Caribbean Coast...

Hi!

Spent two nights in San Jose then we jumped on the bus to the Caribbean Coast.
First stop Cahuita (3.5 hours from SJ) a small ¨settlement¨ - just two streets with cabinas and restaurants and right next to the national park of Cahuita which has lovely beaches.

We struggled to find anywhere decent to stay with the 3 nice places full we took the next best option at 40 USD for a clean, air conditioned room with baño. some of the cabinas we looked at were just wrong... one had the baño in the room but partionned by what looked like a hospital screen...we didn´t even stop to ask how much that one was. At another the woman was actually surprised and shocked when we didn´t take the room and asked us if we liked the room...er no! but of course we were diplomatic and said it was still early in the day and we were going to check out somewhere else.

Thursday afo we hired bikes. Wish i´d got a photo as they were granny bikes with huge handlebars and baskets on the front! We know Ben can bike so he handled his pretty well but I looked like a granny! Also they were ´back pedal brakes´!!! I´d never heard of such a thing and we know how I´m not a fan of bikes with proper brakes. Anyways roads were dead quiet, and whilst the roads were very bumpy I did alright but very slow. Lots of fun.

On Friday we walked through the Cahuita National Park from the Cahuita end to Puerto Vargas, then got bus back. The whole trail is probs only 2.5 or 3hours but we kept stopping at the beaches to swim and sunbathe so it took us most of the day. At Punta Cahuita, the sea was soooooo warm... as Ben put it, like a bath!

We saw monkeys on the trail and TONNES of lizards, hermit crabs, and other crabs. We also got bit to pieces by mossies. We had forgotten to take our repellent with us. That won´t be repeated!

This morning (Saturday) we packed up and jumped on the bus which took us further down the coast to Puerto Viejo de T - just half hour. The town is pretty much the same just a tad bigger and has a cash machine. We picked somewhere in the Lonely Planet that has a pool (ooh i forgot to say we picked somewhere in Cahuita that supposedly had a pool and when we looked at the grotty rooms we asked re the pool and they haven´t even dug the hole yet! very naughty LP!)

Anyways this place, Casa Verde, does have a pool and a very lovely one at that. We got a basic room - bed, sink and fan - baño in the courtyard, for 36USD as the posh ones weren´t only full but 70USD. And we have spent the day sunning ourselves and swimming... it is SOOOOO HOT!! and it´s not like me to complain about the sun! And we have just had a very yummy dinner and cuba libres on the beach.

Tomorrow more chilling by the pool and maybe we hire bikes and go check out the beach late afternoon once it gets a bit cooler.

Ciao for now.
Sam x

The weather on Sunday was overcast and a bit rainy - our first bad day on the coast and given it´s rainy season we did pretty good. So we hired bikes and biked to the next village along the coast, Manzanillo - 13km away. LP said the road had recently been paved but think they did limited research on this one as the first few k´s outside each village....

FINISH