Days 7-9 La Fortuna to Puerto Viejo.
On the road again. We depart after breakfast in a comfortable 20 seater bus which gives us space to stretch out. Our first stop is about 40 minutes out where the caffeine addicted get their hit of cafe con leche and all of us walk the bridge to view the iguanas which are camouflaged in the bamboo. Guess what, they call this the iguana cafe and the iguana bridge! The area is protected and there are many iguanas here to view, so prehistoric looking. There are apparently many to be found up and down this part of the river. We look at them and they look at us and not one moves!
Happy Stop
Back in the bus for another nap, I can't keep awake after the noise the previous night. Next stop Agusto has decided to go off into the rainforest and find us a poisonous frog to see. He didn't return for,ages and we thought the frogs may have found him first. He is tenacious and back he came with this tiny little brown thing that is apparently quite venomous. In past times the natives would boil them down to extract the venom them mix it with rubber and dip their arrows in it! Nice!!!
Sloth
Massive poisonous frog
We stop again for a happy stop at a road side cafe where I got a decent sandwich and we headed off for the final leg and another sleep.
We arrived in Puerto Viejo around 3.30 so not too long a trip bearing in mind the 3 stops.
First impressions of the vicinity not too good, rubbish by the road side, squalor as we enter the area. The hotel is situated a 30 minute walk from the town, down a dirt road and set amongst the rain forest/jungle! They advertise themselves as a luxurious resort, laughable when in 3 days my bed linen and towels are the same, ants everywhere, mould covering the shower and bathroom. There is a bar and pool table, the pool is not clean enough for me to want to swim and the only food is a mediocre breakfast. You can buy water but nothing else. The good thing is that after a discussion with the manager I get a better room in contrast to the initial dungeon. I have a balcony that overlooks the water so the view is lovely and the sound at night pleases me. It is a pity because there is a similar place down the road that has been given some love and it is sparkling and we are envious!
The water here is too rough for me to want to swim and the sand is black or dark grey due to the volcanic dust. Not appealing. In places it is better but too for from here to walk to.
Because of all the rain there is no snorkeling so from my perspective the place is a major disappointment.
We all go into town on the first night for dinner, acceptable but not worth a second visit. In the morning there is a hike through the rain forest. It is a short bus ride then a 2 hour hike followed by beach time if the weather holds up. I woke in the morning feeling very unwell and thought that I would be better off having a rest day. I stayed in bed, ate a little breakfast which didn't warrant a repeat visit on the following days and at around midday ventured into town and bought some fruit, yogurt cheese and a tomato which did me 2 breakfasts and 2 lumches. Seedy hole is a polite description. Laid back vibe was what we were told, try a place full of pot heads and ferals with crappy shops interspersed as I discovered on the 3 rd day with a few decent cafes. I returned to the hotel and lazed around on my balcony for the rest of the day and later took another walk along the beach in the opposite direction.
Even though the sand is an un attractive colour it is very fine and nice to walk on and doesn't stain your skin. The water was pretty wild on one side with rain forest on the other with some massive trees and logs washed up and lying on the beach. That night we discover the resort next door and ate there, acceptable but pricey.
Day 3, feeling a little better but there has been quite a bit of rain and not a lot of touring activity that appeals to me. A lunchtime I walk into town with Craig, one of my fellow travelers and we get lunch and check out the shops, no, it isn't improving for me! Dinner is planned for everyone at a restaurant called flip flops! This is our last night as a group, once again an average meal then we proceeded to a reggae bar. Sleazy, manky, what else can I say? Not sure that I would like to see it during the day! We stay for an hour then most of us leave.
For me Puerto Viejo has been a big disappointment after the build up it was given. We expected good weather and beach time with water activity but as we discovered this weather was the norm and vastly over rated by Gecko. On discussion with the other travelers, none of us felt very safe with warnings not to walk in small groups at night, not to go here, not to go there etc. in fact getting a taxi is a hazard as they aren't licensed or recognizable and no meters. They have permission to work as taxis and they congregate around a corner with their crappy vehicles, they then charge what they think they will get out of you and every time somebody does something a tip is expected. Even in restaurants a price is given then they add on 13% tax then 10% tip so everything is actually 25% more whether or not the service is good!
Thursday morning and the group break off into their next stages of travel. The 5 of us who are heading into Panama are due to be picked up at 11 am, a couple have already left without saying goodbye to anyone, Craig and Agusto head off into town to wait for the bus to return them to San Jose and the 2 girls who are staying on but at another hotel wave us off.
10 days have passed and we are now on the Panama leg! Lets hope the next part of the tour lives up to our expectations!
Adios amigos y familia!
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