Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

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PSA

Photos to be posted at a later date. We don't have good USB connections currently.

Intro to Puerto Limon

Under Construction.

Our Experience

It rained on the bus ride from Puerto Viejo to Puerto Limon. I tried to read, but I started to get sick because the bus had to swerve to avoid potholes every 50 feet. So, I gave up reading and just enjoyed the ride. When we arrived in Puerto Limon it was still raining. We got out of the bus, grabbed our luggage from the luggage compartment, and ran for a nearby awning.

Joe's Note: Actually the bus had to swerve about every 5 inches. This was not the best road in the world. I'm impressed no one got sick.

Under the awning we consulted our guidebook, but were eventually approached by a local who offered to walk us to the hotel we were interested in (for a tip, of course). Since it was raining, we took him up on his offer and trudged the 4 or so blocks to the hotel. On the way, Joe noticed something was wrong. Apparently, part of his pack smelled like a motor oil/diesel concoction. Ugh. How annoying.

Once we checked into our hotel room (private bathroom, air con, TV, etc. hehe!) Joe looked into the gasoline situation. And, sure enough, one of his pack straps was soaked in diesel... or something. In fact, the entire room began to fill with toxic fumes. So, Joe grabbed a cup and some soap and soaked his pack strap in it. Then we headed out to eat. After walking a couple of blocks (in the rain) we found a pizza joint and had a nice, large Hawaiian pizza with sodas. Then we went to a supermarket and bought snacks and headed back to our room to dry off and watch some TV. But, when we got back to the room we were practically knocked back by the smell of gas fumes. And, after some investigation, we determined that Joe's pack straps were indeed soaked in gasoline, but so was my pack... all of it! The smell was horrible!!! We unpacked everything and discovered that even my clothes smelled of diesel. So, Joe took my empty pack, put it in the shower, and scrubbed the daylights out of it with some shampoo we had leftover while I cleaned the pack cover in the sink. After hanging the pack and cover to dry, we took almost all of my clothes to a nearby cleaners. It was almost 5PM, but they said they could have my clothes done by 6PM. So, we played on the internet for a bit before picking up my clean clothes. Then, we went back to the hotel room, showered, said a quick prayer that my pack would dry out hanging in front of our AC, and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, the room still smelled toxic even though we had the AC going and the windows open! Joe got a pretty good nights sleep, but I struggled with the fumes.

The next morning we got up early. Miraculously, my pack had completely dried. Although it still smelled slightly of diesel, it was much improved... and it even looked a lot cleaner. I repacked it, and by 9AM we were off to the port town of Moín (7km from Puerto Limon) to hopefully catch a boat to Tortuguero.

Our cab got us to Moín with a quickness, and soon we were booked on a boat departing for Tortuguero at 10AM. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the port diner and around 10:15 we pushed off for the 3 hr. river journey to Tortuguero.

Up Next...

Tortuguero. Sea turtles and our last look at the beautiful Caribbean. Adios!

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