Fireflys and Howler monkeys

Our last week of school passed predictably fast, shooting by in the blink of an eye to deposit us somewhat dazed and unprepared for complete, abject freedom. Luckily, my host sister was there to scoop us up and take us over to Cahuita for the weekend, which saved us from taxing ourselves to plan more than 15 minutes ahead.

We arrived in Cahuita, a small town on the Caribbean only 20 miles or so north of Puerto Viejo, in the evening, and Matilde (my host sister) having already reserved us a cabina, set about finding it. A short cab ride later (because our cabin was about 1km outside of the town proper, if it can be called such), we found ourselves at a small cluster or cabinas, each a different color and named accordingly. Finding "Cafe", our coffee-colored cabin, we were pretty excited to find what was actually a very nice little place. It had a porch complete with hammock, a living room with attached kitchen (of decent size), a bathroom with the first comfortable shower I've encountered, and two bedrooms complete with hanging mosquito nets. Frankly, a place my parents would be happy to stay, not like the Hotel Gran Imperial where I'm currently sitting, dodging roaches and clouds of deisel exhaust from the road in front. Dividing up the quarters (Tyler immediately jumping under his mosquito netting to commence a short game of "Look at me, I'm a princess"), we prepared ourselves to head out into the town to find food.

The man running the place told us it was a short walk down the road to the main town, which we had as of yet to see, so we headed off like the Tin Man, Dorothy, and the Cowardly Lion (I'll leave you to assign roles, although I might suggest Tyler for the shaggy lion). Our cabins was pretty much the only place out there, and so the rutted, dirt-and-rock road quickly passed into complete and total darkness. Picking our way around the mudpuddles and giant rocks that we couldn't see in the pitch black, we gingerly followed the track as it wound along with the sparse jungle to either side. Soon enough, I saw a small pinprick of light flash off to my left, shortly followed by another. I stopped to look, having thoughts of elves off in the trees holding giant feasts, and plotting to steal my wallet, as elves do. Soon, we all saw more and more of these tiny points of light flash on and off, and were delighted to have stumbled upon fireflys for the first time. Looking around, we soon discovered that they were everywhere, and one giant tree was flashing like something out of a Disneyland ride; a giant dark tree shape with hundreds of pinpricks of light.

After watching amazed for a while, we continued on down the road. Shortly, houses began appearing along the road, until these small places were lining our route into town. The Disneyland effect was hightened as we began coming into the city proper, as it looked like a pirate town out of Pirates of the Caribbean ride, or something similar. The place has one major street, which is lined by stores and restaurants, upon which we found a store to buy food for the morning, and a restaurant that had quite decent meals (although both times we ate there they were out of a major ingredient, rice one day and fish the next). After, we returned home by the same route, and again were treated to a dazzling display of firefly ballet. I am convinced that if we could only understand the language of the fireflys, we would have learned they were attempting to explain to us the mysterious ways of the earth. Either that, or a good recipe for vegetarian lentil chile.

The next day, we woke reasonably early, and Mati taught Tyler and myself how to make Gallo Pinto. For those who don't know, Gallo Pinto is basically a mixture of rice and beans, with flavorings, served for breakfast. Very good stuff, actually, for being so simple, and definitely something I will have to make in the future. After, we decided to head into the National Park to the south.

We walked for about a kilometer along a white sand beach, overhung with palm trees and bordered behind by a wild jungle stretching off as far as the eye could penetrate. At the end of the kilometer, a path veered of into the jungle, to roughly parallel the now-intermittant beach for at least 8km through the national park. We walked along the path, often stopping to look at butterflys, lizards, and the giant beautiful-in-an-evil-way spiders that abounded along the trail. Halfway in, we also picked up a stray dog, who was very nice looking, but had recently lost a fight with a skunk, and smelled absolutely terrible. (He followed us all the way out, and then all the way back to Cahuita). We stopped here and there on beaches, then meandered on for about 6km of the trail. By the time we got out this far, it was apparent that we would have to turn around if we wanted to be back before dark, so we turned and made our way back.

Along the way, we encountered multiple large groups of monkeys, both Spider and Howler varietys, who without fail were somewhat pissed that we were trespassing in their jungle and demonstrated this by screeching at us and breaking off branches to throw down at us in a giant display of monkey rage. Tyler, being something of a monkey himself, taunted them with his own cries, and retaliated with stick throwing of his own. (I must admit to somewhat participating in this activity, but he started it.) Laughing at the silly monkeys (who were themselves probably laughing at us), we finished our trek back into town.

We again stayed the night, and the next day bid farewell to Mati, who caught a bus back to Heredia. Tyler and I set out on the short trip down to Puerto Viejo, to again sample the city's charms.

We arrived in Puerto Viejo and found lodging in another shed, this being the apparent standard mode of accomodation in Puerto Viejo. This shed was already home to quite a large number of spiders and a few cockroaches, who demanded that we keep the noise down and not be loud past 10. Lame spiders.

On Tuesday, we rented bikes and pedaled the 13km south to the town of Manzanillo, which is apparently what Puerto Viejo was before it became more touristed. The ride was very pleasant, through more jungle, occasionally giving us great views of spectacular beaches. The total ride took us about an hour, and we arrived in Manzanillo somewhat hot and sweaty.

In Manzanillo, we decided to splurge and rent snorkeling equipment, and swam out to the reef 300m offshore. We were quite pleased to spend a couple of hours playing with the fish and diving around the giant stretch of coral. Tyler of course tried to piss off a giant eel, but escaped unscathed. After a fair bit of time out there, we returned to the shore tired, but very pleased with the experience.

It being a bit late in the afternoon (and our awesome rental bikes needing to be back before long), we decided to head back to Puerto Viejo. Shortly into the ride, my stupid bike decided that it no longer needed a chain, and so proceeded to snap one of the links. My bike, now chainless, was going to get me nowhere of its own accord, so Tyler and I (being quick-thinking individuals), rigged up a tow rope from my sarong, and with one of us riding the functioning bike and the other being towed behind, rode the 13km back to Puerto Viejo laughing at our predicament. The passerby who witnessed this fell into one of two catagories: amused at the silly gringos, or baffled by our bizarre antics. We arrived back in Puerto Viejo with no more difficulty.

We spent 3 days total in Puerto Viejo, and then decided to call it quits. We caught a bus to San Jose, and have spent the last couple of days getting things accomplished and planning the next stages. We have at this point purchased tickets to Buenos Aires from Panama City for the 17th of March, and plan on travelling until that point and then heading into South America to find our fortune. We shall keep our readers posted, as often as the opportunity presents itself. Until next time . . .


- posted by Micah @ 5:49 PM