puerto viejo

Oh the joys of backpacking travel! Kristin and I arose nice and early at 5:50am to catch the first bus ride of the day to San Jose. We most certainly have travel karma on our side! We arrived at the bus, put our luggage underneath it and went to purchase tickets ($4 each!) when the agent said the bus was full. Thankfully, a party of 2 did not want their "standing room only" seats so we grabbed theirs and hopped on the bus. Luckily, we were able to snag 2 seats next to one another and just hope that no one with the assigned seat above would arrive to kick us out. We made it to the connection stop (two hours away) and transferred to a different and even smaller bus where one of us inevitably had to stand. Having not felt so hot the night prior, I got the seat and Kristin stood until a lady got up to exit an hour later. Thanks, Pookie!

When we arrived in San Jose, we got off the bus and grabbed a taxi with these two Irish girls, Karen and Julie, to the next bus. Between the 4 us made each of our shares only $1 (or 500 colones) each. Turns out they stayed at our same hostel in Monteverde and are going to be staying at the same hostel in Puerto Viejo, Rocking J's. I must say its nice traveling in a bigger group. For one, it's cheaper but for two, the more english people you're surrounded by helps you feel a little less, well, foreign. The bus made a stop in Limon, a grungy little town on the Caribbean side not worth visiting. After a quick stretch and toilet break we were on the road again to finish our 4.5 (or technically 9) hour journey to our final destination.

Puerto Viejo de Talmanca is a very "rasta" town in the Caribbean side that exudes the Bob Marley spirit. It's incredibly laid back party vibes are what calls it's backpacking travelers to visit. It's also the perfect departure city in between Costa Rica and Bocas del Toro in Panama.

The transition between bus and arrival didn't improve much. We all checked in to our hostel and were not impressed with the facilities. No air conditioning, jail cell bars posing as a window with a sheet covering, mirrors all over the room, a fan that we had to prop with a water bottle for it to sit right and a cozy top bunk double bed. Needless to say, not impressed. The grounds however were very unique. It was located right off the ocean and had mosaic tiles covering the entire surface of the facility. If you didn't want splurge on the $26 private room ($13 a piece) or a $11 bunk... There were tent and canopy sleeping arrangements as options as well.

We walked into town for an ATM and had dinner at Tex Mex for an unimpressive meal. The supermarket was our next stop... If we were going to sleep here, it was going to require us to be good and drunk. We stocked up on a few liters of Clos boxed wine and water before getting a taxi back to the hostel. (Even though it was only a short walk, we had been advised not to make that walk past dark.) A town that makes you feel all warm and safe inside, right? The rest of the right was spent playing drinking games with the girls and these Israeli boys, Bar and Alone. They ventured into town while Kristin and I took a sleeping aid and retired for the night in our cozy little room.

We woke up the next day feeling impressively refreshed and decided to make it a beach day. So it was off to the supermarket for picnic items before riding out bikes to Playa Cocles,the nice beach just south of town and our hostel. It was a gorgeous day to get our bronze on! The beach was lovely, clean with soft sand and warm blue water. We stayed there until late afternoon when Kristin and I went back into town to do some souvenir shopping. Can I tell you how obsessed we are with those Pura Vida bracelets? We bought multiple to wear along with those we purchased in each town we had visited earlier.

The night to follow was a wild one! To say our hostel was a party hostel would be a mild understatement and out fellow backpackers were out in full force! Kristin, Karen, Julie ad I munched on nachos while playing a few card drinking games before we were launched into a large game of flip cup followed but multiple rounds of free shots from the owner. When 10pm hit, the 30+ of us went to Mangos and danced the night away.