4 ½ hours on a bus wasn’t too bad. Especially when at the end of that bus ride you end up along the Caribbean Coast. That’s right, a group of us went to Puerto Viejo along the Caribbean side of Costa Rica this weekend. Since it was a long bus ride we ended up in Puerto Viejo when the sun had already set and had to walk to our hostel in the dark. It wasn’t that bad of a walk since it was a full moon. Plus, like most beach towns, there were lots of people out walking around or riding bikes. It was plenty safe. And, of course, it smelled like weed as soon as we entered the town. This is the province of Limon where they talk Spanish in Jamaican accents, listen to reggae music, adore Bob Marley, and smoke lots of Mary Jane.
 |
| The Caribbean Coast |
The hostel, Cabinas el Tesoro, was about a mile outside of town which was probably best in the end since the town really didn’t sleep. We had 3 rooms with 4 beds each for our group to use. Since there were only 9 of us, I ended up sleeping in the 3rd room all by myself. I was the only guy who went so it seemed fitting. The hostel was pretty cool. It was back in the jungle so it felt very nature-like but the beach was still just across the street. It was rougher than some of the other hostels we have stayed at (i.e. the kitchen was not as nice or “helpful”) but I enjoyed 100% of it. Even using the kitchen was a blast. We went out for dinner the first night we were there and most everyone ordered some sort of pasta because we were starved not having eaten since we left San Jose in the afternoon. Well. It took about 2 hours for our food to get to us. So, at around 10pm, we had dinner. But food is food and we were hungry.
 |
| My room at the hostel |
 |
| Some bananas just hanging up at the hostel for anyone who wanted one. Some were better than others. |
The next day we all went to the beach, of course. Caroline and I rented a surfboard for the day. The waves weren’t the best. A lot of them were too big for us. The water was kind of choppy too but we made do the best we could. We laid out and surfed all day until about 5pm. To conserve money, Caroline and I decided that we were going to cook dinner for ourselves Saturday night. As a side note, most everyone in Puerto Viejo was riding bikes to get to and from town or to visit other beaches along the coast. There were lots of places you could rent bikes for about $4 for half a day. Well, Caroline and I were going to rent bikes to ride into town to buy food and then ride around a bit. However, we totally failed because when we went to go rent 2 bikes for half a day we couldn’t because the rental place was going to close in 10 minutes. Therefore, we walked to town.
 |
| Where we rented our surfboard and the man we rented it from. |
 |
| Some of the waves |
We ended up buying spaghetti noodles, canned peas and carrots, mushroom sauce, and a pineapple all for under $3 a person. Making food was fun. I did the manly stuff like light the burner and cut up the pineapple. Caroline did the lady stuff like cook the food. Actually, she cooked the food because I would have ruined it if I would have tried. Someone had left rice at the hostel so we ended up cooking that, mixing it with the peas and carrots, and adding pineapple to it. It was pretty darn good. Then, since we were still hungry, we made spaghetti with mushroom sauce, which was also pretty darn good. Overall, it was a successful dinner and a good night. Also that night, Emily forced me to converse with her in Spanish. Even though the topic was “interesting,” I still enjoyed practicing. I also enjoyed listening to her and Laura converse in Spanish. I need to do that more often.
 |
| The kitchen...limited but entertaining. |
 |
| Me eating pineapple while Caroline cooks. |
|
|
 |
| Entree #1 |
 |
| We didn't have a can opener for the peas and carrots so I improvised and used tweezers and a rock to open it. |
The next morning, Sunday, 4 of us woke up at 5:15am to watch the sunrise since the Caribbean has the sunrises and the Pacific has the sunsets. It was cloudy but still pretty. I went back to sleep right after. When I awoke again, I made some oatmeal I had bought the other day for breakfast. Inspired by the dinner-making of the night before, I attempted to add rice to my oatmeal to mix it up a bit. While it tasted fine, the rice was a little hard. Either way, I had a very nice breakfast.
 |
| The sunrise |
I slept against the window of the bus most of the ride back. Then, once I got home, I took another 3-4 hour nap. I think I was just hungry since I only had oatmeal and rice at 8am that morning. We ate dinner at 8:30pm so, as one could guess, I ate a lot at dinner. Also, I guess during my nap sometime there was a tremor from an earthquake in San Jose. Why did I have to be asleep for that! Oh well, I guess it happens often in Costa Rica so maybe I’ll get to feel it next time.
This Saturday the folks and Peter are coming to visit for 6 days! I can’t wait to show them everything. I’m a little nervous about having to translate for them since I’m not very good at Spanish myself but I’m looking forward to it just the same. Also, I think The Discovery Channel should send some photo people over to the Middle East because it’s basically a zoo over there. And there’s my political two cents.
No comments:
Post a Comment