Cahuita

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Trip Start Oct 22, 2006 Previous
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  Cahuita, Costa Rica
Saturday, October 28, 2006

October 26th - Rory's B-Day!
A birthday fly-fishing lesson by Kirk on the Caribbean Sea is a damn good way to spend such a day. We opted to stay in Costa Rica for the time being because the threat of rain was going to ruin a trip to tropical islands, especially when we could drink 40s in Puerto Viejo in the perfect drinking spot. We found a 6´X 10´ deep spot within the reef that made for the perfect lounging spot.
At around noon we realized it was too early to be drinking and that some sort of activity was in order; perhaps a 2 mile walk to Finca la Isla Botanical Garden with Bobby and Kirk (the Canadian couple from San Jose) and a new Canadian couple - Jeremy and April. Those bastard are everywhere down here. Well...the garden was closed, so it was back to the hole in the sea with some 40s where Rory invented a version of "Will it Float," but when beer is involved it must be appropriately titled "Sink or Drink." Basically the game is in the name; place some bets and see whether or not it floats or sinks. It's a great game until everyone's bottle starts to float - it sort of takes the suspense out of the game.
The day continued in pretty much the same manner with food and beer being consumed quite regularly throughout the day before retiring to our hammocks, which make for a surprisingly comfortable sleep.

The next morning we picked up some bikes and snorkel gear to hit the beach, but first of all we had unfinished business at the botanical garden. The brochure we had picked up advertised poisonous frogs, sloths, toucans, white-faced monkeys, cocoa trees, and banana orchards.
After paying our five bucks entry and walking through the first section (potted plants) we realized we had just paid money to walk through someone's backyard. A nice backyard, but not exactly five bucks, especially since the toucans and sloths were nowhere to be seen. Although at the end of the tour you get 4 ounces of generic juice and a sliver of pure chocolate...just about enough to spoil one's appetite. We did get to see some poison dart frogs which natives used to use to kill their prey with, so it wasn't a total bust. If you lick the skin of two of these things you will die, so make sure to sign the waiver.
From there it was a 14km ride to the snorkel beaches of Manzanillo and Punta Uva, where we didn't see much of anything, but Rory may have seen a barracuda which almost made up for no sloths earlier in the day. Snorkeling soon became boring, but luckily Rory had another game in mind to pass the time, appropiately titled ¨beached manatee.¨ The goal of this game is to chill out in the surf and let it toss you around. First one to stop moving wins. For some reason Emmett kept going parallel to the shore instead of towards, which pretty much ends up in a big 0 in the win column.
When that game had run its course we jumped back on the bikes and headed back to the Purto Viejo. Along the way we came across a group of white-faced monkeys, no admission fee but also no poop throwing, playing around in the trees. We were finally getting to see some wildlife instead of mosquitos and no-see-ums. (Oh yeah, the bug bite count is Rory - 10 Emmett - 223...but they're all pretty small. The good news is he is taking malaria pills that are 70% guaranteed to work...so things aren´t looking too good. That, and it looks like he has pox.
We decided it was time to get moving out of Puerto Viejo and make a little bit toward the turtle reserve in Tortuguero. We had planned busing up to Limon, about an hour and a half away, but everyone we talked to assured us we would get mugged. The general point of view amongst the locals was "Why do you want to go there?" "The crap if we know...it sounds exotic"
We opted instead for Cahuita, a two block town about a half hour from Purto Viejo. The one bar in town was showing game 5 of the series, (What happened to the American League) where we were joined by a crazy-drunk local and an even crazier drunk lady from Long Beach who kept laughing at extremely inappropriate times. It was a pretty good way to see the Cardinals win it though.

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