adventures in costa rica: i'm bringing home a pet monkey from puerto viejo

okay well not really but i certainly wish i was! seeing monkeys was one of the fun things i got to do this weekend, when i ventured by myself to the caribbean coast to puerto viejo. it's this hip little rasta town filled with lots of bars and restaurants, mainly geared toward the younger backpacking crowd. for some reason going to the caribbean is always hit or miss with the weather and theres always a lot of rain so you kind of just have to hope for the best but be able to go with the flow....i arrived in the rain friday morning to this trendy little town and things looked promising as it was starting to clear up. so i went about 20 minutes north to the cahuita national park in search of some animals. unfortunately about 10 minutes into my hike through the forest, the skies opened so i think all the monkeys went into hiberntion somewhere so i was unsuccessful in any sightings but the park itself was really beautiful, with paths all along the beach. i got back and wandered around the town for a bit before finding myself an imperial and a hammock and relaxing for an hour or so. saturday brought me to the most delicious little breakfast place---so good that i felt the need to return again sunday morning! all their breads and baked goods are homemade, organic, yaddy yaddy yadda---basically some of the best pancakes and bagels... and brownies i've ever tasted! you know me and my sweets....give me good chocolate and you'll win over my heart! haha

most people in puerto viejo's method of transportation is their bike. some have extra seats built on the back or in between the handlebars, most are adorned with a large basket in the front which houses everything from groceries to dogs to children. it's kind of entertaining sitting on the roadside and watching all the people ride by---you can tell the locals by the ones that have someone else in tow---a child on the back or in their arms, a spouse sitting on the bar between the seat and the handlebars. i even saw a man carting his wife who was holding a child---talk about exercise huh?! saturday i joined the trend and rented a bike---i forgot how much fun it is! (or at least at first!) it's funny because for such a bike-riding oriented town, the roads are in horrible conditions----its pavement and bumpy dirt roads on and off the entire way through town, pot holes and huge rocks everywhere...it's hard enough watching for oncoming traffic then you have to pay careful attention to where there's a semi-flat pathway to ride on! so i went from puerto viejo all the way down to manzanillo which is a 12km ride each way (approx 7 miles). on the way, the road parallels the beach and it's really cool riding because all the beaches are so different....you start at a black sand beach with tons of debris on it and no swimmers and gradually get to lighter sand, more beach goers and a ton of surfers so it was kind of cool. manzanillo was really beautiful as well---it kind of gives off this feeling like you're at the end of the world because there's not much there, just a few houses and a lot of beach!

on the return trip, i made two stops. the first to chocorart, an organic cocoa plantation. i really wanted to see how it was grown, picked, made, etc but i refused the $25 tour fee so instead i just settled for 2 different types of chocolate that the guy made that were so delcious----totally puts hersheys and all the rest to shame! my second stop---and the highlight of the whole weekend----was to the jaguar rescue center where they rehabilitate mistreated, injured and/or confiscated animals, which are then reintroduced to their natural habitat in protected areas. when i went they had a baby jaguar, 2 baby sloths and 8 baby howler monkeys and a few others but the monkeys were clearly my favorite! the ride totally wiped me out---my legs and butt killed from the 15+ miles on the bike so i took a little siesta on the beach and then made my way back to return my bike in town.

now they say sometimes you're just in the right place at the right time and boy was that ever true saturday afternoon! i was going along the sidewalk to return my bike and all of a sudden hear this "hey beth!" from someone on the street, turn and look and it's my friend anne from bourne (who studied in costa rica last fall and is now teaching at a school in panama)! SO CRAZY that we would be in the same beach town on the same weekend and neither of us knew that the other was there! so we chatted for a bit and later enjoyed a lovely little saturday night on the town with dinner and drinks and filling each other in on our lives in foreign countries! as if i'm not getting excited enough about going home in a week....seeing a friend from home down here made me that much MORE anxious and excited for the 31st to get here!

the weekend was definately interesting and going somewhere by yourself puts a whole new spin on things. yeah, it was a little lonely at times and i probably would have enjoyed doing some other things or venturing to more places but parts of me didn't feel safe being by myself. but at the same time, it was really nice and super relaxing to be able to do whatever it was that i wanted to do----no waiting for people to get ready or debating where to eat or how to spend the day---everything was all about me so in a way, it was kind of nice to treat myself to a weekend like that :)