And the new leader in the clubhouse is… Puerto Viejo

When we set out on this adventure our top priority was learning Spanish, but a close second was seeing as much of Costa Rica as we can on weekends. Even on a three month trip there aren’t enough weekends to see all of the highlights of this beautiful country. This weekend’s destination was the region of Talamanca in the southern Caribbean zone. Our base of operations for this adventure was a cute apartment above a fantastic Italian bakery in Puerto Viejo.

A thing we are learning is that you really can’t take anyone’s word for anything. Everyone thinks that their corner of Costa Rica is the absolute best (with good reason) and, without in any way trash-talking other parts of the country, they sort of tacitly warn you about things you might find disappointing about other areas.

When we’ve told locals that we were planning to visit Puerto Viejo the first thing they always say is “It’s beautiful, but don’t walk on the beach after dark!” We’d heard that enough times that we were starting to wonder if we were headed for some sort of hot zone of crime. While we did not walk on the beach at 3AM, I’m pleased to report that it feels completely safe at all reasonable hours. In fact, Talamanca seems to be the least “fortified” area of Costa Rica that we’ve been to. Of course, the general rule of don’t leave anything valuable laying around still applies.

The other thing one hears about Puerto Viejo and points south is that there is a “Rasta vibe” which is code for “lots of pot smoking going on.” That does appear to be true. However the purveyors of marijuana are not at all aggressive. They say “Hola! Smoke?” and you either say “No, gracias.” or you say “Si…” I can report they are still pleasant after you say “No, gracias.” I don’t actually know what happens if you answer in the affirmative. We did encounter one enterprising young man who offered us a “sample” that he had readily burning by his side 🙂

We’ve also heard that Puerto Viejo is hot and humid and that there are tons of mosquitos. We can report that was NOT our experience! Puerto Viejo seems to be in the Goldilocks zone for climate. The highs when we were there were about 82 degrees Fahrenheit and the lows were around 72 degrees. We got a little rain Saturday and Sunday mornings, but it burned off by afternoon. We asked every local we met if this was normal weather or if we’d just gotten lucky. They all said it was normal. One person did say that in September the trade-winds die down and it can feel a “little warm”, but she immediately followed that up with “You have to see the ocean in September to believe it. It’s like a crystal clear swimming pool.”

Anyway… For a variety of reasons Puerto Viejo and the entire Talamanca region of Costa Rica have rocketed to the top spot of our favorites list. I will try to recount the good with the bad in chronological order (Spoiler alert: There’s nothing REALLY bad).

We set off directly from Spanish school on Thursday at 11AM. We felt like we were killing it. The Waze lady said we could expect a 4 hour and 30 minute drive.

And then we were at a dead stop!

We got through San Jose about 45 minutes behind schedule. The gridlock in San Jose was world class. It was truly a free-for-all. Because there are no traffic lanes everything is very tenuous and it’s pretty stressful.

Fortunately about 20 minutes after we exited San Jose we found ourselves entering the Braulio Carillo National Park. Braulio Carillo is a full on rain forest in the mountains southeast of San Jose. The trees are massive and every surface has something green growing on it.

Jill gave me the play-by-play because we were sharing the road with lots of buses and semis. The road sign below was one of the first we saw upon entering the park is an example of why driving here is not for the faint of heart.

As a bonus, apparently slides are not uncommon 🙂

I admit that I was fairly white-knuckled and ready to be out of the rainy mountains when we came upon what I can only describe as the Boss-Level. We came around the corner and were confronted with a tunnel and a semi coming out of it. Fortunately the tunnel was both well lit and appropriately striped.

We made it through the national park at about 1:30PM and were both famished. We stopped at a big open-air restaurant just outside the park. Much to our surprise it was a cafeteria-style establishment.

On the other side of Braulio Carillo National Park there is a road improvement project to add two more lanes to Ruta 32 all the way to the port city of Limon. Ruta 32 is the only route from Limon, Costa Rica’s major port city, to San Jose. That will bring the total number of lanes to… 4. Hard to tell when it will be done, but we did note on the way home today that they appear to be working 7 days per week

As we exited the mountains and the national park we entered Banano (yes they really call bananas bananos) Country.

We passed through several little towns on our way to Limon on Ruta 32 and after a while the banana mono-culture gave way to giant pineapple plantations. We happened to pass through this little town on the afternoon of the 28th. Look at the line at the ATM. Apparently the 28th is payday…

Costa Rica has quietly become the worlds largest exporter of pineapples. If you eat pineapple, there’s a better than even chance your pineapples have passed through the port city of Limon.

We finally arrived in Puerto Viejo at around 5PM, six hours after we left Spanish school. We had no trouble finding our AirBnB apartment above the De Gustibus Bakery. Luciano, the owner of the bakery, and his wife were our hosts. They were lovely. And their bakery is one of the best spots in Puerto Viejo to start your day with coffee and pastries.

Our apartment was great. The bedroom was air-conditioned, which is how people commonly do it here. The only hot water in the apartment was an on-demand hot water heater on the shower head. Very practical and comfortable!

We had about an hour before dark so we headed off on a stroll around town. Puerto Viejo stretches along about a mile of water front, but most of the town is in about a 5 block area.

We consulted Trip Advisor and found our way to Koki, a lovely restaurant with a great open-air beach view. We caught a one-of-a-kind purple sunset and had a great dinner.

We made our way back to our apartment and fell into bed, both exhausted from the journey.

We were up with the sun on Friday. One of the upsides of staying above a bakery is that your first sensory experience each morning is the smell of baking bread. The downside is that they start baking well before they open the doors. We checked the clock and realized we had 45 minutes before they opened so we set out on foot to find Play Cocles, which is just south of the town.

In true Caribbean fashion, everything is decorated. Even foot paths over the gutters.

There were chickens roaming around the rental car inventory.

Here’s the only real knock on Puerto Viejo and Talamanca. They’re maybe 20 years behind the rest of the country in terms of infrastructure. They only got electricity 20 years ago. Our opinion is that generally increases the charm, but with one exception: the rubbish situation. It’s not that there’s trash “everywhere”, but it does appear that trash gets dumped on vacant lots. We talked to several locals and learned that the issue has two main causes:

• There’s been a shift from organic waste and recycled glass bottles to inorganic waste and plastic bottles. Not too long ago, residents would take their lunch to work wrapped in a banana leaf and any store-bought drinks came in re-fillable glass bottles.
• The growth in tourism has led to an explosion of trash.

The province of Limon, which encompasses Talamanca is playing catch up. There is now weekly trash pickup. It wasn’t enough to sour us on Talamanca, but it really puts the problem of inorganic waste front and center. Residents are trying to become part of the solution. We ate at a restaurant last night that only uses returnable/re-fillable bottles. And all but one of the restaurants where we had straws had already switched to paper straws.

After a short walk through a rainforest trail we arrived at Playa Cocles!

We made it back to the bakery for cappuccinos and big-as-your-head breakfast sandwiches on freshly baked bread, then we headed for the Jaguar Rescue Center, which is a local non-profit operation that rehabilitates orphaned animals and re-introduces them into the wild.

The rescue center was south of town so after we were done we took the coast road down to the town of Manzanillo, where we stopped for lunch at a great little place called the Cool and Calm Cafe, where we listened to reggae music and drank Imperial beer. I had Pollo Caribe (basically Jerk Chicken) and Jill had fish tacos. My favorite juxtaposition of the trip was speaking Spanish to the full-on Rasta proprietor of the cafe and having him compliment me on my Spanish 🙂

Then we walked across the street. Literally across the street. To this!

Continuing with the beach theme, when we got back to Puerto Viejo we posted up at Johnny’s Beach Bar.

After Johnny’s we went back the apartment and got a quick nap in and showered for dinner. After making the obligatory first stop at the souvenir establishments, we dined at Cafe Viejo, based on a recommendation from Luciano, who knows all of the Italians in Puerto Viejo. Cafe Viejo serves up delicious pasta and pizza. Apparently neither of us thought to take any blog-worthy pictures there.

Saturday morning we awoke to the soothing sound of rain on the roof of our apartment. We lounged in bed until the bakery opened and then claimed a table with a nice view of the people bustling by in the rain. We indulged in the cappuccino habit that we picked up in Florence while traveling with my parents a while back. For about a half an hour it felt like we were in Italy instead of Costa Rica.

As mentioned in previous posts, we’ve been grinding hard on Spanish so I decided I was up for ordering a ham and cheese omelette for the two of us to split. I mustered up my courage and said “Quisieramos un omelette de jabon y queso para compartir” (We would like a ham and cheese omelette to split). I got a “Claro!” and was instantly overly-pleased with myself. Poco a poco.

You see neat stuff in Costa Rica. This guy was right outside the bakery in the rain.

Puerto Viejo has a healthy population of globe-hopping youths from lots of countries. They mostly stay at hostels. There are certain times of day where the hostels must tell them they all have to get out. They showed up in a gaggle at the bakery yesterday morning.

As the rain let up we went for a walk around town. The scene below plays itself out all over Costa Rica daily. There must be a class where these linemen learn to lean their ladders up against live wires. I watched one of the guys on the ground climb halfway up the ladder to hand the guy at the top something. It just makes my stomach hurt.

After I couldn’t watch the linemen anymore, we walked a little further and found what must be the cutest parada de autobus (bus stop) in the whole of Costa Rica. This bus stop pretty much epitomizes Puerto Viejo (and why we love it).

In case you have any questions about the bus schedule:

On the way back to our apartment we stopped for a little swinging.

Once back at the apartment we loaded up the day pack with bug spray, sunscreen, water bottles, and snacks and set off for Cahuita National Park, which is about 20 minute drive north of Puerto Viejo. We stopped and had a nice lunch at a restaurant outside the gates of the park and then set off for what was my favorite day-adventure of the trip.

This is the entrance to Cahuita National Park. There’s no required fee for entry, they request a voluntary donation.

Below is a map of the park. We entered at about 12:30PM and the park closes at 4PM so we walked from the big red dot by Cahuita to Punto Cahuita and back (about 7 km round-trip).

Even in a country as beautiful as this one, Cahuita is a gem. Super accessible.

We walked the trail in.

Then we walked the shoreline back.

We saw Capuchin monkeys and howler monkeys and fantastic large-beaked birds. Full disclosure, we also each got a couple of mosquito bites. But those were the only mosquitoes we encountered on the trip.

We made it back to our apartment and got cleaned up for dinner and walked to Koki’s for a reprise happy hour from our first night before we headed to a second location for dinner.

Another reason we wanted to head to Puerto Viejo is the food. As I’ve said before, the food in Costa Rica is generally perfectly adequate but by no means the main draw of coming here.

Puerto Viejo has a reputation for comida mas interesante (more interesting food). We’d also heard from Profesora Maria that Puerto Viejo has a unique kind of empanada called Pati that we absolutely must try.

So on the way to happy hour at Koki, we made it a point to track down a Pati (Editorial note: the creole spelling is apparently Patty).

I was a little skeptical. I mean an empanada is an empanada, right? Nope. Pati is a curry empanada that is out of this world. It’s kind of like a super juicy samosa. Jill and I split a Pati de Carne and it was so good. As is my lot in life, I managed to burn my tongue on the hot filling, but I’d do it again.

Seemed like a lot of work just to get to happy hour, but when we finally got our mojitos it felt like they were well-earned.

After a mojito at Koki we trundled down to Stashus Con Fusion for some Thai fusion food.

As Meghan our server rattled off the specials we didn’t let her get past the drink specials… Wait? Your special drink is a ginger pear martini? Why, yes, two of those please.

I had a coconut tandoori chicken that was to die for and Jill had curry that she loved as well. We finished with a passion fruit cheese cake. You may recall that we are smitten with the passion fruit tres leches cake at Pizzeria la Finca in Atenas. We are now two-for-two on passion fruit desserts.

We woke up to a light rain again this morning and had a leisurely breakfast at the bakery and then turned in our keys to Luciano’s wife and started the trek home. Within the first 15 minutes of our drive we saw toucans fly across the road three times. As we say in Costa Rica: Por dicha!

Shortly after we entered Braulio Carillo National Park we were at a dead stop.

After about 15 minutes we were rolling again and had smooth sailing all the way home from there.

Final thoughts on Puerto Viejo and Talamanca:

We went into this weekend slightly negatively biased, just based on what we’d heard. None of the drawbacks we’d heard about put in an appearance. Talamanca appears to be the most diverse area of Costa Rica that we’ve seen. The Rasta folks seem to get along well with the more traditional Ticos and they both get along with visitors. Plus there’s an international flavor we haven’t experienced elsewhere (Americans plus Canadians doesn’t rise to the level of “international”). We were at the Jaguar rescue with Italian, German, French, and Swiss travelers and we heard lots of German being spoke on the streets.

The scenery is jaw dropping. The beaches are pristine and sparsely populated. Plus having Cahuita and other National Parks nearby has David Attenborough narrating the soundtrack in my head.

And the weather… If what we experienced really is typical weather then someone is just telling lies about how hot it is to keep people away.

Internet speeds are perfectly adequate (20 mb down and 12 mb up with 150ms latency over LTE).

The only two drawbacks are the rubbish situation and the fact that it’s a HIKE from San Jose. The drive will get better as the road project reaches completion. There’s also a domestic airport in Limon which is only an hour by car from Puerto Viejo.

At this point Puerto Viejo is the leader in the clubhouse. Ojochal, La Fortuna, Playa Santa Teresa, and Playa Potrero are still out on the course and it will be interesting to experience each of them.

One final plus for Puerto Viejo is that our ritual search for a keepsake skipped the traditional step of me sweltering. The climate in Puerto Viejo really does appear to be magical! At any rate, I present to you the Blue-Crowned Motmot of Puerto Viejo. The blue-crowned motmot is our favorite bird that we see on a regular basis in the wild. We will find a place to hang it when we head home to Austin and every time we see it we will think of Puerto Viejo 🙂