Puerto Viejo

Eaten alive.... - Puerto Viejo, Playa Negra, Punta Cocles, Caribbean, Costa Rica Travel Blog

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Eaten alive....
Puerto Viejo, Playa Negra, Punta Cocles, Caribbean, Costa Rica
Flag of Costa Rica
Saturday, Apr 16, 2005 18:32

Entry 9 of 43 | show all | print this entry

Hola, it's me again. I made it back safely if not a little bruised and battered after my weekend of funky fun in Puerto Viejo with Joy and another friend of hers named Donna (from her school). We departed on Friday from San Jose via bus to the Caribbean. It is a 4 or 5 hour drive on gut wrenchingly crowded, dilapidated and absolutely unsafe roads, so the ride itself was an adventure. We made it safely and enjoyed the view immensely along the way.
At one point there were these 2 rivers that were merging as we went over a bridge and it was crazy- One of the rivers was so clear that you could see the rocks on the riverbed. The converging water from the other side was bright, almost flourescent, orange. I don't know for sure but my guess is that there is some sort of clay or mineral further up the mountain on that side that is running off as the spring rains come in. Either that or maybe some sort of algae indigenous to this area? I don't know but it was pretty cool to see the bright orange and the crystal clear waters raging together.
There were many waterfalls and little villages along the way, all tucked Costa Rican style between a plethora of flora and fauna every color you could imagine. It is like Hawaii with many more colorful flowers on the trees and plants. There were these tinkerbell fairybook looking flowers that were huge-over a foot long- hanging like fuschia and white bells off of these trees by the beach. They were awesome. Tons of coconuts and palm trees but a taste of home in the pine trees we saw by our hotel.
Our hostel/motel was 30 bucks a night and it was air conditioned so worth each of the 10 bucks we spent per night. The first night we went to this outdoor cabana with live Reggae music and great oven fired pizza. I thought it was fantastic and so did the 4 inch cockroach that shared it with me. I made a friend- Senor Stinkydog- who had the rest of the piece that the cockroach tried. He was my loyal companion, my Samwise, for the duration of the weekend.
Joy and Donna decided to hit the hay and I journeyed solo to check out the scene. Don't worry, Mom, it was very crowded and is a small tourist town that is muy tranquilla, which means laid back. The culture there is very different than in anywhere else in Costa Rica, due to the non acceptance of the Creole population that call the Caribbean home. Generally, Costa Ricans are very proud of the lightness of their skin in comparison to their for Nicaraguan and Panamanian neighbors. I learned that this particular region of Costa Rica evolved separately from the rest of the country until it was developed by the Atlantic railroad and used as a major export location for coffee in the late 1800's. The need for laborers brought the influx of Jamaican people, who upon completion of the railroad stayed and farmed the crops of bananas that were planted at the turn of the century. The area remains about 50% populated by people of West Indian descent and is still not wholly accepted by the rest of the country. In fact, there are 8 indigenous tribes that weren't even allowed to vote until 1994!! One of these tribes is the BriBri, who have a reserve a couple of miles from where we were staying. They have tours but they were kind of pricey for us so we opted to beach it for free. Anyway, just a little history.
The town is very eclectic and funky and the locals love tourists and are very accommodating and friendly. The local dread heads are called Rastas, or Rent-a Rastas. They are very friendly and always want to talk to you. There are many vendors and for the most part things are fairly cheap. The muddy, unkempt roads are teeming with vultures, horses, dogs, frogs and I even saw a big iguana! It is very African feeling with the crafts and colors that adorn the mostly thatch covered outdoor cabanas/restaurants. Lots of luminarias and lights of all colors hanging from the surrounding trees.
Most of the town shows evidence of the hardwoods that grow here. Although 25% of the land here is protected from logging, it is obvious from the beautiful wood tables and little de-barked trunk chairs that it is still being used. They are everywhere. Some of the places here were VERY nicely built and with no detail overlooked. But for the most part they were modest holes in the wall run by locals. The food at the Restaurant Naturale was absolutely one of the best meals I have ever had. Sweet potato soup and vegetarian thai tacos. It was out of this world good.
On Friday night I explored and found a little bar that had an outdoor movie screen with Spanish subtitles on the movie. Senor Stinkydog and I sat and watched for awhile. They were playing Meet the Fockers, which was pretty funny, although I only caught the end. Then I went further down the main road and ended up at the Bambuu, where I danced with the locals to more Reggae and had a blast. Tried my best to communicate but it didn't really matter because dancing is dancing whatever language you speak. It was very fun. Made it home with no problem and caught a few winks before the sun came up.
At some point I got eaten alive by either sand fleas or mosquitos, so I look like I have some freak disease on my legs. Probably 200-300 bites from my knees down. No repellant- bad move- note to self for future reference.... It doesn't help that I am scratching as much as my loyal companion Senor Stinkydog.
Unfortunately, there was mucho LLUVIO, which is rain rain rain. We rented bikes and went to Punta Cocles and set up on the beach just in time for the rain. It was warm though and fun to watch the surfers try to conquer the legendary wave- Salsa Brava. I was only getting in up to my waist (so I could pee- haha!) because the waves were really big and scary and looked like a place I would hang out in if I was a shark so I really didn't spend too much time in the ocean.
There is a life guard on duty up the beach a ways due to the rip tide at the break in the coral reef offshore. Joy and I were laying there when we heard these two people yelling and waving their arms for help. I kept seeing their heads bob then I would lose sight of them behind the next wave. Everyone started to yell and run towards the lifeguard, who either didn't care or wasn't paying attention. Quite a crowd was gathering and nobody was doing anything and then the girl started to go under periodically. Everyone kept looking at everyone but nobody was getting in and I didn't know what to do. I thought to myself that if something happened and I didn't at least try I wouldn't be able to live with myself so I went in.
The waves were really bad and the sand bars under the surface would vary with each step and suddenly I would go under water until I could find my footing again. I got in to about my chest before I felt the force of the current trying to pull me under. I was swallowing a lot of salt water. Yuk!! So I stayed there and kept yelling that it would be ok, that people were coming and motioning for them to swim parallel to the beach instead of fighting the current. I don't know if they could hear me or not but they both just kept trying to swim towards me. Pretty soon they got closer and I went a little further then I could finally reach her. He seemed pretty pulled together. They were exhausted but ok. She said that they panicked because they kept getting pulled out further and further. She hugged me and thanked me for trying. My legs were shaking so hard it was difficult to get out of the water.
There was a local who had run off to get his surfboard that came over to help us. He said that even though it was nice for me to try to help that it was not the right thing to do. In that case you need a surfboard or something buoyant if you are going to try to rescue someone, which makes total sense. It was just so hard to do nothing and watch their heads keep going under. Anyway, in trying to be the rescuer I was almost in need of rescue!! But it all worked out great and I learned a valuable lesson about the power of Mother Nature...
We packed up after awhile and rode back to town, had dinner and went out to play some pool. The local with the surfboard recommended that great restaurant I mentioned earlier and he dined with us. Then he got creepy so we ditched him and went dancing. It was great to dance the marenga, the salsa, and reggae. Oh, did I forget to mention that it is raining, and I mean dumping, this entire time. My dress was soaked like I was in the shower but it wasn't cold. So the 3 of us drenched amigas checked out most of the local scene before heading home to play some cards in the room. What a great night!
The next morning we had the worst breakfast ever. We tried the beach again, hoping the clouds might burn off, this time riding even further but never making it to Manzanilla point, which I heard was beautiful. It rained so hard that the beach cleared so we retired to the restaurant down the street to watch the storm. Since I was already soaked, I braved the biting winds to go back to the deserted beach to see the waves. 3 local surfers were still out there but other than that it was just me. It was absolutely beautiful to see the peninsula in the distance shrouded in deep green trees and entombed in this foggy mist from the strong rains. I left the beach as quickly as the lightning came down and we rode back to town in time to catch our bus back to San Jose, where I said goodbye to Joy and Donna and caught my cab back to San Joaquin.
My familia Tica was happy to see me and hear of my adventures. I got a good night sleep and drifted off to thoughts of the weekend with the Bob Marley song that was playing in the cab stuck in my head.