Put Da Straw In Da Coconut

We left San Jose this morning to take a coach bus over to the Eastern coast to Limon, then down to a smaller coastal town, Puerto Viejo. The bus ride itself was not awful, although the heat and curvy road made it difficult to ward off any motion sickness.

I was surprised at the condition of the road there– we have read in blogs, forums, and travel books that the drive from San Jose to PV was full of potholes, prone to landslides after rain, and so narrow that anytime you passed an oncoming vehicle you could drive off the side of the mountain. It was very well-paved, though, completely dry with no sign of landslides or loose boulders, and although narrow, it was not narrow enough to make me fear for my life. This made me very happy.

Some ticos drinking their morning coffee in San Jose.

We had been in SJ since Tuesday, but most people go directly from the airport to another area of the country, or stay a night until they get transportation out of the city. So, the bus ride was the first place we had really seen any tourists since arriving in Costa Rica.

Finally stepping off the bus and into salty ocean air, we were ecstatic to be out of the city. The place we’re staying  is a house with a full upstairs apartment and two hotel-like rooms downstairs. We have a hammock outside our front door [which I’m typing this from right now– aren’t you jealous?!] and a black sand beach is directly down the gravel drive.

There’s a clear water, white sand beach about a 20 minute walk away, so we immediately changed after dropping our things and took a hike down the main road through town. A trail runs along the coast that we eventually jumped onto and that lead us to this beautiful, quiet beach called Playa Cocles, where we dipped into the water for a nice afternoon cool-down.

The gravel drive leading directly down to the water.

The view off of Playa Cocles.

Tonight we went to a restaurant recommended by our host, Alexander, called Stashus Con Fusion. It was so amazing— one of those meals that you pause between bites to absolutely savor every flavor of it.
I had the special which was a macadamia-encrusted tilapia with a white wine and chocolate sauce served with a couscous side that was so delish, and Jason had an awesome guava green curry chicken dish that was super tasty. It was certainly a splurge [considering what we’ve been paying for food lately] at about $50, but tomorrow morning we’ll go to the farmers’ market to buy veggies and fruit for the week, which will put us back on budget.

The air here is even more humid than SJ, which is bringing mosquitoes and other creatures, like frogs, into our little casita. And I’m unsure whether my hair, or anything else for that matter,  is even going to dry at all since it’s still wet and my shower was 2 hours ago. But I don’t care– I’ll just keep sipping my coconut water straight out of the coconut, listen to the waves roll in, and everything will be just fine.