I was up early again, thank god for the coffee Erwan leaves for me each night.
It is interesting in the dark morning, even just on the short path to the eating hut and back. There are all sorts of “walking leaf” insects, and frog and bug sounds.
Our little resident frog is usually in the sink or at least the bathroom, eating insects that manage to get in around the screen, and I might see our gecko. We hear him chirping all the time, somewhere up in the corners.
We had no rain last night.
Suddenly at 6:40 I could hear the heavy drop-sound crashing through the forest. The howler monkeys started groaning, then a minute later the rain was upon us, heavy heavy drops. It poured just enough to fill up all the puddles again, then passed over.
Over breakfast we talked with the couple from Montreal, Canada. They are off today, as well as the couple from India. Ingrid and Erwan once again made the fruit into a different pattern; the pressure is on now to see if they can continue.
We decided to walk the eight or ten kilometers into Puerto Viejo, the largest town around here until you get up to Limon. We thought we’d head in on the road, then return via the unbroken string of beaches lining the coast.
Puerto Viejo is a colorful town of shops, hostels, bars and restaurants. It is famous for the Caribbean "Rastafari Culture."
It is the proto-typical Rasta Town to fit your preconceived notions, in an easily palatable, touristica kind of way. The Gentle Caribbean, all dreadlocks and green-red-yellow, and Bob Marley; fun to sit and watch over a drink. Hell, I could even buy a Rasta knit cap with dreadlocks sewn on it, along with any manner of Costa-Pura Vida-Marley poster, sticker, key chain, or pipe in the sea side shacks or souvenir shops.
Drugs freely available here, side by side with the pipas (coconuts) and bananas.
Surprising to me, there are really no good deals here. Not like Mexico, things are expensive. Rooms (though you can get a hammock in the open air at a hostel for about $8) are not cheap, and the food and drinks are expensive for what you get with the exception of a few local sodas.
Our first stop was at the north end of town, at the Bri-Bri Springs Brewery. They make craft beers. Gail had the Aurora Borealis Wheat Beer with watermelon (OK she said) while I had the Horizon Dry-Hopped Central American Pale Ale. It was surprisingly light.
The Bri-Bri is right across the street from my favorite beach in this area, Playa Negro, or Black Beach. It is a long beach of fine fine black sand. My experience in Hawaii is that the black sand beaches are a little more coarse-grained; this sand is fine and soft, with gold flecks sparkling in the sun.
There is a great little bar, “E-Z Times Bar and Grill," on the beach, in town, where we had a good margarita and decent pizza. We sat in the white plastic chairs and watched the Rasta World go by.
Later, we headed down the beach towards home. At the south end of Playa Cocles, we stopped at La Casita Azul for a fantastic shrimp salad. The couple from Montreal told us about it. You have to see the photo, below. Really well done.
Finally, as it got dark, we stopped about 2.5 km from home at the La Biela Restro-Bar. It is owned by a Portuguese Family, whose grandparents still have a restaurant in Lisboa. They made a mango-papaya daiquiri for Gail, and a sweet margarita for me. I had "Grandma’s recipe" shrimp pasta with wine sauce, and it was a generous helping of shrimp.
We walked the rest of the way home on the pitch black road.
It is weird how it is hot like summer, yet the days are so short here. Because we are ear the equator, the days vary from 11.5 to 12.5 hours in length. Right now the sun sets about 5:30, and by 5:40 it is black black out. Instant dark dark nights, like in winter at home. Too short of a “summer” day for me, the early evenings mean you go to sleep early and rise early at first light.
On way back we heard crashing in the trees, high up. Shadowy Spider monkeys moving along, tree to tree, in the very top of the canopy.
It was a ten mile day, round trip. (Manzanillo was an 8 mile day, just FYI.)