7 Days on the Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica
This week saw us return to our more relaxing pace of life with “one or none” activities per day. After the flurry of activity at the Arenal Volcano it was great to come to our third and final region of Costa Rica. We decided to stay at a little hotel in the town of Cahuita, about 40km north of the Panamanian border. The 4 1/4 hour drive went ok, but the windy mountain roads took out a few members with car sickness.
The daily routine that so far seems to be working the best for us (i.e. produces on average the least resistance to get out the door!) is:
5am-7am: accumulation of kids in a part of the room as they wake up, trying (and mostly failing) to play/read quietly.
7am: Breakfast
8am-1pm: head out to the beach, activity, and/or excursion then stop somewhere and get some lunch on the way back.
2-4pm: Our dream is that this time includes a nap for everyone, self directed play, some school work, etc. This is still mostly aspirational. Kudos to Whitney who has had success this week doing school work with Scarlett at the poolside restaurant. This success was likely fueled by the great margaritas and virgin daiquiris served at the poolside bar.
4-5:30pm: Family playtime in the pool. The pool is fully in the shade even if there is no cloud cover (read no sunscreen battle) so it is fun for everyone!
5:30pm-6:30pm: Dinner
6:30pm-…: Showers, reading and bedtime. This of course lasts anywhere from 45mins to a couple of hours. Most of the time that is just fine, occasionally we add to the meltdown count on the home page of this blog!
The Caribbean vibe to this area is amazing. It is such a different experience from the other areas of the country we have loved.
Our activities included:
Jaguar Rescue Center (see separate post), an amazing center dedicated to rehabilitating animals and returning them to nature. 400-600 animals of all kinds are helped each year.
Coral Reef Snorkeling a few hundred meters off the coast of the Cahuita National Park. So many great fish 🐠 swimming amongst the coral. Whitney and I traded out holding Hazel in the boat while the other was out on the reef. Our guide/host Fernando and his team mate were awesome. Scarlett snorkeled and loved it. Nora got in, but refused to put her face in the water which sort of defeated the purpose.
Cahuita National Park, possibly the most gorgeous beach we have seen. Our team only made it about 20 meters down the hiking trail (which is apparently spectacular), but in that time we saw dozens of monkeys, birds and other creatures. Then we hung out on the beach for a while instead of walking.
Exploring the towns and beaches of Puerto Viejo, Playa Cocles, Punta Uva, Manzanillo and Bribri.
As always we met some wonderful people during our days here. We also learned from some wonderful guides who are passionate about their work and the impact they are making.
The calmness of the ocean is a major difference on this coast compared with the Pacific. The Caribbean also seems to have more infrastructure (think fully paved roads) than Guanacaste, but far fewer tourists. You can hear the animals of the jungle or the reggae music from the restaurants while walking on the beach. So different to the pounding surf of the Pacific coast.
Here are some pictures and a video from our week on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica…
