Blogs from Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 13

Thanks for the comments and messages, everyone. Sorry the weather in Paris and elsewhere (Adelaide's drought) are so bad. Please keep in touch. I loved Tortuguero! We had three river trips (see my photos) and I had fun at my hotel. Spent some time reading in a hammock and "playing" in the waves. I say "playing" because it was very hard to swim. Lots of waves and a very strong undertow, so nobody goes in more than waist-deep. Modestro "drove" us back this morning (3 hours) by boat down the rivers and canals to Moin, the port of Limon,where there were huge container ships belonging to Dole and Del Monte, which I imagine were stocking up on pineapples and bananas. I left the others in Moin (they were going back to San Jose) and took a ... read more

Here in San Ramon, people live by the wisdom of living in the mild weather of the Central Valley and vacationing at the beach. Most locals and tourists visit the Pacific beaches such as Samara, Jaco, Tamarindo or Manuel Antonio but the Caribbean beaches are a whole other experience … and worth the trip. The Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica is not Latin, but rather settled by Black and Indigenous peoples. Much of the Caribbean feels like a different country with a culture and vibe in contrast to the typical Tico lifestyle in the rest of Costa Rica. Even the language is different with many locals speaking a Creole version of English, rather than Spanish. At the mid-point between the large port city of Limon and the Panama border to the south is Puerto Viejo, a ... read more

Oh my goodness me! When it rains in the Carribean, it REALLY rains! 4 days non-stop! Luckily, festive cheer was in the air and I still had a fab time. During our last day at Rocking Js the owner ´J´suggested that we leave our mark on the place by creating our own mosaics. Woo hoo! Craft city! I´d been getting creative withdrawl symptoms. We chose our tiles, hacked them to pieces with hammers then lay them in cement circles to be admired by future travellers to the hostel (or maybe to be puzzled over as they try to work out what the pictures are and what the words say!) Well anyway, it was grand fun and it kept us out of trouble for a good few hours! After 2 nights of hammock and tent sleeping (didn´t ... read more

The heavens have still not chosen to close so we spent the day yesterday avoiding puddles as we walked round the area looking at knick knacks and eating of course. In the afternoon we got chatting to 'J' himself who told us how all his friends thought he was mad when he came down to Costa Rica and basically bought a patch of swamp to build a hammock hotel on. He had to cart truck loads of dirt to level the ground, and then just began building. As we had suspected the "interior design" has been a group effort from all previous guests, and to leave our mark on the place Sophie, Emma and I made our own mosaic circles. Bad connections mean once more the photos will have to wait. I made a demonic monkey, ... read more

We spent our last night in Cahuita at a restaurant called Miss Edith´s which served traditional Caribbean fare. The rain had subsided a little and we were lucky that for outr walk to the bus stop the next morning it was dry overhead. It is a short bus ride to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca where we are staying at the moment and will be till just after Xmas. It was a long walk with our backpacks to Rocking J´s hammock hostel, where tragically (enter sarcasm) they had lost our booking and we didn’t have hammocks reserved after all. Even worse (the sarcasm is dripping now) they had tents available too! Emma and I re therefore sharing a tent, which has to be the most surreal experience ever as the tents are “pitched” less than half a ... read more