More on Puerto Viejo

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

Since the last time I wrote, we´ve done so much! This week was wonderful. It went by way too fast. We went to an organic banana, cacao, and timber farm last Wednesday. It was nice to see a farm that wasn´t a monoculture. On the way to Puerto Viejo, we were surrounded by monoculture banana farms in complete sun with blue bags filled with pesticides covering the bananas. So, like I mentioned before, it was nice to see something more natural. Jose Moore showed us around his farm and told us about the different plants and trees. We had a very delicious lunch made by his wife. She made chocolate cake using the organic cacao they produce on their farm. ¡Que rico! After lunch, we did an intensive ecology project looking at tree basal area, tree diversity, insect diversity, and other biological indicators. I´m going to have to use that data to write a report in the next few weeks. After collecting the data we went back to our hotel, had dinner, and relaxed.

The folowing day, we went to a permaculture farm in the town of Bri Bri. It was even better than the farm we had visited the day before! They had all sorts of birds like ducks, geese, chickens, pheasants, and turkeys. They also had tilapia fish, many different species of timber trees, star fruit trees, ginger, yuca, bamboo, tamarack, pineapple, banana, cacao, and much more. Their farm was amazingly diverse. It closely resembled a natural forest. Because of that, we were able to see a variety of birds, hear (but not see, unfortunately) howler monkeys, poison dart frogs, and supposedly there´s a boa constrictor living on the farm too. We walked around the farm for awhile learning about the different plants the family was growing. Then we had a discussion about indigenous agroforestry before returning back to Puerto Viejo for a free afternoon. I didn´t do much then, just hung out on the beach with Joanna and Julia trying to finish up our Spanish journals. That night we all went out to Johnny´s bar and danced away the night to Reggae music.

On Friday, we had brief Independent Project meetings with Carrie, David, and Johnny. I think I´m going to do mine on the coffee farm we visited a couple weeks ago. I´m thinking about comparing the farm we visited with a conventional farm. I have to figure out exactly what I´m going to compare though. Maybe the sustainability of the farm in terms of inputs and outputs and closing the loops. Or possibly some type of animal diversity, like birds or insects. We´ll see.

Anyway, the rest of Friday was definitely the best day I´ve had here thus far. A bunch of us rented old school bikes and packed up our beach stuff to head to Punta Uva. We biked down the dusty, bumpy road towards Punta Uva. On the way, we stopped at this little mom and pop soda for lunch. It was just an enterprising couple cooking food in their kitchen and serving it on a couple of small tables outside their house. It was very charming. We also met a couple Costa Rican wedding planners there. We talked with them for awhile. They were really sweet!

After lunch, we rode our bikes the rest of the way to the beach. We found a lovely, secluded spot to lay down. The beach was very beautiful. We laid around, swam, and took walks along the beach. Joanna and Becca spent an hour cracking open a coconut for us all. All the hard work was really worth it though! It was the best, most fresh coconut I´ve ever had. Mmm. We left around 5pm since we needed to get the bikes back to the place by 6:30.

We stopped by the same soda again to get some delicious ice cream before heading on our way. We talked for awhile with the couple. The lady was Chilean and had come to CR 7 years ago. She met her husband 6 years ago. They showed us their "pet" elephant beetle. It was huge! The size of my palm. Supposedly, it´s pretty rare. A person from the Discovery Channel was coming down there the next day to bring it a mate. Weird, huh? Anyway, we enjoyed talking with them for awhile and then headed out.

However, only a quarter of the way back to Puerto Viejo, Jane´s chain broke on her bike. Since it was getting dark and we needed to get the bikes back, we chained her bike to a pole and she hopped on the back of Joanna´s bike. Me and Kate rode like the wind so we could get there in time to let the owner know what happened. We arrived dripping with sweat and tried our best to explain in spanish what had happened. Eventually they understood and we asked David if he could drive us in the pick up truck to get the bike. All ended well with the bike.

The following day (yesterday) we went to the Bri Bri Indigenous reserve. It was such a great day! We walked for a little while through their forest to see what plants they used for medicinal purposes. Then we saw a cacao farm where they also grow bananas and other fruits. The best part was the theatrics of the afternoon. The father of Augustine (our guide) sang us a beautiful Bri Bri song. Then the local indigenous theater troupe put on a play for us about the time when the Spaniards came to the New World. They were great actors! Afterwards, they offered us their famous whiskey called Chicha. We drank a few cups and then the 106 year old grandfather of Augustine led us in a few rousing indigenous dances and songs.

I was sad to leave when we had to. They were such friendly, wonderful people! But, alas, we had to go. That night we all went out again to the bar. It wasn´t that great of a night though. I started to realize that I didn´t like Puerto Viejo as much as I thought I had. There were too many tourists for me. But worst of all were the creepy locals. They´re so aggressive! One definitely pinched me at one point in the night. I elbowed him in the side, but he just put his arm around me. Even after moving his arm away, he continued to dance with us. They just don´t get it that women aren´t pieces of meat. Anyway, the locals really changed my view of the place. Bummer.

One more thing about CR in general:

-Because of all the traffic accidents and related deaths, the government has started painting a large yellow heart with a halo above it on the road wherever a person was killed because of a traffic accident. They´re trying to raise awareness about how bad it is here.