Cahuita
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
79
115
Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
Cahuita,
Costa Rica
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
When we got to Cahuita it was starting to get dark, so we walked into the village to find a place to stay. We found a place for $20 a night, with private bathroom and hot water. It is clean and the people are really friendly. We both loved Cahuita straight away. It is a tiny place with the beaches on your door step and reggae music blasting out from all directions! We had a great meal and a few beers for about $8 US each, so it was cheaper than we had expected.
The beach in the National Park
Next day (16th) we went for a walk in the National Park, which is about a 2 minute walk from the village. They work on a donation system here, so at least we didnīt have to pay the $6 US we had read in the book. We made our donation and went on our way. It was amazing, the first views of the Caribbean sea and the white candy beaches, but with no hotels or bars or people trying to sell you things - just peaceful. Within 2 minutes of walking we had also seen our first sighting of Capuchin monkeys, there was even a tiny baby one - so cute!
We also heard lots of Howler monkeys and we saw amazing crabs - blue crabs. I have never seen such beautiful crabs before. We saw a viper snake as well and a huge blue butterfly, cant remember the name of it, but I saw it in the jungle too. It is like a metallic blue and massive, so pretty.
We walked for about 4km, but the weather started getting worse and we decided to head back. On the way back we saw Howler monkeys in a tree on the beach, they were so close to us and we got some great photos and we also saw some more Capuchin monkeys on the way back too. Oh and I saw my first hermit crab too.
Capuchin Monkey
I love Costa Rica!!!! But then the rain set in and it continued until we left pretty much. We were supposed to be going snorkeling, but it got cancelled because of the weather. We also tried to go to the Sloth Refuge (in the rain) and when we got there we found out we could not afford to go in. We read in the book that you could pay about $5US and just look around, but a very unfriendly man told us we would have to pay at least $15US each and we just couldn't afford it. I would love to have seen the Sloths and given a small donation, but the guy just put me off. So having gone all that way we then had to wait nearly an hour in the pouring rain for the next bus back! Not a very successful afternoon.
It rained all the next day too, so we decided to chill with a bottle of wine and very nice it was too.
It would have been nice to see the coast and the sea in the sunshine, but at least we had a great first morning and got to see lots of things.
