Off the Grid Mellow
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
1
96
110
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Puerto Viejo,
Province of Limon,
Costa Rica
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The green, yellow and gold of Jamaica/reggae/ganja is everywhere. The music is calypso and reggae. The food is Caribbean influenced, with jerk chicken, lots of coconut being used in dishes, and creole. The language has a Jamaican lilt and a Spanish cum English patois is spoken
Backpacker´s Hammock Hotel
. However, this is not quite the Caribbean. The beaches are brown (or black) sand, the water is rougher (hence its surf popularity) and there is more driftwood and dead coral right up to the beach. The coolest part, though, is the rain forest, which comes right up to the beach in parts, and has thousands of protected acres north and south of the town, including where I stared. The protected rainforest and animal preserve starts a couple of kilometers south of town down the potholed, unpaved, axle-breaking (I saw one such car) road. I was told that many of the people who live south of town like the hindrance the "road" provides because it keeps the area undeveloped and allows people to walk and bike it at night without worrying about speeding vehicles. In general, the people who lived and stayed in the "jungle lodges" south of town were the tree huggers. (The partiers, backpackers, and college vacation kids stayed in town.) I stayed at the Miraflores Jungle Lodge about 5 kilometers south of town and inside the preserve. The place is very rustic, with its few buildings barely visible from just feet away because the forest is so lush. some of the walls are more like suggestions of walls, instead consisting of drapes and bamboo curtains. In essence, the rooms (and shower) are open to the jungle. for example, I had a hummingbird in my room one morning and geckos to numerous to count. Accordingly, the beds have mosquito netting for the bed.
And, starting at around 5:15 a.m., the cacophony begins
Beach
. Bugs, geckos, birds, squirrels, sloth (or sloths? if they even make any sound), iquanas, red eyed frogs, and snakes (with their noisy slithering) all start up their morning serenade. But the bizarre, almost indescribable sound is that made by the male howler monkeys. They, duh, howl. But it sounds like a cross between wind working the canopy, uluating sufis, and a sound that Mulder would find otherworldly and Scully would at least find challenging to explain. It does not sound like it is made by one animal. Direction and distance are really difficult to place. One morning they were so loud I thought they were outside the room, so I dressed and grabbed my camera, but the sound was continually elusive. (I learned later they only come out of the canopy if they have to, like to cross a road that has been cleared.) Plus, they do this almost subvocal whooping that is not monodirectional, at least to my ears. Really fucking eerie, and really fucking cool to lie in bed listening to this early morning call to prayer by monkey muezzin.As an aside, though, the eco-friendly, recycled, for all I know organic so you can eat it, toilet paper sucks ass. Well, not quite, it barely even wipes ass it is so thin. I have to fold up about 10 sheets to get something thick enough that my finger won't poke through. Plus, it is brown. How can I tell when my ass is clean? In an unrelated thought, similar to the 2008 Chicken Little of global warming (article arguing that some 2008 events suggest global cooling) having replaced the Chicken Little of the 1970s of a New Ice Age (Wiki re scientists and mass media warning in the 1970s about global cooling), I was subjected to a discourse on banning plastic bags in New York, as San Francisco has done, but I executed the very difficult manuever (for me at least) called tact and did not remind the speakers how people just like them had concluded a mere 10 years ago that plastic was better than paper, see e.g
Coconuts are Good
. http://www.angelfire.com/wi/PaperVsPlastic/ . Trust me, Woody Allen's "Sleeper" (1973) will be borne out as correct:HAS HE (a cryogenically frozen man revived in 2173) ASKED FOR ANYTHING SPECIAL ?
YES, THIS MORNING FOR BREAKFAST.
HE REQUESTED SOMETHING CALLED WHEAT GERM, ORGANIC HONEY AND TIGER'S MILK.
[ Laughs ]
OH, YES. THOSE WERE THE CHARMED SUBSTANCES...THAT SOME YEARS AGO WERE FELT TO CONTAIN LIFE-PRESERVING PROPERTIES.
YOU MEAN THERE WAS NO DEEP FAT ?
NO STEAK OR CREAM PIES OR HOT FUDGE ?
THOSE WERE THOUGHT TO BE UNHEALTHY, PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE
OF WHAT WE NOW KNOW TO BE TRUE.
Returning to my exploits, or lack thereof, Puerto Viejo itself was slooooow. The summer high season doesn't start until July, and many establishments, restaurants, bars, etc. are not even open or were being renovated. I was the only guest at the lodge I stayed at. So I ate, drank, read and wandered, but have nothing particularly interesting to say about any of it. However, like the bars and restaurants, the beaches are deserted, if you like that, for planning your next vacation. Costa Rica is all about the eco-this and eco-that, and they do it well (and not having a military for 50 years in Latin America is amazing), even if I did not partake of much of it. And, with that, I am off to:
Bocas Del Toro archipelago, Panama
Comments
Sounds good except for Da' sand fleas
Sounds like it would be more peeps in July & August. Will be sure too stock up on Deet, OFF & Charmin if thats the case w/d S-F's & TP. Thanks for another good blog story, amigo !