Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Since I'm meeting the Moynihan's in Lima, Peru on August 16th, I decided to head south mas rapido. One of my new found friends was heading to Puerto Viejo, CR which isn't far from the Panama border. I decided to tag along.

I experienced my first bus ride in Central America. The Costa Rican countryside was mountainous and extremely green and scenic. I saw huge fields of bananas that support Dole and Chiquita. All of the bananas were contained in blue plastic bags which they apparently fill with various gasses to keep the bugs away.

I spent around three days in Puerto Viejo. Rockin' J's hostel, my home for the next few days, was indeed rockin'. I ran across a few of the same people I had first met in San Jose (and many new ones.)

A hurricane a few years ago surfaced a reef near shore. It made for an interesting bit of shoreline. There were a bunch of tidal pools in the reef that held interesting creatures (including one small moray eel.)

I did a bit of snorkeling, and spent time on the beach, sleeping in a tent (and in hammocks during the day, etc.) and just relaxed in general.

Rockin' J's was an interesting place. The whole place was covered with mosaics by previous travellers. I got lots of pictures of the artwork. Aside from that, the whole place was pretty much a giant courtyard. There were a couple of shelters where you could rent hammocks to sleep in ($5/night), but for anti-bug purposes I chose one of the tents (also lined up under a shelter) for a whopping $6/night.

Up until this point, I made every meal I ate except one. Basically, I prepared more meals for myself than I had in two years previously. Since then, I've managed to get back on track with eating out. It's more convenient, more authentic, and often less expensive than cooking for myself.