Cahuita

We woke up after a much needed long sleep, and the first thing we did as we got out of the room was to head to the garden of the hotel and stopped right by the water to admire the Caribbean Sea. There wasn't much of a beach right in front of the cabinas, but I already knew from other travelers (Sam raved about it) that the black sand beach, Playa Negra was not even 500m away. But first, we walked towards the main street in Cahuita and chose a patio facing the street to have breakfast, complete with really good coffee, which have to admit, I was slowly starting to take for granted.

I introduced Donna to salsa inglesa, which was also introduced to me by Rosco and Iwona, and she loved it right away. After breakfast and a quick stop at the internet café, we returned to the hotel, grabbed our beach stuff and walked for about half a kilometer to Playa Negra, which as the name suggests, is a black sand beach. We were surprised that there were so few people there, but I have to keep on reminding myself that it is the end of the season. The water here was fairly calm, with a few waves, but nothing too huge; we spent the morning here, taking in the sea, the sun and our surroundings. We spent some time reading (Donna brought fresh books!) and talking and just overall relaxing. We even made a four legged friend who hung out with us for a while, though we were feeling sorry for the thick coat he had on – must not be very comfortable.

After Playa Negra and a quick stop back at the hotel (it was on the way), we walked across Cahuita towards the other beach in the village. On the way we stopped for some cold drinks, and right as we were coming out of the super, a guy on horseback passed by on the main street; being very observant, Donna realized that the poor guy only had one tooth left. By the time we got to the beach, we had to cross a small stream over a bridge, where we saw our horseback friend right in the water, giving his horse a chance to rehydrate. To my surprise, the other beach in town is actually part of the Cahuita national park, but unlike all the other parks, the entrance fee here is voluntary, pay-what-you-can. I remember reading somewhere that when the government of Costa Rica decided on a uniform fee for the national park system, the people of Cahuita were so upset thinking that charging a large entrance fee would keep tourists away and reduce their income. So as a result, they staged a protest, blocked the entrance and encouraged tourists to bypass the gate and enter for free. A compromise was reached, and now Cahuita National Park has two entrances: the one by the village, where the fee is voluntary, and another entrance right off the main highway to Puerto Viejo, where the standard $10 fee applies. So we made our small donation and proceeded onto the white sand beach of the park.

That's where we spent the rest of the afternoon, bush. at the beginning of a huge, 2km white sand beach, paralled by a path through the forest of the National Park a few meters back into the We found a spot that had some shade from a palm tree and alternated between reading, swimming, chatting or just staring off into the infinite ocean and admiring the waves. At some point, the craving for fresh fruit set in and I walked 'all the way!' passed the bridge over Kellie Creek in order to grab some pineapple that was sliced right in front of my eyes - now that's service! By the time I returned, I saw some people on the beach gathered around with their cameras, and guessing there would be something going on, I followed suit. A large iguana was stretching out in the sun on the beach, and more or less posing for pictures - almost wondered where the collection plate was for the tips. To finish off the show before the park closed, a group of capuchin monkeys entertained us as we were about to leave; as usual, since we had nothing to offer them in terms of food, they eventually got the hint and took off back into the jungle. As soon as we exited the park, passed the Kellie Creek bridge, I saw one of the biggest beetles I have ever seen on the side of one of the souvenirs tables - everyone was marveling at it, even the locals.

Back at the Cabinas, we spent the rest of the evening, aside from going out for dinner, planning the rest of our road trip, and making sure that we could fit everything in the time we had. We also learned that the main highway between Limon and San Jose was going to closed on sunday for repainting of the road. One may question the logic of closing the only road into the Caribbean side of Costa Rica on a sunday, forcing many locals to leave a day early in order to make it to their jobs or classes. This led us to make the easy decision of extending our stay on the east side for another day, not a big change of plans, but yet shows that you do need to be flexible while traveling.