Costa Rica Part 1 - 8 days in Punta Uva (April 14-22)

We had a wonderfully relaxing 8 days in Punta Uva - about 7 or 8 km south of Puerto Viejo on the Carribean (or Atlantic) side of Costa Rica very close to the border of Panama. This side of Costa Rica is still quite undevelopedand has quite a bit different culture than the rest, because of the Afro-Carribean ancestry of the population. In the mid 19th century, the government decided to construct a railroad and contracted the services of the North American entrepreneur, Minor Keith, in exchange for 300,000 hectares of land in the Caribbean lowlands, plus other benefits. He established banana plantations on the land and workers were brought in from Jamaica to tend the plantations and build the railroad to make the port accessible from the interior of the country. This changed not only the physical environment -- which for thousands of years had been rain forest, but also the cultural milieu of the region. We noticed influences in everything from the food to the music & lifestyle. There is a more Reggae, carribean feel than the rest of the Tico populated Costa Rica. It seems to attract more young backpackers and aging hippies, not so much the overfed American tourist crowd that seems to flock to the Pacific side of CostaRica. There are no large resorts and the beaches are moderately deserted. We had a little 2BR 1BA cottage right on the beach. It was nice to fall asleep to the sound of the waves and to just hang out on the beach each day,without much to go do or 'see'. We quickly got adjusted to the new time zone and earlier schedule. Much different than Argentina, the sun rises around 5 or 5:30 a.m. and gets dark around 5 or 5:30 p.m. Since, we camefrom a time zone 3 hours ahead, it wasn't too difficult to adjust. We enjoyed many early mornings reading, spending time in the Bible and many nights playing backgammon after the kids went to bed. We ran on the beach, swam in the ocean and gave much needed haircuts to Doug & Hudson on the beach. There was no TV, phone or internet, which was nice. The 'green season' unfortunately came a little earlier than usual in this part of the country (usually comes in mid-May), so we had more rain than we would've liked and it could come for a few minutes or hours. The weather turned often, too - hard to predict. The weather forecast was never accurate. We, thankfully, had more sunny & dry days than not, though. When it rains in the rain forest, it really rains. We've never seen rain like that before. It literally pours.

our little house & dining room

there was no dining room inside, just a living area, small kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms, so we ate all our meals al fresco at the table under the thatched roof. The place was no bigger than the small apartments we'd had in Argentina, but because there was a yard and beach, it made all the difference!

having breakfast in our little dining room

part of the yard & parking area

the little walkway to the beach from our door

the beach right in front of our house was beautiful!

at twilight

having lunch at the little 'restaurant' 100 meters from our house

making another friend with a little girl whose parents are dairy farmers near San Jose, Costa Rica. They were on vacation for holiday.

Carribean style Costa Rican food was a nice change after so much beef

the first of many sand castles

the kids couldn't get enough of the sand and water

and Kerrigan wanted to eat it

not even dark clouds and rain could keep them away

another sand castle. This one was their seven-layer cake

Kerrigan had a little fall

some lovely Costa Rican spiders

they're quite big

some pretty Costa Rican flowers

a butterfly on Sutton's mosquito bitten leg. She & I got eaten alive by the mosquitos and it's not even supposed to be mosquito season.

poor Kerrigan hasn't had many places to sit. She can sit up by herself, but not always so surely, so without her carseat, she's had to sit in her stroller seat detached from the stroller.

about 300 meters from our house, we saw a three-toed sloth. I've decided that I'm saving up for a telefoto lens. Too many times, I've been frustrated that I can't get close enough - like this time.

Across the street from here, there were also a bunch of howler monkeys. It was so cool to hear them everyday. They are pretty small, but they sound like a bunch of giant gorrillas when they 'howl'

we heard and read that the roads are awful here, but still didn't expect them to be as bad as they are. There are so many potholes.

one of our 2 'hikes' in the two national parks. This was Cahuita National Park.

we saw an iguana. Again, no telefoto, so you'll have to look closely in the picture.

more holwer monkeys that were closer than the ones by our house.

these little crabs were everywhere in many colors

Manzanillo Beach and National Park - 5 km from our house

a beautiful beach here, too. Too bad it was cloudy that day.

fishing boats

the buddy

The landlords' 8 yr old daughter came to play on the beach with us one day. She brought boogie boards and we all had a blast boogie boarding.

The next day we met another family, from San Diego, that is here for 3 weeks. They had an 18 month old boy and a 3 yr old girl. They came over to our beach for the day, too, and the kids had so much fun playing together. We had a good time getting to know them, too. They are going to email me pictures from their camera. I didn't get any on my camera.

we went into Puerto Viejo a few nights for dinner.

Playa Negra in Puerto Viejo

more fishing boats there

Puerto Viejo at night

our new favorite -- Batidos Natural con leche - fresh fruit and milk and ice blended - Yum!

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a great restaurant in Puerto Viejo - El Loco Natural. I loved that they were health conscious and served healthy and yummy food - brown rice even :). We went there 2 nights, because it was so good.

The papayas are huge here and delicious

thankfully, our last day was beautiful weather!

Kerrigan napping on the beach in the stroller and Doug reading & relaxing. He found a used book store in Puerto Viejo that lets you trade books for cheap, so he traded the one he brought and read it in time to trade again before we left.

a tree swing