Reggae Beats, Fishy Treats & Soaking Feet!

Reggae Beats, Fishy Treats

From the 1st to the 4th of February we visited Cahuita, on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. This was the first time we have been to that side of the country. Since it covers 4 days, this is a huge blog entry so you may want to go and get a drink and snack before sitting down to read!

Getting There & Back
We had several options for getting to Cahuita, including hiring a car or using one of the tourist shuttle services (Interbus or Fantasy Line). We chose to go by public transport as it was significantly cheaper. The bus from San José to Cahuita costs 3900 colones each way. We went to the Gran Terminal Caribe bus station in San José a few days in advance to purchase our tickets to Cahuita. On the way to Cahuita, you are given assigned seat numbers. The Gran Terminal Caribe bus station is conveniently located, for us anyway, just a few hundred metres from the Microbuses Rapidos Heredianos terminal, who run a Heredia-San José bus route via Santo Domingo & Tibas.

The journey from San José to Cahuita took 4 hours in total, including a 20 minute stop (the driver will tell you 10!) in Limón for a toilet break and an opportunity to buy something to eat. We had somewhat of a culture shock, as the majority of the passengers on the bus to Cahuita were English-speaking tourists and we haven’t really been around many tourists since we’ve been here. There were also a few Ticos, and a nun dressed in white. Clearly we thought that the chances of our bus being involved in an accident would be greatly diminished with a nun on board.

You cannot purchase the return ticket until you are in Cahuita, and the earliest you can buy it is the day before you want to travel. Seats are not assigned on the way back, and Cahuita is the last stop before San José so be prepared if you are travelling with someone to sit separately from them. However, the nice Chilean guy who Zoë sat next to offered to swap seats with Colin so that we could sit together. Personally we think the chileno just wanted to sit next to the skinny girl with the long, wavy dark hair that spoke perfect Spanish who Colin had sat next to! Because of the flooding (the province of Limón, in which Cahuita is located, had torrential rain during the time we were there) the journey back to San José took us 6 hours.

Just north of Cahuita is a police checkpoint. On the way back a policeman boarded the bus and checked everyone’s ID. Remember to carry your passport, or a photocopy of the ID page, with you at all times when travelling in Costa Rica (we carry photocopies).

Accommodation
We stayed at El Encanto Bed & Breakfast. This had been recommended to us by a couple of guys we met at Hotel Hojarascas the last time we visited Costa Rica (February/March 2008). We had one of the cabins in the beautiful gardens, which were inhabited by numerous colourful birds and lots of little green & black poison dart frogs.

Each morning we were woken by the sound of howler monkeys in the area. There was also a small swimming pool which due to the torrential rain we didn’t actually end up using (we arrived on Sunday afternoon, the rain started on Monday lunchtime and hadn’t stopped by the time we left late on Wednesday morning). We did however make good use of the covered terrace at the front of our cabin to sit outside in the torrential rain and watch the comings and goings of the wildlife and the hotel guests and staff. It may have been pouring with rain, but at least it was warm!
Cahuita itself is full of accommodation for tourists at all prices from basic cabinas to upscale hotels. We were happy with our mid-price choice.

Eating & Drinking

The small village of Cahuita is packed full of bars and restaurants catering to the tourists and also several more local, traditional sodas. It all seemed a little disproportionate really for such a small place. However, the upside is that the choice provides a lot of really good eating! In just a short visit we couldn’t possibly visit every one of them but here’s where we did go:

Reggae Bar, on the road leading out of the village along Playa Negra (Black Beach). We arrived on the Sunday afternoon while it was sunny and warm (the rain didn’t start until Monday) and went for a walk along the beach/beach road. We stopped off here for a drink. A very rough hewn bar with laid back staff and customers including surfers, Rastafarians and aging hippies from the USA who have probably been here a little too long. Like pretty much all the bars in Cahuita, this one was showing European football on its TV, and playing reggae music.

Restaurante Sobre Las Olas, on the road leading out of the village along Playa Negra, is the closest restaurant to El Encanto. Being on the coast, we wanted to ensure that we got our fill of seafood while we were in Cahuita. So, on the Sunday night we chose this restaurant because it was so close to the hotel and advertised seafood as its specialty. This is not a cheap restaurant. In fact it is by far the most expensive place we have eaten since we arrived in Costa Rica in early December. But the candlelit table on the Caribbean shore and the delicious food made it worth every colón. Colin had red snapper in a Caribbean sauce (coconutty and creamy), which he thought was the best meal he ate while we were in Cahuita. Zoë had a Caribbean-style seafood rice dish, which came with every conceivable type of seafood mixed in with the wonderfully flavoured rice. Quite an adventure to a relative newcomer to seafood! Colin also took advantage of a free sample of local cahuita white rum, it had quite a kick to it.

Pizz’ n’ Love is in the centre of the village. We ended up here because the Sunday night was the night of the Superbowl and we couldn’t watch it at El Encanto because the tube in the television in the communal area had blown that morning. We walked through the village looking to see if anywhere was showing it … we did think that we might have to go and ask at the house that serves as the laundry if we could go and watch their telly, but then we came across Pizz’ n’ Love who were showing the Superbowl on a big screen much to Colin’s (and the large number of Steelers and Cardinals fans who had gathered there) relief. It was a nice atmosphere, the drinks were good, the food looked good (we had already eaten though) and the host was very friendly and seemed to know everyone who passed by and stopped to watch from the roadside for a few minutes.

Coral Reef Restaurant in the centre of the village was our Monday night dinner stop. Delicious Rice and Beans (traditionally Caribbean with a hint of coconut) and corvina (sea bass). Zoë’s was in a creole sauce, and Colin’s in a Caribbean sauce (more spicy and less coconutty than the previous night). We also had postres (pudding) here, both of us opting for a banano flambeado con helado, which was very tasty.

Café del Parquecito is, as the name suggests, right by the little park in the village. We stopped here on Tuesday morning partly to get a break from the rain, and partly to try out the crepes here (“the best in town” – probably the only in town). The crepes were good and so were the hot chocolates we drank. It seemed to be the hangout for the German-speaking tourists – maybe the crepes reminded them of Europe.

Cha Cha Cha, serves cocina del mundo (food of the world) in Cahuita village. We ate here on Tuesday evening and were glad that we got there early as the small restaurant filled up quickly and the food took a while to arrive (it was just as well that Zoë had her natural de mora and Colin his Haitian Zombie cocktail to keep them occupied). We both had the catch of the day – shark fillet in a creole sauce. We were given a choice of how spicy we wanted the sauce – not very for Zoë, quite a lot for Colin. This was Zoë’s favourite meal here. While we waited for our food Colin spotted a strange shadow that seemed to be making its way along a telephone line which turned out to be a sloth. Zoë went to investigate despite the torrential rain, but the sloth was moving too fast (yes really!) and it was too dark to take a photograph. Still it was an interesting sight to see.

Soda Lili, at the bus station. We had quite a while to wait for our bus back to San Jose on Wednesday morning, so we had a nice cup of hot chocolate to raise our spirits at the small soda right next to the swimming pool (OK, it was the bus stop…. but we could probably have gone swimming if we had wanted!)

Activities
On the Monday we went on an organised tour which took us to the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica, the Uatsi Waterfall and the Tsiru Úe, a family run “Chocolate House”.

Our driver for the day was Daubrin. He didn’t speak much English, and the 8 other tourists we were with didn’t speak Spanish so initially he seemed quite unfriendly and uncommunicative. But when he realised that we could speak some Spanish he brightened up a bit and turned out to be very friendly and helpful. Moral of the story: always try to speak at least a little of the language of the country you are travelling to.

We were picked up at El Encanto at 10.20 am, and driven to the Sloth Sanctuary. Our guide at the sanctuary was Jeffrey, the Las Vegas born and raised grandson of the sanctuary owners who had originally wanted to be an architect until he visited his grandparents in Costa Rica 4 years ago … and stayed. Jeffrey told us a lot about sloths with the help of a large mural, a video and sloth skeletons and then we went to meet some live ones. Each of the sloths at the sanctuary has its own story of how it got there … some were orphaned as babies or found abandoned, others sustained injuries as adults. Unfortunately, if the sloth is orphaned it doesn’t learn how to survive in the wild from its mother and it is therefore destined to a comfortable, but captive, life at the sanctuary. Injured sloths, once healed, are released into the “wild” of the sanctuary’s own private area of forest. Some of these sloths will move on to the real wild of their own accord. We met several adult sloths, one of which we were allowed to stroke, and many small baby sloths. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints of the tour we didn’t have time to go for a walk along the “sendero de los peresozos” (the path of the sloths) to look for sloths in the sanctuary’s forest.

At the Sanctuary we also learned that sloths, along with dolphins, are the only creatures that are permanently smiling .... :)

We were driven to the town of Bribrí, where we made a quick lunch stop, before heading to the Uatsi waterfall. This involved a drive into the Talamanca mountains, which ended sooner than Daubrin anticipated because one of the rivers on the way to the waterfall, which he usually crossed in his vehicle, was uncrossable in his people carrier. Thus our hike was further than anticipated and involved wading across 3 rivers before eventually getting to the river with the waterfall.


The whole experience was adventurous and entertaining (some of the folk on the tour were just not prepared for this) and the reward at the end, paddling/swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall was for Zoë the surprise highlight of the tour. Colin didn’t go into the pool, and Daubrin offered to take him on a little hike to the top of the waterfall; Colin couldn’t think at that moment how to say “I don’t like heights” in Spanish but did manage to comprehend that it wasn't going to be too steep so he followed Daubrin and ended up going to places he would never have usually gone. The view was great, but a bit too high for comfort.

After the waterfall we visited Tsiru Úe. This family from the indigenous Bribrí tribe make chocolate from the cacao trees growing in their garden. They showed us the trees, the cacao fruit at different stages of growth (it takes 6 months to reach the stage where it can be used for chocolate), allowed us to try some of the fruit (very sweet and kind of like mango) and showed us how they processed the seeds into cocoa butter and chocolate before allowing us to try (and of course purchase) the results.

It was while we were visiting Tsiru Úe that the torrential rain, which would last until we left Cahuita, began. We were pleased that we hadn’t booked the tour for the Tuesday as we think that the waterfall trip would have been too dangerous and unpredictable with that amount of rainfall in such a short time.

On Tuesday we went for a walk in Cahuita National Park. We did postpone the start of the walk for a couple of hours in case the rain stopped, but when it didn’t we just resigned ourselves to getting very wet. We were only in Cahuita for a limited time and didn’t want to spend that time sitting watching the rain. We followed the trail through the park from the Kelly Creek Ranger Station (at Cahuita) to the Puerto Vargas Ranger Station. A distance of 8 km, plus an extra couple of kilometres to get transport back to Cahuita.


On the trail we walked along Caribbean beaches with waves crashing to the shore and through jungle where we saw abundant wildlife including blue fiddler crabs, a troup of capuchin monkeys and two bocaracás (bright yellow venomous snakes which apparently aren’t often seen in the park). Although we didn’t go swimming in the Caribbean (it looked just a little too rough for us) we may as well have as we were absolutely soaked, but we did often paddle along the edges. We had decided to make absolutely no attempt to stay dry as it would have been impossible and instead enjoyed the feeling of wearing shorts and t-shirts in warm rain. This just does not happen in Aberdeen!

At the end of the walk we reached the multipurpose Bar Boca Chica where they have a swimming pool free to use for their customers (somewhat ironic on this particular day), served food and drink, braided hair, sold souvenirs and offered a taxi service. Colin had a warming coffee while we dried out a little under their thatched shelters (we do think that they should add Hot Chocolate to their menu, especially for soaking days like this one!) before we hired the barman to drive us back to Cahuita in his “taxi”. The barman/taxi driver spoke good English learnt whilst he worked for a couple of years in Glasgow about 20 years ago. His Glaswegian impression was also spot on, including obscenities (“for **** sake gies a fag, pal”).

Conclusion
Despite the torrential rain, which we later found had caused lots of flooding in the province, we enjoyed our trip to the Caribbean as much as we had hoped. It was very strange to be among so many English-speaking people, both tourists and locals. We had read the odd bad report about Cahuita, but everyone we met was very friendly and we didn’t experience any problems. All-in-all, Cahuita was the relaxed, quiet getaway we wanted.

Zo & Co versus the Volcano

Whilst we have been here in Costa Rica we have done a lot of walking – walking to Heredia, walking to San Rafael, walking to markets and supermarkets, etc. But on Sunday we undertook our biggest walking challenge yet – to walk up a volcano!

View of Volcán Barva from HerediaCosta Rica has 7 active volcanoes plus 60 dormant or extinct ones. Two of these volcanoes are within relatively close proximity to where we live and we can see both of them from our back garden. Volcán Poás (active, about 15 miles away as the crow flies) is a very popular tourist destination and is within easy reach if you have a car as you can drive almost to the top, with only a short walk required. Poás is quite active and had its last major eruption in the 1950s, with more recent explosions in 1989 and 1994. Closer to us – in fact we live on its lower slopes - is Volcán Barva (dormant, about 8 miles away as the crow flies), however this is less visited as if you wish to drive up it, possible in dry season if you have a 4x4, you still have close to a one hour walk to get to the top. For the more adventurous, or fit, or carless (please choose which group you think we fit into best) you need to catch a bus to a very small village which lies about halfway up the Volcano and then walk the rest of the way up. So this is the challenge that we took on yesterday. The good news is that Volcán Barva has not erupted for about 500 years, so we didn’t think there was much chance of us needing to start running back down again.

There are only three buses a day from Heredia to the very small village of Porrosatí (but known as Paso Llano, especially to the bus drivers) and in order to give yourself time to climb the volcano and rest a bit you really need to catch the first bus in the morning (on Sunday this was 6:45am) and then catch the last bus back to Heredia at the end of the afternoon (on Sunday this was 5:20pm). The bus takes about 45 minutes from Heredia. Don’t believe the guide books that say you can get up and down in time to catch the 1pm bus back from Paso Llano – only possible if a) you are superfit and don’t want to rest or b) you hitch a ride on the way up or down or both.

After arriving at Paso Llano, we could see that there were four other brave souls embarking on the same adventure as ourselves – a couple of Costa Rican hombres who were probably in their early forties and looked well prepared for the hike, and a couple of muchachos in their early twenties who looked less prepared and we think were not Costa Rican, but visiting from another Latin American country. Throughout the day we would continue to bump into these fellow walkers at different points up and down the volcano.

The bus stops in Paso Llano in front of Chago’s (a bar restaurant). From Paso Llano you follow the road signposted to Sacramento, on the way you pass a couple of restaurants (at one we availed ourselves of the facilities on the way up, and had a meal on the way down), and get glorious views of the Central Valley. To Sacramento it was a walking distance of 2.5 miles and an increase in altitude of around 1100 feet. With the short “comfort stop” this took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes. In Sacramento there is also a nice looking bar/restaurant but we just kept on walking. A couple of minutes later we encountered the hombres having a rest on a shady bank, where they had been joined by a black dog who they had nicknamed Negro.


A view of the Central Valley taken on the way up Barva.
As we walked past, the dog got up and followed us. We could not shake Negro off. From Sacramento it is about another 2 miles with an increase in altitude of about 1350 feet to the ranger station at the entrance to Parque Nacional Baulio Carrillio (Barva Section). This took us about another 1 hour and 20 minutes – with no comfort break this time, just the necessary breaks to get our (read that as “mostly Zoë”) breath back. We enjoyed the company of Negro on the way from Sacramento; he acted like a cheerleader with boundless enthusiasm and energy. He hardly ever barked even when other smaller dogs were yapping at him, although he did seem to having something against cows at which time he would start barking. Perhaps he was just trying to move them off the road for us so that we had a clear path.


Colin with our new friend, Negro, on the way up the volcano.
While we were walking up the road we saw lots of people coming past in their 4x4s (and some in rather decrepit non-4x4s). We also saw an open lorry full of people. It probably would have been quite easy to hitch a lift if we had wanted to. As we neared the ranger station a bunch of well-dressed folk (shirts and ties for the men, pretty dresses for the women), who didn’t look like they’d gone up the mountain for a walk in the park, were walking down the hill. Some of them stopped to talk to us, at which point we realised they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. We had seen a small private bus making its way up earlier, and then coming down empty. We think that the driver had dropped the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the top and they were now making their way down, talking to people and giving out magazines as they went. Interestingly, although they were in a group, they were still walking in pairs!


The lorry, the hombres and Negro.
To enter the park, as non-residents, we paid $8 each. If you are a resident it costs 1000 colones (about $2). This ensures that Costa Ricans are able to take advantage of their national parks, while ensuring that the tourists who can (generally) afford more make up the money to maintain them. At the ranger station we once again encountered the hombres and muchachos who were having a short rest before making the walk through the park to the lagoon. The hombres set off before us, and Negro decided to go with them once more. The ranger station itself has toilets and drinkable water, very useful after you have hiked from Paso Llano.

There are four paths available to walk in the park. The main path leads to the Barva lagoon. The Cacho Venado runs off and adjacent to this main path, but is narrower and runs deeper through the forest, before returning to join it before the lagoon. There is also the Copey Path which runs to a second lagoon. Finally there is another path which leads to the Mirador (viewpoint) Vara Blanca.

We took the Cacho Venado path on our way to the Barva lagoon. Whilst walking this route you really feel that you are deep in the cloud forest as the tree cover is mostly dense, the path very narrow and at times you had to climb under or over fallen trees. Perhaps because of this it was also very quiet compared to the main path (which at times was very busy with families who had obviously driven up, perhaps this was because it was a Sunday), with very few encounters with other walkers.


Cacho Venado path
Main path
The final part of main path to Barva lagoon is quite short but also quite steep (about a 300 feet ascent over 0.2 miles) with numerous steps to climb if you want to go to the main observation point overlooking the lagoon. However it was worth it as you get a very good view over the lagoon that has developed in the main crater of this volcano. We also took this opportunity to rest and have our lunch, as did a few others (including the muchachos).

Barva lagoon - taken from the two viewpoints:
above at the highest point and then at the lagoon level
After lunch we walked back along the main path before walking along to the Mirador Vara Blanca. This was a very pleasant walk, at times with grass underfoot and we could have been walking in Scotland. This path was also quite quiet and there were not too many people at the lookout. It says in the guidebooks that on a clear day you can see all the way to the Carribean. It wasn’t clear enough on this day, but we did still get a very good view across Vara Blanca to Volcán Poás. Here at the lookout we encountered Negro with the hombres and as we set off back to the ranger station Negro decided to join us again.


Volcán Poás across the Vara Blanca from the viewpoint.
After a brief stop at the ranger station we started our journey back down the hill (without Negro, who after meeting them at the ranger station headed off with the hombres). Going down was much easier than coming up but had its own hazards (including slipping on the scree on the unmade road between the ranger station and Sacramento and developing sore toes from your feet continually pointing downhill). We even got offered a lift on the open lorry going back down, but declined as we were determined to walk the whole way down considering we had already done the hard work on the way up. On the way to Sacramento we passed the hombres who had stopped to admire something geological and after a moment of hesitation Negro joined us for the rest of the way down.


Striding along on the way back down.
We stopped for something to eat - a casado with a nice chuleta (pork chop) - at the Bar Restaurant La Campesina halfway between Sacramento and Paso Llano. Even after this 45 minute stop Negro was still outside waiting for us when we recommenced our journey.

We eventually arrived back at the bus stop in Paso Llano just before 5pm where the hombres and muchachos were already waiting (unlike us, the muchachos had taken up an offer of a lift down the hill in the back of a truck, and came sailing past us while we still had about 20 minutes left to walk). There were many smiles and much laughter when Negro followed us round the corner too. The bus left at 5:20pm and we left Negro at the bus stop, presumably waiting to accompany and encourage a new group of hikers the next day.

Exhausted but happy, waiting for the bus home.
We had walked for almost 15 miles, climbed and descended over 3000 feet to a maximum of around 9500 feet, and it had taken about 9 hours including stops ... but we had done it and we felt good (albeit tired and with sore feet).



Graph of the altitude during the walk;
data exported from Colin's fancy GPS doodad.

All Change!

So, just as we were figuring out where in Heredia to catch what bus to get to where we want to go … they change all the bus stops (paradas de bus) as of this coming Saturday (27th December 2008)! OK, not all of them. But most of them.

Fortunately, we read La Nacion online (a good way to practice our Spanish), so this didn’t come as a complete shock. Today they published a useful little map of the changed bus stops. I also managed to locate a full list of the changes (which includes those that haven’t moved, and details of the relocation of paradas de taxi as well) on the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) website.

The main purpose of all these changes is to try to decrease the congestion and reduce pollution in the centre of Heredia. We haven’t been here all that long, but it is obvious that anything is worth a try.

Power Walking

Today we decided to go to Mall Paseo de Los Flores as Colin wanted to get a surge protector with battery backup for our precious computers and the delightful Rana, as we believe the power here can be temperamental, and we knew that we would be able to get a good one there. Plus, we like malls.

To save us a little money, and because it was a nice morning, warm but with light drizzle here and there to cool us down, we decided to walk. After plotting the path on Google Earth, it turns out that this is a distance of about 2.67 miles (4.3km). It is nice to have the time to be able to walk somewhere as a form of transport. The surge protector (sistema de alimentación ininterrumpida) was no problem to purchase even with Colin’s language difficulties at the checkout.

While at the mall we enjoyed a couple of naturales. These are drinks made either with water or milk, fruit, ice and a little sugar (if necessary) all blended together. Much yummier than the ever present Coca Cola. We also noticed a little stall, which was not there on our last trip to this country, catering to the Costa Rican love of rice pudding (arroz con leche) by serving it in a positive myriad of variations. What appealed to us, however, was the name of the stall: Rice ‘n’ Smile. If we ever try it, we’ll be sure to update you.

We caught the bus back, partly because of the purchases we were carrying (which in addition to the sistema de alimentación ininterrumpida included two almohadas and a sartén) and partly because the sun was out now making it a lot hotter and putting us at greater risk of sunburn. We took two buses actually: the Ruta 400 to Heredia which cost 295 colones, and then the Ruta 434 to San Rafael which cost 190 colones. The cost of the two buses together equates to about £0.45 each. Is it possible to go anywhere on the bus in the UK for 45p?