Bird is the word and rain is the bane!
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2006
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Trip End
May 01, 2006
Playa Negro Cahuita,
Costa Rica
Monday, March 27, 2006
Since our plans for sailing from Caulker to Placencia were a bust, and since the plans to sail on Lago de Izabel never came to be, and since we never did fly to the Corn Islands, we figured we could spend a bit of money. At least that is how we are justifying renting a full-blown house on the Caribbean!
Cahuita is a sleepy Caribbean beach village and the first "major" tourist destination you reach heading south of Limón. The boom going on in Puerto Viejo and the beaches south of Puerto Viejo have in many ways passed Cahuita by. Any way you slice it, Cahuita is one of the most laid-back villages in Costa Rica. The few dirt and gravel streets here are host to a languid parade of pedestrian traffic, parted occasionally by a bicycle, car, or bus
c1
. The village traces its roots to Afro-Caribbean fishermen and labourers who settled in this region in the mid-1800s, and today the population is still primarily English-speaking blacks whose culture and language set them apart from other Costa Ricans.
People come to Cahuita for its miles of pristine beaches which stretch both north and south from town. The southern beaches, the forest behind them, and the coral reef offshore (one of just a handful in Costa Rica) are all part of Cahuita National Park.
And the area is full of wild life..we canīt even count the number of different types of birds each day outside our door, rain or shine...hummingbirds of all kinds, parrots, toucans, and macaws. And then there are the agoutis and the sloths in the yard and hanging in the trees..itīs all quite fascinating. And talk about fruit...we have bananas, coconuts, pipa, satrfruit, grapefruit and limes, all in our little yard!
Playa Negra is a black sand beach in Cahuita, and it is where we are situated for the week. To explain the yard, we have a whole house which is a great change and a real luxury after guest houses with shabby rooms and shared cold water baths down the hall, or downstairs, or outside!
The bad news is that it has now been raining non stop for four days and nights...and not just the type of rain where you say the heck with it, and put on a coat or grab an umbrella and go about your business, this is rain like we have never seen before!!
We continue to pray for a little sun before we start our work with the turtles which will be our last real adventure before we head home.
