Yes, Puerto Viejo is a touristy beach town. But Jamaican influences are visible too. People from Jamaica immigrated to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica starting in 1872.
Kristina is next to a tree sculpture, checking out the beach. Surfers come from all over to surf Salsa Brava, an expert level barrel wave here.
We quickly figured out that biking was an easy way to get around and see the local sights. We rented simple beach cruisers.
We liked seeing colorful signs for restaurants, but with the exception of Jamaican coconut rice, we found the food pretty boring.
Luckily for us, there was plenty of good chocolate! Pete looks ready to devour his bittersweet chocolate tart and coffee.
Bread and Chocolate Cafe also made chocolates. Our favorites were the dark chocolate turtles and caramels with sea salt.
We went back for another piece of bittersweet chocolate tart, this time a la mode.
Kristina is on the road from town to our Airbnb. The route was right along the coast, and behind her are the remains of an old ship that has been turned into a hangout spot.
Pete is sitting next to the front door of our Airbnb.
And Kristina is in the entryway, enjoying the breeze from the hammock. Puerto Viejo has a very warm and humid climate.
This is the living room. Behind Kristina is basically an open window, making the living space indoor/outdoor. The door on the left leads to the bedroom which had screens to keep out the mosquitos.
We were able to prepare meals in the simple kitchen. Our favorite thing to make was fresh fruit smoothies.
Pete said he wanted to stay in this Airbnb as soon as he saw photos of the mermaid shower, complete with hot and cold water breasts knobs.
The bathroom was quite small and we had to sweep the water into the drain after we showered, but we liked staying here.
Another benefit to our Airbnb was it felt like being in the jungle. There were lots of flowering plants.
The frangipani was blooming.
Here are a few photos of the yard: green and lush.
We saw this little lizard (or his friends) all the time. Here he's on the entryway wall.
Other visitors included the Central American Agouti.
A pair of agoutis would eat flowers each morning. They looked like squirrels when they ate, but they are much larger.
This is a Montezuma Oripendola. A small flock frequently ate the same flowers as the agoutis. The flowers are on a giant Poró tree.
Here's a different photo that shows the oripendola's face colors. The birds were quite large, between 40-50 cms.
One day we rode about 15 Km to visit Cahuita National Park. Pete is at the front gate of the Airbnb as we were leaving.
Along the route we stopped to photograph this incredible lizard gate topped with a monkey.
It was warm and humid as we rode, so we were glad for the breeze. This is the entrance to Cahuita National Park. Cahuita means bluff in Spanish.
Once inside the park we rode along the coast on a dirt road awhile.
When the road ended, we locked the bikes and hiked in the park.
Mostly we walked along the beach. It was amazing to see palm trees growing so close to the salt water.
We loved the views of the blue Caribbean and the beach.
Pete was happy to find a little shade as we walked back. Then we got on our bikes and pedaled back to Puerto Viejo.
Another day we visited the Jaguar Rescue Centre. This is a baby White Faced Capuchin monkey. He had been orphaned, so the centre was raising him.
White Faced Capuchins use tools and are omnivores. Our guide spotted this Golden Orb spider and said it would likely be given to the monkey later, to help it learn how to kill and eat prey.
Generally we try to avoid zoos, but we were glad we visited the Jaguar Rescue Centre because they are dedicated to releasing all their animals who can survive on their own back into the wild. Here the Capuchin is getting some fruit to eat.
Capuchin monkeys are named that way because they look like tiny Spanish Capuchin monks with their white faces and dark brown robes and hoods on the heads. They are also featured on the Costa Rican 5,000 colones bill.
This is an orphaned baby Howler monkey. Howler monkeys live in a troop, but the troop won't adopt a baby monkey who loses its mother, so the centre is raising him.
Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, this woman has a big job to keep up with two baby Howler monkeys.
Howler monkeys like to chew on hair, so the volunteer has hers covered. Notice how long the monkey's tail is. Howler monkeys have prehensile tails that can be up to five times as long as their body.
The monkeys use their tail for grabbing fruit, and for holding on, like the one on her neck is doing.
The Jaguar Rescue Centre is dedicated to rehabilitating mistreated, injured, orphaned and confiscated animals. This juvenile raccoon had been kept as a pet, but was expected to return to the jungle once it proved it could feed itself.
This is a Jaguarundi. He has a spinal deformity that limits how his back legs function, so he will need surgery.
This Brown Pelican is named Pistachio. His left wing is damaged so he can't fly. He seems to know he will always have to live at the centre, and he demands to eat only red snapper.
Primarily it's wing injuries that result in birds being treated at the centre. In the middle is a Spectacled Owl, who is flanked by two Striped Owls.
Our guide pointed out these Red-eyed Tree Frog eggs. They were on the underside of a leaf hanging over a pond.
From Wikipedia we learned that Red-eyed Tree Frogs are not poisonous and rely on camouflage to protect themselves. During the day, they remain motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their bellies, and shut their red eyes. They appear almost completely green and are well hidden in the foliage.
Perhaps the highlight of the centre are the sloths. Kristina is getting a closer look at this two-toed sloth.
Electrocution from climbing on power lines is what typically lands a sloth at the centre. These juveniles are using a hammock to partially support their weight while they regain their strength to climb again.
It was good to see this sloth being able to support its weight and climb, as this means it will be released into the wild soon.
But for some, the safety of the hammock is all they can handle.
These adorable orphaned baby sloths are in a basket lined with blankets. When we visited they were being introduced to an area where they will to learn to climb.
As we left the centre, we saw a wild three-toed sloth. We think it had fallen from a tree. First it tried climbing up a fence post, but realized it wasn't going up.
Sloth bodies are mostly hollow, so they can fall without getting injured. Here it seemed to be peaking at us from behind a tree trunk.
Yes, they move really slowly, which enabled Pete to take some great photos.
We left the humid beach town of Puerto Viejo and went inland to Monteverde, the cloud forest of Costa Rica. Pete posed by a mural with a Rainbow-billed Toucan. A few days later we would see one in the forest.
We stayed in another Airbnb, which used to be a gentleman's weekend farm but now the workers' houses have been turned into apartments.
We were at about 1,400 meters and close to Santa Elena National Park. It felt like being in the cloud forest because it was lightly misting most of the time.
Our Airbnb backed up onto a series of hiking trails, so the next morning we went exploring.
We heard a lot of birds but only saw a few in this beautiful setting.
From the window of our Airbnb we spotted this Masked Tityra.
Eager to see more, we hired a birding guide. This is Freddy. He’s lived his whole life in Monteverde.
Freddy led the way as we walked through the forest early in the morning.
We were rewarded by seeing 18 different types of birds. This is a Golden Olive woodpecker.
Eager to see more, we hired a birding guide. This is Freddy. He’s lived his whole life in Monteverde.
Freddy led the way as we walked through the forest early in the morning.
We were rewarded by seeing 18 different types of birds. This is a Golden Olive woodpecker.
Luckily this White-fronted parrot was on bare branches. Otherwise would have been very hard to see his green body amongst the leaves.
This is a White-nosed coati. Coatis are in the raccoon family.
It was a great morning! Behind Pete and Freddy is a strangler fig tree.
We learned that the strangler fig uses a strategy to get sunlight in the thick forest by starting as an epiphyte at the top of a host tree. It then grows downward and uses the host's trunk as support, slowly killing the host.
Freddy took us to the Crandell Reserve that had lovely forested trails.
He told us this plant is called berry-on-a-plate.
One of the trails we walked was the mushroom trail in the Crandell Reserve.
Pete is by Freddy’s ’76 classic Land Cruiser, which was very handy for getting around the dirt roads of Monteverde.
The next morning we struck out on our own, eager to see more birds.
We saw two black vultures.
The next morning we struck out on our own, eager to see more birds.
We saw two black vultures.
This is a Squirrel Cuckoo. It gets its name because the way it hops around a tree looks like a squirrel. In fact Pete thought it was a squirrel when we first spotted it.
And we were excited to see an Emerald Toucanet. Toucanets are the smallest birds in the Toucan family, about 30 cm long from beak to tail.
These are organ pipe mud dauber's nests. Mud daubers are a type of wasp.
We saw lots of strangler figs. Many birds eat their fruit and through the seeds the trees spread. There are eight varieties of strangler figs in Monteverde, each producing fruit at different times of the year, another smart adaptation.
Lots of tourists come to Monteverde to visit the cloud forest. We liked the look of this art gallery with its glass and tree sculpture walls.
There was a troop of five Howler monkeys up in the trees, so we watched them for awhile.
Banana trees grow around Monteverde too.
This banana flower is just starting to bloom and the bananas are undeveloped.
We heard that the Monteverde Cheese Factory had good ice cream, so we went to confirm. Pete has fig and Kristina has caramel.
The Monteverde Cheese Factory had this cool fountain made out of milk cans.
We are also trying all kinds of tropical fruit juice. Kristina is enjoying guanabana, soursop.
She also tried resbaladero, a traditional Costa Rican beverage of milk, cooked rice, sugar, groundnuts. It's fun to try new things, but in this case, once was enough.
We had never been zip-lining so we went to the Selvatura Adventure Park. After the safety briefing we wondered if this was a crazy idea.
We climbed up stairs to the platform, and then swung through the 13 line course.
After the first ride, we relaxed and could enjoy the incredible view of the forest canopy. Behind us is a kid zip-lining by.
We even tried the Tarzan swing. Once securely harnessed to some strong ropes, you step off a 20-meter platform and free fall for a second before you start to swing. It's definitely not natural to step off such a height and we're pretty sure everyone needs a little push from the staff. What was natural was to scream as you fell. If you look closely Kristina is swinging high up on the left.
And here she is coming back to the platform. The Tarzan swing was a thrilling way to end our first zip-lining tour.
It was a lot of fun!
Next Pete's sister Csilla and her husband Dale will join us for two weeks in Costa Rica.
Next Pete's sister Csilla and her husband Dale will join us for two weeks in Costa Rica.
