Puerto Viejo and the Nicaraguan Fiasco

I just got back from a two night stay in Puerto Viejo, a beachside town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, about 2 miles from the Panama border. I left on Thursday, right after a trip to the Nicaraguan embassy where I was told after all my worrying that we didn't need a visa to travel, and we arrived at around 8 pm. The bus was a colorful place, as I eavesdropped on some other Americans tales of getting thrown into a Mexican prison or something... Meg and I booked it to Rocking J's Hammock Hotel when we got there, and experienced a complete blackout half way down the road. Super scary. I was kind of on edge that first night because I have heard a lot about Puerto Viejo - robbers, drug dealers, weed on every corner (well that one was actually true). But it was fine. We got to the hostel and rented a tent (indoor tent, see photos for explanation) for $6 a night. The place was huge, with about 50 tents for rent, 100-150 hammocks for $4 a night, and for the splurging budget traveler, rooms for about $20 a night. All gringos, but the majority from Europe. Basically a giant hippie/tourist commune. Somehow 6 showers served everyone if you know what I mean. And if you don't... no one showered. Nice bar, complete with a "No Tabs Allowed" sign - and as Meg says, that means "Pay me now, bitch."

We went to bed kind of early, but then woke up at 7:30. We had some fire breakfast of something with egg, tortilla chips, tomatoes, onions, etc. Then we decided to walk to the beach. Meg had been there last week, so she had deemed a place on the beach "Meg's Cove" and it was perfect and deserted. We had our own little strip of land all to ourselves. We stayed there until lunch time, and then decided to go back to J's and rent bikes so we could bike down to Punta Uva, about 3 km from the Panama border. And boy oh boy was that an adventure. Meg hadn't been on a bike for a long time, and a combination of that, gravels roads, and poor steering on the bikes, she fell about 3 times and I was exhausted after 5 minutes. But we made the 6 km ride to Punta Uva and found Ellen's Alcove, another deserted beach that was all to ourselves. Except when the topless Spainards came. Haha. We went home, on the treacherous road, had some food and found another fellow gringo student who is studying at UNA, Brad. We all chilled for the night, got some food at Elena Brown's, and I feel asleep to a live band playing Hotel California.

Woke up this morning to go on an 11 o'clock bus, but of course it was full. We ate at Pan Pay and discovered that our stupid Nicaragua tickets aren't for Sunday at noon, but rather Monday at 3:30 am. F%#$! So I was very very very upset and just wanted to go home. Meg decided that she was going to stay another night. I took a bus to Limon and was met by my host uncle Carlos who lives there. He took me first to where he works/the radio station he owns - Radio Casino. It's broadcast for Limon out of a pretty ghetto recording studio. But it was cool to see. Then he took me to the bus station so I could get a bus to San Jose. He had to loan me money because all the ATMs were jam-packed and I had used the $20 for the weekend that I had alotted. Thank goodness for extended family :) On the bus, I met two guys from New York (one of which went to Northwestern and asked me if I went to New Trier after I told him I was from north of Evanston) and I helped them along there way to the Nicoya penisula.

And now I'm home, a little burnt on my back, and upset because I'm only going to be able to be in my community for 2.5 days. I hate Central Americans buses and the lack of ability to plan trips. I have now changed hostel reservations 4 times and I'm fed up. Oh well. Casona tonight, and then packing tomorrow, maybe some laundry. I need to get to Nica soon.