Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

Sunday was a Long LONG day traveling. Up at the crack of dawn - 4:30AM - walked to the bus stop to catch a ride to the main bus terminal, than a 3 hour bus ride from Uvita to San Jose. 1.5 hour layover in San Jose (ugh, I hate this city)... than another 4.5 hour bus ride from San Jose to Puerto Viejo.

12 hours later, we're here- Puerto Viejo! Home for the next month.

Getting a taxi was a little challenging, since all the taxi cars are unmarked. We finally walked around and found a guy who will give us a ride for $6.

Our rental was in Playa Cocles, which is one town over from Puerto Viejo- less than 2 miles from the center of town.

This is our street

I got good vibes from this place the second I got here. Picturesque caribbean beach town. Beautiful beaches, roadside fruit stands, palm tree-thatched bars serving tropical drinks. The Rastafarian culture is everywhere. 

Our rental was 2 bedroom 1 bath house that sits on stilts. It opens up completely with lots of windows and a huge patio. See our rental listing here. 

Our kitchen

We have two guard spiders at the front- Golden Orb Spiders. 

Our house is in the middle of the jungle, 5 minutes from the beach, and our neighbors are mostly expats - one of whom is a doctor that specializes in holistic medicine.

That night we cooked a huge pasta dinner and went to bed listening to the sounds of the rainforest- which was louder than the fan in my room.

Our means of transportation for the next month were bikes that we rented for $40 a month.

The area of Puerto Viejo is very health conscious- there's a lot of vegetarian restaurants and natural products/remedies are sold in most stores. 

Coffe and chocolate are widely grown throughout Costa Rica. There's no shortage of cacao here. 

I tried the chocolate Azteca.. pure melted chocolate with spices. Chocolate wasted. 

Quaint coffee shops with local art and homemade pastries.  

Wednesday we went out to eat at La Botanica, just down the road, for a totally RAW dinner .. and it was delicious. This was a raw papaya cheesecake- I would've had seconds if offered. 

Thursday a friend of ours took us for a hike to a waterfall near Bri Bri- which is about a 30 minute drive from Puerto Viejo, right by the border of Panama. 

Sidenote: Walking barefoot is supposed to be very good for your health. Grounding. 

Beyond the waterfalls were a series of pools

Snacks were homemade hummus, pita, veggies, almonds, and chocolate :)

We found a giant freshwater shrimp/lobster/crawdad? .. not sure what it was. It looked like a crab with spider feet.