Road to Manuel Antonio

Donna and I decided to leave Montezuma and head Manuel Antonio, knowing it would be along drive given the roads and the ferry schedule. We went for breakfast in a small soda, and we were accompanied by a flock a blue jays, who were eyeing every single morsel that would fall on the floor. We managed to take a few pictures of them, and to our delight, once we finished our meal, the owner fed them the leftovers in a special dish she set up at the side of the restaurant. Since we still had time before checking out, we took a walk from the harbour, across the rocks to the main beach. along the way to collect shells and to examine the tide pools, but eventually we returned to theWe stopped hotel, packed up our bags and threw them in the back of the car. We thanked our host for the hospitality, returned the key then we were on our way. My plan seemed flawless – leave Montezuma by 11am, with plenty of time to catch the 12:30 ferry back to Puntarenas. The first few kilometers out of Montezuma are always the most challenging, even in a bus, let alone a small little rental Toyota, which we wondered if it would make it up the hill, but the baby held on and we made it to Cobano. From here on at least the road would be paved (with the obligatory pot holes), but much smoother none the less. We drove past Tambor, which used to be a nice beach, but now is taken over by all inclusive properties which destroy all the environment (thanks Barcelo!). We arrived in Paquera with plenty of time, drove to the dock and we saw the ferry there – we thought ‘perfect timing’ but it wasn’t meant to be. As we lined up, a guy came by selling newspapers, and as I said ‘no thanks, we’re about to leave’ he informed us that the ferry was already full and the line up we were in was for the next one, more than 2.5 hours later.

So we had plenty of time to spare, so we walked around (not much to see around there, just one restaurant and one souvenir stand) but I did manage to buy another bracelet for my collection. We stretched our necks waiting for the ferry to arrive, and eventually boarded it and headed for the cabin upstairs, where I took the same spot (needed a plug for the computer) and used the hour and a half crossing to catch up on things. The old economics principle of first in – last out definitely applied for the ferry; I think mine was one of the last cars off the boat, but no big deal, who is rushing? This time we drove on the southern part of Puntarenas, along the boardwalk, which did wonders towards changing my perception of the city (I was not that thrilled with it the first time I passed through it). We continued driving along the Pacific coast, and I had remembered from my previous bus trips to Manuel Antonio or Jaco that we would be passing over a bridge where you can see crocodiles below. Before we got there, I asked Donna to look out the window (lol drivers should not take their eyes off the road) and she confirmed that there was something in the river. We pulled the car over at the edge of the road, and walked back on the bridge from where we saw more than a dozen crocs sitting lazily in the river. I was glad to see them (from a distance), and I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but the sun was going down quickly. We also ran into a group of tourists who were bird watching from the same spot, so I guess the fauna comes alive more so at night than during the day.

After it was already dark we approached Jaco, and decided to pull in so that I can show Donna the city and what she wasn’t missing. We passed any and all imaginable north American fast food chains (McD’s, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut etc) as well as the Beatles hotel (obviously geared towards gringos). Before we knew it, we were back in the car and back on the road further south towards Quepos. There were so many crabs trying to cross the road that I am sure that some met their fate upon meeting the tires of the fierce Toyota, but there was nothing I could have done to save them. Towards the end of the drive, we had to cross two ‘questionable’ bridges which are still under construction, so it was probably a better idea that we did that at night, since we couldn’t see how close we were to the edge and the water below. But we got to Quepos okay, drove right through it since there isn’t much to see and headed straight for Manuel Antonio, where we found a hotel room at half the price of their high season rates (with A/C too!). We dropped off our bags and decided to head back out for dinner, settling on the restaurant Mono Azul (the blue monkey), where we each enjoyed a huge and delicious meal.

By the time we returned to the hotel I was so exhausted from all the driving that day; we decided to take it easy and stay in, but the fun was nowhere near over. We had been carrying around a bottle of Fanta (or the generic variety) for a few days now, and what I had forgotten was that it was sitting on the floor of the car, shaking and stirring with every bump. So I had the brilliant idea of opening it up, and what followed was a small disaster. Many of you (I hope) have seen the mentos and coke experiments, well it was exactly like that, minus the mentos – as soon as I made the mistake of opening the bottle, a fountain of orange soda erupted, covering myself and everything around in the sticky substance. After the initial shock and laughter, I realized that I had a lot of cleaning up to do. Took a good hour to wipe down the place with a small rag that Donna got, if for no other reason than to keep the ants away. Once that clean up operation was complete, I stepped outside to have a smoke, and that’s when I saw our security guard doing his rounds around the property. I said hello and wished him a good night, and as he was walking away, he was shining a bright and powerful flashlight everywhere around, including the roof. That’s when the beam of light came across a dark shadow in a mango tree above us – we both realized that it was a sloth up in the tree, so he started bugging it (since they don’t like direct light) until the sloth started to relocate so find a more secluded place. We shared a good laugh at the annoyance of the animal, and we both sat there for a while wondering what it will do next, but it eventually went out of our sight (very slowly of course). It was really interesting to see the locals interacting with the wildlife and their system of keeping them at bay.

Isla Tortuga

We woke with just enough time to get ready for our day trip, and it typical gringo style we arrived at the agency a good fifteen minutes before the scheduled time. In contrast, in typical tico style, we had to wait for the boat transfer to Jaco to be loaded up first, so we didn’t truly leave until much closer to 10 (which is exactly what happened the last time around, too). We settled in the boat for the hour long ride, and we started to drive parallel to the shore, admiring one beach after the other. At Tamor beach, we watched a river form a waterfall right on the beach and drop the water right into the ocean; according to our guide, this is one of only seven in the world, so it is a rare sight. We stopped at the dolphin bay, and though we spun the boat around several times and stretched our necks all over, we couldn’t see the dolphins. I guess you cannot control nature, and these kind of trips never make any sort of guarantees, so that was the luck of the draw. However, we got a tour around one of the two islands that make up Isla Tortuga, and we saw some really interesting rock formations, including one where you can take your boat right through it. It was a throwback for me of my time in Capri, where the faraglioni rocks have the same effect, only bigger there. We stopped by the beach so we can drop off the coolers and

our cook, who would fire off the barbeque.

Meanwhile, we returned to the snorkeling rock, anchored and got our gear; this was Donna’s first time snorkeling, but as soon as she was in the water, she loved it right away. The water was very warm since it was pretty shallow, and hundreds of fish appeared as soon as I submerged. I spent some time floating around, watching the different schools and trying to decide which one to follow. This time around I had remembered to bring the waterproof camera (I had been carrying it throughout Central America for almost three months at this point, and to make the story even funnier, I bought it before I went to Cuba a year before, though obviously I didn’t use it then). While I was taking pictures, I noticed that if I dove in I could take much better and closer shots than just from above. I managed to get a few colourful fish, when something caught my eye – I looked closer and realized it was a small squid. I was so startled at the unexpected encounter than I blew out the rest of my air and had to return to the surface. By the time I went back down, the squid was gone, and the change to photograph it, but the experience was undeniable. As usual, I was the last one to return to the boat once I filled the camera with images of corals and fish, and we went to the beach to have our lunch and bum around. This is where we met and chatted with the other people from our group, who were in Costa Rica to celebrate a wedding anniversary (though for some reason the husband wasn’t there)… most of the people in the party we nice and chatty but I didn’t get a good vibe from the has-been bride. She didn’t try to hide her perception of me, and vice versa – we still had a decent conversation, but at times we were challenging each other a bit too much so I walked away from the situation. I went to see Paco, the resident parrot on the island, and even took a video of him calling out his own name. After browsing around the little store on the beach, I returned just as lunch was being served, the typical potatoes and fish or chicken, but it was really good and fresh, and there was lots of fresh pineapple and watermelon for desert.

Right after the meal, we saw the beer drinking wild pig which I met the first time around on the island, I believe her name was Penelope, but this time around she was already full of beer so she just wondered by and then went off in the bushes. We moved down to the beach (a nice blue flag beach with clear blue water), we went for a swim or a wade as the case may be, still hanging on to our cold cans of Imperial. Our guides came around and told us we should get ready for snorkeling in about half an hour, but my mistake was dosing off on the beach. About an hour later then came and told us that we were getting ready to return from Montezuma, since apparently nobody expressed interest in going again… This was more or less what happened the last time too, though at least then there was a bigger group of people insisting on the second part of the trip; this time I let it be since I was the only one who would have insisted about it or made a big deal of it.

So we let it go and started our trip back to Montezuma – this had to be the second worse boat ride in my travel, topped only by the torrential rain storm upon returning from a dive site in Bocas. There were really high waves and the boat was jumping up and down every one of them; we were all shaken around, but the people in the front were especially bounced and getting wet – they had to tell the drive to slow down for fear of the boat toppling over. The ride back seemed to take twice as long as the morning trip there, but eventually we saw the shores of Montezuma and, with sore bums and all, we jumped off the boat and almost kissed the ground, that’s how thankful were about returning to terra firma. Once back into the village, since we still a few hours of daylight, Donna and I decided to walk through to the main beach on the other side. We managed to catch the last beams of sunlight while bathing in the high surf, and we made yet another furry friend who wouldn’t leave our side while we were on the beach. As the sun went down, we returned to the hotel, absolutely exhausted from our day trip, and it didn’t take too long for me to fall asleep, even before having dinner. Because of this, I woke up in the middle of the night (3am) thinking that it was already morning, and then I couldn’t fall back asleep as the howler monkeys were putting on quite a tropical opera. I did fall asleep eventually, but I knew I would be tired for the drive the next day further south to Manuel Antonio.

Cahuita and road across Costa Rica

We had another day left in Puerto Viejo, since the highway to the central valley was closed for the day, but we decided to return to Cahuita, about 13km away, since we loved the national park so much. That’s the advantage of having a car, the freedom that it allows us; but before that, we walked into town to have breakfast at Café Chili Rojo, a very small place, yet know all over Costa Rica. They serve delicious asian dishes and all the spices one could dream of. While having breakfast, our waitress saw the pack of Belmonts that Donna had put on the table, and absolutely freaked out – she hadn’t seen them in months! Donna giving her that smoke had absolutely made her day; we even heard her go back to her coworkers to try to make them understand what a treat this was for her. She was acting just like a kid on Christmas morning. One of the reasons why I went to Chili Rojo (aside from the reputation) was to try to track down the owner, Kevin, I believe, whom I had to pass on a message from my friend Rachael. I had met her about a month before, on her last night in Puerto Viejo, traveling with Kellie, Eric and Tristen. She loved the place so much that she was planning on returning and getting a job there. To my (and her) disappointment, our waitress told us that there was no one named Kevin, and that the owner was in fact a woman – I guess we must have gotten wires crossed at some point.

After breakfast, we got ready, hopped in the car and drove back to Cahuita, parked right by the entrance, crossed Kelly Creek and there we were back on the white sand beach stretching across the gulf. This time around the park was much busier as it was a Sunday, and many more locals also enjoyed the beautiful day. So we resumed the typical activities, swimming, reading, chatting, taking in the sun, but also we took a walk into the park, on the main trail to see the wildlife. It didn’t take long before the howler monkeys showed up to put on a show for the tourists. I learned from the previous experience, the pictures don’t always do justice to a place or setting, so I took the opportunity to take videos, as I think they relate the experience much better than still images. There was a baby following its mother as each monkey took turns crossing a branch from one tree to the other, and still learning how to balance, almost fell but recovered at the last minute. Eventually the group ventured further away, and we could always tell where they were on the beach based on the reactions of the people and the cameras pointed up in the trees. We left the park by the time it closed, and it was almost dark once we returned to Puerto Viejo. After dinner and walking around town, we returned to Jordan’s Cabinas, packing and getting ready as the next day would require a lot of travel time, since we were planning on crossing the entire country in one shot.

We were in such a rush to get going that we even skipped breakfast; we threw our bags in the back of the car, and hit the road. At least we could enjoy the scenery, as we made the drive from Puerto Limon down the Caribbean coast in the dark when we arrived. Now we could enjoy the fields of banana plantations, and we could also get a bit freaked out by the narrow bridges along the way. Also another advantage of having a car is that we could stop along the way and take pictures whenever we wanted. But not always do you simply come across some beautiful scenery, sometimes the situation falls right on your lap. As we followed a turn in the road, we saw the back of a huge truck hanging up in the air; it seemed as if the driver had trouble deciding which bridge to take (there was both an old and a new one) and since he couldn’t make up his mind he ended up between them. We pulled over and got out to make sure that everyone was okay, and once we were assured of that, we got the cameras out and took some pictures, and talked to the driver for a bit, as he was waiting for the cops to arrive. We were lucky to have already passed the scene, as once the cops would show up, the highway could have been closed for hours. We didn’t stick around to find out, since we had a long way to go, so we continued on. We passed Puerto Limon in a hurry, after our last experience, and took one last pit stop so I can finally take the picture of the bananas covered in the blue bags, to protect them from insecticides. As I drove through the mountains and the Braulio Carrillo national park, we hit a bit of rain, but nothing to worry about. I was personally more worried about driving through San Jose, as I did not want a repeat of the last time, driving around in circles for a couple of hours. Luckily, I found my way around much faster, and before we knew it we were on the interamericana, passing the Juan Santamaria airport and Alajuela, eventually veering off the highway to cross the Cordillera de Tilaran towards Puntarenas. We stopped for breakfast / lunch in Atenas, had a really huge casado that I could not finish, and we arrived on the west coast by late afternoon. We crossed Puntarenas and lined up for the ferry, for which we had to wait for another hour and a half. At this point, I realized that we would be arriving in Montezuma long after dark, but hey, at least I knew where we were going. I used the time on the ferry to plug in the laptop and do a bit of writing, as I knew the crossing of the bay would take about an hour and a half.

Once on the Nicoya peninsula and off the ferry, we followed the stream of cars, all backed up the road because of two trucks in front which were limiting our speed. We took the dirt road from Cobano towards the coast, and though I knew it was a bumpy ride, the last kilometer was more hellish than I remembered. A few times I wondered, as we hit a huge pothole, whether the car would make it out alright. But as luck would have it, we arrived in Montezuma, parked on the main street in front of El Sano Banano, and we got a room at the second place we asked at (the first one was a bit on the pricey side). The great thing was that the guy at the reception of Hotel Aurora thought I was a tico all throughout our conversation, so I felt very proud of myself. Then we realized that it was getting close to 10pm, and we rushed out the door to find a restaurant still open. We settled on a pizzeria, the same one where I was at the beginning of February, though we were the only people there aside from the employees, but they didn’t care, as they were listening to music and drinking wine. I had a great pizza, but was a bit too tired from the drive to enjoy it fully, thus after dinner we went back to the room and got some well deserved sleep, but not before stopping at an agency to book our trip to Isla Tortuga the following morning.

Playa Cocles and Punta Uva

Being one of the few (if not only) people staying at Cabinas Talamanca, we ended up not getting much sleep that night, since there was a pack of stray(?) dogs who decided to be very close to our room throughout the night. So as soon as we got up and got organized, we walked down the road and found Jordan’s Cabinas, with a Japanese feel to it. It was cheaper and bigger than the previous room, nestled in the back of the property, with a nice fountain right in front of our window. We moved into the ‘Ninja’ room, which had really high ceilings and even a ladder leading to an upper level, where there was a third bed – one of the best cabinas I had seen so far. After settling in, we got our stuff ready for the day, and took the bumpy road south of Puerto Viejo. Only a few kilometers away, after swerving all over the road trying to avoid the biggest potholes in order to save the suspension, we came across a long stretch of road with cabinas and restaurants on one side and a long white sand beach and the endless ocean through the palm trees on the other.

We parked the car (tried to find a shady spot so that it wouldn’t be scorching hot when we got back in), and then we spent a good few hours just bumming around on the beach, swimming in the water, trying to fight off the big waves while not being swept by the current – at least there were lifeguards on duty – a rare sight in Costa Rica. We took some really night shots, especially of the rocky island a bit off the shore, then we made the decision to move further on. We got back in the car, continued along the road, with no real destination in mind. We stopped at a super for some cold drinks (it gets really hot on the Caribbean side), and we veered off at the intersection taking us to Punta Uva, about a kilometer off the main road. This village is not bigger than maybe 20 houses, most of which are aimed at tourism, but we went a bit beyond that and found a nice little beach, shaded under palm trees.

As we set our stuff down, a nice lady approached us, asked whether we spoke English or Spanish and then told us, very calmly, that if we didn’t like snakes we should consider moving away. True enough, there was a large snake sleeping in one of the branches right above us. Though she tried to assure us that it was not poisonous, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I moved out stuff away and then returned to take some pictures. We chatted with her for a while (she was from Bracebridge) and we found out that she lived in Punta Uva for three months a year for the last decade. We spent the rest of the afternoon on that beach, watching the fishermen gather enough to feed their families, and watching the clouds trying to predict whether and when it would rain, but we lucked out and it missed us. We returned to Puerto Viejo, and aside from the usual trip into town for internet and to grab something to eat, we decided that though we were staying an extra day (due to the highway closure), we would return to Cahuita to see more of the National Park.

Puerto Viejo

Having made the decision to move on to explore new territory, we ventured out for some breakfast (mexican-style eggs with freshly baked bread) before returning to the Cabina to pack our bags and throw them in the back of the car. We waived goodbye to Cahuita and drove off onto the dusty road, and on towards Puerto Viejo, about 16 kilometers further south on the Caribbean coast. For the last five kilometers we left the main road that goes to Sixaola (the border with Panama) and also left the pavement behind. It was tough to negociate all the potholes and natural speed bumps, and it took a lot longer to arrive than we had planned. However, all of the sudden the trees gave way on our left to a huge black sand beach, and we could see the village in the distance. We drove around stopping at a few cabinas (I was searching for free wireless internet service), but most places were either full or too expensive. I soon gave up on that notion and decided to go with the familiar, heading back to Cabinas Talamanca, the same place where I spent a night on my way into Panama in march. The only difference was that this time the gate was gone, in the process of being rebuilt. We even ended up getting the same room as I shared with Sara, the german girl who I met on the bus on my first time down in Puerto Viejo.

After settling our stuff in, we walked down the main road into the village, grabbed a few cold drinks and stopped by one of the beaches in the area, finding a shady spot under a tree and next to a fishing boat. There was a natural pool of water, formed by the corals which were disturbed by the 1991 earthquake that shook and affected most of the country. It's a great place as though you can barely swim (the water is that shallow) you are protected from the waves that break much further off in the distance. We watched little kids wading in the water and playing with their parents as I assumed more families were here for the beginning of the weekend. A little bit later on, we noticed a group of tourists staring up at a palm tree and taking pictures, so we made our way over there as well. Luckily for us, there was a two-toed sloth, barely 3 meters up in the tree, lazily staring down at us before going back to sleep. As we were admiring this one, one of the locals got our attention and directed us to a tree right above the main road, where a three-toed sloth was (very) slowly maneuvering around the branches. I realized that it was going to make its way down, and that if we were to wait around for about an hour or so, we may see something truly spectacular. We were not disappointed, as the sloth made its way down the trunk, stopping every now and then to survey its surroundings. Eventually it got down close enough that we all crowded around it and took turns petting it and taking pictures. As my turn came, I was absolutely mesmerized – I was not only staring face to face with a sloth, but I got to touch it and pet its back – it was softer than I had anticipated. In response to my touch, it turned its head around 180 degrees, and offered me a warm perma-smile and kept on going about its business.

Eventually someone offered it a branch, and it graciously accepted it as it moved into the bush to ‘take care of its business’ before probably heading up another tree. Once the spectacle was over, we went back to Cabinas Talamanca to change and go out into town. We stopped at the internet café and to use the payphones, then stopped for dinner at a chicken restaurant – it was still happy hour so we took advantage of the 2-for-1 specials to accompany our casados. On our way back to the room, we took our time looking at the souvenir stands and managed to add another bracelet to my collection. For the next chapter, we decided to spend our next day in Puerto Viejo exploring the road to Manzanillo, further south, and to see all the beaches that line the coast.