Observe & Report

After our few days in Quepos, we went back up to Jaco to see ‘our new friend’ Lisbeth again (she’s actually Kate´s friend Annie’s friend but we have both adopted her because she is cool, has great English and is a and is a sponsored surfer!). She took us to Playa Hermossa – a good surf beach where there was a surf photographer taking photos for the magazines. It meant we got to see Jaco’s best surfers in action which was pretty cool!

From Jaco we bused to the Caribbean coast, we´d heard Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is wicked so we wanted to check it out!

The Carribbean Coast of Costa Rica is really different from the Pacific side! The locals are definitely ‘Carribbean’ Costa Rica with a whole difference look, more dreads etc. The Carribbean coasts is also much less developed, less set up for tourists, has more traditional accomadation, eating places etc. All the locals are very, very chilled out, no one is in a hurry to do anything!

We stayed at Rocking J’s backpackers in Puerto Viejo Talamanca – near the very bottom of the Caribbean Coast. The backpackers was according to Kate ‘a bit hippy commune-ish’ however I thought it was more like the cafe’s Deluxe and Middnight Expresso and Havana Bar in Wellington all rolled into one! Everything was covered with crazy broken up bright colored tiles forming mosaic murals all over the walls, floor and most surfaces, with random furiture etc everywhere! There were rooms with rows of hamocks you could rent for $4 (US) a night!

We rented bikes and rode further down the coast to through the edge of the rainforest to Manzanilla, a more isolated and totally awesome beach. The bikes were classic, 70´s streamlined designs – I´ll post some action photos soon!

Then before we knew it we were saying goodbye to the beaches and having our last great Costa Rican breakfast (tropical fruit and strong coffee) and catching the bus back to San Jose!

We are waiting now to go to the airport so we can catch the plane back to New York.

Adios Amigos!