Puerto Viejo

What another amazing weekend. Another bright and early Friday morning to catch the 5 hour bus to Puerto Viejo. This time there was 15 of us that went! What a great group of people. Let me break it down a little. There were 4 from Germany, 4 from France, 3 from Belgium, 1 from London, 1 from Italy and 2 from the USA. What a mix! It really is great getting to know people from other countries. On the way to Puerto Viejo I sat next to Robert who is from London. We talked about all different things but mostly we talked about London. He told me when I go back the places I need to visit and it was such a cool thing to know some of the things he talked about, because I have been there!

Once in Puerto Viejo we went and found our hotel Pura Vida (perfect name for it) which had such a homey feeling to it. The owners spoke German Spanish and English so pretty much everyone could talk to them and understand. The owners we're such great company. They knew us all by name with in the first hour of us being there. The rooms they had were roomy and very clean. Denise and I even had our own bathroom! So nice. Everyone checked in and changed into our suits and we headed straight for the beach. Or so we thought. Where we though it would be a good place to swim ended up having a lot of reef close to shore making it difficult to swim. So we just decided to walk along the beach until we could find a better place to swim. Well let me tell you that turned into quite the adventure. Some parts we could only walk through water because there was no sand or beach to cross then we even had to trek through some of the forest. We didn't worry though because we had a guard dog leading the way. And when I say guard dog he truly was, he chased away a crab that was blocking our way! ( well he tried to play with it first but, is girls decided he was the official guard dog) It felt like a very long time had passed, when in reality only about 25 minutes had we made it to the beach where a few others from school were hanging out. Everyone spent most of the day at the beach and in the water.

Around 430 or so we all were starving and decided it was time to go back get showers and go out for the evening. We went to a local place for dinner that served different types of seafood. The server recommended a dish called Mariscado. It was different types of seafood in a buttery sauce. Wow was it delicious! After dinner we went in search of a place for cocktails. It wasn't very hard to find. There are places all down the main road. We ended up at a place called Tex Mex and because there was free tequila shots for the girls. Of course, right? It ended up being pretty fun. We played pool with people we met and then the best part of the whole night happened. A sloth came through the bar! A sloth! It was the coolest thing ever, it came right over my head, I could reach up and touch it if I wanted to. It was so cool!

Denise and I then had an adventure of our own. Walking home in the pouring rain because we forgot our umbrellas and the rain wasn't stopping anytime soon. We get back to the hotel and feel as though I just showered with all my clothes on!

Denise and I got up early the next morning to go to the Jaguar Rescue Center. It was a twenty minute ride by bike and we had to hurry the tour started at 930 and it was 9 when we left to go rent the bikes! Not to worry though, we made it on time for a guided tour. I am so glad we did, it was a wonderful experience. The beginning not so much with all the snakes, spiders and more snakes. The rest of the tour is what we were there for. They had baby sloths and monkeys. I got my picture taken with a baby sloth. Then the best thing happened when he was talking to us about the monkeys, he told us we actually got to go in and play with the baby monkeys! I almost peed myself I was so ecstatic. They loved me! Two of them kept crawling all over me and the other sat on my head! I was in absolute heaven! It was so amazing to be able to play with the baby monkeys. There were also baby two and three toed sloths, which was really cool as well.

Once we finally left the Rescue center we went back to the beach and stayed most of the day again. At one point I fell asleep and was woken up by this little tongue on my arm. I looked up and it was the cutest puppy ever. She rolled over when I looked at her and wanted to play. It was so funny. She didn't like the water though! It definitely made me miss my own puppies!

That night we had dinner and then we all headed to the beach to hang out a little bit and drink on the beach. We then went to a local club. It was a great place for dancing!

Denise and I got up the next morning and headed back to San Jose. Good thing we did because it ended up raining the whole 4 1/2 hour bus ride. It was good to get back home and relax Sunday evening.