Cabo Blanco

It took us a full day to get to Cabo Blanco. From San Jose, we bussed all morning to the Gulf of Nicoya, arriving just before lunchtime. We ate lunch on the bus, and then boarded a ferry to take us across the gulf, which saves the travel time it would take to go up and around it to get to the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula, where Cabo Blanco is. The ferry ride took another two hours, which I spent pleasantly, sleeping on a bench because I had stayed up all night the night before packing to leave San Jose. When we arrived at the other side we got back on our bus (which had taken the ferry with us, down below) and drove until 5 pm, when we finally arrived at Cabo Blanco...sort of. Our bus took us to the town of Malpais, which is on the northern border of the park. We then loaded our luggage onto a pickup truck and walked until the pickup truck could go no further and hiked the rest of the way in with our backpacks. The hike wasn't too long or steep, but we were back in Guanacaste (where Palo Verde is), and it was hot! 

When we finally got into the station, we put down our bags and had a quick meeting with Diane and Milton, a married couple who manage the park. Cabo Blanco is an absolute nature reserve, meaning that for the most part, humans aren't allowed inside at all. The biological station hosts a handful of researchers and student groups a year, and they recently opened up a public sector on the south coast for day use only, but generally speaking the majority of the park is off limits. We were instructed not to do things like make eye contact with monkeys, touch any animals, follow them too long to get pictures, or generally cause "unnecessary stress" to the surroundings. It was interesting to hear the regulations of the park, and it made me very curious to learn more about the history of Cabo Blanco and how it became what it is.

We then moved our bags to our rooms and got ready for dinner. Most of us were staying in one building that was split into three rooms, a five minute hike away from the main building. I roomed there with Tessa, Rukhshana, Chesca, Francesca, and Maggie in a room with no real windows, just screens with holes in them. We asked if the holes would be a problem, and were told that the main purpose is not to keep out bugs but animals. Haha. We were actually a larger group than normally stays at Cabo Blanco, so four people had to sleep on tents on the porch of the building that I was in. Luckily they were given extra mattresses, so they didn't have to sleep on the wood floor for a week. The other few people stayed in the extra rooms attached to the main building, which have a beautiful view of the ocean but are very noisy when the cooks begin preparing breakfast before 5 am every day. Our cabin was also very close to the beach, and Chelsea strung her hammock up in a tree at the end of the path leading to the ocean for everyone to share.

Ashur and Matt in the hammock by our cabin

We all ate dinner, and had our first taste of what we soon realized was the most delicious juice that we would have at any field station. At every single meal we were served icy buckets of mysterious juices that we had to ladle into mugs to drink, but they were surprisingly exceptional. Every meal we would leave the bucket empty because everyone would drink cups upon cups of juice! Haha. The food was good, too. Cabo Blanco was definitely getting off to a good start, eating a nice dinner in a comedor with no walls so you could hear the ocean and watch the sunset. 

After dinner, we had a lecture about the fish of Cabo Blanco with JB, a visiting professor who had just flown in from Cornell to spend a week with us. He gave us an introduction to all of the fish we might see that week, since every day we had scheduled snorkel time at low tide. His lecture consisted of home-made underwater videos of the fish he had encountered in Cabo Blanco, and he just told us stories about them while they swam around on the screen. It definitely piqued my interest for having marine classes, but I was exhausted and went to bed immediately after class, with the sound of ocean waves wafting in through the screened windows.

On Tuesday, we spent the morning exploring tide pools with Diane, one of the directors, whom we had met the night before. We saw lots of cool animals, like sea hares, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, clams, mussels, sponges, corals, and cnidarians. We also saw lots of fish, including a blue-spotted puffer fish. Oh, and a giant conch! It was really cool to see how many living things were everywhere in the tidepools when you stop and look for them, since a lot of them are well camouflaged and hard to spot from a distance.

Diane showing us a sea hare

Me holding a brittle star! They're so cool!

Owen with a tiny anemone

Lookin' for critters

Ashur with a sea cucumber

Tidepooling out on the rocks

A conch! Look at how funny its eyes are!

After tidepooling for a while, we switched with the other group and went snorkeling with JB. As you can see in the pictures above, the sea floor is really rocky, so we're not allowed to go in the water because of the sharp rocks and the dangerous rip tide. The exception is in a deep lagoon protected by a small coral reef and some rocks that stays full at low tide, where all of our snorkeling took place. We had picked out masks and flippers that fit earlier that morning, and headed over to try them out. The previous group had said that they spotted a sea turtle in the lagoon on their way out, and I found it right away when we were swimming across to look at coral! JB let us take a little detour to check it out, AKA spend 15+ minutes diving down to see it up close. Swimming with a 4' long sea turtle was certainly a majestic experience! We also got lucky to be able to spend so much time with it, since JB said that they usually don't like human interaction and swim away quickly when they're discovered.

The sea turtle!

Stephanie, my snorkeling partner, giving thumbs up for marine life

 JB also showed us what the living corals looked like in the lagoon so that we could be sure not to accidentally sit on them or swim into them. The rest of the hour was spent exploring the lagoon on our own. Stephanie and I saw lots of fish, and got to feel the tide come in over the back of the lagoon while we were out there. It was a cool feeling, but the current was strong and we knew that it was time to come in for lunch.

After lunch we had free time until 4:30. Because our whole schedule was made around the tide and because there aren't very extensive facilities at Cabo Blanco (and maybe just to help with the transition back from spring break?) we had a lot of free time while there. This was weird at first, but allowed us to enjoy the unique station at a deliciously slow pace. I had time all week to nap in hammocks overlooking the ocean (there were many), read books other than assigned readings, do a little yoga, and think a lot. This was a theme throughout the week, which is why I guess there is less to describe about Cabo Blanco than the other stations because we had less scheduled activities.

We did, however, have occasional lectures while we were there. We had an introduction to marine ecosystems with JB, as well as a lecture about the evolution of marine biogeography and why the Pacific coast of Costa Rica has such different fish than the Caribbean (which I could actually compare for myself, since I had gone snorkeling in Cahuita just two days before coming to Cabo Blanco!). Other topics of learning included biodiversity maintenance theories, animal behavior, and the role of people in park creation and management.

Owen made me take this picture because he said the mist made it look very "tropical." I agree. Haha.

 We also worked on a faculty-led project with JB while we were there. We were studying how Acapulco damselfish responded to different potential threats to their territories (i.e. gardens of algae on rocks), which they keep meticulously clean and free from invaders. We had pairs of sea anemones and rocks of equal sizes that we would dive down and place simultaneously into a garden, and then record the time until the damslelfish responded, the object they touched first, and the distance that they removed the object to. It was an interesting project, and pretty straightforward compared to the FLPs at Palo Verde, which seemed a little more hastily assembled. We split up into two groups and worked on the project for three hours one of two days, meaning that we had (more!) free time on the day that we were not in the water collecting data. Fun fact learned: you can take notes with pencil on PVC pipes... underwater! We wore PVC "sleeves" with pencils attached to record all of our data while in the lagoon.

Francesca and Matt (I think? hard to tell with the masks...) doing science! In the ocean!

Stormy clouds over the vast Pacific

Hanging out outside of our cabin at Cabo. With all of our free time, snorkeling, and beach-lying, it felt a little bit like summer camp for big kids. It was a great way to reunite with everyone after being separated from the group during our home stays and spring break.

One of the most memorable features of Cabo Blanco is its abundance of land crabs.

On our last day in Cabo Blanco, we had a rest day... although, as you can probably tell at this point, our stay in this park was not particularly stressful, so we were not particularly in need of rest. Several of us decided to spend the day hiking out to the very corner of the park, where the "absolute reserve" section of Cabo Blanco borders the public sector, where hikers and day visitors are allowed. It was a more ambitious hike than we had done in a while, plus we had the added excitement of having to be a little sneaky about our expedition: if, when you reach the corner of the park, people in the public sector see you, they may be fooled into thinking that they can continue hiking into the part of the reserve that is off-limits. If anyone follows you back, you get in trouble. To spice things up even more, we decided to bring garbage bags with us to do an impromptu beach cleanup, since (sadly) despite being an absolute nature reserve, a good deal of stray trash is carried across the Pacific and washes up on the shores.

Some of the more interesting trash we saw on the beach

We made it all the way out to our destination, and spent an hour or so lounging on a beach that we had completely to ourselves (although at this point, we were pretty spoiled by all of the private beaches...). Peeking around the corner of the peninsula, we could see more hikers in the public sector enjoying a beautiful beach day of their own, unaware that we were so nearby! Although we were technically not allowed to swim because of dangerous rip tides, we found a safe, shallow tide pool to wade in and cool off from our hike, and after some more relaxing and reflecting on our stay in such a pristine and beautiful park, headed back to the station, picking up trash along the way.

Tessa and Chelsea, mid-hike. Clearly, bathing suits and hiking boots are the best outfits for exploring rocky coasts!

Chels being a superwoman and carrying ~40 pounds of trash back to the station

We made it back to the station in time for dinner, and, though we were tired from carrying heavy bags of trash for several hours of hiking (seriously, it is so much more strenuous than carrying a heavy backpack! There's no good way to do it...), we decided to go back out to one of our favorite nearby beaches to watch our last sunset. Although the beach has no official name (to our knowledge), Hilary nicknamed it Paracoya Hideaway. Again, although we weren't supposed to swim, we had fun safely sitting in butt-deep water and letting the waves wash over us one last time, watching the sun sink down below the horizon together.

Sunset over the Pacific on our last evening in Cabo

Lovely ladies in Paracoya Hideaway

Hilary being a badass at our favorite beach spot

We moseyed back to the station at dusk and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with our group at the comedor. We had hoped to have a bonfire, but after it got dark we had another thunderstorm and ended up playing card games and telling stories in the dark under the roof to stay out of the rain. The next day, we woke up early and hiked out of Cabo Blanco, beginning out journey to the could forests of Monteverde

Leaving Cabo. It does feel pretty cool to get to stay in a place that is normally off-limits to all humans!

Spring Break, pt. 3: Cahuita

The bus from Puerto Viejo brought us to Cahuita in just under 40 minutes. When we got there, we stopped in an internet cafe at the bus terminal to see if Chesca had emailed us to tell us where she was staying or where to meet her. She didn't so we were starting from square one. We used the internet anyway to look at a map of Cahuita, since we didn't really know anything about it before we got there. Luckily it's an extremely small town, so it's basically impossible to get lost, everything is within walking distance, and there are places to stay on every corner. We left the bus stations with our backpacks and decided to just walk around and try to find our friends. We walked towards the water, but quickly realized that our friend were not there because the area we were in had buildings built up to the water's edge with a few docks for boats but no beach whatsoever. However, we could see a long stretch of beach from there so we walked over and found ourselves at the entrance to Cahuita National Park. We stopped in the kiosk at the entrance, where there is a log book so the park guards can monitor who is going in and out. I realized that this would be a good way to tell if our friends were there already, and asked the guard if I was allowed to read older entries. I got a weird look from her, but she let me do it anyway, and we discovered that not only Tessa, Hilary, Chelsea, and Carolyn (who had left for Cahuita earlier that day) but also Chesca and Macho were signed in! We were very excited and started to walk down the beach with our boots and backpacks on, looking pretty ridiculous compared to everyone in their bathing suits. After about 30 minutes we found the first group, but not Chesca and Macho. Everyone was already on the beach and relaxing, so we just found out where they were staying so we could rent a room, leave our stuff there, and get some beach time ourselves before the park closed at 5. We found the place without any problems and were able to rent a cabina for all four of us for $10 per person per night, which was pleasantly cheap.

On the beach in Cahuita. Photo by Rukhshana.

Roommates in front of our cabina

Our room was not particularly nice, but for little money and only a little bit of time it was perfect for our needs. We hurried back to the beach and got to soak in the warm water, which was almost as calm as Punta Uva (...but not quite!). Right before the park closed at 5, we saw a couple walking along the beach far off in the distance. I jokingly said that it had to be Chesca and Macho, but as they got closer we realized that it actually was them! We ran out of the water and greeted them with salty wet hugs and the degree of enthusiasm that you have when it's only actually been a week since you last saw someone but it feels like a year because you are used to spending every waking moment with them. It turned out they were staying in another cabina only one block away from us, so we decided to go back and shower and reconvene at 7 to have dinner together.

This parrot sat at the exit to the park and said "adios" every time someone walked out. It was very entertaining.

We all met up and walked into town (approximately three blocks away) and looked around at the restaurants to choose from. We had heard that one was particularly good, but because Cahuita is so small Chesca and Macho had actually gone there the night before, so we chose a place nearby that had outdoor seating.

Showered and ready for dinner! Photo by Ellen

We all ordered Caribbean food, which was good but (again) not extraordinary. It was nice to have everyone in one place and see Chesca and Macho again. Unfortunately since we were a pretty large group Macho had trouble understanding a lot of what we were saying, and he didn't seem as at ease as he had the last time we spent time with him. Regardless, we all had a good time together on what was (for some of us at least) our last night of spring break.

An unfortunately dark group picture. Yes, Macho is the only male. Photo by Tessa.

After dinner Chesca and Macho went back to go to bed early, because they were taking the early bus back to San Jose the next morning. The rest of us went out to a bar down the street that was having some live band play that night. It ended up being a wide variety of Latin and Caribbean dance music, and one by one we all salsa danced with Carlo, a Tico we met who used to be a dance instructor on Disney cruises. Tessa and Rukhshana had taken basic salsa lessons at CRLA and Hilary has been dancing her whole life, but even me and my other friends who had no salsa experience ended up trying it out because he was (not surprisingly) a very good lead. We didn't stay out too late, because the next morning we had reservations to go snorkeling in the park with Carlo (that's actually how we had met him earlier that day).

In the morning we stopped at a grocery store to grab quick breakfast, which was a small loaf of bread and some pineapple jam (one of my favorite Costa Rican discoveries) for me. Then we met up with Carlo's brother Luis, who took us out on their boat to snorkel in the reef offshore in Cahuita National Park.

Chelsea on the boat on the way out to snorkel

The boat ride out was short and relatively calm. We shared the boat with another group of people who I think were from Germany or Belgium. We stopped at the first reef and hopped out of the boat and into the water, which was only about 8 feet deep. I tried out my waterproof camera underwater for the first time, since I had been afraid that it would leak and I would be camera-less for the rest of my time in Costa Rica. Regardless, I took it into the water with me and was pleasantly surprised at its ability to not break while completely submerged. So, needless to say, I took a lot of pictures underwater.

Thumbs up for technology! Photo by Ellen

These were my favorite fish... they were sparkly blue!

We went to two sites on the boat to snorkel, and then took the boat to a point in the park where they provided us with snacks of fruit, cookies, and juice. We had the option of taking a guided hike back through the park with Carlo for $5 extra per person, but decided not to because of how frequently we hike for school and also because we're cheap. So, we headed back to the dock on the boat while the rest of the people that had gone with us continued hiking. We stopped at a grocery store and bought some fruit for lunch on the beach and then spent the rest of our time in the water, since Tessa and I were leaving that day at 4 pm.

Fruit feast on the beach!

We literally didn't get out of the water until almost 3, and we had to leave to change and pack our stuff. While I was swimming, a monkey stole my mango(!) so Tessa and I stopped at the grocery store again on the way to the bus stop and got some snacks for the road.

Enjoying the last day of spring break

Hilary found a big sand dollar!

When the time came, we said adios to the rest of our friends, who were staying in Cahuita for one more night. Tessa and I had decided to go back one day early so that we would have all of Sunday to pack and run errands (like buying more shampoo, which I was running out of). We bussed back to San Jose, still sandy and a little sunburnt (you're not allowed to wear sunscreen while snorkeling because it's bad for the reef), and got back around 9 pm. We went to dinner at our favorite pizza place and then took a cab home, ready to meet up the next day to go to the mall and pack for the second half of the semester!

Spring Break, pt. 1: Puerto Viejo

For spring break, twelve of us rented a house in Puerto Viejo on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Because Ethan's birthday was on Friday, we decided not to leave San Jose until Saturday morning, and to go out Friday night to celebrate since he and most of the other OTS students were going to Bocas del Toro, Panama for the break. Almost everyone in our house was taking the 10 am bus out of San Jose, I took the early bus to get out to Puerto Viejo with a reasonable amount of time on the beach. It was Mary's last weekend in Costa Rica, and we invited her to stay in our house since it had already been paid for, but since she had class on Monday she was only going to get one full day on the beach... hence our decision to leave at 6 am instead of 10. Tessa also decided to head out early with us, and we made it on time (barely! Mary forgot her passport and we had to take a taxi all the way back to our house and then to the bus station again!) for the bus even though we had been out late the night before. We arrived in Puerto Viejo around 10:30 am and called Ahki, the manager of the property we were renting, to ask him how to get to the house from the bus terminal (one of the many downsides of places in Costa Rica not having addresses). We had been in touch with Sylvia, a real estate agent, when renting the house, and she had told us that we could show up whenever we wanted on Saturday, but when we talked to Ahki he said that check-in wasn't until after 12:30 pm. We were disappointed because we had our big backpacks and didn't want to bring them to the beach or wander around the town much trying to find the house (which was supposed to be a few km away), so we decided to go to a restaurant with wifi to kill time until we could leave our things at the house. We bought plates of fruit since we had gotten up too early for breakfast at our homestays and checked email for the first time in a while since internet at CRLA wasn't working well at the end of our time there. 

Eventually we called a cab which we quickly discovered was a little sketchy for two reasons. First, it was an unregistered taxi. We got the number from Ahki, but apparently there is only one real taxi in the entire Puerto Viejo region, and the rest of them are just people who drive people around in their cars regularly. There are no meters and you agree on a price when you get in and tell them where you're going. In San Jose, unregistered taxis are really dangerous, but apparently in Puerto Viejo they're pretty normal. So, we got in and headed to our house. Second, our taxi was a regular sedan, and the house we were renting was at the top of a steep hill with a gravel driveway. Our car couldn't make it even 1/4 of the way up, and we started to slide backward down the hill! Our driver was trying really hard to make it, but eventually we just told him we would walk the rest of the way up, which took about 15 minutes with our heavy backpacks. The Caribbean side of Costa Rica is hotter than the Pacific side, and we were already quite sweaty and a little disgruntled by the time we got up to our house, given the morning's mishaps.

However, when we got to the house we quickly realized that our wait was well worth it. The house was beautiful! It is two stories with a large open living room and kitchen upstairs, and decks on both floors with views of the Caribbean just across the street below. 

The living room. All of the glass sections are sliding windows that open completely, making the upstairs totally open-air if when we wanted it to be.

Downstairs there was a large master bedroom with a closet and a separate bathroom, which Tessa and I claimed for ourselves since we were the first ones to arrive in the house. There were two more bedrooms upstairs, each of which slept 3-4 people, and the rest slept on beds in the extra room downstairs. 

Our lovely bedroom! Sleeping on a REAL mattress for the first time this semester was an unbelievable treat... not to mention the view of the sunrise every morning!

One of the real highlights of the house was the kitchen. There was tons of counter space with bar stools and a speakers, making plenty of room for people to cook and eat food together or just hang out in the kitchen area. The windows on the deck also opened up completely, making another bar area with stools out on the deck facing in. Outside we had a beautiful view, and comfortable rocking chairs and a hammock to observe it from.

Tessa in the kitchen. Although it's backlit and impossible to see, there's a view of the sea out the window!

Our upstairs deck! Again, the sea is off in the distance although the lighting is bad here.

This hammock was a hot commodity in a house of twelve!

This sloth lived in a tree right outside of our balcony! We saw him almost every day.

Since it had taken us so much longer to get to the house than we expected, we decided to just wait the extra hour until the next group of people arrived at 2 pm. While we were waiting, Ahki came down, introduced himself to us, and told us a little bit about the property. It turns out that the house is usually used to hold volunteers, because the rest of the property is an organic permaculture cacao farm! The whole property, known as Global Creek, is owned by someone else who lives in the U.S., but Ahki has lived there for the past four years in a different building a two-minute walk up the hill, taking care of guests and volunteers and running the farm. I was very interested to learn more about the property, but he said he would come back later after everyone else arrived to give us more of an orientation. 

As soon as our other ten housemates got in at 2 and we all changed into our bathing suits and applied sunscreen, we headed out to the beach. Our house was actually in Cocles, which is one beach farther south of Puerto Viejo. This turned out to be a good thing, since Puerto Viejo is a little dirtier and more crowded since it draws more tourists and has more restaurants and hotels. The entrance to the beach was just across the street from our house, which was lovely. 

The entrance to the beach near our house

Cocles is (according to my guide book) one of the only beaches in the Puerto Viejo area that has an organized lifeguard system, which turned out to be a good thing because it's a popular surfing beach with strong rip currents. The swimming zone was another couple of minutes down the beach, and we all got in the water within a few minutes of arriving since the early-afternoon sun was really hot.

On the way to swim!

The current was even stronger than we thought, and after a few minutes in the water most of us were too tired to swim anymore so we came out and dried off. For the rest of the week we realized that the best way to cool off is lying down in the shallow water where there's no rip tide. The beach was beautiful and not crowded at all, and we enjoyed it safely every day for the extent of our stay in Cocles.

Manny found a crab in the road on the first night!

The second day of break, the rest of our amigos on the way to Bocas del Toro were staying in a hostel in Puerto Viejo to break up their travel time into more manageable increments. They came over to see our house during the day (it was a big hit, not surprisingly) and we all went to the beach together. That night, a few of us went out for "girly cocktails" happy hour in town, which was a nice break from being in a very large group all day.

Lee, Liz, Rukhshna, Tessa, and I at happy hour

We all tried guaro sours, which are made with Costa Rican liquor made from sugarcane. They were a big hit, and Liz, who has a bar tending license, made them for us again later in the week. Our waitress also brought us free bruschetta to snack on since we stayed there for a long time!

The "sunset" view during happy hour, which isn't much of a sunset because we were facing east.

Monday we had a lazy day around the house and met with the real estate agent to make the second half of our payment for the house. After that we bummed around on the beach all afternoon, which was nice because it wasn't as hot as it had been the past two days.  At night we had a friendship bracelet-making frenzy with a bunch of string that Carolyn had bought in San Jose. We all taught each other how to do different stitches, and made bracelets for everyone in the house. It was a relaxing way to spend a night since we had gone out four nights in a row before that. We also all cooked in the house, which was really nice since we haven't been able to make our own food all semester. I made pasta with spinach, onions, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil. It was amazing! Costa Rican food is delicious, but it was nice to switch it up.

Everyone intently working on their bracelets in the living room

Tuesday we got up early because we wanted to rent bikes to go to another beach 10 km away. Unfortunately, as soon as we got ready to leave the house it started pouring! It was still warm out so we could have biked anyway, but we decided that since the point was to go to the beach we would rather wait for a sunnier day. Thus my morning became dedicated to reading and taking a nap in our hammock, overlooking the sea (I can't complain!). In the afternoon it stopped raining so Tessa and I walked into Puerto Viejo to look for souvenirs for our friends and family, since our next couple of sites were going to be pretty isolated and we weren't sure when we'd be able to shop again. I did really well and got things for my friends from high school and Erin. Tessa also got herself a ring and something for her mom. We even squeezed in a little time at the beach when we got back, and started teaching Rukhshana to float in a shallow pool of water that had no rip current. She is an amazingly quick learner!

Tessa on the way back to our house after Rukhshana's swimming lessons

Walking back to our house at dusk, we saw that even though all of our other friends had already gone back to make dinner, Justin was still out in the water. He rented a surf board from some guy on the beach and was teaching himself how to surf! Surprisingly he made a lot of progress in just a few hours, and was able to get up onto his knees consistently and ride into shore. We stopped and Tessa gave him a few pointers, because she's taken surf lessons before, and then went home because it was getting dark and we didn't have a light.

Justin surfing at sunset

Wednesday we made good on our plans of the day before and got up early to rent bikes and go to Manzanillo. Nine out of twelve of us decided to go, and by 10:00 we were on the road. We started out going slowly because a bunch of the group hadn't ridden bikes in years, and because we were enjoying touring the neighborhood south of our house. Even at our slow pace, it only took us ten minutes to get to a grocery store that it took us almost 40 minutes to get to on foot the day before. It became really clear why so many people rode bikes there, since it's so much faster than walking and the low coastal roads are almost completely flat.

Biking! Photo by Ellen

About half way to Manzanillo we had a little detour and ended up going to Punta Uva first. We locked up our bikes on palm trees and set up on the beach, which we shared with approximately four other people. The whole area is much nicer on weekdays, because there are less tourists around and the beaches are practically private. The beach we were at in Punta Uva was a beautiful cove protected by a coral reef offshore, which we happily discovered as soon as we went into the water and felt how calm it was in comparison to Cocles. Floating on my back for 20 minutes, I barely moved an inch... there was absolutely no rip tide! We were overjoyed.

The cove... so calm and peaceful!

Amigas in Punta Uva

We spent several hours enjoying the tranquil water and napping and reading on the beach. We took an ice cream break around lunch time at a store across the street from the beach, and then decided to continue on the last 5 km to Manzanillo since it had been our original destination, and was the beach that Ahki had recommended that we visit. He also told us that it was the best Caribbean food in the region, so we stopped at a small restaurant and some people got early dinners. I wasn't hungry because I had packed lunch, but I got to try a little bit of the rice and beans, which they make with coconut milk on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. It was a subtle difference in taste, but it was good! Manzanillo was an even quieter town than Punta Uva; in the words of Ahki, it exemplifies "pure Costa Rican tranquilidad." I can see why he thinks so, but overall I thought that Punta Uva was the most beautiful beach we had seen yet, and I was really glad that we had unexpectedly decided to stop there on the way.


Thursday was Ellen's birthday and our last day in the house we rented, so of course we went out Wednesday night to celebrate. Apparently since the most tourists are around on the weekends, businesses in Puerto Viejo takes Wednesdays off instead. We didn't know this in advance, but it became increasingly apparent as we walked into town and saw every restaurant and bar closed. As we got closer, though, we started to hear dance music in the distance, and followed our ears to the one bar that was open. It was practically empty (I think there were actually a total of six people there besides us), but, as usual, we filled the place up with just our group. One of the lessons that I've learned this semester is that traveling with eleven to 27 friends at all times makes it easy to have a party whenever and wherever you want. Haha. Because the bar was so empty, the DJ took every song request that we made, and Ellen got lots of free things for her birthday. We had a really fun night and Ellen definitely started off her 21st year well, surrounded by friends in a bar on the beach in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

All of us on the beach outside the bar on Ellen's birthday

Thursday we woke up early and cleaned the house, since we had to check out by 10:00. We had tried to rent the house the whole week, but someone had reserved it before us and were arriving on Thursday so we couldn't. However, after befriending Ahki and learning about the cacao farm on the property (more on that later), he offered us extra nights of free lodging if we volunteered 3-4 hours each day that we stayed. We thought that the offer was too good to pass up, and paid our way for another night in Puerto Viejo... some people helped pick cacao, some people helped make compost piles, and a few other people and I cleaned up the house thoroughly so that they could save money and not call in a cleaning service before the next guests arrived. After we finished working, I interviewed Ahki for a homework assignment we had about getting local perspectives on conservation issues in Costa Rica (more on that later, too), and then we went out to dinner to celebrate Ellen's birthday again. We had a much more low-key night and went to a restaurant instead of a bar, and we all got delicious food. The waitress even brought Ellen free cake! Manny's sister also arrived in Costa Rica that day with her boyfriend, and somehow she found us in the restaurant we were in without knowing we'd be there. Puerto Viejo is a small town in a small country! Haha. Still tired from the fiesta the night before and our volunteering earlier that day, we went to sleep relatively early to get ready for the next leg of our spring break trip.

Ellen's birthday cake!