Atlantida Lodge Cahuita

We left the sandy beach town of Cahuita early for some white water adventure along the Rio Pacuare. My mother had experienced white water rafting on the Columbia River once before and had very fond memories, but we were not quite prepared for what lay ahead.  We drove to a little town just past the main town of Puerto Limon to meet our guides. They were all locals with Juan as the raft leader, Marvin our driver, and another guy whose name we can't remember! However ...

... meanders though more than 8 kms of palms, sea grape trees, sea almond trees and a gazillion other gorgeous, old trees. I realized after about 20 minutes of walking that I had left my large water bottle at the hotel. Uh oh. That was muy stupido. (((sigh)))<br>So at that point I decided I would push forward.<br><br>Fortunately, at least for a little distance into the trail, there were occasional restroom buildings with water faucets that I was able to rehydrate at. Normally I do not drink ...

... by the side of the road - big semi trailers. Then I noticed heaps of containers from these trucks stacked on sites beside the road, so many. I wondered whether they were coming from freight ships coming from the Panama canal or if they were from north or south America coming overland. Lots of wondering. &#9786; A huge truck went past our bus carrying part of a mammoth tree trunk which was upsetting. I'm not sure if it had died naturally or not but it would have ...

... began, a dog, black in color showed up, this one named socks. She was waiting at the gate, as if she knew we had arrived and would befriend her. I fed her and she was very friendly, laid down and followed me around. I was happy, animals are wonderful. Ed got up and I told him the dogs had arrived. Before we got outside, two more showed up. We had, from the emails received, seen photos of them from Sue. We had Socks, Smiley and Stripes ...

... right by the park entrance and it's good. We had the strange experience of eating that night in a local restaurant serving sort of Chinese and showing the 10 Commandments on the tele. This matches SpiceGirls World in a soda (cafe) in La Fortuna for bizarreness. I'm now also convinced rubber boots are national dress here partic with the rain, the muddy paths and dirt roads. Monday is sunny and we have a good trek in National Park ...

... but it worked, as the town, very chilled out, was a gem. The beach had black sand, it was pretty funny rolling in it and see ourseves covered in what seems-to-be dirt. Costa Rica is more expensive than most countries in Central America, but looks like we are going to have a great time here.

... After the worst shower of my life, I think the water must have been chilled to be so cold, we thought it might be nice to head into San Jose for dinner rather than just stay at the hostel so we passed through the barbed, guarded iron gates in search of some cuisine. We headed for the area that we had been in earlier but couldn`t find a restaurant that appealed so we kept walking. As we did the oggles and calls, to the girls again for some reason ...

... the beach (too much foot traffic, too likely to be found by predators, etc.). We then walk down the beach, in two columns, taking care to follow our guide's footsteps so as not to either injure ourselves or disturb a turtle egg pit. After a bit of walking, we sit on the beach and wait. The rain drizzles slowly, punctuated by occasional flashes of lighting and cracks of thunder. After a half hour or so, we get our chance. A leatherback slides up ...

... after dinner we spent the night at the local bar-club dancing to reggae and salsa..well some of us danced... ok only the girls danced. the boys sat at the bar with the beers. Today I rented a bike and most of us on our group headed down the main road that follows the ocean and we went beach hopping... it was a great day and crazy bike ride... its soooo hot here we had to stop at every beach along the maybe 12km ...