The beach

Puerto Viejo is on the Carribean coast. This side of Costa Rica is very different from the rest of the country. It has a strange history of slavery and now it is a mixture of Jamaican descendants, Native Bri Bri Indians, and Ticos(Costa Ricans). It is very laid back and nothing happens too fast.

We were advised to not swim in the rough surf, but Josh and Jaime braved it a bit.

Surfs up!

Botanical Garden Tour

We took a tour of a Botanical garden. I thought it would be this manicured garden that we would walk through but it really is a wooded area that this expat has developed. It is full of native plants and trees and basically in his back yard. Our guide was actually a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica fifteen years ago and never went home. She lead us through the garden explaining what everything was and let us try all the strange fruit we had never seen before.

This was a perfect place to see the poison dart frog(the red one) in a natural habitat. They are so small, about an inch long and even smaller. They were everywhere. We had to watch where we walked so not to step on one. We also saw a variety of other frogs.

Chocolate tour

Have you ever seen a cocoa pod?

Our guide from the garden recommended that we go visit Petranela. She is a Bri Bri Indian that opens her home to visitors and explains the process of making chocolate. We loved her. She was so animated and I suspected her energy was from eating chocolate all day. Inside the pod is the seeds that is covered with a delicious fruit that you can suck off. Then they are roasted and set in the sun to dry and roasted again and then set in this grinder. Then you can mix in whatever you want. Mint, pepper, milk and sugar, etc. We bought lots.

Jerk

Jaime loved spicy food. We found this place called Miss Edith's. Jaime got the jerk fish. It was delicious!

Breakfast of champions

We had planned a snorkeling trip but it was pouring rain. So we decided to head back to San Jose. We stopped at this great hippie bakery called Bread and Chocolate. You can get all the breakfast stuff with chocolate sauce.

They are serious about coffee here!!

Our travel scrabble helped pass the time on our four hour drive back!

Colors of Costa Rica

I am thinking about making a calender. What do you think?

Weekend trip to Montazuma

Our friend JJ from Peace Corps is working in Costa Rica right now and we all went on a little trip this weekend. We rented a car again and drove to Puntarenas where we loaded the car onto a ferry to cross over to the Nicoya Peninsula. Then drove another hour to the small Pacific side beach town Montazuma. We hiked along the river and played in the ocean. While Josh and JJ played in the massive waves like they were little kids, I found my childhood glee by watching crabs scurry along the beach and disappear into their holes or hermit crabs waddle across the sand. Josh and I really enjoy coming across all the creatures here. I have never seen so many cool bugs and animals. I get so excited like when we stumbled upon a live sand dollar. I have never seen one before. We also hiked up to an eighty foot waterfall. This was super fun. Josh was determined to get under the waterfall even though there were several signs posted NOT to do this. We had a great time except when we met up with the ferry to go home and we had to wait four hours to get on. We were really glad that we brought travel scrabble!!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day Dads!
We hope you have a great one and know that we will be thinking of you.

Trip to Manuel Antonio

We went to Manuel Antonio this weekend and had an amazing time. As I have mentioned this is the rainy season here and I was not that interested in going because I was sure it would rain, but it was BEAUTIFUL all weekend. Even though I am not crazy about the rain, it is the off season or as they call it, the green season, so rates on hotels and some tours are discounted. We have been able to afford to do more because of it. We stayed in a hotel that had private access to the beach and there were monkeys playing in the trees outside our room. It also was air conditioned!! My allergies are awful here so air conditioning is a huge help.
We also went on a zip line tour (see following blog) that was amazing. You are not able to see very much however since you are flying through the air trying not to spin into a tree. We went on a hike through the National Park though and were able to see a lot more. We came across monkeys, iguanas, brightly colored crabs, a sloth, enormous rodents, amazing scenery, birds, and creepy crawlies. It is incredible to see these animals in their natural habitat. There are a lot of ex pats that settle here so it is an ideal place to come if you speak no Spanish. Everyone speaks English. Most of Costa Rica is like that. Our lanlord has been here for eight years and speaks, well barely.. ten words in Spanish. Anyone could move here and get along fine..hint hint Robin and Jaime.