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)))
So at that point I decided I would push forward.

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. ☺ 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 ...

... handmade leather sandals, some gifts, and stuff for myself. We were also all incredibly bored and realized that there was a First Baptist Church in town, so we decided to attend their service, which luckily was in English. The church was so primitive, it was a little concrete rectangle and there was no stained glass or anything elaborate. The congregation consisted of maybe 15 people, and the preacher was a woman ...

... toilette est propre, mais tu restes dedans, plus tu risque d´attraper dengue ou fièvre jaune. Prenant la douche necesite habilités spécials pour balancer car une partie del sol n´existe plus. Le lendemain, nous avons decidé de decouvrir la finca en esperant de trouver màs de nourriture. On a trouvé plein de fruits exotiques comme le jackfruit, durian, zapote, raisin d´amazona, avocat, etc. On a marché et marché pendant 3 heures, a travers ...

... Bocas del Toro as we had a few changes along the way. Bocas, as the area is known, is a cluster of Islands in the Caribbean off the coast of Panama and close to the Costa Rican border. We headed up to David bus station and were herded onto a bus straight away for Changuinola our first drop off point. When we arrived at Changuinola our friendly bus driver showed us where to get the bus to Calle 60 ...

... Vargas, the beaches were pretty much untouched and it was just so pleasing to walk on - swaying palm trees, torquoise waters made it very Caribbean! As the reef ended, the sea gave way to bigger waves lashing in. Near the end of the trail we got the best sighting of a sloth yet and it was moving - slowly up a tree. Though we had to wait about 45minutes on a bus to take us back, it was a really nice day oot. Onwards now to Puerto Viejo.