August 16, 2009: Traveling S.J. – Puerto Viejo

Owen: After a long night of sound sleeping, I woke up around 7. Liam was feeling back his normal goofy self, so we rolled out of bed and went to the Hotel’s breakfast buffet. All three of us got “Gallo Pinto”, which means “spotted rooster”. This classic Costa Rican breakfast consists of black beans over white rice. We also got eggs and fruit. The mango was phenomenal! After we gorged ourselves to the fullest, we did our final packing and sweep of the room, and met up with the rest of the group. We had 7 new members to meet. Two were from London, and the rest from Canada (though one woman was from Colombia, but recently moved to Alberta)!

We left for the bus station, which was very nice, but they charged people to use the bathroom! At any rate, we boarded the bus, and started the four and a half hour trek to Puerto Viejo. This town is on the Caribbean coast, right on the water, and when we arrived, the weather was SOOOOO perfect! It was scorching hot and sunny, perfect beach weather! The group dropped off the bags at our rooms, cute little personal bungalows, and headed for the beach! The water must have been over 90, it was so warm! Liam and I had a wrestling match in the ocean, and after around two hours we were pooped, and headed for town. This place is awesome! It is a Reggae culture type town, Bob Marley posters and music everywhere. We stopped in a super market and bought a 6-liter jug of water before heading back to our room to hang on the hammock and talk with the others. Sean, Liam, and I went to an early dinner. Sean got fish, Liam got a Burger, and I got tenderloin in pepper sauce. Fantastica! After dinner, we met up at a different restaurant (a more expensive one) with the group to socialize. Liam and I have everyone’s names down, even where they’re from, but Sean is struggling a bit. We headed back to our rooms, set up our mosquito nets, and started the blog while watching the tennis tournament. Go Del Potro! That is all for now, but tomorrow should be amazing!!

Liam: Wow how do I follow that? Owen pretty much has everything covered here, I guess I’ll just take the boring things. About three hours into the bus ride we stopped at a little town to stretch and get some food. Sean, Owen, and myself got some chips and cookies form the bus station, but after we bought them Owen and I walked to a supermarket across the street. We walked around and found some cheap cookies so we bought them. While in the checkout line we both spotted a Wal-Mart logo on the nametags of the cashiers. After going through the large lines we made it back to the bus stop just in time to leave.

When we arrived to the hotel we dropped our stuff off and then went to meet our group for a talk about tours for tomorrow. We decided to go on a nature walk around a nearby national park. After the talk we made our way to the beach with just about everyone else in our group. After the beach we went home and showered then walked to the town and bought water. When we bought the water we walked back, I changed, and we walked back into town to get some dinner. We finished dinner and met up with our group as they were ordering food at another restaurant, we met the new people to the group that joined this morning. Then we walked back to our room and got ready for bed.

Sean: We are back in adventure mode today! I think everyone is glad that we got going on our travels! Puerto Viejo is a cool Caribbean town and filled with backpackers and mosquitoes. So far the weather has been perfect for us, which is unusual in this part of the country this time of year (or any time really). I will consider us very lucky if we get another sunny day tomorrow. Well, I must keep my post short tonight; I am fighting a slight stomach bug, if you know what I mean…Oh and Jackie you would be interested to know there are lots of stray animals for you to neuter here J