Two weekends ago I went back to Nicaragua to the beach at San Juan del Sur. There was a Harley Davidson gathering going on in the town and there were lots of motorcycles around from all across Central America and probably some from the States. I went on Saturday night to a bar where they had a live band. They covered a lot of old rock, such as Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones and they were really good. The guitar player especially was impressive.

Last weekend I took the Monday off of work to go down to the Caribbean for three days. I left Friday afternoon with a friend from Bagaces and arrived late in San Jose. We woke up early to catch the 6:00 am bus to the Caribbean but we arrived slightly too late to grab a seat and were forced to stand the whole way. We got off in the town of Cahuita at about 11 am. Cahuita has one of last living coral reefs in Costa Rica so we decided to go snorkeling. We arranged a three hour tour with a local guide and headed out on his boat to the national park. There were a lot of waves which made the water somewhat cloudy but the reef was still full of fish. We saw a couple of manta rays and the floor was covered in big black sea urchins. After the tour we got on a bus to Puerto Viejo, which a half hour further south down the coast, where we found a place to stay for the night.

The next morning was cloudy and slightly drizzly but we rented bikes anyway. The bike rental place was the same place I went to the last time I was in Puerto Viejo. When I came in July the owner talked about his opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement and his plans for traveling to a protest where the president was speaking. However this time he was in a middle of an epileptic fit and was in no mood to talk. His neighbours had come over and were helping him and had called an ambulance. They were nice enough to rent bikes to us anyway, and we headed off after they assured us that they didn't need any help. We headed south along the coast and soon reached a large group gathered at the side of the road. We investigated and soon saw a sloth sitting on the ground right there. It must have come down to go to the washroom, which it does once a week, and was close enough to touch. It was the closest encounter with wildlife in Costa Rica yet. We continued along the coast and the surrounding jungle grew more and more thick. At times the sky was filled with vultures, more vultures than I had ever seen together at one time. I don't know if this was normal there but I wondered how they could find enough food to feed all of them. Eventually we came to a group of howler monkeys and started to take some pictures at the side of the road. However, looking closer at the jungle, we noticed that the undergrowth was one huge spider web and there were tens of big spiders all through the web. It seems that the jungle has no problem supporting large amounts of creatures. Continuing down the road we arrived at Manzanillo, a popular beach, which marked the southernmost extent of the road. This entire area at the edge of Panama is preserved as a reserve and seemed to attract a lot of Ticos on vacation. We were hungry and managed to find a very friendly, family-owned place, Soda Miskito. It was owned by an older Caribbean couple who cooked up some authentic Caribbean food. The husband, George, was very friendly and chatted with us while we ate. He brought out some of his special homemade chile sauce made from banana vinegar among other things. It was extremely spicy but very good. He promised to make a big batch for us to take the next time we came. After eating we returned to the beach and followed a jungle trail for as long as our bikes could take us. This area also had a coral reef which was vaguely related to the one in Cahuita, but lacking snorkeling gear, we were unable to see very much. The beach was very quiet despite there being a couple of howler monkeys hanging around and it was easy to spend an afternoon there. We returned the 11 km back to Puerto Viejo before dark and took the bikes back to the rental place. The owner was back from hospital and he was himself again. He told us he didn't remember anything from his fit and didn't understand where it had come from because he was taking his pills. He was just happy he hadn't bit his tongue that time. We thanked him for the bikes and went to get a sushi supper.

The next morning we tried to get our tickets early, but unfortunately we were too late again. Instead of standing the whole way we decided to get tickets to Puerto Limon and then take a bus to San Jose. This ended up working perfectly as we made the connection quickly and easily and we both had a seat for the entire trip. Eventually after 8 hours on the bus we made it back to Bagaces.