Day 54, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

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So after the excitement we met in san jose it was nice to get to a new environment and what better place to do that but in a carribean inspired beach town. Puerto Viejo is located right on the coast near the costa rica-panama border. We stayed in a hostel called Rocking J´s and it was very cool, and very huge. It was probably half a city block, including a parking lot, a huge green grass area, a wooden area for bonfires and its own beach area. The main thing to do there is to stay in hammocks and in tents or cabinas, we happened to get the last cabinas available for 10 dollars a night. Our room was essentially a concrete cell and it was located right outside the kitchen (so we experienced interesting fumes on occasion), and we had no windows. But it was home for us, we had 2 fans and it was super clean and no windows meant no sunlight to wake us up at 6am! The hostel itself was comprised primarily of mosaic tiles. It was quite impressive, from floor to ceiling everywhere you looked, the patio, the tables, the kitchen the bathrooms all mosaics. It gave it a funky tacky look.
Puerto Viejo reminded me much of tamarindo except it lacked a huge party scene which was nice for a change. The hostel was located directly on a beach, and it had paths you could take to other beaches. We hiked through the woods for 30 minutes a few times to get to this beautiful public beach. In some areas you couldnt just jump into the water because there was a huge reef running all along the coast. This area of the coast is reknowned for its snorkellig and dive sites. I would love to go back to Puerto Viejo one day and spend more time there. They had alot of amazing restaurants including this asian thai restaurent we would eat dinner at about 3 times. It was packed everynight with locals and tourists. We experienced the night life once, which consisted of a group of us heading to the bar that had no lights on inside it. No lights you say, thats right, you walk in and you cant see anything. It was discomforting especially with all the local men there who wanted to dance with us gringas. Somehow had x-ray vision and would somehow find us in the dark and harass us to dance. The next night we went out we were the only ones at the bar. We brought the party all 10 of us! It was pretty dry really... its not always about partying you know.

The main reason for staying in Viejo was to meet up with Tiffany and Tracy, girls we met in tamarindo and had planned to meet with again. They met us in Viejo on our last day there and from there we went across the border into panama. So long Costa rica, its been fun. The final destination is now panama.

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Comments

[Johny]

Rockin¨j hostel
I stayed at Rockin"j for 4 days in July 2008...Puerto Viejo is very nice and tranquilo place...but the owner of this hostel looks only for money...no care about the customers...in my 3rd day there I went back from the sea and find my luggages out of the dorm I had rent and kept them in reception...why ?...because,as they explained at me, they had a reservation for 12 persons...so they had got me out of the 4 beds room (me and a woman from Chile) in order to fill it with the new ones...they offered me ,if I wanted to stay, a tent in cheaper price...noone asked me firstly...they just got us out of the room...sorry but I propose at the new travellers to search for better hostels there...and there are many