on the Caribbean side is a lot more straight forward, it a big river that you cross. On one side is Panama with the Panamanian boarder post on the other side the Costa Rican boarder post, very simple and like it should be, took us less that ten minutes which is unheard of.
Our first stop back in Costa Rica is the weed toting town of Puerto Viejo, stepping of the bus is obvious that this place is a world apart from the pacific coast. Reggy music blurrs from every speaker, Rastafarian colors adorn every building and the air smells more than a little "magic". It really is like being on a Caribbean island, after being offered "The Best" weed in Central America several time we checked into our hostel ( Puerto Viejo, big, dark and impersonal) and headed out to explore the town and grab some jerk chicken.
Rain again but deciding not to be dampened by it we headed out on a walk that Cesar said would be "8km along a beach to Manzanillo" bringing only my, now flagging, flip flops as suitable beach wear we headed off. It
soon became apparent that it defiantly wasn't a beach the whole way as were came across rocky headlands and making slow progress this way headed to the road for speed. Walking in broken flip flops is not fun, but walking in flip flops that have broken four time and only been repaired three time is near impossible. With pouring rain and aching feet we stopped for some cold golden nectar, where re-reading the guide book Cesar announces that he´s made a mistake and instead of 8km there it´s 13km and 8 to a midway town. Gurrr. We pushed on opting now and again not to wear any footwear. I would not recommend this walk as its pretty boring along the road, with limited wildlife compared to other areas we had been, with nicer weather along the beach it might of been good. I would recommend taking good shoes unlike me and good company which I fortunately did have. Arriving in Manzanillo we headed to a Rastafarian bar in the center of town which is strewn with Barcelona flags and pictures. Here we had an amazing well deserved meal, then strolled along the beach and found a drunken bird on the
Reward
After a long walk we find a Barcelona crazed reggae bar. beach which had obviously taken to the bottle and passed away.
I awoke to and odd sensation. Something was flittering lightly across my eyes. Sunshine, after nearly a week we awoke to find the actually suns light streaming into our bedroom. Excited by this we quickly packed our bags checked out and headed to the beach to soak up some much anticipated rays. Puerto Viejo looks alot prettier in the sun with crystal clear waters and reefs glistening in the morning rays. There are several beaches here, and one of them separated by a small river is completely black which had a group of people preparing to learn to surf despite the flat calm waters. The others are of yellow golden hue with rock reef plateaus lying adjacent to the shore creating a series of small rockpools at low tide. Milling around these is timeless, our stomachs reminded us that it was marching past midday. We ate at Monita´s Bonita´s on George and Frans recommendation which was a good one and stoked up for another bus ride.
Puerto Limon
"The only reason people stop in Puerto Limon is to go some where else" was the quote that we
Dead Drunk
The bird was a bad influence on our drinking, and paid the ultimate price. got from most people after we told them we had been there. This I think is a little harsh, the town is the major Caribbean port of Costa Rica and shows signs of a previous grandeur that has slowly faded and given way to cracked paint and erupting weeds. This is most present along the pedestrian walkway and the strange park on the coast with a elaborate bandstand and overgrown walkways. The strangest thing was watching the continuous stream of container ships cruise in and out of port past lush tropical beaches and miles upon miles of uninhabited jungle. Rain came to eventually that day and we held up in a Mexican restaurant eat a meal for four between two, then headed back to our air conditioned room, luxury.
Parismina
Leaving Limon the road passes 10km of shipping containers with various fruit companies plasted all over them. On the way to Parismina we thought of a new game to play on buses, its very simple and called "how many times will the bus stop on this journey." It evolved from the frequent coming and going of locals at random point often less than 100m apart. On the bus
Beached
What happened to Josselyn 1-9? from Siquirres to Cano Blanco a Distance of only some 35km the bus stopped 45 times and hence took two hours, on the rapid way back it only stopped 39 times. With our new game to play the time flew past along with the miles of banana plantations buzzing with workers like busy ant trails heading to localized hubs.
A little boat completes the trip from Cano Blanco to Parismina along the river come canal that makes up the main transport system in the coastal region. The small community consists of 450 local and a handful of tourist who are here for one thing only Turtle Conservation. the village offers the chance for tourists to become park rangers for three days and stay with local families. As we didn't have three days here we opted for a hostel and a night tour then spent most of the afternoon building a 1.6m long shelled life sized representation of a Leatherback Turtle. The night to was good fun and walking on the beach in the pitch darkness was an odd experience, the black sand giving nothing of the contours and your eyes playing trick on you making the sand seem to
Painfull Feet
13km in broken flip flops. sparkle. We saw countless turtle track but unfortunately didn't see any turtles, and went back to bed a little disappointing.
The next day we made the long trip back to San Jose (1 boat, 3 Busses and 1 taxi) to spend a couple of nights with Cristian.
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