June 11: Cahuita (Puerto Viejo)

(1) The breakfast of champions! Fred starts out his day with a joint. Later, we ate some propper breaky, swam around in the ocean off a secluded black sand beach, and explored the town a bit more. Once we felt that we had seen enough of Puerto Viejo, we hired yet another cab to drive us to Cahuita, another small town just a little further north along the coast.

(2) We checked into the Atlantida Lodge, down the road from the main part of town and across the street from a small black sand beach. It was quite nice, really, and much better than our first choice, the very sketchy Hotel Jenny. After settling in, we walked into town and sat down to lunch at Miss Edith's. All the guide books say that this is the very best, most authentic eatery in town - a can't miss. The books also say that the service is painfully slow. Slow? This turned out to be the understatement of the year. However, even after we had been sitting there for what seemed like an eternity, we still declined to say anything about the whereabouts of our food because we had been warned that if you get testy, Miss Edith will just make you wait longer. Finally, our food came out. Verdict: WORST FOOD IN ALL OF COSTA RICA! It wasn't that just one of us didn't enjoy the meal, it was a mutual agreement that what we were eating was absolutely digusting. Everything was undercooked and, seemingly, not fit for human consumption. We hardly even touched our plates.

(3) We decided to walk toward the main square in search of better food. Along the way, Jerome wanted to stop to check email. Amazingly, in this tiny little village, we found a place with a connection. This photo turned out to be one of my favorites from this trip - a little old shack by the water in this developing country with a hand-painted "Internet" sign out by the road.

(4) After finding something worth eating, we took a stoll along the path of Parque Nacional Cahuita. Covered by jungle trees, the path moves right along the coastline, only about fifty feet from the beach. Finally, we decided to move off the path for a swim in the ocean. This beach along the national park was the finest I had seen in the country. Stretching out into the hills, was waded in the waters close to shore, enjoying the solitude of Cahuita.

(5)Later in the day, before going out for the evening, we relaxed at the hotel for a bit while the rain came down. Eventually, we started getting hungry, but were still scared of local restaurants after the whole Miss Edith's fiasco. Fortunately, we found a great dinner in town at a place called Cha Cha Cha's. After that, we went to Rick's - which was totally dead and void of anyone who might resemble Humphrey Bogart. However, we lucked out at Coco Bar, where we were able to take in some live music with some of the locals. The atmosphere was totally laid back, and the drinks were cold. Really, that's about all we needed.

(6) We walked back to the hotel, peacefully, with lighting and thunder in the skies... not to mention, this guy - a three-toed sloth. There were many critters in this town, but none of them managed to keep us from getting good shut eye. However, Jerome did. In the middle of the night, I woke up when Jerome started talking in his sleep. Though he had no recollection of the bizarre conversation, this is what was said: "Jarrett, where do I put the postcards?" "Huh?" "The postcards, where should I put them, dude?" "I don't know." And, with that, he fell back asleep. I still have no idea what postcards he was talking about.