Puerto Viejo is a great town on the South Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. I arrived on Saturday early evening to Hotel Pura Vida (the Costa Rican motto meaning "pure life"). It was a great, spacious place owned by a Chilean-German couple a few blocks from the main street in town. The town itself has an interesting vibe as it is still very much Costa Rica, but also heavily influenced by Caribbean cultures like Jamaica. The people speak a patois more heavy in Spanish than English, but most are able to speak both fluently. The bars and restaurants are all full of reggae music, but also feature salsa at times.
The first few days I was in Puerto Viejo, I met a brother and sister from Chicago and two Canadian guys...it was nice to have an instant group of people to hang out with. Also, the locals were very nice and were eager to join us. It rained quite a bit throughout the week, but there were several days of beautiful weather where we were able to explore the beaches beyond the main beach in town.
One day, I took the bus to Cahuita by myself to explore the National Park. I was able to spot some howler monkeys in the trees and blue monarch butterflies as I walked through. The town itself was quite quiet, so I was pleased that I had decided to stay in Puerto Viejo the entire time.
Another day, the group of us rented a golf cart from town and went to the beach at Punta Uva where one of our friends was staying and then further on to Manzanillo...both beautiful, more secluded beaches with only a handful of places around.
The nightlife in town was great as well. I felt very safe going out with my group and we enjoyed getting to know the people and places around. It was cool to see the fusion of cultures in full force especially coming from the North and West of Costa Rica which are far more tourist oriented.
On Friday, Gretchen and her boyfriend arrived. It was great to add them to our group. Her boyfriend is from the West of Costa Rica, and he had a few friends who had moved to town so we had additional people looking out for us.
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