Balmy Army, Brazilians And We See A Sloth
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
52
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Puerto Viejo,
Costa Rica
Friday, December 7, 2007
Got on the drinks fairly hard, Nadine on the Imperial beers and me on a pirates concoction of Flor de Cana and Ron Centenario dark rum. Nadine had the mad staggers and retired early while i joined the crew for the mighty, international bonfire on the beach and played the bongos with the best of them. We met the Balmy Army, a mad crew of alcoholic, party animal, travellers who have grown to be a larger crew over time. The Brazilians from Monteverde were there too. We had a rum party. I sat and chatted to Mike the old hippy dude who filled my night with fascinating stories and joy. Nadine ordered dinner then went to bed so i had two meals. I ate Marlin fillet and then took the quesidillas to the crew on the beach who madly devoured the food, most have been living on rice and beans.
Today we went to Cahuita National Park where thousands of coconut palms line white sand next to a tranquil stretch of Caribbean Sea. We caught the right bus but got off at the wrong place. We did an 8km walk through tropical rain forest and SAW A SLOTH. Another thing to tick of the list of things to do in your life. Sloth...... tick. This little guy was a great, a little similar to a koala bear but larger with brown fur and a mushed up head that looks too small for the body.
1
This sloth was a two toed sloth and i have declared it my favourite animal now. This sloth was hard to spot in the canopy and i am sure we missed many more. We saw a cool little howler monkey and lots of lizards. At one part of the trail we came upon a chaotic scene in which a woman was furiously pegging large coconuts and hissing and screaming at a white faced monkey. It turns out the monkey had stolen her bag of clothes and dragged it into the forest. Other monkeys had taken a digital camera from the beach and i seriously suspect a secret monkey society, they are up in the canopy doing photo shoots and selling them printed on post cards to tourist stores. A random site was a gigantic boat, a brightly coloured, inflatable dragon floating with two people in it way out in the sea, they didn`t seem to have paddles. I guess the weed is really good here. Nadia tried it once but she didn`t inhale. Cahuita village has a free love reputation reinforced by gringa girl travellers who have come looking for a quick rasta fling.Another rum party was beginning at Rocking J`s so we decided to eat out first. We went to a locals restaurant and had grilled fish in Carribean sauce then chocolate and banana crepes, listened to Reggae and drank well made mojitos on the beach. I forgot how healthy it feels to eat more fish and less meat. We watched a rasta make a green coconut into a handbag shaped like a fish.
We returned to the rum party which turned out to be a hip hop theme and the crew dressed in bling and costumes. I had a smooth long island and settled in to the fire again. We met some great ladies from Kentucky in the United States and said goodbye to all our new buddies. The Brazilians have invited us to stay with them at their beach house in Brazil near Salvador.
We weren`t really up for the quick rasta fling so have decided to take the early bus out to the Panama border and cross to Bocas Del Toro.
