We decided to travel to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to see a little more of this little country. It's a good thing we see used to long drives as it was eight hours before we arrived. The distance is about 350 k but with the traffic( many trucks on their way to and from the port of Limon) fog, rain, speed limits and a stop for lunch it is still quite a journey.
We decided on a Monday night to go the next morning which meant we needed to find a hotel room ASAP. I phoned a couple that had been recommended by the office staff and although they were full they gave me leads to several others. All were full and one spoke only Spanish and as I spoke only English..... When I looked at my list I wasn't sure I had called them all so I asked Ernie to call and if I had done it twice I wouldn't be embarrassed! The man who answered said, "Oh, your wife called me already and I suggested she call the Blue Conga." ( It hadn't occurred to me he would have call display!) Ernie said that only Spanish was spoken and we were unable to communicate. The man on the other end said he would call for us and he did! He called back within moments, told us he had spoken with the hotel and that we had a room for two nights and he followed that up with a text.! We had a room for 70.00 with breakfast.
We were made very welcome on arrival in Puerto Viejo, and given a room with a big king bed. That night we went to sleep with sounds of frogs all night, and woke to howler monkeys in the distance and a cacophony of bird sounds! On our balcony, in the morning, with our coffee, we watched as several hummingbirds came to the trees around us. They flitted from flower to flower, perched on the branches and wires and just generally gave us a great show. I saw another beautiful bird, black with bright red on its back and was able to identify it as Cherrie's tanager. There were several others we could see as well, but I won't go on and on.
After a great cooked breakfast we made our way to Uva Beach where we spent the day under the shade of a big old tree and when we got too warm went in past the surf to float and swim in the waves. Howler monkeys again were keeping us company! It isn't possible to do that at our great big beautiful beach as the surf is too big and you would have to go too far out to reach the quiet parts.
We would have liked more time and had we known what we know now, may have booked less time here and more time there. However what's done is done and our month in Costa Rica is nearly at an end.
Yesterday we drove about 2 hours to the city of San Isidro de El General, up over a mountain and down the other side to the city nestled in the valley. It never fails to amaze me what is off on the little side roads here. In this case it was great paved road all the way. But most of the time you turn off the pavement on to a gravelled, rough potholed road and after a kilometre or so you will find a great restaurant, or a hotel. The other night we found a great restaurant at the end of one these roads, filled with people and we had a great meal! There are many gated communities in areas like these, in fact the one we are staying in is at the end of one of these roads too!
This is the last entry for this blog. We leave here on Wed for our hotel about 25k from San Jose, where I have booked a tour of San Jose. On Thursday we fly to Houston, where we will stay with our friends Darlene and Bob, and fly home on March 2.
Just some observations
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